radiofree.asia

Category: Asia Report

  • Arrests, torture, beatings and jail – inside Myanmar’s daily junta reality

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Phil Thornton

    The military’s brutality is a daily reality for all the people of Myanmar. As Myanmar’s army prepares to deploy and reinforce its bases with hundreds of extra troops, the country’s media workers remain exposed to Covid-19 and under extreme threat, writes Phil Thornton.

    Myanmar’s military leaders used its armed forces to launch its coup and take control of the country from its elected government on 1 February 2021. In protest, millions of people took to the streets.

    The military responded to these protests by sending armed soldiers and police into residential areas to arrest defiant civilians, workers, students, doctors and nurses.

    In March, martial law was enforced in Yangon, snipers were used, and protesters were shot on sight.

    To restrict news coverage of their crimes and to impede the organisatiojn of protests, the military ordered telecommunication companies to restrict internet and mobile phone coverage. Independent media outlets had their licences withdrawn, offices were raided and trashed.

    Journalists were targeted and hunted by soldiers and police. Obscure laws were added to the penal code and used to restrict freedom of speech and expression. State-controlled media published pages of arrest warrants and photographs of the wanted, including journalists.

    To avoid arrest, independent journalists went underground or sought refuge with border based ethnic armed organisations.

    Myanmar journalists are well aware that being “arrested” and held in detention by the military doesn’t come with respect for their legal or human rights. The military uses a wide range of obscure laws, some dating back to colonial times, to detain, intimidate and silence its critics — academics, medics, journalists, students and workers.

    95 journalists arrested
    Independent website, Reporting ASEAN, recorded that, as of August 18, 95 journalists had been arrested and 42 were being held in detention.

    The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) estimated by August 29 that the military has now killed at least 1026 people, arrested 7627, issued warrants for 1984 and are still holding 6025 in detention.

    Aung Myint and Htet Htet Khine
    Journalists Sithu Aung Myint and Htet Htet Khine pictured in a newspaper clipping. Image: Global New Light of Myanmar

    They want names
    Those arrested are taken to interrogation centres and held indefinitely without contact with family or legal representation. Torture is used to extort names and contacts from the detained to be added to the military’s long list of those to be hunted down and suppressed into silence.

    One of those names on the military’s wanted list is that of journalist Nyan Linn Htet, now in hiding, after a warrant under Section 505 (a) was issued for his arrest.

    Nyan Linn Htet, managing editor of Mekong News, in an interview with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) explains the impact of being hunted has had on both him and his family.

    “If I’m arrested it means I lose everything. When we had to run and go into hiding, we lost our home and our possessions. You lose your income. Your equipment. You never feel safe when hiding. Living like this affects all of us. If the military does not find me, they will pressure and threaten my family with arrest.”

    Nyan Linn Htet said he is still working despite the risk of arrest.

    “Losing a journalist is a big loss for our struggle for democracy. We’re only doing our job as reporters, but our news coverage exposes the military and its abuses – this is why we’re the enemy.”

    Despite the danger to him and his family, Nyan Linn Htet worries about the safety of those who helped him avoid arrest.

    ‘Caught in hiding’
    “If I’m caught in hiding, the SAC (military-appointed State Administration Council) will persecute the people who gave me a place to live. I’m afraid they [the military] will arrest those who helped me.”

    His fears are well founded.

    Journalist and political analyst Sithu Aung Myint was high on the military’s wanted list for his political commentary and published opposition to the coup.

    On Sunday, August 15, the military raided the home of his colleague, BBC freelance producer, Htet Htet Khine, and arrested both of them.

    A week later, in its Sunday, August 21, edition, the military-run newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar, said Sithu Aung Myint had been charged with sedition, spreading “fake news” and being critical of the military coup leaders and its State Administration Council under Sections 505 (a) and 124 (a) of the Penal Code.

    He could be sentenced to life in jail under Section 124 (a) of the penal code.

    Htet Htet Khine was arrested for giving shelter to Sithu Aung Myint, and charged under section 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act for working with the recently formed National Union Government’s radio station, Federal FM.

    Held in interrogation centre
    Friends and colleagues of Sithu Aung Myint and Htet Htet Khine told IFJ they are concerned both journalists were held at an interrogation centre for more than a week before having access to either legal help or contact with colleagues or family.

    Nyan Linn Htet told IFJ he is aware his legal and human rights will not be respected if he is arrested.

    “They will not let us get legal help until they’ve got what they want from us. The military amended 505 (a) of the Penal Code to prevent giving us bail. We know they will jail us even if we have legal representation.

    “We know SAC is torturing journalists because of the work we do.”

    Reports by local and international humanitarian groups have detailed the severe beatings — hours of maintaining stressed positions, use of sexual violence — and killing of people while held in detention.

    Nyan Linn Htet said if arrested, he knows it will come with beatings. He admits that the thought of being tortured keeps him awake at night.

    “They will jail me, but only after they torture me. I will not be released until I sign a statement that I will never criticise them. I’m not afraid of being arrested, but torture scares me. There are nights when I’m too afraid to sleep.”

    International media drop Myanmar
    He and other local journalists told the IFJ it was disappointing that international media has dropped Myanmar from its news agenda and moved on to cover other stories.

    Nyan Linn Htets said despite access difficulties, the international media can use local reporters who are willing to help.

    “We know the difficulties media has getting ground access to Myanmar. Covid-19 restrictions also make it impossible to legally cross borders from neighboring countries, but we are already here in the country and are capable of doing the job.”

    Despite the fear of arrest and torture, he is still reporting and urged local journalists to keep doing the same.

    “It’s important we use what we can to still work and report news events of interest to people. People are accessing news and information in many different ways now.”

    The military, while trashing local and international laws and ignoring its constitution, is quick to use and amend laws to jail its opponents for being critical of the coup and for reporting military violence, abuse and corruption.

    We have no rights
    Nan Paw Gay    , editor-in-chief at the Karen Information Center, says the military council has no respect for journalists or their right to publish information in the public interest.

    “There is no freedom of the press. If journalists try to report news or seek information from the military’s opponents — CRPH, NUG, CDM, G-Z and PDF — the State Administration Council prosecutes them under Section 17/1 of the Illegal Association Act.

    “Since the military launched its coup, sources we use have had their freedom of speech and expression made illegal and they now risk arrest for talking to us and… we can be arrested for speaking with them.

    “Independent media groups have been outlawed and totally lost their right to speak freely or write about news events.”

    Nan Paw Gay points out if journalists are “critical of the military, its appointed State Administration Council or its lack of a public health plan to tackle the covid-19 pandemic now ravaging the country, section 505 (a) is used to arrest journalists for spreading false news.”

    Essentially torture is used to terrorise journalists, he says.

    “When the military council arrests and detains journalists, the torture is both physical and psychological. Even before being detained threats are issued and then during the arrest the violence becomes real – shootings, people being kicked and dragged from homes by their hair and beaten.”

    Women journalists tortured
    Nan Paw Gay says women journalists are more likely to be “tortured using psychological abuse – kept in a dark room and constantly told that they will be killed tomorrow – to mess and generate fear with their thoughts. You can see the effects of the tortured on some journalists when they appear in court – shaking hands and body spasms.”

    Military brutality is a daily reality for Myanmar’s people. At the time of writing, the army is preparing to deploy and reinforce its bases with hundreds of extra troops into areas of the Karen National Union-controlled territory and where anti-coup protesters, striking doctors and politicians have been offered refuge and safety.

    A senior ethnic Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) soldier told the IFJ that army drones and helicopters have been surveying the area in recent months.

    “We know they’ve sent munitions and large troop numbers to our area… last time we had drones flying over our area, they later attacked villages and our positions with airstrikes. They’re already fighting in our Brigade 5 and 1 and have started in 6 and 2.”

    Since the military launched its coup on February 1, there has been at least 500 armed battles between the KNU and the military regime and 70,000 Karen civilians have been displaced and are hiding in makeshift camps as a direct result of these attacks.

    Fighter jets have flown into Karen National Union-controlled areas 27 times and dropped at least 47 bombs, killing 14 civilians and wounding 28.

    Burnt rice stores in Myanmar
    Burning rice stores in Myanmar. Image: KIC

    Naw K’nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Women Organisation, in an interview with Karen News, said villagers displaced by the Myanmar Army attacks are now in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

    ‘Shoot at villagers’
    “They shoot at villagers if they see them on their farms, burning down their rice barns and killing the livestock left behind. The Burma Army also arrests people when they see them and use them as human shields to protect them when attacked by Karen soldiers.”

    Naw K’nyaw Paw said accessing the displaced villagers is difficult, especially during the wet season.

    “The only accessible way in is on foot, supplies have to be carried through jungle. Given the restrictions due to covid-19 as well as the increasing Burma Army military operations, villagers are unable to return to their homes and they will need food, clothing and medicine, especially the young and old.”

    Nan Paw Gay says the military’s strategy to muzzle the media is a familiar tactic that has been used before.

    “Stop international media getting access to conflict areas, shut down independent media, hunt local journalists and when there’s no one to left to report, launch attacks in ethnic regions, displacing thousands of villagers.”

    Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia. This article was first published by the IFJ Asia-Pacific blog and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New covid book exposes global media bias, racism and stigmatisation

    REVIEW: By Krishan Dutta

    While the covid-19 pandemic’s relentless cyclone continues across the globe wreaking havoc on economies and social systems, this book sheds light on the adversarial reporting culture of the media, and how it impacts on racism and politicisation driving the coverage.

    It explores the global response to the covid-19 pandemic, and the role of national and international media, and governments, in the initial coverage of the developing crisis.

    With specific chapters written mostly by scholars living in these countries, Covid-19, Racism and Politicization: Media in the Midst of a Pandemic examines how the media in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the United States have responded to the pandemic, and highlights issues specific to these countries, such as racism, Sinophobia, media bias, stigmatisation of victims and conspiracy theories.

    This book explores how the covid-19 coverage developed over the year 2020, with special focus given to the first six months of the year when the reporting trends were established.

    The introductory chapter points out that the media deserve scrutiny for their role in the day-to-day coverage that often focused on adversarial issues and not on solutions to help address the biggest global health crisis the world has seen for more than a century.

    In chapter 2, co-editor Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, former head of research at the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) takes a comprehensive look at how the blame game developed in the international media with a heavy dose of Sinophobia, and how between March and June 2020 a global propaganda war developed.

    He documents how conspiracy theories from both the US and China developed after the virus started spreading in the US and points out some interesting episodes that happened in the US in 2019 that may have vital relevance for the investigation of the origins of the virus.

    Attacks on WHO
    The attacks on the World Health Organisation (WHO), particularly by the former Trump administration, are well documented with a timeline of how WHO worked on investigating the virus in its early stages with information provided from China.

    The chapter also discusses the racism that underpinned the propaganda war, especially from the West, which led to the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s controversial call for an “independent” inquiry into the origins of the pandemic that riled China.

    Researcher Kalinga Seneviratne
    Co-author Kalinga Seneviratne … the book highlights pandemic issues such as racism, Sinophobia, media bias, stigmatisation of victims and conspiracy theories. Image: IDN-News

    “The covid-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies and inequalities of the globalised world. In an information-saturated society, it has also laid bare many political economy issues especially credibility of news, dangers of misinformation, problems of politicisation, lack of media literacy, and misdirected government policy priorities,” argues co-editor Sundeep Muppidi, professor of communications at the University of Hartford in the US.

    “This book explores the implications of some of these issues, and the government response, in different societies around the world in the initial periods of the pandemic.”

    In chapter 3, Muppidi examines specifically the US media coverage of covid-19 and he explores the “othering” of the blame related to failures and non-performances from politicians, governments and media networks themselves.

    Yun Xiao and Radika Mittal, writing about a study they have done on the coverage in The New York Times during the early months of the covid-19 pandemic, argue that unsubstantiated criticism of governance measures, lack of nuance and absence of alternative narratives is indicative of a media ideology that strengthens and embeds the process of “othering”.

    Ankuran Dutta and Anupa Goswani from Gauhati University in Assam, India, analyse the coverage of the covid-19 crisis in five Indian newspapers using 10 key words. They argue that the Indian media coverage could be seen as what constitutes “Sinophobia” with some mainstream media even calling it the “Wuhan Virus”.

    Historical background
    They trace the historical background to India’s anti-China nationalism, and show how it has been reflected in the covid-19 coverage, especially after India became one of the world’s hotspots.

    “This Sinophobia hasn’t much impacted on the government policy; rather it has tightened its nationalist sentiments promoting Indian vaccines over the Chinese.” They say the Indian media’s Sinophobia has abated after the delta variant hit India.

    “The narrative concerning covid-19 has taken a sharp turn bringing out the loopholes of the government’s inability to sustain its vigilance against the virus,” he notes, adding, ‘considering the global phobia concerning the delta variant put India in a tight spot and India has to defend itself from its newfound identity of being the primary source of this seemingly untameable variant.”

    Zhang Xiaoying from the Beijing Foreign Studies University and Martin Albrow from the University of Wales explain what they call the “Moral Foundation of the Cooperative Spirit” in chapter 4.

    Drawing on Chinese philosophical traditions—Confucianism, Daoism and Mohism—they argue that the “cooperative spirit” enshrined in these philosophies is reflected in the Chinese media’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages. Taking examples from the Chinese media—Xinhua, China Daily, Global Times and CGTN—they emphasise that the Chinese media has promoted international cooperation rather than indulge in blame games or politicising the issue.

    This chapter provides a good insight into Chinese thinking when it comes to journalism.

    Chapters on Sri Lanka and New Zealand examine how positive coverage in the local media of the governments’ initially successful handling of the covid-19 pandemic has contributed to emphatic election victories for the ruling parties.

    Hit on NZ media industry
    David Robie, founding director of Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre, explains in his chapter how New Zealand’s magazine sector was devastated by the pandemic lockdowns and economic downturn, although enterprising buy-outs and start-ups contributed to a recovery.

