Category: Media

  • By Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews

    Palau’s largest newspaper is being sued for defamation by the company of President Surangel Whipps Jr’s father, just days ahead of general elections in the Pacific nation.

    Surangel and Sons alleges “negligence and defamation” by the Island Times and its editor Leilani Reklai for an article published on Tuesday with “false and unsubstantiated allegations,” owner Surangel Whipps Sr said in a press release on Thursday.

    Reklai has rejected the company’s allegations and said the “lawsuit is trying to control how media here in Palau tells a story”, a news article about the case in the Island Times reported on Friday.

    “I feel like we are being intimidated, we are being forced to speak a certain narrative rather than present diverse community perspectives,” said Reklai, who is also a stringer for BenarNews.

    The Micronesian nation of 17,000 people — 650 km north of Papua New Guinea — goes to the polls on November 5. Whipps Jr’s rival is his brother-in-law Tommy Remengesau Jr, who was president from 2001 to 2009 and 2013 to 2021.

    The controversy comes after Palau was top of the inaugural 2023 Pacific Media Freedom Index of 14 island countries that highlighted the region’s media facing significant political and economic pressures, bribes and corruption, as well as self-censorship.

    Island Times editor Leilani Reklai
    Island Times editor Leilani Reklai . . . fears the lawsuit could have serious consequences for the media in Palau and bankrupt the newspaper. Image: Stefan Armbruster

    Island Times reported on Friday the suit is seeking compensation and punitive damages and that the company asserts the “monetary awards should be substantial enough to prevent similar conduct from the newspaper and Reklai in future”.

    Surangel and Sons financial details — leaked from the country’s tax office — were posted on social media last weekend, prompting heated online debate over how much it paid.

    A new corporate and goods and services tax system introduced by Whipps Jr’s government is currently being rolled out in Palau and its merits have been a focus of election campaigning.

    The company in a statement said its “privacy rights had been violated,” the tax details were obtained illegally, posted online without consent, and some of the figures had been altered.

    Motivation ‘confusing voters’
    “The motivation behind the circulation of this document is clearly for misinformation and disinformation to confuse voters. In the end Surangel and Sons is not running for office. Unfortunately, it has been victimised by this smear campaign,” the company posted on social media.

    Island Times in a 225-word, front-page story headlined “Surangel & Sons condemns tax report leak as privacy violation” reported the company’s statement on Tuesday. It also quoted financial details from the leaked documents and accompanying commentary.

    Whipps Jr. in a press conference on Wednesday accused the Island Times of publishing disinformation.

    Island Times continues to print political propaganda, it’s not accurate,” Whipps Jr said, calling for a correction to be published.

    The lawsuit against the paper and its editor was served the next day.

    Whipps Jr’s spokesperson told BenarNews any questions related to the lawsuit should be directed to the parties involved.

    20200223 Whipps Snr 80th with son.jpg
    Eightieth birthday celebrations for Surangel Whipps Sr (left) with his son Surangel Whipps Jr in February 2020. Image: Diaz Broadcasting Palau screenshot BenarNews

    Surangel and Sons was founded in 1980 by Whipps Sr, who also served as Palau’s president briefly in 2005 and for two years from 2007.

    Business ‘offers everything’
    The privately-owned business “offers everything from housing design and automotive repair to equipment rentals, groceries, and scuba gear” through its import, sales, construction and travel arms, the company’s website says.

    Previously as CEO, Whipps Jr transformed the company from a family store to one of Palau’s largest and most diversified businesses, employing more than 700 people.

    His LinkedIn profile states he finished as CEO in January 2021, after 28 years in the position and in the month he became president. His spokesperson did not respond to questions from BenarNews about if he still retains any direct financial or other links to the company.

    Surangel and Sons said the revelation of sensitive business information threatens their competitive advantage and puts jobs at risk.

    Palau’s Minister of Finance Kaleb Udui Jr told the president’s press conference on Wednesday an investigation was underway, a special prosecutor would be appointed and apologized for the leak to the company.

    “I would hope the media would make extra effort to help educate the public and discourage misinformation and breaches of privacy of the tax office and any other government office,” Udui said, confirming the tax documents had been altered before being posted on social media.

    He said tax office staff have previously been warned about leaks and ensuring data confidentiality, as breaches negatively impact the confidence of foreign investors in Palau.

    Explanation rather than leak
    Whipps Jr added that the newspaper should have explained the tax system instead of reporting the leaked information.

    He also accused Island Times of failure to disclose a paid advertisement in this week’s edition of the paper for his political opponent.

    “I’m disappointed in the Island Times, because there was an article that was not an article, a paid advertisement,” Whipps Jr said about a colourful blue and yellow election campaign graphic.

    Island Times told BenarNews it was not usual practice to put “Paid Advertisement” on advertisements but it would review its policy for political campaign material.

    Reklai fears the lawsuit could have serious consequences for the media in Palau and bankrupt Island Times, the paper reported.

    “If I don’t stand up to this, it sends a signal to all journalists that they risk facing claims for damages for powerful companies and government officials while carrying out their work,” she said.

    Palau has two newspapers and four radio stations and enshrined in its constitution are protections for journalists, including a guarantee they cannot be jailed for refusing to disclose sources.

    Surangel and Sons said they would no longer sell Island Times through their outlets.

    Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Republished with the permission of BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Another Palestinian journalist, Bilal Rajab, of al-Quds al-Youm TV channel, has been killed in an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, confirms the Gaza Media Office.

    Al Jazeera Arabic earlier reported that a strike in the vicinity of the Firas market in Gaza City had killed three people, among whom local sources said was Rajab.

    The office said the total number of journalists and media workers who have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, now stands at 183.

