Tag: Journalists

Stop detaining and imprisoning journalists for doing their jobs: Antonio Guterres

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United Nations:UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged the international community to “speak with one voice” and call for stopping the detention and imprisonment of journalists for doing their jobs, as he sounded an alarm that freedom of the press is under attack in every corner of the world.
Guterres underscored that “all our freedom” depends on press freedom.
“Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy and justice,” he said in his video message ahead of World Press Freedom Day 2023.

World Press Freedom Day is observed annually on May 3.
“On this and every World Press Freedom Day, the world must speak with one voice – Stop the threats and attacks. Stop detaining and imprisoning journalists for doing their jobs. Stop the lies and disinformation. Stop targeting truth and truth-tellers,” Guterres said in the message telecast in the UN General Assembly Hall here at a special event organised by UNESCO.
Guterres voiced concern that in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack.
“Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, seeking to blur the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy,” he said.
He noted that at least 67 media workers were killed in 2022, an “unbelievable” 50 per cent increase over the previous years and nearly three-quarters of women journalists have experienced violence online and one in four have been threatened physically.

“Journalists and media workers are directly targeted on and offline as they carry out their vital work. They are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained and imprisoned,” he said.
The UN chief also added that the increased concentration of the media industry into the hands of a few, the financial collapse of scores of independent news organisations and the increase of national laws and regulations that stifle journalists are further expanding censorship and threatening freedom of expression.
The event organised by UNESCO marks 30 years since the UN General Assembly’s decision proclaiming an international day for press freedom. This year’s theme for the Day is Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights’.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said hundreds of journalists globally have been attacked and imprisoned “just because they are doing their work. It is unacceptable.”
She added that the level of impunity of crimes against journalists sends a “frightening” message and stressed that the security of journalists is a matter for society as a whole.
Delivering the keynote address, Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times A.G. Sulzberger said that when the free press erodes in a society, “democratic erosion almost always follows.”
He said all over the world, autocrats and those who aspire to join their ranks have used censorship, media repression and attacks on journalists to consolidate power.
“That’s because gaining control of information is essential to gaining control of everything else.”
He added that in countries where press freedoms were strong, including the United States, journalists now face systematic campaigns to undermine their credibility, followed by attacks on the legal protections that safeguard their work.
In countries where press freedoms were already weak, journalists now face surging levels of violence, detention and harassment, he said adding that more journalists are being killed today for their work and the number of imprisoned journalists has reached a grim new record.
“Spin a globe and you’ll find examples of these trends. In China, journalists are surveilled, intimidated and jailed In Egypt, the government has used security services to buy up outlets and block uncooperative news sites In India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists,” Sulzberger said.
Referring to the situation in Russia, he said journalists who “dare to even acknowledge the war in Ukraine face long prison terms.”
He called for the release of The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, “who remains in Russian custody for sham charges.”
Gershkovich was detained in March this year by Russian security services and is being held on an allegation of espionage.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 3, 2023
Two more journalists killed in Haiti as gang violence continues to rage

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Two more journalists have been killed in Haiti in the past month as rampant gang violence has gripped the capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
Ricot Jean, who worked for Radio-Tele Evolution Inter was found dead on Tuesday, a day after he was reportedly kidnapped by men wearing police uniforms. Jean was a prominent cultural activist in the Haitian capital and hosted a weekly radio show.
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that radio reporter Dumesky Kersaint was fatally shot in mid-April. Kersaint was reportedly killed by a stray bullet “between the evening of April 15 and the morning of April 16” in the Mahotiere 83 neighborhood in the municipality of Carrefour.
“The security crisis in the country is putting journalists at a constant risk of extreme violence. It is the authorities’ responsibility to make sure reporters can do their jobs without fear of violence,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director.
The National Association of Haitian Media also condemned the killings, adding that the “climate of tolerated and fueled violence” led to Kersaint’s death. He was an online journalist for Radio Tele Inurep, according to local media reports.
At least two other journalists have been killed in the troubled Caribbean country this year amid an unprecedented surge in gang violence.
John Wesley Amady and Wilguens Louissaint were killed by gang members while reporting in a conflictive area south of Port-au-Prince in January.
At least nine journalists were killed in Haiti last year, the deadliest year for Haitian journalism in recent history, according to Unesco.