    He points out that a year later, in April 2021, Media Minister Kris Faafoi, himself a former journalist, announced a NZ$50 million plan to help the media industry deal with its huge drop in income, because, as he says, Facebook and Google were instrumental in drawing advertising revenue away from local media players.

    The chapter from Bangladesh offers a depressing picture of the social issues that came up as the virus spread, such as the stigmatisation and rejection of returning migrant worker who have for years provided for families back home, and how old people were abandoned by their families when they were suspected of having contacted the virus.

    The chapter gives a clear illustration of how the adversarial reporting culture of the media impacts negatively on the community and its social fabrics.

    But, the chapter’s author, Shameem Reza, communications lecturer at Dhaka University, says that when the second outbreak started in March 2021, he observed a shift in the media coverage of covid-19 pandemic.

    Now, the stories are more about harassment and discrimination, such as migrant workers facing hurdles to access vaccine; uncertainty over confirming air tickets and flights for their return; and facing risk of losing jobs and becoming unemployed. Thus, now the media coverage particularly includes ordinary peoples’ suffering.

    Reza believes that the initial stigmatisation of victims, had influenced social media coverage of harassment, and “changed agendas in the public sphere”.

    Lack of skills, knowledge
    The authors argue in the chapter on the Philippines that the covid-19 coverage exposed the “lack of skills and knowledge in reporting on health issues”. Said a senior newspaper editor, “in the past, whenever there were training opportunities on science or health reporting, we’d send the young reporters to give them the chance to go out of the newsroom. Now we know we should have sent editors and senior reporters.”

    In the concluding chapter, Seneviratne and Muppidi discuss various social and economic issues that should be the focus of the coverage as the world recovers from the covid-19 pandemic that reflects the inequalities around the world. These include not only vaccine rollouts, but also the vulnerability of migrant labour and their rights, the plight of casual labour in the so-called “gig economy”, priority for investments on health services, the power of Big Tech and many others.

    This book is an attempt to raise the voices of the “Global South” in discussing the media’s role in the coverage of the covid-19 crisis, explain Seneviratne and Muppidi, pointing out that there cannot be a return to the “normal” when that is full of inequalities that have been exposed by the pandemic.

    “There are many issues that the media should be mindful of in reporting the inevitable recovery from the covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and beyond.”

    Krishan Dutta is a freelance journalist writing for IDN – News (In-Depth News). An earlier version of this review was first published by IDN-News under the title “New book explores how adversarial reporting culture drives politicised covid-19 coverage and this version is republished from Pacific Journalism Review.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West spins ‘humanitarian’ tale over Afghanistan, China talks up war crimes

    ANALYSIS: By Kalinga Seneviratne in Sydney

    To cover up the humiliating defeat for the United States and its allies in Afghanistan, the Anglo-American media is spinning tales of a great “humanitarian” airlift to save Afghani women from assumed brutality when the Taliban consolidate their power across Afghanistan.

    But, at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, last week the Chinese changed the narrative, calling for the US, UK, Australia and other NATO countries to be held accountable for alleged violations of human rights committed during the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.

    “Under the banner of democracy and human rights the US and other countries carry out military interventions in other sovereign states and impose their own model on countries with vastly different history, culture and national conditions [which has] brought severe disasters to their people,” China’s ambassador in Geneva Cheng Xu told the council.

    “United States, the United Kingdom and Australia must be held accountable for their violations of human rights in Afghanistan, and the resolution of this Special Session should cover this issue,” he added.

    Amnesty International and a host of other civil society speakers have also called for the creation of a robust investigative mechanism that would allow for monitoring and reporting on human rights violations and abuses, including grave crimes under international law.

    They have also asked for the mechanism to assist in holding those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.

    However, they were looking at the future rather than the past.

    Adopted by consensus
    The UNHRC member states adopted by consensus a resolution which merely requests further reports and an update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in March 2022.

    China was extraordinarily critical of Australia in May this year when the so-called Brereton Report was released by the Australian government into a four-year investigation of possible war crimes in Afghanistan by Australian forces.

    The findings revealed that some of Australia’s most elite soldiers in the SAS (Special Air Services) had been involved in unlawful killing, blood lust, a warrior culture and cover-up of their alleged atrocities.

    It came as a surprise to an Australian public, which believes that Australian military engagement in Afghanistan was designed to keep the world safe from terrorists.

    Today, Australians and the rest of the world are fed by a news narrative that the West saved Afghani women from the brutality of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime, and now they need to be airlifted by Western forces to save them from falling into the hands of the Taliban again.

    Rather than airlifting Afghans out of the country, China’s ambassador Xu told UNHRC: “We  will continue developing a good neighbourly, friendly and cooperative relationship with Afghanistan and continue our constructive role in its process of peace and reconstruction.”

    Reporting this, Yahoo Australia pointed out that Afghanistan was sitting on precious mineral deposits estimated to be worth US$1 trillion and the country also had vast supplies of iron ore, copper and gold. Is believed to be home to one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium.

    The report suggested that China was eyeing these resources.

    Accountability for the West
    However, such suspicions should not come in the way of calling for the West to be accountable for its war crimes in Afghanistan, which have been well documented even by such organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

    The UNHRC has not taken up these issues so far, fearing US retaliation.

    Speaking on Sri Lankan Sirasa TV’s Pathikade programme, Professor Prathiba Mahanamahewa, a former member of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission who went to Afghanistan on a fact-finding mission on the invitation of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission in 2014, argued that Western nations had been instrumental in creating terrorist groups around the world like the Taliban to destabilise governing systems in countries.

    “At the core of the Taliban is the idea of spreading Islamic fundamentalism and they have inspired similar movements in the region; thus, it is a big threat to countries in Asia, especially in South Asia,” argued Professor Mahanamahewa.

    “There are parties that pump a lot of funds to the Taliban.”

    He said that in 2018, Sri Lanka (with several other countries) fought at the UNHRC to come up with a treaty to stop these financial flows to terrorist groups.

    “Until today, nothing has been done,” said Professor Mahanamahewa.

    Producer of opium and hashish
    He added that Afghanistan was a large producer of opium and hashish, and the West was a big market for it, thus “Talibans would obviously like to have some form of relations with the West”.

    In April 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected its prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s November 2017 request to open an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during Afghanistan’s brutal armed conflict.

    Such an investigation would have investigated war crimes and brutality of both the Taliban and the US-led forces and activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    The panel of judges concluded that since the countries concerned had not taken any action over the perpetrators of possible “war crimes”, ICC could not act because it was a court of last resort.

    In March 2011, the Rolling Stones magazine carried a lengthy investigative report on how war crimes by US forces were covered up by the Pentagon.

    After extensive interviews with members of a group within the US forces called Bravo Company, they described how they were focused on killings Afghan civilians like going to the forests to hunt animals, and how these killings of innocent villages who were sometimes working in the fields were camouflaged as a terror attack by Taliban.

    The soldiers involved were not disciplined or punished and US army aggressively moved to frame the incidents as the work of a “rogue unit”. The Pentagon clamped down on information about these killings, and soldiers in the Bravo Company were barred from speaking to the media.

    Documented incidents
    While the US occupation continued, many human rights organisations have documented incidents like these and called for independent international investigations, which have met with lukewarm response.

    Only a few were punished with light sentences that did not reflect the gravity of the crime.

    After losing the elections, in November 2020 President Trump pardoned two US army officials who were accused and jailed for war crimes in Afghanistan. While some Pentagon leaders expressed concern that this action would damage military discipline, Trump tweeted “we train our boys to be killing machines, then persecute them when they kill”.

    It is perhaps now time that the US indulged in some soul-searching about their culture of killing, rather than using a narrative of “saving Afghani women” to cover up barbaric killing when the US-led forces were involved in Afghanistan.

    Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of one of India’s top think-tanks, the Centre Policy Research, argued in an Indian Express article that terrorist groups like the Taliban or ISIS were “products of modern imperial politics” that was unsettling local societies, encouraging violence, supported fundamentalism, thus breaking up state structures.

    He listed 7 sins of the US Empire that contributed to the debacle in Afghanistan. These included corruption that drives war; self-deception like what happened in Vietnam and now Afghanistan; lack of morality where the empire drives lawlessness; and hypocrisy, a cult of violence and racism.

    It is interesting that the Rolling Stones feature reflected the last two points in the way the Bravo Company went about picking up innocent villages for killing. But Mehta argued that “the modality of US withdrawal exuded the fundamental sin of empire. Its reinforcement of race and hierarchy”.

    ‘Common humanity’
    He noted: “Suddenly, the pretext of common humanity, and universal liberation, which was the pretext of empire, turned into the worst kind of cultural essentialism. It is their culture, these medieval tribalists who are incapable of liberty”.

    Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, writing on the Al Jazeera website asked: “What can the Taliban do to Afghanistan that it and the US, and their European allies have already not done to it?”

    He described the Doha deal between the US and the Taliban as a deal to hand Afghanistan back to the Taliban.

    “As for Afghan women and girls, they are far better off fighting the fanaticism and stupidity of the Taliban on their own and not under the shadow of US military barracks,” argued Professor Dabashi.

    “Iranian, Pakistani, Turkish and Arab women have been fighting similar, if not identical, patriarchal thuggery right in their neighbourhood, so will Afghan women.”

    Republished under Creative Commons partnership with IDN – In-Depth News.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New (unofficial) oppressive rules imposed on journalists in Afghanistan

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Publicly, the Taliban have undertaken to protect journalists and respect press freedom but the reality in Afghanistan is completely different, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

    The new authorities are already imposing very harsh constraints on the news media even if they are not yet official, reports RSF on its website.

    The list of new obligations for journalists is getting longer by the day. Less than a week after their spokesman pledged to respect freedom of the press “because media reporting will be useful to society,” the Taliban are subjecting journalists to harassment, threats and sometimes violence.

    “Officially, the new Afghan authorities have not issued any regulations, but the media and reporters are being treated in an arbitrary manner,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

    “Are the Taliban already dropping their masks? We ask them to guarantee conditions for journalism worthy of the name.”

    Privately-owned Afghan TV channels that are still broadcasting in the capital are now being subjected to threats on a daily basis.

    Reporters branded ‘takfiri’
    A producer* working for one privately-owned national channel said: “In the past week, the Taliban have beaten five of our channel’s reporters and camera operators and have called them ‘takfiri’ [tantamount to calling them ‘unbelievers’, in this context].

    “They control everything we broadcast. In the field, the Taliban commanders systematically take the numbers of our reporters and tell them: ‘When you prepare this story, you will say this and say that.’

    “If they say something else, they are threatened.”

    Many broadcasters have been forced to suspend part of their programming because Kabul’s new masters have ordered them to respect the Sharia — Islamic law.

    “Series and broadcasts about society have been stopped and instead we are just broadcasting short news bulletins and documentaries from the archives,” said a commercial TV channel representative, who has started to let his beard grow as a precaution and now wears traditional dress.

    The owner of a privately-owned radio station north of Kabul confirmed that the Taliban are progressively and quickly extending their control over news coverage.

    ‘They began “guiding” us’
    “A week ago, they told us: ‘You can work freely as long as you respect Islamic rules’ [no music and no women], but then they began ‘guiding’ us about the news that we could or could not broadcast and what they regard as ‘fair’ reporting,” said the owner, who ended up closing his radio station and going into hiding.

    Two journalists working for the privately-owned TV channel Shamshad were prevented by a Taliban guard from doing a report outside the French embassy because they lacked a permit signed by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

    But when they asked the guard where they should go or who they should ask for such a permit, he said, “I don’t know.”

    In the past few days, the Taliban have ordered the most influential Afghan broadcast media to broadcast Taliban propaganda video and audio clips.

    When media outlets object, “the Taliban say it is just publicity and they are ready to pay for it to be broadcast, and then they insist, referring to our national or Islamic duty,” a journalist said.

    Incidents are meanwhile being reported in the field, and at least 10 journalists have been subjected to violence or threats while working in the streets of Kabul and Jalalabad in the past week.

    The Taliban spokesman announced on Twitter on August 21 that a tripartite committee would be created to “reassure the media”. Consisting of representatives of the Cultural Commission and journalists’ associations, and a senior Kabul police officer, the committee’s official purpose will be to “address the problems of the media in Kabul.”

    What will its real purpose be?

    100 private media outlets suspend operations
    The pressure is even greater in the provinces, far from the capital. Around 100 privately-owned local media outlets have suspended operations since the Taliban takeover.

    All privately-owned Tolonews TV’s local bureaus have closed.

    In Mazar-i-Sharif, the fourth largest city, journalists have been forced to stop working and the situation is very tense.

    One national radio station’s terrified correspondent said: “Here in the south, I have to work all the time under threat from the Taliban, who comment on everything I do. ‘Why did you do that story? And why didn’t you ask us for our opinion?’ they say. They want comment on all the stories.”

    The head of a radio station in Herat province that had many listeners before the Taliban takeover said the same.

    He also reported that, at meeting with media representatives on August 17, the province’s new governor told them he was not their enemy and that they would define the new way of working together.

    While all the journalists remained silent, the governor then quoted a phrase from the Sharia that that sums up Islam’s basic practices. He said: “The Sharia defines everything: ‘Command what is good, forbid what is evil.’ You just have to apply it.”

    The radio station director added: “After that, most of my colleagues left the city and those of us who stayed must constantly prove that what we broadcast commands what is good and forbids what is evil.”

    Foreign correspondents work ‘normally‘
    Foreign correspondents still in Kabul have not yet been subjected to these dictates and are managing to work in an almost normal manner. But for how much longer?

    The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Youth and Information Department issued this message to foreign journalists on August 21: “Before going into the field and recording interviews with IEA fighters and the local population, they should coordinate with the IEA or otherwise face arrest.”

    “There are no clear rules at the moment and we have no idea what will happen in the future,” said a Swiss freelancer who has stayed in Kabul.