    Photojournalist Bilal Rajab of al-Quds al-Youm TV
    Photojournalist Bilal Rajab of al-Quds al-Youm TV . . . killed in a strike near Gaza’s popular Firas market. Image: Palestinian Information Centre

    It called on the international community to intervene to stop the killing of Palestinian journalists reporting on the war in Gaza, which is the deadliest conflict for media workers.

    Today is International Day to End Impunity for crimes against journalists and the UN chief’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be observed.

    “In his message for the day, the secretary-general underscores that a free press is fundamental to human rights, to democracy and to the rule of law,” Dujarric said.

    ‘Alarming rate of fatalities’
    “Recent years have seen an alarming rate of fatalities in conflict zones, particularly in Gaza, which has seen the highest number of killings of journalists and media workers in a war in decades.

    “In his message, he warned that journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen by any conflict in modern times.

    “The ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza suffocates the truth even further,” he said.

    Many Lebanese journalists have been shot and assassinated too, even well before Israel’s siege in Lebanon.

    Some are sharing their blood type just in case they need life-saving blood after being shot.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Read this story in Chinese

    As China watches the countdown to the U.S. presidential election results, state media has been hammering home the point that American democracy is messy, violent and encourages extreme behaviors on both sides, while ordinary people seem to support Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in roughly equal measure, commentators told Radio Free Asia.

    “In the past three months, Trump has survived multiple assassination attempts,” the state-run China Daily newspaper said in an Oct. 29 commentary. “Harris’s campaign office in Arizona was also shot at and vandalized.”

    “Political violence is on the rise as polarization and public opinion divisions intensify ahead of the election,” the paper said, adding that there are widespread fears of political violence that could follow even when results are known.

    Other media reports focused on name-calling in the campaign, including the description of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at a Trump campaign event, and Harris’ taunting of the former president for not being able to “finish a thought.”

    Voters cast their ballots during early voting in the Bronx Borough of New York City on Nov. 1, 2024.
    Voters cast their ballots during early voting in the Bronx Borough of New York City on Nov. 1, 2024.

    While Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed brief “condolences” following the shooting of Trump at a campaign rally in July, officials have largely refrained from commenting in public on the election campaign.

    Yet many in China are still watching closely, with similar levels of support for each party’s candidate, commentators told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

    “It’s actually really interesting — [some] people in China hope that the U.S. will elect a president who doesn’t favor the Chinese Communist Party,” a Guangdong resident who gave only the surname Zhou for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

    “But there is roughly equal popular support for both candidates in China,” he said.

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    He said it’s unsurprising that the Chinese media try to play up the “instability” angle when covering the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign trail, given the Chinese Communist Party’s focus on stability as a top priority at home.

    Yuan Dong, a scholar from the central province of Hunan, said there is a dedicated group of social media users in China who have followed the election step-by-step since campaigning started.

    “People are paying much more attention this time around compared with four years ago,” Yuan told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “Chinese social media users aren’t allowed to talk about domestic current affairs, and the U.S. election will have an impact on the international situation, particularly the Ukraine war.”

    “A lot of the people paying the most attention are dissidents and former political prisoners.”

    While many Chinese believe that the outcome of the Nov. 5 poll will have a crucial impact on China, very few are publicly supporting either candidate, taking their cue from official silence on the topic, Yuan said.

    “Most people are getting their information from blogs and WeChat friend circles,” he said. “Very few are getting it from traditional media like newspapers, TV or radio.”

    A motorcyclist rolls past campaign signs on Oct. 31, 2024, in Barrington, New Hampshire.
    A motorcyclist rolls past campaign signs on Oct. 31, 2024, in Barrington, New Hampshire.

    Overseas Chinese have less to worry about when it comes to taking sides, according to former Anhui prosecutor Shen Liangqing.

    “[Some are] relatively friendly to the United States and hope the party they like will get elected,” Shen said. “The arguments among the Harris and Trump supporters are more intense.”

    Another group of overseas Chinese is fairly hostile to the U.S., and is watching the process as if it were a joke, relishing any expression of “chaotic” behavior, he said.

    “There are fierce arguments between Harris and Trump supporters, and people are even falling out and blocking each other,” Shen said. “There’s another attitude too, which is that it doesn’t matter who comes to power, because the U.S. is a democratic country.”

    A commentator who gave only the surname Zhou for fear of reprisals said some people in China have expressed envy at the right to vote for the next president in a country where President Xi has amended the constitution to abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for indefinite rule.

    “A lot of people are paying attention to the U.S. election, because actually we envy it,” Zhou said. “The so-called ‘full process democracy’ we have here is just a word. We don’t have democracy here at all.”

    “Even our village committee elections are controlled by [the ruling party],” he said. “We would love to have one person, one vote one day, so we could elect our own national leaders.”

    A Protestant pastor from the southwestern province of Yunnan who gave only the surname Cao for fear of reprisals said his church members are watching closely, and many wish that the Chinese people also had the right to vote.

    “But what is the point of the Christians in our church having any opinions? There’s nothing they can do about any of it,” he said. “Opinions are a luxury.”

    Zhejiang-based scholar Zhao Zhi said the complexity of the Sino-US relationship has been the main focus in the official media.

    “While the general public are watching the election as spectators, the official media is emphasizing the potential risks of dividing U.S. society,” Zhao said, adding that Beijing is also keen to find out which of the candidates’ China policies will be implemented.

    In an economic commentary on Oct. 29, the China Daily said U.S. China trade and economic policy is unlikely to be hugely affected, regardless of whether Harris or Trump forms the next administration.