Between January and March the UN human rights office counted 531 killings, 300 injuries and 277 kidnappings in gang-related incidents, mostly in Haiti’s gang-dominated capital.
Haiti’s predicament is rooted in hundreds of years of foreign exploitation, decades of dictatorial rule under the Duvalier dynasty, and a string of natural disasters including a 2010 earthquake that levelled Haiti’s capital and killed more than 200,000 people.
But the current crisis intensified in 2021 when Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his Port-au-Prince mansion. Since then, politically powerful gangs have commandeered more than 60% of the capital, elements of the resource-starved police force have gone into open revolt, and Haitian politics has been consumed by infighting.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
Pegasus-style spyware attack hits journalists, politicians via iPhone exploits

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New Delhi: The fear of Pegasus-style spyware attack resurfaced on Tuesday after researchers at Microsoft and the digital rights group Citizen Lab identified new victims in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East — once again from an Israel-based spyware maker.
Hackers used QuaDream spyware to send malicious calendar invites and hack the iPhones of journalists, political opposition figures, and an NGO worker.
“Based on an analysis of samples shared with us by Microsoft Threat Intelligence, we developed indicators that enabled us to identify at least five civil society victims of QuaDream’s spyware,” Citizen Lab said in a statement.

The researchers identified traces of a suspected iOS 14 zero-click exploit used to deploy QuaDream’s spyware.
The exploit was deployed as a zero-day against iOS versions 14.4 and 14.4.2, and possibly other versions.
“The suspected exploit, which we call ‘ENDOFDAYS’, appears to make use of invisible iCloud calendar invitations sent from the spyware’s operator to victims,” said Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence analysts named the threat group “DEV-0196” linked to Israel-based private sector offensive actor (PSOA) known as QuaDream.
QuaDream reportedly sells a platform they call REIGN to governments for law enforcement purposes. REIGN is a suite of exploits, malware, and infrastructure designed to exfiltrate data from mobile devices.

Like NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, REIGN reportedly utilises zero-click exploits to hack into target devices.
“Citizen Lab was able to identify operator locations for QuaDream systems in the following countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan,” the tech giant revealed.
QuaDream has had a partnership with a Cypriot company called InReach, with whom it is currently embroiled in a legal dispute.
“Numerous key individuals associated with both companies have prior connections with another surveillance vendor, Verint, as well as Israeli intelligence agencies,” the reports mentioned.
An Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying in a TechCrunch report that “there’s no evidence showing the exploit discovered by Microsoft and Citizen Lab has been used after March 2021, when the company released an update”.
QuaDream was mentioned in a December 2022 report from Meta, which reportedly took down 250 accounts associated with the company.
According to the report, Meta observed QuaDream testing its ability to exploit iOS and Android mobile devices with the intent “to exfiltrate various types of data including messages, images, video and audio files, and geolocation”.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 12, 2023
Free 10-day medical camp for female journalists in Hyderabad

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Hyderabad: Free medical or health camp for female journalists is being organised at the head office of the state’s Department of Relations Headquarters (I and PR department) at Masab Tank for ten days (March 29- April 7).
The camp will begin to function from 7 am on Wednesday till 2 pm each day for the next consecutive 10 days for the women to evaluate their health by getting themselves examined.
Information Civil Relations Department Commissioner Arvind Kumar in a statement said that women journalists in the award programme organised on the occasion of International Women’s Day requested the state’s IT minister KT Rama Rao to conduct a free medical camp to which the minister responded positively.
Diagnostic tests include blood tests (CBP), blood sugar, diabetic tests, lipid profile, thyroid, calcium, urine tests, vitamin B12, and D3 in addition to ECG, X-ray, ultrasonography, mammogram, pap smear, screening tests, medical officer examination, eye screening, dental examinations, and gynaecology examinations will be conducted in the medical camp.
All women working at the state level as accredited journalists are hereby requested to avail themselves of the opportunity from Hyderabad and joint Rangareddy districts.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 28, 2023
Kashmir Journalist’s Arrest: PCI, EGI Seek Immediate Release