    Another foreign reporter said: “The honeymoon is not yet over. We are benefitting from the fact that the Taliban are still seeking some legitimacy, and the arrival of the big international TV stations in the past few days is protecting us.

    “The real problems will start when we are on our own again.”

    *The anonymity of all Afghan and foreign journalists quoted in this RSF news release has been preserved at their request and for security reasons, given the climate of fear currently reigning in Afghanistan. Many of the journalists contacted by RSF said they did not want to be quoted at all, because they have no way of leaving Afghanistan.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific lawyer tells of call to respect humanitarian law in Afghanistan

    By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist

    An International Criminal Court official in the Pacific is calling on all parties in the Afghanistan conflict to respect humanitarian law.

    Thousands of foreign nationals, including Afghanis who worked for international agencies, are fleeing the conflict as Taliban forces seized control of the country.

    Suicide bombers struck the crowded gates of Kabul airport with at least two explosions on Thursday, causing a bloodbath among civilians, shutting down the Western airlift of Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban regime.

    The death toll from the attack is at least 175, including 13 US soldiers, according to media reports.

    The attacks came amid ongoing chaos around the airport amid the American withdrawal after 20 years in the region.

    Fijian lawyer Ana Tuiketei-Bolabiu has reiterated the Hague Court’s call for all parties to the hostilities to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by ensuring the protection of civilians.

    She said the ICC may exercise jurisdiction over any genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed in Afghanistan since the country joined the court in 2003.

    First woman counsel
    Tuiketei-Bolabiu became the first woman counsel appointed to the Hague Court in April last year. In September, she was elected to the Defence and Membership Committee of the ICC’s Bar Association.

    She told RNZ Pacific she is concerned about reports of revenge killings and persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.

    “It’s just an evolving and deteriorating situation in Afghanistan,” she said.

    “The UN Security met in New York to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and what was interesting to hear from the Afghani UN ambassador Ghulam Isaczai confirming his concerns on human rights violations for girls, women and human rights defenders, and journalists, including the internally displaced people.

    “He also elaborated on the fear of the Kabul residents from the house-to-house search carried out by the Taliban, registering of names and the hunt for people.

    “The UN meeting also discussed safety, security, dignity and peace but also trying to protect the lives and the movement of women and children, the international community, displaced people and even the food and all the other humanitarian care that is supposed to be given to the people there.

    “We’re hoping that the international human rights laws will actually be observed.”

    UN chief Antonio Guterres has also called for an end to the fighting in Afghanistan.

    Challenges for prosecutor
    Tuiketei-Bolabiu said challenges lay ahead for the Hague Court’s new prosecutor, Karim Khan, who replaced Fatou Bensouda in June this year.

    Khan inherits the long-running investigation by his predecessor into possible crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003.

    Those included alleged killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as the alleged torture of prisoners by Afghan authorities, and by American forces and the CIA in 2003-2004.

    Tuiketei-Bolabiu said the ICC only approved a formal investigation in March 2020, which prompted then US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Bensouda.

    “In May, Afghanistan pleaded with Bensouda for a deferral of the ICC prosecution investigation, arguing that the government was already conducting its own inquiries, mostly focusing on alleged Taliban crimes,” she said.

    “Under ICC rules, the court only has power to prosecute crimes committed on the territory of member states when they are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.”

    It is not yet clear how the ICC will proceed with the current investigation.

    Evacuees from Afghanistan
    People disembark from an Australian Air Force plane after being evacuated from Afghanistan Image: Jacqueline Forrester/Australian Defence Force

    Interests of justice
    But Tuiketei-Bolabiu is adamant justice will prevail.

    “In March last year, the ICC appeals chamber judges found that in the interest of justice investigations should proceed by the prosecution on war crimes since 2003 including armed conflicts and other serious crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the courts and that includes the Taliban, Afghan national police, other security forces and the CIA,” she said.

    “What’s interesting now is the ICC does not have a police force so it solely relies on member states for arrests and investigations. Now the political landscape in Afghanistan has extremely changed.

    “The cooperation with the ICC prosecutions office to support the court’s independence will become a bigger challenge in the future.”

    UN Human Rights Council meets
    The UN Human Rights Council held a special session this week to address the serious human rights concerns and the situatiation in Afghanistan.

    The meeting was called by the council’s Afghanistan and Pakistan members.

    Discussions were centred on the appointment of a committee to investigate crimes against humanity.

    Tuiketei-Bolabiu said any evidence from the human rights council would help the court’s investigations.

    But Amnesty International said the UN council has failed the people of Afghanistan.

    In a statement, Amnesty said the meeting neglected to establish an independent mechanism to monitor ongoing crimes under international law and human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan.

    “Such a mechanism would allow for monitoring and reporting on human rights violations and abuses, including grave crimes under international law, and to assist in holding those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.”

    However, the calls were ignored by UNHRC member states, who adopted by consensus a weak resolution which merely requests further reports and an update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in March 2022, which adds little to the oversight process already in place.

    “The UN Human Rights Council special session has failed to deliver a credible response to the escalating human rights crisis in Afghanistan. Member states have ignored clear and consistent calls by civil society and UN actors for a robust monitoring mechanism,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.

    “Many people in Afghanistan are already at grave risk of reprisal attacks. The international community must not betray them, and must urgently increase efforts to ensure the safe evacuation of those wishing to leave,” she said.

    Amnesty International said member states must now move beyond handwringing, and take meaningful action to protect those feeling the conflict in Afghanistan.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Who speaks for Afghans? Climate realities with the Taliban takeover

    ANALYSIS: By Megan Darby

    A suicide bombing near Kabul airport on Thursday added another dimension to the chaos in Afghanistan as Western forces rush to complete their evacuation.

    Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 175 people, including 13 US soldiers, challenging the Taliban’s hold on the capital.

    Either group is bad news for Afghan women and girls, and anyone with links to the former government or exiting armies.

    Taliban officials are on a charm offensive in international media, with one suggesting to Newsweek the group could contribute to fighting climate change if formally recognised by other governments.

    Don’t expect the Taliban to consign coal to history any time soon, though. The militant group gets a surprisingly large share of its revenue from mining — more than from the opium trade — and could scale up coal exports to pay salaries as it seeks to govern.

    Afghan people could certainly use support to cope with the impacts of climate change. The UN estimates more than 10 million are at risk of hunger due to the interplay of conflict and drought.

    Water scarcity
    Water scarcity has compounded instability in the country for decades, arguably helping the Taliban to recruit desperate farmers.

    There was not enough investment in irrigation and water management during periods of relative peace.

    One adaptation tactic was to switch crops from thirsty wheat to drought-resistant opium poppies — but that brought its own problems.

    The question for the international community is: who gets to represent Afghans’ climate interests?

    If the Taliban is serious about climate engagement as a route to legitimacy, Cop26 will be an early test.

    Megan Darby is editor of Climate Change News.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Treason trial of West Papua’s Victor Yeimo begins amid calls for his release

    By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist

    The trial of West Papuan political prisoner Victor Yeimo has begun in an Indonesian court in Jayapura.

    Yeimo, who is a spokesman for the pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB), is charged with treason and incitement over his alleged role in anti-racism protests that turned into riots in 2019.

    Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid said Yeimo was a peaceful pro-independence activist who had not committed a crime.

    He said Indonesian authorities were using criminal code provisions to prosecute several peaceful pro-independence political activists in Papua simply for peacefully exercising their human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

    Riots and unrest arose from some of the 2019 protests, resulting in buildings being destroyed and dozens of people killed, although the role of militia groups in inflaming the situation has yet to be brought to account.

    However, Yeimo has denied he was involved in the protests in question.

    Hamid said it appeared that authorities targetted Yeimo because he had significant influence as a spokesman for the KNPB which had persistently called for an independence referendum for West Papua.

    Failure to recognise ‘peaceful expression’
    According to him, Indonesia’s government had failed to differentiate between peaceful expression and violent expression.

    “As long as it’s related to a political call for independence, self-determination or referendum, the government had never tolerated this. Although it is actually allowed by Indonesian special autonomy law,” Hamid said.

    “So I see no reason to lock him up in prison, especially in what we call solitary confinement in the prison of the Mobile Brigade of the special force of the police.”

    If convicted, Victor Yeimo faces a maximum range of sentences from 20 years to life in prison.

    Protesters march against racism in Jayapura, August 2019.
    Protesters march against racism in Jayapura, August 2019. Image: Whens Tebay/RNZ

    The 39-year-old was the latest Papuan detained for treason allegations following widespread protests in August and September 2019, including the so-called “Balikpapan Seven”.

    The Seven, who include KNPB members, received jail terms of between 10 and 11 months in a trial carried out in East Kalimantan province.

    The protests two years ago began in response to racist harassment of Papuan university students in Java, and spread across several cities and towns in Papua, including a smaller number of protests which spilled into deadly rioting in Jayapura, Manokwari and Wamena.

    Concerns for Yeimo’s health
    Amnesty and others including the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor have voiced concern about Yeimo’s health after more than three months in custody.

    “He has been held in solitary confinement in a cramped and poorly ventilated cell which has further worsened his pre-existing medical condition,” Amnesty noted.

    “With a record of lung and gastric diseases and having recently suffered from hemoptysis (coughing up blood) and heightened risk of COVID-19, we are concerned about his deteriorating health.”

    Lack of faith in system
    In the provinces of West Papua and Papua, Indonesian security forces routinely clamp down on Papuan protests, while military forces are also engaged in ongoing armed conflict with guerilla fighters of the West Papua Papua Liberation Army in the highlands region.

    Hamid described the rule of law in Papua as weak, and said grassroots Papuans had increasingly lost faith in the ability of the Indonesian justice system to address the many abuses their communities have experienced.

    “If Indonesia wants them to be part of Indonesia, stop the natural resources exploitation, over-exploitation, stop the over-presence of the military, stop the killing, and bring those responsible for the killings, for the torture, for any crimes against Papuans to justice.”

    In recent weeks, peaceful protests by Papuans calling for Yeimo’s release have been forcibly stopped by Indonesian police who say the risk of covid-19 means such public events aren’t allowed.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • A View From Afar: Independence hopes for Kanaky and what now for the US after the Afghan debacle?

    A View From Afar on 26 August 2021. Video: EveningReport.nz

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    In this this week’s episode of A View from Afar today, Selwyn Manning and Paul Buchanan are joined by Asia Pacific Report editor Dr David Robie to examine instability in the Pacific  – specifically to identify what is going on in New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa.

    This is the second part of a two-part Pacific special.

    In the second half, Buchanan and Manning analyse the latest developments on Afghanistan and consider whether the humiliating withdrawal of the US suggests an end to liberal internationalism.

    Specifically the first half of this episode looks at:

    • New Caledonia where there will be a third and final referendum on Kanaky independence;
    • Samoa where there has been a new government installed — the first in four decades — but only after the old guard attempted to resist democratic change, a move that has caused a constitutional crisis; and
    • Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has had a new addition to his political headaches — the question of how Fiji gets its NGO and aid workers out of Afghanistan.
    A View From Afar 2 260821
    Selwyn Manning, David Robie and Paul Buchanan discuss governance and security issues in the Pacific on A View From Afar today. Image: Screenshot APR

    In the second half of this episode Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning dig deep into the latest from Afghanistan.

    The deadline for Western personnel to have withdrawn from Afghanistan is looming. The Taliban leadership states it will not extend the negotiated deadline of August 31, and US President Joe Biden insists that the US will not request nor assert an extension.

    But Biden has instructed his military leaders to prepare for a contingency plan. 

    • What does this humiliating withdrawal indicate to the world?
    • Is this the realisation of a diminishing United States, a superpower in decline?
    • Can the US reassert itself as the world’s policeman, or does Afghanistan confirm the US is in retreat and signal an end of liberal internationalism?
    A View From Afar 3 260821
    Selwyn Manning, Paul Buchanan and Charlotte Bellis of Al Jazeera discussing Afghanistan on A View From Afar today. Image: Screenshot APR

    Watch this podcast on video-on-demand on YouTube and see earlier episodes at EveningReport.nz or subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

    The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

    A collaboration between EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fijians in Afghanistan will only leave if Taliban takeover crisis worsens

    By Filipe Naikaso of FBC News

    Five Fijians who are based in Afghanistan say they are safe and well.

    Speaking to FBC News, one of them who is living in the capital Kabul, said they kept tabs on each other and shared information on the Taliban takeover.

    They say that they will only leave Afghanistan if the situation worsens.

    The Fijian national spoke under the condition of anonymity and said he and three others were in Kabul while the others were in Mazar and Khandahar.

    They said the situation was calm in the the three cities.

    The man said he has been out and about in Kabul conducting assessment and supporting the UN evacuation flights in the last couple of days.

    He had noticed that the usual traffic congestion had decreased significantly as most people were staying home.

    Every five minutes
    He said there was an evacuation flight almost every five minutes. However, movement within the country was challenging at times.

    One other Fijian in Kabul was expected to relocate to Almaty in Kazakhstan.

    Meanwhile, RNZ News reports that the first group of New Zealand citizens, their families and other visa holders evacuated arrived yesterday in New Zealand.

    New Zealand lawyer Claudia Elliott has worked across Afghanistan with the United Nations and is now trying to get visas to get at risk Afghani professionals to also be evacuated to New Zealand.

    She says seeing the Taliban’s takeover has been traumatising – she is worried about how those who are given visas to New Zealand will actually be able to get out of Afghanistan.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Robber shoots dead Philippines tabloid editor in Quezon City

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Philippines tabloid editor Gwenn Salamida has been shot dead by a robber in her recently opened salon in Quezon City.

    The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) have called for a rapid investigation into this murder to assure justice for Salamida and her family.

    The shooting took place at Salamida’s salon in Barangay Apolonio Samson about 3:35pm on August 17. Salamida was shot after the killer barged inside, declaring a heist, and shot the victims when Salamida resisted.