    “No matter which party controls the House or/and Senate, there is little chance this ‘small yard, castellated wall’ approach will change any time soon,” the paper said in a separate commentary on recent Treasury rules curbing U.S. investments in high-end computer chips, AI and quantum computing.

    “Containing Chinese scientific and technological progress has become a bipartisan consensus in US domestic politics, and a key pillar of US geopolitical strategy,” the paper said.

    “Beijing has been cast as the foremost threat to US national security. And national security has been a handy rallying cry for US politicians to concentrate support both at home and abroad,” it said.

    Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Warnings are not enough. After Victoria Roshchyna’s death, we need zero tolerance of the detention and brutal treatment of female reporters

    Last summer I began receiving messages about the disappearance of 26-year-old Victoria Roshchyna, a young Ukrainian journalist, who had gone missing while reporting from occupied east Ukraine.

    Since we began our Women Press Freedom project, I and my colleagues at the Coalition for Women in Journalism have received a lot of messages of concern about the safety of female journalists all over the world, but I vividly remember the pain and terror that peppered the SOS calls from Roshchyna’s friends and colleagues.

    Kiran Nazish is the director and founder of the Coalition for Women in Journalism and Women Press Freedom

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Before the formation of the Israel Defence Forces in 1948, there were three underground Zionist militias — The Haganah, the Irgun and the Lehi.

    Their methods and tactics have been unpacked in a new Middle East Eye “The Big Picture” podcast this week by New Zealand journalist Mohamed Hassan.

    The IDF, which critics brand as the IOF (“Israel Offensive Forces”), claims to be the “most moral army in the world”, but it has killed almost 43,000 Palestinians — mostly women and children — in a year-long war on Gaza and now more than 3000 people in the deadly attacks on Lebanon.

    It has also been widely accused of committing atrocities, war crimes, and genocide.

    The three Zionist militias differed in tactics and beliefs, and at times fought with each other — but together they terrorised Palestinian villages and executed attacks and bombings against the British to force them to give up control of the land.

    They blew up hotels in Jerusalem, embassies in Europe and assassinated a UN mediator in the lead up to what is called the Nakba — the “Catastrophe” — in 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their towns, villages and countryside.

    After Israel declared its independence as a state — the three militias would combine to create the IDF, called Tzahal in the Hebrew-language acronym. The militia leaders would go on to form Israel’s government, become politicians, ambassadors and prime ministers.

    And their dark history would be forgotten.

    This week “The Big Picture” unpacks that history.


    The untold history of the Israel Defence Forces.  Podcast: Middle East Eye

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: By Andreas Harsono in Jakarta

    In December 2008, I visited the Abepura prison in Jayapura, West Papua, to verify a report sent to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture alleging abuses inside the jailhouse, as well as shortages of food and water.

    After prison guards checked my bag, I passed through a metal detector into the prison hall, joining the Sunday service with about 30 prisoners. A man sat near me. He had a thick beard and wore a small Morning Star flag on his chest.

    The flag, a symbol of independence for West Papua, is banned by the Indonesian authorities, so I was a little surprised to see it worn inside the prison.

    He politely introduced himself, “Filep Karma.”

    I immediately recognised him. Karma was arrested in 2004 after giving a speech on West Papua nationalism, and had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for “treason”.

    When I asked him about torture victims in the prison, he introduced me to some other prisoners, so I could verify the allegations.

    It was the beginning of my many interviews with Karma. And I began to understand what made him such a courageous leader.

    Born in 1959 in Jayapura, Karma was raised in an elite, educated family.

    Student-led protests
    In 1998, when Karma returned after studying from the Asian Institute of Management in Manila, he found Indonesia engulfed in student-led protests against the authoritarian rule of President Suharto.

    On 2 July 1998, he led a ceremony to peacefully raise the Morning Star flag on Biak Island. It prompted a deadly attack by the Indonesian military that the authorities said killed at least eight Papuans, but Papuans recovered 32 bodies. Karma was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

    Karma gradually emerged as a leader who campaigned peacefully but tirelessly on behalf of the rights of Indigenous Papuans. He also worked as a civil servant, training new government employees.

    He was invariably straightforward and precise. He provided detailed data, including names, dates, and actions about torture and other mistreatment at Abepura prison.

    Human Rights Watch published these investigations in June 2009. It had quite an impact, prompting media pressure that forced the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to investigate the allegations.

    In August 2009, Karma became seriously ill and was hospitalised at the Dok Dua hospital. The doctors examined him several times, and finally, in October, recommended that he be sent for surgery that could only be done in Jakarta.

    But bureaucracy, either deliberately or through incompetence, kept delaying his treatment. “I used to be a bureaucrat myself,” Karma said. “But I have never experienced such [use of] red tape on a sick man.”

    Papuan political prisoners Jefry Wandikbo (left) and Filep Karma (center) chatted with Andreas Harsono at the Abepura prison in Jayapura, Papua, in May 2015. They continued to campaign against arbitrary detention by the Indonesian authorities.
    Papuan political prisoners Jefry Wandikbo (left) and Filep Karma (center) chat with the author Andreas Harsono at Abepura prison in Jayapura, Papua, in May 2015. They continued to campaign against arbitrary detention by the Indonesian authorities. Image: Ruth Ogetay/HRW

    Health crowdfunding
    His health problems, however, drew public attention. Papuan activists started collecting money to pay for the airfare and surgery in Jakarta. I helped write a crowdfunding proposal. People deposited the donations directly into his bank account.

    I was surprised when I found out that the total donation, including from some churches, had almost reached IDR1 billion (US$700,000). It was enough to also pay for his mother, Eklefina Noriwari, an uncle, a cousin and an assistant to travel with him. They rented a guest house near the hospital.