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by Raashid Andrabi
SRINAGAR: A day after the arrest of journalist Irfan Mehraj by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), various media groups and human rights watchdogs have called for his immediate release. The political class is also seeing his release.
The Press Club of India expressed its strong disapproval of the application of the UAPA to journalists and expressed concern over the NIA’s arrest of Mehraj. “We vehemently oppose the imposing of UAPA on media persons,” the powerful club said in a tweet. “The misuse of this draconian law by NIA in randomly arresting Irfan Mehraj, a journalist from Kashmir ominously points towards a violation of freedom of speech and expression. We demand his immediate release.”
The Editor’s Guild of India (EGI) has also expressed their concern over the arrest. The “space for media freedom has progressively eroded in Kashmir”, said the Editors Guild of India on Wednesday.
The Guild has voiced ‘deep concern’ over the ‘excessive use’ of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against journalists, citing the recent arrest of Irfan Mehraj, a Kashmir-based journalist, by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).”
In a statement, the Guild reported that on March 20th, Irfan received a call from an investigator who asked him to come to the local NIA office in Srinagar for a brief meeting. However, after his arrival, he was arrested and later transferred to Delhi. According to the Guild, Irfan was charged under the draconian UAPA and was previously summoned to Delhi in relation to a case on “NGO terror funding”, to which he cooperated with the NIA’s investigation.
The NIA, in its press note, alleged that Irfan was a ‘close associate’ of the Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez.
Mehbooba Mufti, President Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir also criticized the NIA’s actions. “While conmen are given a free run in Kashmir, journalists like Irfan Mehraj are arrested for doing their duty by speaking the truth,” Ms Mufti said. She criticised the abuse of “draconian laws like UAPA” and their constant use to ensure punishment through the process itself.

The arrest of Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj was also condemned by Amnesty International India.
“The arrest of Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj under terror charges is a travesty,” said Aakar Patel, chair of the board at Amnesty International India, in a statement. “The arrest is yet another instance of the long-drawn repression of human rights and the crackdown on media freedoms and civil society in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. The stifling of the rights to freedom of expression and association continue unabated in Kashmir.”
Patel also expressed concern over the criminalization of human rights work, stating that “Human rights defenders such as Irfan Mehraj should be encouraged and protected, not persecuted. He must be immediately released. The repression must stop. Criminalization of legitimate human rights work is extremely alarming and the authorities must put an end to this immediately.” Amnesty International has termed the arrest as “yet another crackdown on media freedom in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Expressing profound apprehension, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, also stated her deep concern regarding the detention of Irfan.
“I’m deeply concerned about the Kashmiri HRD and journalist @IrfanMeraj. He was called to come to the @NIA_India office in Srinagar and arrested in a 2020 case, accused of serious offences. I call for his immediate release,” Mary Lawlor tweeted.
It is worth noting that Irfan was taken into custody by the NIA in Srinagar on March 20, on charges under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Irfan, who is the founder of Wande Magazine, presently serves as a senior editor at TwoCircles.net. His works have been published by The Indian Express, Al Jazeera, Himal Southasian, DW, and TRT World.

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( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 22, 2023
Kerala: Journalists’ bodies condemn SFI activists’ barging into Asianet office

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New Delhi: A day after a group of SFI activists allegedly barged into the Kochi office of Asianet News and intimidated channel staff over a news report, journalists’ bodies condemned the incident and called it yet another example of growing attacks against media and scribes.
Barging into media offices is “illegal” and should be considered as “an attack on press freedom”, the Press Club of India, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists said in a joint statement.
“We expect the Kerala government to take strict action against those who attacked Asianet,” they said.
A group of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists allegedly trespassed into the office of Malayalam news channel Asianet News in Kochi on Friday and intimidated the staff over a report about the sexual assault of a girl, according to Kerala Police.
A case was later registered against 30 SFI activists, the students’ wing of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the channel.
Condemning the incident, the journalists’ bodies said, “We protest the attack on the TV channel Asianet News’ office in Kochi by the activists of the Students Federation of India.”
“This is yet another example of the growing attacks against media organisations and journalists in the country.”
The journalists’ bodies said Asianet News had used “a mock video” to bring out the issue of drug and sexual abuse of a young girl in Kerala.