    Salamida was a former editor of Remate Online and had been working recently for another tabloid, Saksi Ngayon.

    The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) asked the authorities to investigate the murder of Salamida.

    PTFoMS Executive Director, Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, said on August 18 that while the motive may not be related to Salamida’s past career in journalism, justice must be served for the sake of Salamida’s family and the community.

    Messages by NUJP, IFJ
    The NUJP said: “The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines [send] condolences with the family and colleagues of Gwenn Salamida of Saksi Ngayon …

    “We join the National Press Club in condemning her murder and in calling for a swift resolution to the case and for justice for her murder.”

    The IFJ said: “The death of Gwenn Salamida has been a great loss to the media community of the Philippines.

    “We call on the government of the Philippines to rapidly investigate her murder and to ensure that justice is done. The media must be given a safe environment to work in within the Philippines, the murder of journalists must be stopped.”

    • Journalists are frequently killed in the Philippines. The Reporters Without Borders 2021 global media freedom index ranks Philippines 138th out of 180 countries.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Taliban take 2 female state TV anchors off-air in Afghanistan, bash 2 journalists

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Taliban to immediately cease harassing and attacking journalists for their work, allow women journalists to broadcast the news, and permit the media to operate freely and independently.

    Since August 15, members of the Taliban have barred at least two female journalists from their jobs at the public broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan, and have attacked at least two members of the press while they covered a protest in the eastern Nangarhar province, according to news reports and journalists who spoke with New York-based CPJ.

    “Stripping public media of prominent women news presenters is an ominous sign that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have no intention of living up their promise of respecting women’s rights, in the media or elsewhere,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator in a statement.

    “The Taliban should let women news anchors return to work, and allow all journalists to work safely and without interference.”

    On August 15, the day the Taliban entered Kabul, members of the group arrived at Radio Television Afghanistan’s station and a male Taliban official took the place of Khadija Amin, an anchor with the network, according to news reports and Amin, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

    When Amin returned to the station yesterday, a Taliban member who took over leadership of the station told her to “stay at home for a few more days”.

    He added that the group would inform her when she could return to work, she said.

    ‘Regime has changed’
    Taliban members also denied Shabnam Dawran, a news presenter with Radio Television Afghanistan, entry to the outlet, saying that “the regime has changed” and she should “go home”, according to news reports and Dawran, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

    Male employees were permitted entry into the station, but she was denied, according to those sources.


    Taliban claims it will respect women’s rights, media freedom at first media conference in Kabul. Video: Al Jazeera

    On August 17, a Taliban-appointed newscaster took her place and relayed statements from the group’s leadership, according to those reports.

    Separately, Taliban militants yesterday beat Babrak Amirzada, a video reporter with the privately owned news agency Pajhwok Afghan News, and Mahmood Naeemi, a camera operator with the privately owned news and entertainment broadcaster Ariana News, while they covered a protest in the city of Jalalabad, in eastern Nangarhar province, according to news reports and both journalists, who spoke with CPJ via phone and messaging app.

    At about 10 am, a group of Taliban militants arrived at a demonstration of people gathering in support of the Afghan national flag, which Amirzada and Naeemi were covering, and beat up protesters and fired gunshots into the air to disperse the crowd, the journalists told CPJ.

    Amirzada and Naeemi said that Taliban fighters shoved them both to the ground, beat Amirzada on his head, hands, chest, feet, and legs, and hit Naeemi on his legs and feet with the bottoms of their rifles.

    CPJ could not immediately determine the extent of the journalists’ injuries.

    Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond
    Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.

    CPJ is also investigating a report today by German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle that Taliban militants searched the home of one of the outlet’s editors in western Afghanistan, shot and killed one of their family members, and seriously injured another.

    The militants were searching for the journalist, who has escaped to Germany, according to that report.

    Taliban militants have also raided the homes of at least four media workers since taking power in the country earlier this week, according to CPJ reporting.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New Zealand should never have joined the war in Afghanistan

    ANALYSIS: By Keith Locke

    After the fall of Kabul, the obvious question for New Zealanders is whether we should ever have joined the American war in Afghanistan. Labour and National politicians, who sent our Special Forces there, will say yes.

    The Greens, who opposed the war from the start, will say no.

    Back in 2001, we were the only party to vote against a parliamentary motion to send an SAS contingent to Afghanistan. As Green foreign affairs spokesperson during the first decade of the war I was often accused by Labour and National MPs of helping the Taliban.

    By their reasoning you either supported the American war effort, or you were on the side of the Taliban.

    To the contrary, I said, New Zealand was helping the Taliban by sending troops. It was handing the Taliban a major recruiting tool, that of Afghans fighting for their national honour against a foreign military force.

    And so it has proved to be. The Taliban didn’t win because of the popularity of its repressive theocracy. Its ideology is deeply unpopular, particularly in the Afghan cities.

    But what about the rampant corruption in the Afghan political system? Wasn’t that a big factor in the Taliban rise to power? Yes, but that corruption was enhanced by the presence of the Western forces and all the largess they were spreading around.

    Both sides committed war crimes
    Then there was the conduct of the war. Both sides committed war crimes, and it has been documented that our SAS handed over prisoners to probable torture by the Afghan National Directorate of Security.

    Western air power helped the government side, but it was also counterproductive, as more innocent villagers were killed or wounded by air strikes.

    In the end all the most sophisticated American warfighting gear couldn’t uproot a lightly armed insurgent force.


    Taliban claims it will respect women’s rights, press freedom. Reported by New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis for Al Jazeera. Video: AJ English

    There was another course America (and New Zealand) could have taken. Back in 2001 the Greens (and others in the international community) were pushing for a peaceful resolution whereby the Taliban would hand over Osama bin Laden to justice. The Taliban were not ruling that out.

    But America was bent on revenge for the attack on the World Trade Centre, and quickly went to war. Ostensibly it was a war against terrorism, but Osama bin Laden quickly decamped to Pakistan, so it became simply a war to overthrow the Taliban government and then to stop it returning to power.

    The war had this exclusively anti-Taliban character when New Zealand’s SAS force arrived in December 2001. The war would grind on for 20 years causing so much death and destruction for the Afghan people.

    The peaceful way of putting pressure on the Taliban, which could have been adopted back in 2001, is similar to how the world community is likely to relate to the new Taliban government.

    Pressure on the Taliban
    That is, there will be considerable diplomatic and economic pressure on the Taliban to give Afghan people (particularly Afghan women) more freedom than it has to date. How successful this will be is yet to be determined.

    It depends on the strength and unity of the international community. Even without much unity, international pressure is having some (if limited) effect on another strongly anti-women regime, namely Saudi Arabia.

    The Labour and National governments that sent our SAS to Afghanistan cannot escape responsibility for the casualties and post-traumatic stress suffered by our soldiers. Their line of defence may be that they didn’t know it would turn out this way.

    However, that is not a good argument when you look at the repeated failure of Western interventions in nearby Middle Eastern countries.

    America has intervened militarily (or supported foreign intervention) in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine, Somalia and Libya. All of these peoples are now worse off than they were before those interventions.

    “Civilising missions”, spearheaded by the American military, are not the answer, and New Zealand shouldn’t get involved. We should have learnt that 50 years ago in Vietnam, but perhaps we’ll learn it now.

    Former Green MP Keith Locke was the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson. He writes occasional pieces for Asia Pacific Report. This article was first published by The Spinoff and is republished here with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • 13 Fijians trapped in Afghanistan safe as Suva plans bid to repatriate them

    By Shanil Singh in Suva

    Immigration Secretary Yogesh Karan has confirmed that 13 Fijians who are currently stuck in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover last Sunday are safe and officials are working to repatriate them as soon as possible.

    Karan said two worked for private contractors and the other 11 were with international organisations.

    He said they had had a discussion with the Australian High Commission which gave an assurance that they would make every effort to “include our people in the evacuation flight”.

    Karan said it was very difficult to contact them because Fiji did not have a mission in Afghanistan and they are trying to contact them via New Delhi.

    He added Fiji was also working with UN agencies and the Indian government to get them out of there as quickly as possible.

    Karan was also requesting anyone who had contacts with anyone in Afghanistan to let the ministry know so they could note their details.

    NZ promises repatriation
    RNZ News reports that people promised help in getting out of Afghanistan were desperate for information, saying they did not know where they should be or who to contact.

    New Zealand citizens and at least 200 Afghans who helped New Zealand’s efforts in the country were expected to be repatriated.

    Diamond Kazimi, a former interpreter for the NZ Defence Force in Afghanistan, who now lives in New Zealand, has been getting calls from those who helped the military and wanted to know when help is coming.

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to 104 New Zealanders in Afghanistan but would not say where they were, what advice they were being given, or how they planned to make sure they were on the repatriation flight.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • With the Taliban return, 20 years of progress for women looks set to disappear overnight

    ANALYSIS: By Azadah Raz Mohammad, The University of Melbourne and Jenna Sapiano, Monash University

    As the Taliban has taken control of the country, Afghanistan has again become an extremely dangerous place to be a woman.

    Even before the fall of Kabul on Sunday, the situation was rapidly deteriorating, exacerbated by the planned withdrawal of all foreign military personnel and declining international aid.

    In the past few weeks alone, there have been many reports of casualties and violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

    The United Nations Refugee Agency says about 80 percent of those who have fled since the end of May are women and children.

    What does the return of the Taliban mean for women and girls?

    The history of the Taliban
    The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, enforcing harsh conditions and rules following their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

    A crowd of Taliban fighters and supporters.
    The Taliban have taken back control of Afghanistan with the withdrawal of foreign troops. Image: Rahmut Gul/AP/AAP

    Under their rule, women had to cover themselves and only leave the house in the company of a male relative. The Taliban also banned girls from attending school, and women from working outside the home. They were also banned from voting.

    Women were subject to cruel punishments for disobeying these rules, including being beaten and flogged, and stoned to death if found guilty of adultery. Afghanistan had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

    The past 20 years
    With the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the situation for women and girls vastly improved, although these gains were partial and fragile.

    Women now hold positions as ambassadors, ministers, governors, and police and security force members. In 2003, the new government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires states to incorporate gender equality into their domestic law.

    The 2004 Afghan Constitution holds that “citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law”. Meanwhile, a 2009 law was introduced to protect women from forced and under-age marriage, and violence.

    According to Human Rights Watch, the law saw a rise in the reporting, investigation and, to a lesser extent, conviction, of violent crimes against women and girls.

    While the country has gone from having almost no girls at school to tens of thousands at university, the progress has been slow and unstable. UNICEF reports of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school some 60 percent are girls.

    A return to dark days
    Officially, Taliban leaders have said they want to grant women’s rights “according to Islam”. But this has been met with great scepticism, including by women leaders in Afghanistan.

    Indeed, the Taliban has given every indication they will reimpose their repressive regime.

    In July, the United Nations reported the number of women and girls killed and injured in the first six months of the year nearly doubled compared to the same period the year before.

    In the areas again under Taliban control, girls have been banned from school and their freedom of movement restricted. There have also been reports of forced marriages.

    Afghan woman looking out a window.
    Afghan women and human rights groups have been sounding the alarm over the Taliban’s return. Image: Hedayatullah Amid/EPA/AAP

    Women are putting burqas back on and speak of destroying evidence of their education and life outside the home to protect themselves from the Taliban.

    As one anonymous Afghan woman writes in The Guardian:

    “I did not expect that we would be deprived of all our basic rights again and travel back to 20 years ago. That after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity.”

    Many Afghans are angered by the return of the Taliban and what they see as their abandonment by the international community. There have been protests in the streets. Women have even taken up guns in a rare show of defiance.

    But this alone will not be enough to protect women and girls.

    The world looks the other way
    Currently, the US and its allies are engaged in frantic rescue operations to get their citizens and staff out of Afghanistan. But what of Afghan citizens and their future?

    US President Joe Biden remained largely unmoved by the Taliban’s advance and the worsening humanitarian crisis. In an August 14 statement, he said:

    “an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.”

    And yet, the US and its allies — including Australia — went to Afghanistan 20 years ago on the premise of removing the Taliban and protecting women’s rights. However, most Afghans do not believe they have experienced peace in their lifetimes.

    Now that the Taliban has reasserted complete control over the country, the achievements of the past 20 years, especially those made to protect women’s rights and equality, are at risk if the international community once again abandons Afghanistan.

    Women and girls are pleading for help. We hope the world will listen.The Conversation

    Azadah Raz Mohammad, PhD student, The University of Melbourne and Dr Jenna Sapiano, Australia Research Council postdoctoral research associate and lecturer, Monash Gender Peace & Security Centre, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Former PM Helen Clark says Taliban control ‘massive step backwards’

    RNZ News

    Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark says the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan shows “a catastrophic failure of intelligence in Western foreign policy” and to say that she is pessimistic about the country’s future would be an understatement.

    Taliban insurgents have entered Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani has fled Afghanistan, bringing the Islamist militants close to taking over the country two decades after they were overthrown by a US-led invasion.

    Clark has also served as administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for eight years and has advocated globally for Afghan girls and women.

    She sent New Zealand troops to Afghanistan in 2001 during her term as prime minister and said it was surreal to see what had happened.

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today after the cabinet meeting this afternoon that the government had offered 53 New Zealand citizens in Afghanistan consular support.

    “We are working through this with the utmost urgency,” she said.

    The government was also aware of 37 individuals who had helped the NZ Defence Force (NZDF).

    Gains for women, girls
    Clark said today: “Twenty years of change there with so many gains for women and girls in society at large and to see what amounts to people motivated by medieval theocracy walk back in and take power and start issuing the same kinds of statements about constraints on women and saying that stonings and amputations are for the courts – I mean this is just such a massive step backwards it’s hard to digest.”

    Clark said to find out what had gone wrong it was necessary to look back a couple of decades and it was not long after the Taliban had left that the US administration started to look away from Afghanistan, turning instead towards its intervention in Iraq.