    Some wondered why he travelled with such a large entourage. The answer is that Indigenous Papuans distrust the Indonesian government. Many of their political leaders had mysteriously died while receiving medical treatment in Jakarta. They wanted to ensure that Filep Karma was safe.

    When he was admitted to Cikini hospital, the ward had a small security cordon. I saw many Indonesian security people, including four prison guards, guarding his room, but also church delegates, visiting him.

    Papuan students, mostly waiting in the inner yard, said they wanted to make sure, “Our leader is okay.”

    After a two-hour surgery, Karma recovered quickly, inviting me and my wife to visit him. His mother and his two daughters, Audryn and Andrefina, also visited my Jakarta apartment. In July 2011, after 11 days in the hospital, he was considered fit enough to return to prison.

    In May 2011, the Washington-based Freedom Now filed a petition with the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention on Karma’s behalf. Six months later, the Working Group determined that his detention violated international standards, saying that Indonesia’s courts “disproportionately” used the laws against treason, and called for his immediate release.

    President refused to act
    But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refused to act, prompting criticism at the UN forum on the discrimination and abuses against Papuans.

    I often visited Karma in prison. He took a correspondence course at Universitas Terbuka, studying police science. He read voraciously.

    He studied Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King on non-violent movements and moral courage. He also drew, using pencil and charcoal. He surprised me with my portrait that he drew on a Jacob’s biscuit box.

    His name began to appear globally. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei drew political prisoners, including Karma, in an exhibition at Alcatraz prison near San Francisco. Amnesty International produced a video about Karma.

    Interestingly, he also read my 2011 book on journalism, “Agama” Saya Adalah Jurnalisme (My “Religion” Is Journalism), apparently inspiring him to write his own book. He used an audio recorder to express his thoughts, asking his friends to type and to print outside, which he then edited.

    His 137-page book was published in November 2014, entitled, Seakan Kitorang Setengah Binatang: Rasialisme Indonesia di Tanah Papua (As If We’re Half Animals: Indonesian Racism in West Papua). It became a very important book on racism against Indigenous Papuans in Indonesia.

    The Indonesian government, under new President Joko Widodo, finally released Karma in November 2015, and after that gradually released more than 110 political prisoners from West Papua and the Maluku Islands.

    Release from jail celebration
    Hundreds of Papuan activists welcomed Karma, bringing him from the prison to a field to celebrate with dancing and singing. He called me that night, saying that he had that “strange feeling” of missing the Abepura prison, his many inmate friends, his vegetable garden, as well as the boxing club, which he managed. He had spent 11 years inside the Abepura prison.

    “It’s nice to be back home though,” he said laughing.

    He slowly rebuilt his activism, traveling to many university campuses throughout Indonesia, also overseas, and talking about human rights abuses, the environmental destruction in West Papua, as well as his advocacy for an independent West Papua.

    Students often invited him to talk about his book.

    In Jakarta, he rented a studio near my apartment as his stopping point. We met socially, and also attended public meetings together. I organised his birthday party in August 2018. He bought new gear for his scuba diving. My wife, Sapariah, herself a diving enthusiast, noted that Karma was an excellent diver: “He swims like a fish.”

    Filep Karma (right) with his brother-in-law George Waromi at Base G beach, Jayapura, Papua, on October 30, 2022. Karma said he planned to go spearfishing alone. His body washed ashore two days later. © 2022 Larz Barnabas Waromi
    Filep Karma (right) with his brother-in-law George Waromi at Base G beach, Jayapura, Papua, on 30 October 2022. Karma said he planned to go spearfishing alone. His body washed ashore two days later. Image: Larz Barnabas Waromi/HRW

    The resistance of Papuans in Indonesia to discrimination took on a new phase following a 17 August 2019 attack by security forces on a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, in which the students were subjected to racial insults.

    The attack renewed discussions on anti-Papuan racial discrimination and sovereignty for West Papua. Papuan students and others acting through a social media movement called Papuan Lives Matter, inspired by Black Lives Matter in the United States, took part in a wave of protests that broke out in many parts of Indonesia.

    The new Human Rights Watch report "If It's Not Racism, What Is It?"
    The new Human Rights Watch report “If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?”: Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia. Image: HRW screenshot APR

    Everyone reading Karma’s book
    Everyone was reading Filep Karma’s book. Karma protested when these young activists, many of whom he personally knew, such as Sayang Mandabayan, Surya Anta Ginting and Victor Yeimo, were arrested and charged with treason.

    “Protesting racism should not be considered treason,” he said.

    The Indonesian government responded by detaining hundreds. Papuans Behind Bars, a nongovernmental organisation that monitors politically motivated arrests in West Papua, recorded 418 new cases from October 2020 to September 2021. At least 245 of them were charged, found guilty, and imprisoned for joining the protests, with 109 convicted of “treason”.

    However, while in the past, Papuans charged with political offences typically were sentenced to years — in Karma’s case, 15 years — in the recent cases, perhaps because of international and domestic attention, the Indonesian courts handed down much shorter sentences, often time already served.

    The coronavirus pandemic halted his activism in 2020-2022. He had plenty of time for scuba diving and spearfishing. Once he posted on Facebook that when a shark tried to steal his fish, he smacked it on the snout.

    On 1 November 2022, my good friend Filep Karma was found dead on a Jayapura beach. He had apparently gone diving alone. He was wearing his scuba diving suit.

    His mother, Eklefina Noriwari, called me that morning, telling me that her son had died. “I know you’re his close friend,” she told me. “Please don’t be sad. He died doing what he liked best . . . the sea, the swimming, the diving.”