“Stamping such a programme as fake news suggests ignorance of the professional ways used by news organisations to protect the identity of victims of sexual assault,” they said, adding, “There are methods and platforms to raise complaints against any news item in a legal manner.”
The journalists’ bodies noted that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made it clear in the Assembly that the police were looking into a complaint against the news report in question.
“Barging into media offices is illegal and should be considered as an attack on press freedom. We expect the Kerala government to take strict action against those who attacked Asianet,” they said.
“We condemn the attempts by certain political outfits, organisations and social media influencers in Kerala to instill media phobia by labelling all news and views as fake if they disagree with it,” they said, adding, “Demonising or undermining the media often protects vested interests.”
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 5, 2023
KWJA Holds Meeting Aimed At Welfare, Safeguarding Interests of Working Journalists

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Qazigund (Kulgam), Mar 3 (GNS): The Kulgam Working Journalists Association held an important meeting which was presided over by President at town hall Qazigund in Kulgam district on Friday.
After three hours-long discussion and deliberation, the working committee and executive body of KWJA reaffirmed that the Association will work for the welfare of media persons besides safeguarding the interests of working journalists.
“KWJA believes in ethics of journalism. We will always support professional journalists and there is no space for those indulging in blackmailing, extortion and yellow journalism”, reads a statement issued to GNS.
Those attended the meeting was Abdul Hamid Bhat (President), Khursheed Paroo, Azhar Hussain, Fayaz Jamal Bhat, Khurshid Alam, Tariq Yousuf, Kousar Gull, Shabir Ahamd, Ashiq Ali, Umaisar Gull, Younus Rashid, Aadil Bashir, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Gazi Yaqoob, Suhaib Farooq and another joined through virtual mode.
Notably, the Kulgam Working Journalists Association (KWJA), as per the statement, came into existence in year 2007 when Kulgam got district status. The association has so far witnessed election of five presidents through proper electoral process from (2007-2023). The elected presidents so far include; Farooq Rather, Khurshid Padroo, Abdul Hamid, Tanveer Wani and Khurshid Alam.
The strength of journalists in KWJA, the statement reads, currently stands at 16 who are working for reputed media houses among them half dozen have experience of 10 years in the field of journalism. (GNS)
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( With inputs from : thegnskashmir.com )

March 3, 2023
Journalists, police clash at Gaddafi Stadium in Pakistan’s Lahore city

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Lahore: Chaos descended upon the Gaddafi Stadium, which was hosting a PSL cricket match, after a group of journalists were denied entry to the venue by police officials for wearing masks in solidarity with the slain journalist Arshad Sharif.
Sharif, 49, a former reporter and TV anchor with ARY TV, was shot dead in Nairobi on October 23 last year under mysterious circumstances, sending shockwaves across Pakistan.
On Sunday, television anchor Imran Riaz and his friends donning masks with the picture of Sharif were stopped by police from entering the Gaddafi Stadium, the venue of a PSL-8 match, despite having tickets.
The situation quickly escalated after Riaz and his friends began to chant slogans to show their solidarity with Sharif.
Video clips showed police officials and the journalists engaged in heated arguments after the police surrounded them and asked them to surrender their masks before entering the stadium.
In the video, a police inspector was seen shouting to the journalists that wearing the mask showing the face’ of Sharif on the premises of the stadium was a clear violation of the regulations of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Soon, a scuffle broke out between the police officials and the journalists.
“By wearing Arshad Sharif’s masks, we wanted to show solidarity with him and his family and seek justice for him,” Riaz was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

In August last year, Sharif was booked on charges of sedition for interviewing former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close aide Shehbaz Gill.
In the interview, Gill criticised the Shehbaz Sharif government for trying to pitch Khan against the country’s powerful Army. Sharif subsequently fled the country.
A month after he left Pakistan, ARY TV fired Sharif, saying he had repeatedly criticised the military on social media in violation of the company’s policy.
In October last year, he was shot dead in Nairobi, in what the Kenyan authorities claim was a case of “mistaken identity.”
But in December last year, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the federal government to constitute a special Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the case after the initial investigation revealed the murder was “premeditated.”
Sharif was awarded the Pride of Performance’ in 2019 by Pakistan President Arif Alvi.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 27, 2023
Reporting corruption in a time of war: The Ukrainian journalists’ dilemma

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When a major corruption scandal broke in Ukraine last weekend, reporters faced an excruciating dilemma between professional duty and patriotism. The first thought that came to my mind was: “Should I write about this for foreigners? Will it make them stop supporting us?”
There was no doubting the severity of the cases that were erupting into the public sphere. They cut to the heart of the war economy. In one instance, investigators were examining whether the deputy infrastructure minister had profited from a deal to supply electrical generators at an inflated price, while the defense ministry was being probed over an overpriced contract to supply food and catering services to the troops.
Huge stories, but in a sign of our life-or-death times in Ukraine, even my colleague Yuriy Nikolov, who got the scoop on the inflated military contract, admitted he had done everything he could not to publish his investigation. He took his findings to public officials hoping that they might be able to resolve the matter, before he finally felt compelled to run it on the ZN.UA website.