    “With the gaze off Afghanistan the Taliban started to come back. When I was at UNDP I would meet ambassadors from the region around Afghanistan and they would say ‘look 60 percent of the country is in effect controlled by the Taliban now’ and I’m going back four or five years, six years in saying that.”

    Former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark
    Former NZ prime minister Helen Clark … extremely dubious that this is “a new reformed Taliban”. Image: RNZ/Anadolu

    Helen Clark is extremely dubious that this is “a new reformed Taliban”. Photo: 2018 Anadolu Agency

    Clark said at that time the Taliban did not have the ability to capture and hold district and provincial capitals, but the Taliban was waiting for an opportunity and that came when former US president Donald Trump indicated they would withdraw troops from Afghanistan and current US President Joe Biden then followed through on that.

    “Looking at it from my perspective I think the thought of negotiating a transition with the Taliban was naive and I think the failure of intelligence as to how strong the Taliban actually were on the ground is, as a number of American commentators are saying, equivalent to the failure of intelligence around the Tet Offensive in 1968 in Vietnam – I mean this is a catastrophic failure of intelligence in Western foreign policy,” she said.

    Clark said the Taliban would be under pressure from Western powers to do anything if it was able to enlist the support of other powers.

    Pessimistic about Afghanistan’s future
    She said to say she was pessimistic about Afghanistan’s future would be an understatement and there were already reports of women being treated very badly in regions where the Taliban has taken over.

    “We’re hearing stories from some of the district and provincial capitals that they’ve captured where women have been beaten for wearing sandals which expose their feet, we’re hearing of one woman who turned up to a university class who was told to go home, this wasn’t for them, women who were told to go away from the workplace because this wasn’t for them.”

    Clark said she very much doubted that this was “a new reformed Taliban”, an idea that was accepted by some negotiators in Doha.

    She said she did not expect that the UN Security Council would be able to do anything to improve the situation.

    Clark said it met about Afghanistan within the last couple of weeks and the Afghanistan permanent representative pleaded on behalf of his elected government for support but there was no support forthcoming.

    Clark said the UN Security Council was unlikely to get any results and the UN would likely then say that it needed humanitarian access.

    Catastrophic hunger
    “Because these developments create catastrophic hunger, flight of people, illness — but you know the UN will be left putting a bandage over the wounds and there will be nothing more constructive that comes out of it.”

    Clark said Afghanistan’s problems were never going to be solved in 20 years.

    “I understand that the Americans are sick of endless wars, we all are. But on the other hand they’ve kept a 50,000 strong garrison in Korea since 1953 in much greater numbers at times, they maintain 30,000 troops in the Gulf. They were in effect being asked to maintain a very small garrison which more or less kept the place stable enough for it to inch ahead, build its institutions and roll out education and health, when that commitment to do that failed then the whole project collapsed.

    “This is not so much a Taliban takeover as simply a surrender by the government and by forces who felt it wasn’t worth fighting for it.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ ramps up efforts to get 30 citizens out of Kabul as Taliban take capital

    RNZ News

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says work to get New Zealanders out of Afghanistan has ramped up, as commercial options become unavailable.

    Yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of 17 New Zealanders who were in Afghanistan, but Ardern said that number is now believed to be closer to 30 when citizens and family members were taken into account.

    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been actively trying to contact those that they believe may be in Afghanistan and working to get people out,” she said.

    “Previously there have been commercial options for people to leave on if they’re able to get to the point of departure. That will increasingly, if not already, no longer be an option,”

    She said that was when the government would step up the work it was doing to try to get them out.

    Ardern said that the situation was moving fast and quick decisions would need to be made in terms of those New Zealanders in Afghanistan.

    “That is something we’ve been working on, as you can imagine, in a very changeable environment for the past, wee while and is something we will continue to work on.

    Additional consideration
    “There’s also for us … the additional consideration of those who may have who may have historically worked to support the New Zealand Defence Force or who may have been on the ground over many years in Afghanistan their safety situation, so that’s also something we’re moving as quickly as we can on,” she said.

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern … “There’s also for us … the additional consideration of those who may have who may have historically worked to support the New Zealand Defence Force.” Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ

    Ardern said New Zealand had been working with partners to try and determine a safe passage for these New Zealanders, but would not give details about which other countries had been approached.

    “There will be security issues around me giving much more detail than I’ve given now, but I can tell you we are working at the highest level alongside our partners to support those New Zealanders who may be on the ground.”

    Interpreters contact NZ government
    Cabinet is meeting today to consider whether New Zealand can evacuate Afghanistan nationals who supported our military efforts there. The situation is urgent, with civilian lives believed to be in danger.

    A small group of people who were not eligible for the Afghan interpreters package in 2012 have now made contact with the New Zealand government, Ardern said.

    She said fewer than 40 people, have identified themselves as having worked alongside New Zealand forces, but the majority of these cases are historic and they were not eligible under the previous National government’s “interpreter package”.

    Ardern said at that time they were not seen as directly affected or at risk from the Taliban but the current situation has changed dramatically.

    “It was basically interpreters at that time who were brought over as they were considered to have the strongest, or face to strongest risk at that time, there were others who weren’t eligible for that who have subsequently made contact.

    “Cabinet will be discussing today what more needs to be done to ensure the safety of those who are directly connected to them.”

    Ardern said they would need to ensure that these people were in fact working directly alongside the NZ Defence Force and that would be considered by Cabinet today.

    Focused on security
    She said it was too soon to look ahead with the international community to what would be done regarding the Afghanistan situation.

    “We’re quite focused on the security situation on the ground right now, getting those who need to get out out, and doing what we can to support those who supported us, so that’s our immediate consideration I think then we’ll be looking over the horizon to what next with the international community.”

    Ardern said it was devastating to see what was happening in Afghanistan now, but that did not diminish the roles of those New Zealanders who served there.

    “Everyone makes the best decisions they can at the time they’re made … and in the environment in which they’re made and all I would say to our New Zealand troops who were in there, they would have seen for themselves the difference that they made at that time,” she said.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • #HoldTheLine Coalition welcomes new dismissal of cyber-libel charge against Rappler’s Maria Ressa

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    The #HoldTheLine (#HTL) Coalition has welcomed the dismissal of a cyber-libel charge against Rappler CEO and founder Maria Ressa in the Philippines — the second “spurious” charge against Ressa to be dropped in just two months, says Reporters Without Borders.

    The #HTL coalition calls for all remaining charges to be immediately dropped and the endless pressure against Ressa and Rappler to be ceased.

    In a hearing on August 10, a Manila court dismissed the case “with prejudice” after the complainant, college professor Ariel Pineda, informed the court he no longer wished to pursue the cyber-libel claim against Maria Ressa and Rappler reporter Rambo Talabong.

    The move followed the dismissal on June 1 of a separate spurious cyber-libel case brought by businessman Wilfredo Keng, also “with prejudice” after Keng indicated he did not wish to continue to pursue the claim.

    “We welcome the overdue withdrawal of this trumped-up charge against Maria Ressa, which was the latest in a cluster of cases intended to silence her independent reporting,” said the #HTL steering committee in a statement.

    “We call for the remaining charges against Ressa and Rappler to be dropped without further delay, and other forms of pressure against them immediately ceased.”

    Ressa was convicted on a prior spurious cyberlibel charge in June 2020, based on a complaint made by Wilfredo Keng in connection with Rappler’s reporting on his business activities.

    Possible six years in jail
    If the charge is not overturned on appeal, Ressa faces a possible six years in prison. Ressa and Rappler are also facing six other charges, including criminal tax charges; if convicted on all of these, Ressa could be looking at many years cumulatively in prison.

    The #HTL coalition continues to urge supporters around the world to add their voices to a continuous online protest that will stream until the charges against Ressa and Rappler are dropped, and to don an #HTL mask in solidarity. The joint #HTL petition also remains open for signature.

    The Philippines is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    Contact #HTL Steering Committee members for further details: Rebecca Vincent (rvincent@rsf.org); Julie Posetti (jposetti@icfj.org); and Gypsy Guillén Kaiser (gguillenkaiser@cpj.org). The #HTL Coalition comprises more than 80 organisations around the world. This statement was issued by the #HoldTheLine Steering Committee, but it does not necessarily reflect the position of all or any individual coalition members or organisations.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Myanmar: A nation in crisis as the covid pandemic takes hold

    Journalists already under threat of military arrest, jail and torture in Myanmar are now fronting a covid-19 national crisis as the virus rips through a country stripped bare, writes Phil Thornton.

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Phil Thornton of the International Federation of Journalists

    It is six months since Myanmar’s military began dismantling the institutional framework supporting the country’s fledgling democracy by propelling a deadly coup to wrest parliamentary control away from the newly-elected National League of Democracy (NLD) government.

    Soon after the coup in February 2021, the military swiftly targeted voices of dissent and launched a deadly campaign of violence to silence critics. Rooftop snipers were ordered to shoot to kill, police and army raided homes of journalists, doctors, politicians and protesting citizens.

    Independent media were outlawed and journalists were forced into hiding.

    Critics of the “coup”, or even naming it as such in reporting or on social media, resulted in arrest warrants for breaches of section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

    Non-profit human rights organisation Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) confirmed as of August 4, 2021, the military had killed 946 people, including 75 children and arrested 7051 protesters.

    Among them, seven health workers have been killed, another 600 doctors and nurses have arrest warrants issued against them, a further 221 medical students have been arrested and 67 medical staff are in detention.

    AAPP reported the military has arrested at least 98 journalists, six of whom have been tried and convicted. Journalists may have gone into hiding for their safety, but this hasn’t stopped the military targeting and threatening their families.

    A country in chaos
    Myanmar is now in crisis. The economy has crashed. The already threadbare healthcare system has collapsed from the strain of the covid-19 pandemic.

    Military restrictions prevent people receiving medical treatment, while doctors and nurses continue to be arrested for protesting against the coup. Meanwhile, people infected by the covid-19 virus face certain death via the military’s heartless restrictions on hospitals, oxygen and medicine.

    Doctors who manage to work from clandestine pop-up clinics are exhausted by the huge surge in cases needing treatment.

    International health experts estimate as many as half the country’s population could become infected with the various covid-19 strains and the risk of death is high.

    United Nation’s human rights expert Tom Andrews has urged Myanmar’s military at the end of July to join a “covid ceasefire” to combat the pandemic sweeping the country. But international pleas are unlikely to sway the military coup leaders or its puppet, the State Administration Council, now reformed as a caretaker government under the leadership of General Min Aung Hlaing as its so-called prime minister.

    The military has a certain form when handling natural disasters — its strategy is to treat them as security threats. When Cyclone Nargis battered Burma on 2 May 2008, killing as many as 138,000 people and affecting at least another 2.4 million, the military’s response was to block international aid and jail those who reported on or tried to help storm victims.

    The same strategy has been used with the ceasefires it negotiates with ethnic armed groups. A senior Karen National Liberation Army officer told the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) that ceasefires with the military produce little for the people.

    “Our experience is they tie us up in endless meetings that yield little of value. They are a delaying tactic and we know they map our army positions and those of displaced people camps and later attack us as happened in March this year,” he said.

    In March 2021, the Myanmar armed forces launched a series of airstrikes and ground attacks in ethnic regions that left as many as 200,000 villagers displaced. These people are now in desperate need of basic shelter, medicine, food and security.

    The military’s go-to strategy is to block critical aid and medicine getting to displaced people and to jail and kill those it classifies as its enemies. Since the February coup, these “enemies” have included doctors, lawyers, politicians, community leaders, activists and journalists.

    AAPP said people are now having to face the covid-19 pandemic with under-resourced hospitals and clinics with most unable to buy basic medicine from pharmacies that have run out of stock. Basic medicine is hard to find and expensive to buy.

    The military is forcing public hospitals to close and is actively stopping people buying or refilling oxygen cylinders. Cemeteries and crematoriums are unable to cope with the huge numbers of fatalities, leaving corpses to pile up.

    Through all this, the State Administration Council is accused by international, regional and opposition health professionals of withholding statistics and issuing false information.

    ‘I’m only doing my job’
    Senior journalist Win Kyaw, who is now in hiding on the Myanmar border, spoke with IFJ about the ongoing difficulties of trying to keep reporting six months on from the coup.

    “I fled my home months ago. I left everything behind. Now it’s much worse for journalists worried about catching covid. We can’t move around because of soldiers at checkpoints checking phones and who we are. It is very hard to keep going,” said Kyaw.

    He said there is no way to counterbalance the false information and quackery remedies circulating among people desperate for ways to combat the virus.

    “Before the coup, I reported the first and second wave freely. We only worried about catching the infection. Authorities willingly gave us data, information. Since the coup it’s the opposite.

    “The military is trying to arrest us, we have to work secretly, we can’t get any information from authorities or our old sources. How can people make informed decisions about treatments and what medicines to take with all the misinformation being spread?”

    Win Kyaw has an arrest warrant issued against him for what the military claims are breaches of section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

    “I was only doing my job as a journalist, but they saw our news coverage as a threat. If we are not allowed to do our job uncensored at such a critical time it causes all sorts of problems. People need to know what to do and what not to do during the pandemic.

    “We also know important stories putting the military under scrutiny need to be reported. For example, what’s happened to the US$350 million donated to the country by the International Monetary Fund (to help prevent covid)? It’s important accredited journalists cover these stories and we are allowed to do our job.”

    Win Kyaw acknowledges the difficulty of confirming actual death rates from covid-19 as the State Administration Council reports are sanctioned and approved by military leaders.

    “We know the military is restricting oxygen and medical supplies and jailing doctors. We know people are dying in their thousands.”

    A recent incident involving a senior Myanmar Army officer highlighted the need to keep the spotlight on corruption, he said. The story the journalist is referring to involved Myo Min Naung, an army colonel who ordered the seizure of 100 oxygen cylinders crossing from Thai border town Mae Sot to Myawaddy on the Myanmar side.