    West Papua was in shock. More than 30,000 people attended his funeral, flying the Morning Star flag, as their last act of respect for a courageous man. Mourners heard the speakers celebrating Filep Karma’s life, and then quietly went home.

    It was peaceful. And this is exactly what Filep Karma’s message is about.

    Andreas Harsono is the Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of its new report, “If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?”: Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia. This article was first published by RNZ Pacific.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Abuja, October 31, 2024–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ghanaian authorities to swiftly investigate and hold accountable the security guards who attacked four journalists and media workers working for the privately owned Multimedia Group conglomerate at a mining site in the country’s southern Ashanti region.

    On October 20, at least 10 armed security guards working for Edelmetallum Resources Limited, a mining company operating in Ghana, detained and beat journalist Erastus Asare Donkor, camera technician Edward Suantah, drone pilot Majid Alidu, and driver Arko Edward as they reported on alleged environmental degradation associated with one of the company’s mines, according to Donkor and Edward, who spoke with CPJ.

    “Authorities in Ghana must swiftly investigate and hold accountable the security guards of Edelmetallum Resources Limited responsible for attacking journalists and media workers Erastus Asare Donkor, Edward Suantah, Majid Alidu, and Arko Edward,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, in Johannesburg. “Reporting on environmental degradation is a matter of public interest, and too often no one is held accountable when the press in Ghana is attacked.”

    The guards seized at least five phones, five drone batteries, a Lenovo tablet, a branded press jacket, and a headset, Donkor and Edward told CPJ. After forcing the crew to drive away with them, the guards deleted all information on at least two phones and made them delete their images. They also beat the media workers with their hands for at least 30 minutes. The guards later returned only the phones.

    After the attack, Donkor had difficulty using his right eye, Edward had a swollen face, and Suantah and Alidu had ringing in their ears, according to Donkor and Edward.

    The crew reported the attack to police and led them to the site, but the guards refused to go to the police station, Donkor said. Police later announced that three of the attackers had surrendered and were granted bail, he said.

    CPJ’s calls to police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi for comment on the investigation went unanswered.

    Edelmetallum’s managing director, Philip Edem Kutsienyo, said by phone that he did not want to speak with CPJ.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By Teagan Laszlo, Queensland University of Technology

    For Samantha Magick, journalism isn’t just a job. It is a lifelong commitment to storytelling, advocacy, and empowering voices often overlooked in the Pacific.

    As the managing editor and publisher at Islands Business, the Pacific Islands’ longest surviving news and business monthly magazine, Magick’s commitment to quality reporting and journalistic integrity has established her as a leading figure in the region’s news industry.

    Magick’s passion for journalism began at a young age.

    “I wanted to be a journalist when I was like 12,” Magick recalls. “When I left school, that’s all I wanted to study.”

    She remembers her family’s disapproval when she would write stories as a child, as they thought she was “sharing secrets”. Despite that early condemnation, Magick’s thriving journalism career has taken her across continents and exposed her to diverse media landscapes.

    After completing a Bachelor of Communications with a major in journalism at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, Australia, Magick began her career at Communications Fiji Limited (CFL), a prominent Fijian commercial network.

    She progressed over 11 years from a cadet to CFL’s news director.

    Guidance of first boss
    Magick attributes some of her early success to the guidance of her first boss and CFL’s founder, William Parkinson. She considers herself fortunate to have had a supportive mentor who led by example and dared to take risks early in life, such as founding a radio station in his 20s.

    After leaving CFL, Magick’s career took her across the globe, including regional Pacific non-government organisations, news publications in Hawai’i and Indonesia, and even international legal organisations in Italy.

    Magick, who is of both Fijian and Australian heritage, returned to Suva in 2018, where she began her current role as Islands Business’s managing editor.

    “I’ve chosen to make my life in Fiji because I feel more myself here,” Magick says, reflecting on her deep connection to the island nation.

    Magick’s vision for Islands Business focuses on delving into the deeper, underlying narratives often overshadowed by breaking news cycles and free, readily available news content.

    “We need to be able to demonstrate the value of investigation, big picture reporting rather than the day-to-day stuff,” Magick says.

    Magick prides herself on creating a diverse and inclusive newsroom that reflects the communities it serves.

    Need for diverse newsroom
    “You have to have a diverse newsroom,” she emphasises, recognising the importance of amplifying marginalised voices. “For example, there is a conscious effort to make sure our magazine is not full of photos of men shaking hands with other men.”

    Magick also believes journalists have a responsibility to advocate for change, as demonstrated by Islands Business’s dedication to tackling pressing issues from climate change to media freedom.

    “Why would I give a climate change denier space?” Magick questions when discussing the need to balance objectivity and advocacy. “Because it’s kind of going to sell magazines? Because it’s going to create a bit of a stir online? That’s not something we believe in.”

    Despite her success, Magick’s career has not been without challenges. Magick worked through Fiji’s former draconian media restriction laws under the Media Industry Development Act 2010, while also navigating the shift to digital media.

    Islands Business general manager Samantha Magick (right)
    Islands Business managing editor Samantha Magick (right) with Fiji Times reporter Rakesh Kumar and chief editor Fred Wesley (centre) celebrating the repeal of the draconian Fiji media law last year . . . ““Why would I give a climate change denier space?” Image: Lydia Lewis/RNZ Pacific

    Magick emphasises the need to constantly upskill and re-evaluate strategies to ensure she and Islands Business can effectively navigate the constantly evolving media landscape.

    From learning to capitalise on social media analytics to locating reputable information sources when many of them feared to speak to the journalists due to the risk of legal retribution, Magick believes flexibility and perseverance are crucial to staying ahead in media.