Getting a scoop that shocks your country, forces your government to start investigations and reform military procurement, and triggers the resignation of top officials is ordinarily something that makes other journalists jealous. But I fully understand how Nikolov feels about wanting to hold back when your nation is at war. Russia (and Ukraine’s other critics abroad) are, after all, looking to leap upon any opportunity to undermine trust in our authorities.
A journalist is meant to stay a little distant from the situation he or she covers. It helps to stay impartial and to stick to the facts, not emotions. But what if staying impartial is impossible as you have to cover the invasion of your own country? Naturally, you have to keep holding your government to account, but you are also painfully aware that the enemy is out there looking to exploit any opportunity to erode faith in the leadership and undermine national security.
That is exactly what Ukrainian journalists have to deal with every day. In the first six months of the invasion, Ukrainian journalists and watchdogs decided to put their public criticism of the Ukrainian government on pause and focus on documenting Russian war crimes.
But that has backfired.
“This pause led to a rapid loss of accountability for many Ukrainian officials,” Mykhailo Tkach, one of Ukraine’s top investigative journalists, wrote in a column for Ukrainska Pravda.
His investigations about Ukrainian officials leaving the country during the war for lavish vacations in Europe led to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposing a ban on officials traveling abroad during the war for non-work-related issues. It also sparked the dismissal of the powerful deputy prosecutor general.
The Ukrainian government was forced to react to corruption and make a major reshuffle almost immediately. Would that happen if Ukrainian journalists decided to sit on their findings until victory? I doubt it.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended up imposing a ban on officials traveling abroad during the war for non-work-related issues | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
Is it still painful when you have to write about your own government’s officials’ flops when overwhelming enemy forces are trying to erase your nation from the planet, using every opportunity they can get to shake your international partners’ faith? Of course it is.
But in this case, there was definite room for optimism. Things are changing in Ukraine. The government had to react very quickly, under intense pressure from civil society and the independent press. Memes and social media posts immediately appeared, mocking the government’s pledge to buy eggs at massively inflated prices. Ultimately, the deputy infrastructure minister was fired and the deputy defense minister resigned.
This speedy response was praised by the European Commission and showed how far we really are from Russia, where authorities hunt down not the officials accused of corruption, but the journalists who report it.
As Tkach said, many believe that the war with the internal enemy will begin immediately after the victory over the external one.
However, we can’t really wait that long. It is important to understand that the sooner we win the battle with the internal enemy — high-profile corruption — the sooner we win the war against Russia.
“Destruction of corruption means getting additional funds for the defense capability of the country. And it means more military and civilian lives saved,” Tkach said.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

January 24, 2023
Five Journalists From Kashmir Resigned Allegedly After Getting Militant Threats

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Five journalists who were employed by a local newspaper in Kashmir have quit after receiving online threats from militants, according to reports.
Recently, militants published a list of more than a dozen journalists who were reportedly employed by security services, IANS reported.
There were two local newspaper editors among the people on the list. Three of the five journalists who left their jobs on Tuesday posted their resignations on social media.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a militant organisation affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is allegedly responsible for these threats, according to the authorities.
The threats’ contents show what militants and anti-national elements have in mind. By openly accusing them of being corrupt and issuing a clear threat, they have endangered people’s lives, particularly those of media professionals, according to the police.
According to the police, a FIR has been filed in this matter, and over a dozen suspects have been apprehended and are currently undergoing questioning.
As militants threatened to target everyone working for three media outlets in Srinagar, three reporters posted their resignations on their social media profiles to avoid any difficulties.
A young reporter who covered local news claims that he has been charged with spreading the army narrative. He decided to quit his job, reports NDTV.

Such threats, according to the BJP, are unacceptable, and no one should be permitted to threaten journalists.
“Terrorists have touched new lows, which is against people and against the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression,” NDTV quoted RS Pathania, spokesperson of the BJP.

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November 16, 2022