    Myo Min Naung first denied he had taken the cylinders but was later quoted in state-owned media saying he had only “borrowed” the oxygen for emergency use in Karen State hospitals.

    “This is a clear case of abuse of authority,” says Win Kyaw. “It was clear the oxygen had the official paperwork and been ordered by a Yangon charity to treat covid patients. As far as we know the oxygen has not been returned.”

    The journalist is convinced the military is deliberately using covid-19 against citizens.

    “Government hospitals are full – they cannot take anymore covid-19 patients. People are forced to rely on home treatment. Knowing this, the military blocked people refilling oxygen cylinders for private use, restricted medicine and closed hospitals – the military is using covid-19 as a weapon to kill people.”

    Win Kyaw has just recovered from fighting the virus while in hiding.

    “It was hard. Out of our seven people in the household, four were sick. We had the symptoms, we couldn’t get tested, we didn’t know if it was the flu or covid. We were lucky … we could get oxygen, medical advice and medicine.”

    Every journalist the IFJ has spoken to during the past six months since he coup has either been infected and or had a family member die.

    Despite knowing the risks and the fact that the military is actively hunting him, Win Kyaw is determined to keep reporting.

    “Most of us don’t get salaries now, as most independent media houses have been outlawed by the military, but we feel we have a duty to cover the news as best we can.

    “We have to try to travel to confirm stories and this puts us at risk. We need money for masks and PPE, medicine and oxygen concentrators.”

    When their media organisations’ operating licences were cancelled by the military, many independent journalists had to go underground or risk arrest. Without paid work many journalists resorted to selling their equipment – laptops, drones, voice recorders and cameras – keeping only the essentials needed to keep reporting.

    People dying alone
    Than Win Htut, a senior executive with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), is still managing to send out regular daily reports despite having to hide on the border of a neighboring country.

    Like other journalists interviewed, Than Win Thut is dismayed at the carnage caused by the military’s refusal to stop harassing and jailing doctors and let them tackle the pandemic as a public health issue.

    “It’s sad. People are dying alone, collapsing in the street. Yet high ranking officers are taking oxygen and medicine for themselves and leaving lower rank soldiers to fend for themselves.

    “The people have to manage the best they can, they can no longer expect anything from the government.”

    Than Win Htut explains that reporting the health crisis is proving problematic.

    “We cannot risk sending our reporters to confirm what’s happening at crematoriums or graveyards. Official sources won’t confirm or talk – they’re too scared.

    “We keep in contact with our sources, but we can only manage to give estimates. State media can’t be relied on… nobody believes what it reports.”

    The need for accurate reporting was never more important, he said.

    “People are sceptical of vaccines, schools are closed, everywhere is overcrowded, there have been jail riots by anti-coup prisoners… unconfirmed killings of 20 jail protesters, doctors are being jailed, the cost of living is sky high, no work … no wages, medical supplies are being blocked… charity workers jailed.”

    He says the pandemic has completely changed social media interactions.

    “Facebook and social media sites have become our obituary pages. We see posts everyday of friends or their family members who have died. It’s tragic. We can’t do our job because the military has weaponised covid.”

    Lost hope waiting on UN intervention
    Wei Min Oo is still managing to work for a news agency and told IFJ he is lucky he still has a job.

    “When the junta closed eight independent media outlets, hundreds of employed journalists were suddenly forced out of work. Journalists, like everyone, have to eat.

    “Some journalists have opened online shops, young ones have become delivery riders and some can’t do anything, but try to live on their meagre savings.”

    Trying to report when you can be arrested for just doing your job is one of the big difficulties.

    “We can’t carry our journalist’s IDs. We have to make sure our phones are cleaned off as anything like Facebook that could get us in trouble at checkpoints. No bylines on stories. Journalists have to rely on social media as sources.”

    Wei Min Oo said the massive number of covid-19 infections in the community means that reporters dare not go to areas under martial law or known crisis areas for fear of being arrested.

    The actions of the military during the pandemic has exposed its disregard for civilians and community institutions critical to a democratic society, according to Wei Min Oo.

    “The military is taking its revenge on doctors, health workers, teachers, students, politicians and charity volunteers for taking a stand by striking and speaking out.”

    Meanwhile,people in Myanmar are scathing of international interventions happening and have resigned to opposing the military alone, he said.

    “People now say ‘we have lost hope any international intervention will come — if we want a revolution we have to do it alone through our Civil Disobedience Movement’.”

    There is no plan
    Saw Win, a senior journalist who has worked in ethnic media for more than 20 years spoke to the IFJ about the greater effects the coup has had.

    “The country is in chaos. The coup is a citizen’s nightmare. People have given up on international help. Working the borderline we see – displacement, refugees, corruption, armed conflict – any help will come with restrictions imposed on it by the military.

    “Aid will eventually be allowed in and available, but it will not reach the people in need.”

    Saw Win stresses the importance of accredited journalists being allowed to cover the pandemic.

    “People don’t believe what they hear or see on state media. It’s total rubbish. Data, death rates, number of cases and health information are not believed. People joke the military run pictures and names of those they intend to arrest under 505(a) on state television and newspapers to get people to tune in – it’s the only item we can believe, the rest is useless.”

    Covid’s impacts in the cities are worse than those experienced in rural areas, he says.

    “We have pharmacies unable to buy or sell medicines, we hear of groups and individuals with links to the military profiting from selling oxygen cylinders, people can’t bury or cremate their loved ones, wet season floods, farmers not farming, food shortages, cooking oil prices have increased by as much as 33 per cent, essential shops are closing, refugee camps are struggling, there’s more than 200,000 displaced people in our region in desperate need of everything – these are all important stories our journalists need to keep covering.”

    Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in Southeast Asia.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesian artist charged under ‘pornography’ law for bikini protest faces 10 years jail

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Artist Dinar Candy has held a protest action over the extension of Indonesia’s Enforcement of Restrictions on Public Activities (PPKM) by wearing a bikini on the side of a road in Jakarta, reports CNN Indonesia.

    During the action, Candy also brought a banner with the message, “I’m stressed out because the PPKM has been extended”.

    Candy was arrested by police last Wednesday, August 3, about 9.30 pm near Jalan Fatmawati in South Jakarta. She was taken directly to the South Jakarta district police for questioning.

    In addition to this, police also confiscated material evidence in the form of a mobile phone belonging to Candy, which is alleged to have been used to record the protest.

    And it was not only Candy. Her younger sister and assistant were also questioned by police for recording the protest at Candy’s request.

    After being questioned by police, who also sought advice from an expert witness on morality and culture, Candy was then declared a suspect.

    “We have declared DC as a suspect for an alleged act of pornography,” South Jakarta district police chief Senior Commissioner Azis Andriansyah told journalists on Thursday.

    Candy has been charged under Article 36 of Law Number 44/2008 on Pornography which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison or a fine of 5 billion rupiah (NZ$987,000).

    Candy not detained
    Despite being declared a suspect, police have not detained Candy who is only obliged to report daily. Andriansyah said that Candy’s protest wearing a bikini did not heed cultural norms.

    Artist Dinar Candy
    Artist Dinar Candy … many believe her bikini protest should not be prosecuted under Indonesian law. Image: CNN Indonesia

    This is because Candy’s action was held in Indonesia where there are cultural and religious norms which apply in society.

    “Anything that is done in Indonesia [is subject to] existing norms, there are ethics, there are cultural norms, there are religious norms which apply in our society, now, the actions of the person concerned did not pay heed to cultural norms,” said Andriansyah.

    A number of parties, however, believe that Candy’s bikini protest does not need to be prosecuted under law.

    National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) Commissioner Theresia Iswarini believes that Candy did not commit a crime even though she wore a bikini during the protest. She suspects that Candy’s protest was related to mental health issues.

    “It would indeed be best, it has to be thought about, [although] this [wearing a bikini in public] is indeed inappropriate, but it does not mean she committed a crime, remember,” Iswarini told CNN Indonesia.

    The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), meanwhile, is worried that the state is going too far in regulating what people wear in public. LBH Jakarta lawyer Teo Reffelsen is of the view that in the future the state could enforce its own values on what the public wears.

    “If so, then eventually our prisons will be full just because people wear bikinis,” Reffelsen said.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Protes Bikini Dinar Candy Berujung Jerat UU Pornografi”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesia, PNG hold talks over possible reopening of border

    RNZ Pacific

    Papua New Guinea and neighbouring Indonesia have been discussing a potential reopening of their shared border.

    The border was officially closed early last year due to the covid-19 pandemic, but the illegal movement of people back and forth has continued across the porous international boundary.

    PNG Prime Minister James Marape met with Indonesia’s Ambassador in Port Moresby, Andriana Supandy, and agreed that the border must be properly policed to prevent the spread of covid-19.

    Indonesia’s heath system is being stretched with high covid infection rates, and PNG has also struggled to contain the spread of the virus.

    No date has been given for when the border may reopen officially.

    In others areas discussed, Supandy proposed for the two countries to enter into a Free Trade Agreement to boost trade and commerce, citing the potential as demonstrated in the success of vanilla trade between PNG and Indonesia.

    The ambassador also informed Prime Minister Marape that Indonesia has already ratified the Border and Defence Cooperation Agreement and Land Border Transport Agreement and was awaiting PNG to do the same.

    He said these agreements would pave the way for a more robust bilateral tie between the two countries.

    On West Papua, the diplomat said that Indonesia appreciated the consistent position that PNG government has taken in acknowledging that the western half of New Guinea was an integral part of Indonesia.

    He said the West Papuan self-determination demands remained an internal issue for Indonesia to resolve.

    A release from Marape’s office also said both countries had discussed the need for joint cooperation in power connectivity to areas in PNG’s Western and West Sepik provinces.

    Military donation
    The Indonesian military has donated an aircraft engine to the PNG Defence Force Air Transport Squadron for one of its aircraft to be used for operations in the 2022 general election.

    Marape also confirmed yesterday that US$14 million would be ballocated in 2021 and 2022 to ensure all aircraft were ready to be used next year.

    The The National newspaper reports Marape saying the aircraft would also be used in enforce transborder security.

    The head of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Strategic Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant-General Joni Supriyanto, arrived on a Lockheed C-130H Hercules in Port Moresby yesterday with the engine.

    He said transporting the overhauled Casa aircraft engine to PNG “would enhance relationship and cooperation between the armed forces contributing to security and stability in the region”.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Tumindig’ – artists dare to dissent in Filipino online campaign

    By Gaby Baizas in Manila

    What started out as a simple image has inspired Filipino artists across the nation to “stand up” for what they believe in.

    Satirical cartoonist Tarantadong Kalbo posted a digital drawing on Saturday, July 17, of “fist people” bowing down to seemingly resemble the fist bump gesture used by President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies.

    The focus of the drawing is on the one fist person, reminiscent of the raised fist used by activists everywhere, who dared to stand up and stand out from the crowd.

    Several artists have since joined in and added their own fist people to the drawing, slowly populating the artwork with more “dissenters.”

    Kevin Eric Raymundo, the artist behind Tarantadong Kalbo, said he didn’t expect anyone to answer his call to action.

    “’Yung sa artwork na ginawa ko, hindi ko siya na-envision as a campaign or a challenge (I didn’t envision my artwork as a campaign or a challenge). I was simply expressing my thoughts as an artist,” Raymundo said in a message to Rappler.

    ‘Deluge of trolls’
    “At that time kasi, ang daming lumalabas na bad news…. And then as a satire artist, the deluge of trolls on my page…napapagod na ako.”

    (At that time, there was a lot of bad news going around…. And then as a satire artist, I got tired by the deluge of trolls on my page.)

    “But at the same time I also felt that I have this responsibility as an artist with a huge following to use my platform for good,” he added.

    Three days after he posted his artwork, Raymundo tweeted about the overwhelming support he has received from fellow artists. He started retweeting artists who posted their own versions of the drawing, and he later compiled several entries all in one image.

    But before his artwork went viral, Raymundo actually shared that his frustration with the local art community was one of the triggers that prompted him to draw the image.

    “Mayroon kasing disconnect ’yung nakikita kong art [ng local art community] sa nangyayari sa bansa. So siguro I wanted to jolt people na, ‘Makialam naman tayo sa nangyayari,’” he explained.

    (There’s a disconnect between the art [of the local art community] and what’s happening in the country. I guess I wanted to jolt people as if to tell them, “Let’s get involved with what’s happening.”)

    Hoped for inspiration
    Raymundo hoped the artwork inspired Filipinos to gather the strength and courage to take a stand, even if it means starting small.

    “I guess the message is to not be afraid of speaking out, of standing up for what is right, even if it feels like you’re the only one doing it. All it takes [is] one drop to start a ripple,” he said.

    Artists can post versions of Raymundo’s artwork featuring their own fist drawings using the hashtag #Tumindig.

    Gaby Baizas is a digital communications specialist at Rappler. Journalism is her first love, social media is her second—here, she gets to dabble in both. She hopes people learn to read past headlines the same way she hopes punk never dies.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • RSF, Moroccan-French journalists file complaint over Pegasus spy saga

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    In the wake of this week’s revelations about the Pegasus spyware, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and two journalists with French and Moroccan dual nationality, Omar Brouksy and Maati Monjib, have filed a joint complaint with prosecutors in Paris.

    They are calling on them to “identify those responsible, and their accomplices” for targeted harassment of the journalists.

    The complaint does not name NSO Group, the Israeli company that makes Pegasus, but it targets the company and was filed in response to the revelations that Pegasus has been used to spy on at least 180 journalists in 20 countries, including 30 in France.

    Drafted by RSF lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, the complaint cites invasion of privacy (article 216-1 of the French penal code), violation of the secrecy of correspondence (article 226-15), fraudulent collection of personal data (article 226- 18), fraudulent data introduction and extraction and access to automated data systems (articles 323-1 and 3, and 462-2), and undue interference with the freedom of expression and breach of the confidentiality of sources (article 431-1).