    In her early career, Magick also faced sexism and misogyny in the media industry. “When I think back about the way I was treated as a young journalist, I feel sick,” Magick says as she reflects on how she and her female colleagues would warn each other against interviewing certain sources alone.

    Supporting aspiring journalists
    The challenges Magick has faced undoubtably contribute to her dedication to supporting aspiring journalists, as evident through Kite Pareti’s journey. Starting as a freelance writer with no newswriting experience in March 2022, Pareti has since progressed to one of two full-time reporters at Islands Business.

    Pareti expresses gratitude for the opportunities she’s had while working at Islands Business, and for the mentorship of Magick, whom she describes as “family”.

    “Samantha took a chance on me when I had zero knowledge on news writing,” Pareti says. “So I’m grateful to God for her life and for allowing me to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

    Magick reciprocates this sentiment. “Recently, I am inspired by some of our younger reporters in the field, and their ability to embrace and leverage technology — they’re teaching me.”

    Magick anticipates an exciting period ahead for Islands Business, as she aims to attract a younger, professionally driven, and regionally focused audience to their platforms.

    When asked about her aspirations for journalism in the region, Magick says she hopes to see a future where Pacific voices remain at the centre, “telling their own stories in all their diversities”.

    Teagan Laszlo was a student journalist from the Queensland University of Technology who travelled to Fiji with the support of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Mobility Programme. This article is published in a partnership of QUT with Asia Pacific Report, Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) and The University of the South Pacific.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New York, October 30, 2024—French authorities must complete their investigation and take steps to ensure the safety of journalists at Radio BIP and its online newspaper Média 25 following the recent attack on the outlet’s offices, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

    “CPJ is alarmed by the recent attack on Radio BIP/Média 25’s headquarters, which follows a disturbing pattern of harassment against this media outlet over the past two years,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Such attacks not only threaten the physical safety of journalists but also create a climate of fear that can severely impact independent reporting. French authorities must take this attack seriously, bring all perpetrators to justice, and implement measures to ensure that journalists can report on issues of public interest safely and without fear of reprisal.”

    On the evening of October 21, unidentified individuals wearing gloves kicked the front door and attempted to forcibly enter the premises of Radio BIP/Média 25’s headquarters in Besançon, eastern France. They triggered the station’s security alarm, damaging the door and lock before fleeing.

    Radio BIP/Média 25, a media outlet known for its reporting on local far-right groups in Besançon, has experienced a series of incidents over the past two years. In May 2022, unknown individuals broke into and entered its premises, robbing equipment; in another incident that same month, its garage door window was broken and an advertising banner was ripped off—followed by successive incidents in which the station received a bomb threat, had its garage door was damaged overnight, and was vandalized with painted swastikas.

    CPJ emailed the Besançon police department requesting comment on the ongoing investigation but did not receive a reply.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Julian Assange is a free man after spending 5 years in prison and 7 years at a consulate in England. And during a recent hearing for the Council of Europe, Assange made it clear that the only thing he was guilty of was performing journalism. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a […]

    The post Julian Assange Finally Granted Freedom After Pleading “Guilty To Journalism” appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Writers resign from The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times in protest over the blocking of their editorials by the billionaire owners. Video: Democracy Now!

    Democracy Now!

    This is Democracy Now!, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I am Amy Goodman, with Juan González:

    The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post newspapers are facing mounting backlash after the papers’ publishers announced no presidential endorsements would be made this year. The LA Times is owned by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, and The Washington Post is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

    National Public Radio (NPR) is reporting more than 200,000 people have cancelled their Washington Post subscriptions, and counting.

    A number of journalists have also resigned, including the editorials editor at the Los Angeles Times, Mariel Garza, who wrote, “How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger — who we previously endorsed for the U.S. Senate?”

    Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein have also resigned from the L.A. Times editorial board.

    At The Washington Post, David Hoffman and Molly Roberts both resigned on Monday from the Post editorial board. Michele Norris also resigned as a Washington Post columnist, and Robert Kagan resigned as editor-at-large.

    David Hoffman, who just won a Pulitzer Prize for his series “Annals of Autocracy,” wrote, “I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump. I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice at this perilous moment.”

    David Hoffman joins us now, along with former Los Angeles Times editorials editor Mariel Garza.

    David Hoffman, let’s begin with you. Explain why you left The Washington Post editorial board. Oh, and at the same time, congratulations on your Pulitzer Prize.

    DAVID HOFFMAN: Thank you very much.

    I worked for 12 years writing editorials in which I said over and over again, “We cannot be silent in the face of dictatorship, not anywhere.” And I wrote about dissidents who were imprisoned for speaking out.

    And I felt that I couldn’t write another editorial decrying silence if we were going to be silent in the face of Trump’s autocracy. And I feel very, very strongly that the campaign has exposed his intention to be an autocrat.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David Hoffman, is there any precedent for the publisher of The Washington Post overruling their own editorial board?

    DAVID HOFFMAN: Yeah, there’s lots of precedent. It’s entirely within the right of the publisher and the owner to do this. Previous owners have often told the editorial board what to say, because we are the voice of the institution and its owner. So, there’s nothing wrong with that.

    What’s wrong here is the timing. If they had made this decision early in the year and announced, as a principle, they don’t want to issue endorsements, nobody would have even blinked. A lot of papers don’t. People have rightly questioned whether they actually have any impact.

    What matters here was, we are right on the doorstep of the most consequential election in our lifetimes. To pull the plug on the endorsement, to go silent against Trump days before the election, that to me was just unconscionable.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mariel Garza, could you talk about the situation at the LA Times and your reaction when you heard of the owner’s decision?

    MARIEL GARZA: Certainly. It was a long conversation over the course of many weeks. We presented our proposal to endorse Kamala Harris. And, of course, there was — to us, there was no question that we would endorse her. We spent nine years talking about the dangers of Trump, called him unfit in 5 million ways, and Kamala Harris is somebody that we know. She’s a California elected official.

    We’ve had a lot of conversations with her. We’ve seen her career evolved. We were going to — we were going to endorse her. And there was no indication that we were going to suddenly shift to a neutral position, certainly not within a few weeks or months of the election.

    At first, we didn’t get a clear answer — sounds like it’s the same situation that happened at The Washington Post — until we pressed for one. We presented an outline with — these are the points we’re going to make — and an argument for why not only was it important for us, an editorial board whose mission is to speak truth to power, to stand up to tyranny — our readers expect it.

    We’re a very liberal paper. There is no — there is no question what the editorial board believes, that Donald Trump should not be president ever.

    AMY GOODMAN: Mariel, I wanted to —

    MARIEL GARZA: So, it was perplexing. It was mystifying. It was — go ahead.

    AMY GOODMAN: Mariel, I wanted to get your response to the daughter of the LA Times owner. On Saturday, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s daughter Nika Soon-Shiong posted a message online suggesting that her father’s decision was linked to Kamala Harris’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

    Nika wrote, “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process.

    “As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children,” she wrote.

    Her father, Patrick Soon-Shiong, later disputed her claim, saying that she has no role at the Los Angeles Times. Mariel Garza, your response?

    MARIEL GARZA: Look, I really don’t know what to say, because I have — that was — if that was the case, it was never communicated to us. I do not know what goes on in the conversation in the Soon-Shiong household. I know that she is not — she does not participate in deliberations of the editorial board, as far as I know. I’ve never spoken to her.

    We all know how she feels about Gaza, because she’s a prolific tweeter. So, I really can’t say. And this is part of the bigger problem, is we were never given a reason for why we were being silent.

    If there was a reason — say it was Israel — we could have explained that to readers. Instead, we remain silent. And that’s — I mean, this is not a time in American history where anybody can remain silent or neutral.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David Hoffman, this whole issue has been raised by some critics of Jeff Bezos that his company has a lot of business with the US government, and whether that had any impact on Bezos’s decision. I’m wondering your thoughts.

    DAVID HOFFMAN: I can’t be inside his mind. His company does have big business, and he’s acknowledged it’s a complicating factor in his ownership. But I can’t really understand why he made this decision, and I don’t think it’s been very well explained. His explanation published today was that he wants sort of more civic quiet, and he thought an endorsement would add to the sense of anxiety and the poisonous atmosphere.

    But I disagree with that. I think, like in the LA Times, I think readers have come to expect us to be a voice of reason, and they’ve looked to endorsements at least for some clarity. So, frankly, I also feel that we’re still lacking an explanation.

    AMY GOODMAN: You know, you have subtitle, the slogan of The Washington Post, of course, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” It’s being mocked all over social media. One person wrote, “Hello Darkness My Old Friend.”

    David Hoffman, your response to that? But also, you won the Pulitzer Prize for your series “Annals of Autocracy,” and you talk about digital billionaires, as well, and what this means. How does this fit into your investigations?

    DAVID HOFFMAN: You know, I would hope everybody would understand and acknowledge that we’ve done a lot of good for democracy and human rights. You know, I’ve had governments react sharply to a single editorial. When we call them out for imprisoning dissidents, it matters that we are very widely read.

    And that’s another reason why I feel this was a big mistake, because we actually were on a path, for decades, of championing democracy and human rights as an institution.

    And, you know, I have to tell you, I wrote a book in Russia about oligarchs. I understand how difficult it is when you have a lively and independent group of journalists. And ownership really matters. And, you know, we’re not just another widget company.

    This is actually a group of very, very deep-thinking and oftentimes very aggressive people that have a desire to change the world. That’s the kind of journalism that The Washington Post has sponsored and engaged in.

    In 2023, we published a series of editorials that took a look deep inside how China, Russia, Burma, you know, other places — how these autocracies function. One of the findings was that many of these dictatorships are using technology to clamp down on dissent, even things as tiny as a single tweet.

    Young people, young college students are being thrown in prison in Cuba, in Belarus, in Vietnam. And I documented these to show how this technology actually isn’t becoming a force for freedom, but it’s being turned on its head by dictatorship.

    AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there, David Hoffman, Washington Post reporter, stepped down from the Post editorial board when they refused to endorse a presidential candidate; Mariel Garza, LA Times editorials editor who just resigned.

    I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

    This programme is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Licence.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Talamua Media

    The Commonwealth Heads of Government adopted the Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance at their summit meeting in Apia, Samoa, last week.

    These Principles highlight the importance of freedom of expression and media freedom to democracy.  They state that Commonwealth governments “should consider repealing or amending laws which unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression”.

    The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and the Commonwealth Journalists Association called on states to take practical and effective steps to end arbitrary and excessive restrictions on free expression. The Commonwealth as a whole must audit progress and engage with civil society to ensure that these Principles are implemented in reality.

    Freedom of expression is not just a right in itself — it is the foundation that allows us to exercise and defend all other human rights, and is safeguarded under international law.

    However, as we know all too well, this right is under threat.

    According to UNESCO, in Commonwealth countries alone, 178 journalists were killed between 2006 and 2020. Furthermore, the impunity rate for the killings of journalists during that same time is 96 percent — which is notably higher than the global impunity rate of 87 percent.

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has documented 547 journalists imprisoned globally as of the end of 2023, with legal harassment often used as a tool to stifle dissent and investigative reporting.