    This complaint is the first in a series that RSF intends to file in several countries together with journalists who were directly targeted.

    The complaint makes it clear that NSO Group’s spyware was used to target Brouksy and Monjib and other journalists the Moroccan authorities wanted to silence.

    The author of two books on the Moroccan monarchy and a former AFP correspondent, Brouksy is an active RSF ally in Morocco.

    20-day hunger strike
    Monjib, who was recently defended by RSF, was released by the Moroccan authorities on March 23 after a 20-day hunger strike, and continues to await trial.

    “We will do everything to ensure that NSO Group is convicted for the crimes it has committed and for the tragedies it has made possible,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

    “We have filed a complaint in France first because this country appears to be a prime target for NSO Group customers, and because RSF’s international’s headquarters are located here. Other complaints will follow in other countries. The scale of the violations that have been revealed calls for a major legal response.”

    After revelations by the Financial Times in 2019 about attacks on the smartphones of around 100 journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents, several lawsuits were filed against NSO Group, including one by the WhatsApp messaging service in California.

    The amicus brief that RSF and other NGOs filed in this case said: “The intrusions into the private communications of activists and journalists cannot be justified on grounds of security or defence, but are carried out solely with the aim of enabling government opponents to be tracked down and gagged.

    “NSO Group nonetheless continues to provide surveillance technology to its state clients, knowing that they are using it to violate international law and thereby failing in its responsibility to respect human rights.”

    RSF included NSO Group in its list of “digital predators” in 2020.

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Jakarta Post: New deal, old approach over West Papua

    EDITORIAL: By the editorial board of The Jakarta Post

    The unanimous House of Representatives decision in Indonesia last week to endorse the revised Papuan Special Autonomy Law shows, yet again, the propensity of the Jakarta elite to dictate the future of the territory, despite persistent calls to honor local demands.

    This “new deal” is not likely to end violence in the resource-rich provinces, which stems in large part from Jakarta’s refusal to settle past human rights abuses there.

    On paper, the revision offers some of the substantial changes needed to help Papuans close the gap with the rest of the nation. For example, it extends special autonomy funding for Papua and West Papua to 2041 and increases its amount from 2 percent to 2.25 percent of the general allocation fund, with a particular focus on health and education.

    The Jakarta Post
    THE JAKARTA POST

    The Finance Ministry estimates that over the next 20 years, the two provinces will receive Rp 234.6 trillion (US$16 billion).

    The revisions also strengthen initiatives to empower native Papuans in the policy-making process by allocating one fourth of the Regional Legislative Council to native, nonpartisan Papuans by appointment. They also mandate that 30 percent of those seats go to native Papuan women.

    Under the new law, a new institution will be established to “synchronize, harmonize, evaluate and coordinate” the implementation of special autonomy. Headed by the Vice President, the new body will answer to the President and will have a secretariat in Papua. The previous government formed a presidential unit to accelerate development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B), but President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo dissolved it shortly after taking office in 2014.

    The chairman of the special House committee deliberating the revision, Komarudin Watubun, a Papuan, described the new law as “a breakthrough” as it would require the government to consult the Papuan and West Papuan governments in the drafting of implementing regulations.

    But this is where the core problem of the special autonomy law lies. In democracy, respecting the will of the public, including dissenting views, is vital to the lawmaking process, precisely because the laws will affect that public. Public scrutiny should precede rather than follow a law, but in the case of the special autonomy law, that mechanism was dropped from the House’s deliberation, which lasted seven months, under the pretext of social distancing to contain the spread of covid-19.

    The Jakarta elite have clearly left the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) behind as a representation of the customs and will of the provinces’ people, as well as the Papuan Legislative Council (DPRP), not to mention civil society groups, tribes and those who mistrust special autonomy and the government. In the words of MRP chief Timotius Murib, the revisions reveal Jakarta’s lack of good intentions for Papuan development.

    This is not the first time the executive and legislative powers have colluded to bypass public consultation on a highly controversial bill. The tactic worked in the passage of the Job Creation Law last year, as well as the new Mining Law, and the approach is apparently repeating in the ongoing deliberation of the Criminal Code revision.

    As long as the obsolete, Jakarta-centered approach remains intact, Papuan peace and prosperity will remain elusive.

    This Jakarta Post editorial was published on 21 July 2021.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesia records highest increase in covid cases –– numbers likely to rise again

    ANALYSIS: By Dicky Budiman, Griffith University

    Indonesia is currently experiencing a massive spike in COVID-19 infection and deaths, as experts (including myself) have unfortunately been predicting.

    The country recorded its largest single-day increase in new cases on July 13, with more than 47,000 infections.

    And this is likely to be a huge undercount because too few people are getting tested.

    The positivity rate — the percentage of people taking covid tests who return a positive result — currently sits at 26 percent, according to Our World In Data, which indicates Indonesia is almost certainly missing many more cases.

    Local research found 44 percent of Jakarta residents had antibodies against the virus. Only 8 percent had actually been confirmed cases.

    One reason for the low testing rates is a lack of access to covid tests. Free tests are only available in health-care facilities for people with symptoms or who have been in contact with confirmed cases.

    The price private laboratories charge for covid tests can be prohibitive.

    What’s gone wrong?
    The central government had resisted lockdowns, despite the hospital system hitting crisis point, and has instead prioritised keeping the economy open.

    Over the past 16 months, health authorities have struggled to implement contact tracing systems, where people who may have come in contact with the virus are asked to isolate to stop them spreading the virus.

    The government has downplayed the pandemic since the beginning, both underestimating the risk in its pandemic planning, and understating the harms in its public communication.

    There has been little transparency and poor public communication about the disease.

    These shortcomings have put Indonesia in an extremely vulnerable position. The islands of Java and Bali in particular are seeing record-breaking numbers of new cases and deaths.

    The faster-spreading delta variant is playing a significant role. Genomic analysis shows delta has displaced other SARS-CoV-2 variants which first circulated in Indonesia.

    What has the government done so far?
    On July 1, the government announced a semi-lockdown for Java and Bali. Under the restrictions, all employees in non-essential industries must work from home, while 50 percent of employees in essential industries, including finance, can work in an office.

    Critical sectors, such as health facilities and food outlets, may operate with total capacity on-site.

    Shopping malls must close, and grocery stores and supermarkets can operate until 8pm daily at 50 percent capacity. Food outlets can only offer takeaway or delivery services.

    Public transport may operate at 70 percent capacity. Air and long-distance bus and train travellers must produce a vaccine card indicating at least one dose of a covid vaccine.

    Face masks are mandatory in public areas.

    Authorities have instructed security forces to enforce the protocols.

    On July 7, these restrictions were expanded to all other parts of the country.

    A large part of the current strategy focuses on covid vaccination. By the end of June the country was administering one million vaccine doses a day, and has maintained a similar rate since then.

    But Indonesia currently lacks a robust system of testing, contact tracing and isolating, which should be the main strategy in dealing with a pandemic; the goal of restrictions should be to supplement and strengthen this strategy.

    When it will reach the peak?
    Based on my calculations, if the restrictions and mask mandates are adhered to, I estimate covid cases in Indonesia could peak in late July or early August, with new case numbers rising to 200,000 a day.

    But if restrictions are ineffective, we could see up to 400,000 new daily cases at the peak.

    I base these projections on a few factors. I start with the assumption that reported cases are a massive undercount. Then I use an estimate of the spreading rate of covid under certain assumptions, including whether or not restrictions are adhered to.

    I also use the number of reported deaths and work backwards to estimate how many cases are likely to have caused that many deaths.

    For example, over the last few days Indonesia has recorded around 1000 deaths per day. Deaths lag cases, so let’s look at new daily cases from three weeks ago — they were around 15,000 a day.

    But if we assume a case fatality rate of around 2 percent, that means 1000 deaths could translate to 50,000 cases.

    Because reported deaths are likely to be an undercount too, that figure could be more like 100,000 cases. So the real number of cases could be three to six times higher than reported cases.

    And that was three weeks ago.

    I also estimate the number of deaths each day will peak at the end of July or early August, with 1000 to 2300 deaths per day. The number of people in hospital and ICUs could reach 93,000 and 20,000 per day, respectively.

    What challenges must be overcome?
    The Indonesian government faces a number of challenges in controlling the covid crisis.

    Some parts of Indonesia are densely populated, including the covid epicentres Java, Bali and Madura, which makes it easier for the virus to spread. Therefore, the success of Indonesia’s pandemic control will depend on how the government handles the situation on these islands.

    Hospitals are increasingly becoming overwhelmed with some running out of oxygen.

    Other challenges include regional disparities in covid vaccination rates, the spread of false covid information, vaccine hesitancy, a lack of universal access to clean water, low immunisation coverage among children, and the poor socioeconomic status of most of the population.

    This makes it difficult for the government to apply stricter public health measures to contain the virus, as we’ve seen in more socioeconomically advantaged countries.

    Australia’s role
    As a high GDP country which has been successful in suppressing covid, Australia has an obligation to help protect Indonesia and the region by providing international aid.

    Last week, Australia announced a support package, with 2.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines, along with oxygen supplies, rapid testing kits, and ventilators.

    Bilateral and regional cooperation is essential during the covid crisis; no country can be safe until all countries are safe.
    The Conversation

    Dicky Budiman, MD, epidemiologist and PhD candidate on Global Health Security, Griffith University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Veteran Filipino journalist and media rights advocate Nonoy Espina, 59, dies

    By Lian Buan in Manila

    Veteran journalist and former chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina has died after battling liver cancer, his family has confirmed.

    Espina was 59 years old, and died yesterday at their home in Bacolod.

    “Nonoy passed on peacefully, quietly surrounded by family tonight, at 9:20 pm,” his sister, journalist Inday Espina-Varona, said on Facebook.

    Espina “survived a severe infection of covid-19 and was able to return to the bosom of the family. His death was due to liver cancer,” said Varona.

    Press freedom champion
    Espina had just turned over the NUJP to a new set of officers early this year, but even amid health problems he shepherded the union through challenging times for the Philippine press.

    Under his chairmanship, the NUJP led rallies in support of media organisations which were harassed by the Duterte government – the closure order by the Securities and Exchange Comission of Rappler in 2018, and the franchise kill of ABS-CBN in 2020.

    “Nonoy was among the loudest voices at rallies in support of the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, leading a march in Quezon City in March 2020 and later joining similar activities in Bacolod City, where he was based,” the NUJP said in a statement.

    “He was a tireless champion for the freedom of the press and the welfare of media workers,” said the NUJP.

    Espina was among the founding members of the union, and a member of the directorate for multiple terms until his chairmanship from 2018 to 2021.

    “He led the NUJP through waves of attacks and harassment by the government. For his defence of colleagues, he was red-tagged himself, and, alongside other members of the union, was made a target of government propagandists,” said the NUJP.

    Espina “was also among the first responders at the Ampatuan Massacre in Maguindanao in 2009,” said the NUJP, referring to the worst attack on Philippine media in the country’s history, where 32 journalists were killed when a powerful political clan ambushed the convoy of its rival who was on his way to file a certificate of candidacy.

    At the tail end of his chairmanship, the NUJP led the campaign for justice for the 58 victims of the massacre up to the historic conviction in December 2019 for the principal suspects.

    Media welfare
    Speaking to Rappler in 2019 about the Ampatuan case, Espina discussed the need for the Philippine media to galvanisxe and fight for workers’ rights, saying the situation “has worsened” since the massacre.

    “Community media aside, even the mainstream especially broadcast, there are more and more contractual workers, there’s no security of tenure, no benefits – that’s harsh,” said Espina.

    This is true to Espina’s character.

    “A former senior editor for news website InterAksyon, he advocated for better working conditions for media despite himself being laid off from the website, a move that he and other former members of the staff questioned before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC),” said the NUJP.

    “They won that fight and Nonoy has led many other journalists to join the bigger fight for a more independent and freer press,” said the NUJP.

    Active in the ‘mosquito press’
    Espina was a musician known to journalists for his signature singing voice, “but he was first and foremost a journalist,” said Varona.

    Espina had been a journalist from high school to college, editing UP Visayas’ Pagbutlak. Espina was a recipient of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines or CEGP’s Marcelo H. Del Pilar Award, the highest honour of the guild.

    “He was later part of community media group Correspondents, Broadcasters and Reporters Association—Action News Service, or COBRA-ANS, which was part of the “mosquito press” during the Marcos dictatorship,” said the NUJP.

    He also served as editor for Inquirer.net.

    “NUJP thanks him for his long years of service to the union and the profession and promises to honour him by protecting that prestige,” said the union.

    “Nonoy leaves us with lessons and fond memories, as well as the words he often used in statements: That the press is not free because it is allowed to be. It is free because it insists on being free,” the NUJP said.

    Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • RSF’s 2021 ‘Press freedom predators’ gallery includes old tyrants, 2 women

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published a gallery of grim portraits — those of 37 heads of state or government who crack down massively on press freedom, reports RSF.

    Some of these “predators of press freedom” have been operating for more than two decades while others have just joined the blacklist, which for the first time includes two women and a European predator.

    Nearly half (17) of the predators are making their first appearance on the 2021 list, which RSF is publishing five years after the last one, from 2016.

    All are heads of state or government who trample on press freedom by creating a censorship apparatus, jailing journalists arbitrarily or inciting violence against them, when they do not have blood on their hands because they have directly or indirectly pushed for journalists to be murdered.

    Nineteen of these predators rule countries that are coloured red on the RSF’s press freedom map, meaning their situation is classified as “bad” for journalism, and 16 rule countries coloured black, meaning the situation is “very bad.”

    The average age of the predators is 66. More than a third (13) of these tyrants come from the Asia-Pacific region.

    “There are now 37 leaders from around the world in RSF’s predators of press freedom gallery and no one could say this list is exhaustive,” said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

    “Each of these predators has their own style. Some impose a reign of terror by issuing irrational and paranoid orders.

    Others adopt a carefully constructed strategy based on draconian laws.

    A major challenge now is for these predators to pay the highest possible price for their oppressive behaviour. We must not let their methods become the new normal.”

    The full RSF media predators gallery 2021.
    The full RSF 2021 media predators gallery. Image: RSF

    New entrants
    The most notable of the list’s new entrants is undoubtedly Saudi Arabia’s 35-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is the centre of all power in his hands and heads a monarchy that tolerates no press freedom.

    His repressive methods include spying and threats that have  sometimes led to abduction, torture and other unthinkable acts. Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder exposed a predatory method that is simply barbaric.

    The new entrants also include predators of a very different nature such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose aggressive and crude rhetoric about the media has reached new heights since the start of the pandemic, and a European prime minister, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, the self-proclaimed champion of “illiberal democracy” who has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010.

    Women predators
    The first two women predators are both from Asia. One is Carrie Lam, who heads a government that was still democratic when she took over.

    The chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since 2017, Lam has proved to be the puppet of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and now openly supports his predatory policies towards the media.

    They led to the closure of Hong Kong’s leading independent newspaper, Apple Daily, on June 24 and the jailing of its founder, Jimmy Lai, a 2020 RSF Press Freedom laureate.

    The other woman predator is Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister since 2009 and the daughter of the country’s independence hero. Her predatory exploits include the adoption of a digital security law in 2018 that has led to more than 70 journalists and bloggers being prosecuted.

    Historic predators
    Some of the predators have been on this list since RSF began compiling it 20 years ago. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, were on the very first list, as were two leaders from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, whose recent predatory inventiveness has won him even more notoriety.

    In all, seven of the 37 leaders on the latest list have retained their places since the first list  RSF published in 2001.

    Three of the historic predators are from Africa, the region where they reign longest. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 79, has been Equatorial Guinea’s president since 1979, while Isaias Afwerki, whose country is ranked last in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, has been Eritrea’s president since 1993.

    Paul Kagame, who was appointed Rwanda’s vice-president in 1994 before taking over as president in 2000, will be able to continue ruling until 2034.

    For each of the predators, RSF has compiled a file identifying their “predatory method,” how they censor and persecute journalists, and their “favourite targets” –- the kinds of journalists and media outlets they go after.

    The file also includes quotations from speeches or interviews in which they “justify” their predatory behaviour, and their country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index.

    RSF published a list of Digital Press Freedom Predators in 2020 and plans to publish a list of non-state predators before the end of 2021.

    Asia Pacific Report and Pacific Media Watch collaborate with the Paris-based RSF.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ Labour MP breaks ranks to accuse China of organ harvesting, slave labour

    By Guyon Espiner, investigative reporter, RNZ In Depth

    New Zealand Labour MP Louisa Wall has accused China of harvesting organs from political prisoners among the Uyghur and Falun Gong populations.

    The MP, who is part of a global network of politicians monitoring the actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also says her own government needs to do more to counter what she calls the slave labour trade in China.

    “Forced organ harvesting is occurring to service a global market where people are wanting hearts, lungs, eyes, skin,” Wall said.

    China expert Professor Anne-Marie Brady of the University of Canterbury, describes the New Zealand government’s political strategy on China as something close to a cone of silence.

    “Our MPs seem to have a pact that they’re not allowed to say anything at all critical of the CCP and barely mention the word China in any kind of negative terms.”

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta refused to do interviews for the new Red Line podcast, which examines the influence of the CCP in New Zealand.

    But Wall has broken ranks.

    ‘Used as slaves’
    “I’m concerned that there appears to be a million Uyghurs being imprisoned in what they call education camps, but essentially, used as slaves to pick cotton.”

    Wall, along with National’s Simon O’Connor, is one of two New Zealand MPs in the International Parliamentary Alliance on China, a network of more than 200 politicians from 20 parliaments, set up to monitor the actions of the CCP.

    She thinks New Zealand should be doing much more to counter the slave labour trade from Xinjiang, in the north west of China.

    “What the UK and Canada have done is they’ve got modern slavery acts and they want to ensure the corporates who are taking those raw materials, actually ensure that the production of those raw materials complies with the modern slavery act. I like that mechanism.”

    She says the government also needs to pass new laws to stop New Zealanders getting organ transplants sourced from China or from any country that cannot verify the integrity of its organ donor programme.

    This photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows the outer wall of a complex which includes what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.
    A 31 May 2019 photograph of a complex in Xinjiang believed to be a “re-education camp”. Image: RNZ/AFP

    China sources some organs from political prisoners, she said.

    “The Uyghur population, and also the Falun Gong population, both have been designated as prisoners of conscience,” she said. “We know that they are slaves. We also know that they’re being used to harvest organs.”

    Tribunal finding
    She bases that on findings from a recent independent tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, a British QC, who previously worked with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    His 600-page report, called the China Tribunal, says the killing of political prisoners for organ transplants is continuing in China and that many people have died “indescribably hideous deaths” in the process.

    “Based on a report from Lord Justice Nice from the UK, we now know that forced organ harvesting is occurring to service a global market where people are wanting hearts, lungs, eyes, skin,” Wall said.

    The Chinese embassy in New Zealand ignored requests to talk about this issue.

    China announced back in 2014 that it would no longer remove organs from executed prisoners and when the China Tribunal report was released in 2018 the CCP dismissed it as inaccurate and politically motivated.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Java, Bali brace for covid emergency lockdown as Indonesia’s cases surge

    The World Health Organisation says the delta variant of covid-19 has been identified in 85 countries and is spreading rapidly in unvaccinated populations around the world. Indonesia registered a record 21,807 cases on Wednesday. Video: Al Jazeera

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia’s most populated and popular islands are bracing for emergency lockdown measures from this weekend, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo touting the inevitability of shifting policy amid soaring covid-19 cases, reports The Jakarta Post.

    The country recorded another record-breaking day with 21,807 new covid-19 cases and 467 deaths in a day, according to official figures published on Wednesday.

    That brings the country’s overall caseload to 2,178,272 and deaths to 58,491 – a toll among the highest in Asia.

    The numbers are widely regarded as conservative estimates because of severely inadequate testing outside Jakarta.

    The Health Ministry also reported alarming bed occupancy rates (BORs) in Jakarta, Banten and West Java – all of which have surpassed 90 percent – followed by Yogyakarta and Central Java at 89 and 87 percent, respectively.

    President Widodo said the restrictions would begin tomorrow — Saturday — and last until July 20 on the most populous island of Java and the tourist island of Bali, reports Al Jazeera.

    In a televised address yesterday, Widodo said: “This situation requires us to take more decisive steps so that we can together stem the spread of covid-19.”

    Worst-hit nation
    The details of the measures were being announced later, he added.

    Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s worst-hit nation with new cases topping 21,000 every day. The surge has overwhelmed hospitals and resulted in a shortage of oxygen in the capital, Jakarta.

    A government document said the new restrictions aim to cut daily cases to below 10,000, and will include work-at-home orders for all non-essential sectors and the continued closure of schools and universities.

    The document also said public amenities like beaches, parks, tourist attractions and places of worship must close, while restaurants can offer only take away or delivery services.

    Constructions sites can continue operating as normal, however.

    Udayana University Professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, a virologist on the island of Bali where the number of daily confirmed cases have more than quadrupled in two weeks, said the proposed restrictions were not enough.

    “I have seen the new emergency measure but I am sceptical. We need a lockdown but the problem is there is just no money to keep people at home,” he said.

    Infection rate far higher
    Infectious disease experts say modelling suggested Indonesia’s true daily infection rate was at least 10 times higher than the official count.

    “The problem in Indonesia is that testing rates are very low because only people who present themselves at hospitals with symptoms receive free tests. Everyone else has to pay,” said Dr Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist who has helped formulate the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s pandemic management strategy for 20 years.

    “Based on the current reproduction rate in Indonesia that has climbed from 1.19 in January to 1.4 in June, I estimated there at least 200,000 new cases in the country today.

    “But if I compare that with modelling by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, it is much higher, about 350,000 new infections per day. That’s as high as India before the peak.”

    A virologist in Java advising the Ministry of Health, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the virus spread so quickly because many Indonesians exhibiting symptoms of covid-19 prefer to stay home.

    “When we see the hospitals full with patients it’s only the tip of the iceberg because only 10 to 15 percent of sick people in Indonesia go to hospitals,” the virologist said.

    “The rest will stay at home and self-remedy because they prefer to stay with their family.

    “This has happened since the start of the pandemic but with the delta variant now becoming dominant it’s a much more serious problem because the secondary infection rate in households for the delta variant is 100 percent.

    “That means if one member of a household is infected, they all get infected. But as their symptoms become worse and people experience trouble breathing, we expect many more people will come to hospitals, like what we saw in India.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Yellow lighting, ribbons display across Philippines in honour of Aquino

    Rappler reporters

    Filipinos honoured the late Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III by lighting buildings up in yellow, tying yellow ribbons around trees and lamp posts, and staging makeshift memorials in their area.

    Aquino, son of two of the country’s greatest democracy icons, died from kidney disease on Thursday at the age of 61.

    His funeral mass was held on Saturday and President Rodrigo Duterte declared 10 days of national mourning.

    Aquino, the country’s 15th president, was inaugurated in June 2010 following a landslide election win delivered on the back a strong anti-graft campaign.

    Calls for him to run mounted after the death in August 2009 of his mother, Corazon Aquino, a former president and wife of  For supporters, an Aquino was the answer to the massive corruption plaguing the country.

    Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, was assassinated in 1983 on the tarmac of Manila International Airport — subsequently renamed in his honour — as he returned from exile in the US.

    The opposition leader’s callous murder was the catalyst for People Power, the revolutionary movement that brought down the Marcos dictatorship and catapulted Corazon Aquino, a housewife, into the presidency.

    Buildings lit up
    Several institutions including the Philippine Educational Theater Association, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and Roxas City Heritage Zone lit up their buildings in yellow to pay homage to “Noynoy” Aquino III.

    The CCP explained that the color was a “symbol for freedom from dictatorship and reinstating democratic institutions.”

    De La Salle University’s St La Salle Hall was lit in Philippine flag colors and adorned with black and yellow cloth to “honour President Aquino’s service to the Filipino people”.

    While some individuals took to social media to say thanks to Aquino, so much so that #PaalamPNoy became a top trending hashtag on Twitter, there were also many Filipinos across the Philippines who brought their tributes to the streets.

    Supporters of Noynoy Aquino offered flowers and prayers at a makeshift memorial near his residence at Times Street, Quezon City.

    Others, meanwhile, placed black and yellow ribbons on the fence of the Ateneo de Manila University campus on Katipunan Avenue. The wake of the former president was earlier open for public viewing at the Ateneo’s Church of the Gesu.

    Some had tied yellow ribbons around trees and lamp posts, while others had set up makeshift memorials in their own areas.

    Here are some of the tributes that Filipinos made for Aquino:

    The Philippine Educational Theater Association decorates its building with yellow ribbons and yellow lights. Image: Rappler
    The iconic St La Salle Hall is lit in Philippine flag colors and is adorned with black and yellow cloth to honor President Aquino’s service to the Filipino people. De La Salle University. Image: Rappler
    Yellow ribbons, which symbolise the Aquino legacy, are tied to the centre island railings of España Boulevard in Sampaloc, Manila. Image: Rappler
    The stretch of Espana Boulevard in Manila feature yellow ribbons. Image: Rappler
    Supporters of former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III offer flowers and prayers at a makeshift memorial near his residence at Times Street, Quezon City. Image: Rappler
    Supporters of former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III offer flowers and prayers at a makeshift memorial near his residence at Times Street, Quezon City. Image: Rappler

    Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • RSF’s Apple Daily ‘funeral protests’ mark risk of death of free press in China

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has staged parallel protests outside the Chinese embassies in Paris and Berlin, holding funeral-style processions to denounce the “killing” of Apple Daily by the Hong Kong government, and to raise alarm of the threats posed by the Beijing regime to press freedom globally.

    Arriving at the Chinese embassy following a hearse, RSF representatives in Paris staged a mock funeral procession, delivering a coffin and funeral flowers with a placard inscribed “Apple Daily (1995-2021).”

    In Berlin, RSF representatives staged a parallel action, “burying” the daily newspaper which was one of the last major independent Chinese-language media critical of the Beijing regime.

    Two days prior, Apple Daily announced that it must cease all operations from June 27, with the last print edition of its newspaper to be published on June 24, due to the government’s decision to freeze its financial assets, leaving the media outlet unable to pay their employees and suppliers, reports RSF in a statement.

    RSF condemns the killing of the outlet perpetrated by Chief Executive Carrie Lam by order of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and calls for the immediate release of all detained Apple Daily employees as well as the media outlet’s founder Jimmy Lai, RSF 2020 Press Freedom Prize laureate.

    “We have gathered today to raise alarm about the urgent risk of death to press freedom in Hong Kong,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire told reporters gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Paris.

    “Democracies cannot continue to stand idly by while the Chinese regime systematically erodes what’s left of the country’s independent media, as it has already done in the rest of the country.

    International community ‘must act’
    “Today’s funeral is for Apple Daily, but tomorrow’s may be for press freedom in China. It’s time for the international community to act in line with their own values and obligations and defend what’s left of the free press in Hong Kong, before China’s model of information control claims another victim.”

    Deloire also called out China’s Ambassador to France Lu Shaye, who last week gave an interview labelling media critical of the Chinese regime a “media machine” and journalists criticising Chinese authorities as “mad hyenas”.

    Lu Shaye believes there is no need for a plurality of media: “With two or three groups and a few people, we can become the vanguard of the war of public opinion and we can coordinate this war well.”

    Lu Shaye has previously been critical of French media, stating last year at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemics: “I’m not saying the French media always tell lies about China, but much of their reporting on China is not true.”

    Earlier this week, RSF submitted an urgent appeal asking the UN to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard press freedom in Hong Kong.

    Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

    Pacific Media Watch works in association with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.