    Restrictive, colonial-era laws
    Many Commonwealth countries still maintain restrictive, colonial-era laws that curtail free expression, suppress diverse voices, and inhibit the transparency that is essential for democracy.

    In the Commonwealth:

    • 41 countries continue to criminalise defamation; 48 countries still retain laws related to sedition; and
    • 37 still have blasphemy or blasphemy-like laws.
    Who Controls The Narrative cover
    Who Controls The Narrative? cover. Image: APR screenshot

    These details are set out in a soon to be released report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA), with other Commonwealth partners, entitled Who Controls the Narrative? Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth.

    “These laws, often enforced through criminal sanctions, have a chilling effect on activists, journalists, iand others who fear retaliation for speaking truth to power”, said William Horsley of the Commonwealth Journalists Association.

    “This has led to an alarming rise in self-censorship and a decline in the independent and dissenting voices that are vital for holding governments accountable.”

    Civil society response
    The Principles were first put forward by a group of civil society organisations in response to  a general deterioration in legal protections and the working environment for journalists.

    The CJA convened other civil society organisations, including the CHRI, Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, before Commonwealth member states reviewed and adopted the Principles in the form which was adopted by heads of government at the 2024 CHOGM.

    States are “urged to take concrete and meaningful steps to implement them within their domestic frameworks, as set out in the CHOGM Samoa Communiqué“.

    The joint report Who Controls the Narrative? Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth reveals the increasing use of criminal law provisions, including those related to defamation, sedition, blasphemy, and national security, to restrict freedom of expression and media freedom within the Commonwealth.

    The report is the product of extensive collaboration between Commonwealth partners, legal experts, academics, human rights advocates, and media professionals, and provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal frameworks governing freedom of expression and outlines clear pathways for reform.

    In addition to analysing legal restrictions on free speech in Commonwealth states, the report puts forward actionable recommendations for reform.

    These include regional and national-level proposals, as well as broader Commonwealth-wide recommendations aimed at strengthening legal frameworks, promoting judicial independence, encouraging media pluralism, and enhancing international accountability mechanisms.

    Reforms essential
    These reforms are essential for establishing an environment where free expression can thrive, allowing individuals to speak without fear of reprisal.

    “While many member states share a colonial legal legacy that includes repressive laws still in effect today, they also share a commitment to democratic governance and the rule of law as set out in the Commonwealth Charter,” said Sneh Aurora, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

    “The Commonwealth has the potential to lead by example in promoting freedom of expression through legal reform, ensuring that criminal laws are not misused to silence dissent.

    “The Principles provide an important opportunity for Commonwealth governments to bring their national laws in line with international human rights laws.”

    Republished with permission from Talamua Online.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COMMENTARY: By Tess Newton Cain

    As CHOGM came to a close, Samoa rightfully basked in the resounding success for the country and people as hosts of the Commonwealth leaders’ meeting.

    Footage of Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa swaying along to the siva dance as she sat beside Britain’s King Charles III encapsulated a palpable national pride, well deserved on delivering such a high-profile gathering.

    Getting down to the business of dissecting the meeting outcomes — in the leaders’ statement and Samoa communiqué — there are several issues that are significant for the Pacific island members of this post-colonial club.

    As expected, climate change features prominently in the text, with more than 30 mentions including three that refer to the “climate crisis”. This will resonate highly for Pacific members, as will the support for COP 31 in 2026 to be jointly hosted by Australia and the Pacific.


    Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa opening CHOGM 2024. Video: Talamua Media

    One of the glaring contradictions of this joint COP bid is illustrated by the lack of any call to end fossil fuel extraction in the final outcomes.

    Tuvalu, Fiji and Vanuatu used the CHOGM to launch the latest Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative report, with a focus on Australia’s coal and gas mining. This reflects the diversity of Commonwealth membership, which includes some states whose economies remain reliant on fossil fuel extractive industries.

    As highlighted ahead of CHOGM, this multilateral gave the 56 members a chance to consider positions to take to COP 29 next month in Baku, Azerbaijan. The communiqué from the leaders highlights the importance of increased ambition when it comes to climate finance at COP 29, and particularly to address the needs of developing countries.

    Another drawcard
    That speaks to all the Pacific island nations and gives the region’s negotiators another drawcard on the international stage.

    Then came the unexpected, Papua New Guinea made a surprise announcement that it will not attend the global conference in Baku next month. Speaking at the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Small States, PNG’s Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko framed this decision as a stand on behalf of small island nations as a protest against “empty promises and inaction.

    As promised, a major output of this meeting was the Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common Future. This is the first oceans-focused declaration by the Commonwealth of Nations, and is somewhat belated given 49 of its 56 member states have ocean borders.

    The declaration has positions familiar to Pacific policymakers and activists, including the recognition of national maritime boundaries despite the impacts of climate change and the need to reduce emissions from global shipping. A noticeable omission is any reference to deep-sea mining, which is also a faultline within the Pacific collective.

    The text relating to reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery required extensive negotiation among the leaders, Australia’s ABC reported. While this issue has been driven by African and Caribbean states, it is one that touches the Pacific as well.

    ‘Blackbirding’ reparative justice
    South Sea Islander “blackbirding” is one of the colonial practices that will be considered within the context of reparative justice. During the period many tens-of-thousands of Pacific Islanders were indentured to Australia’s cane fields, Fiji’s coconut plantations and elsewhere.

    The trade to Queensland and New South Wales lasted from 1847 to 1904, while those destinations were British colonies until 1901. Indeed, the so-called “sugar slaves” were a way of getting cheap labour once Britain officially abolished slavery in 1834.

    The next secretary-general of the Commonwealth will be Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey. Questions have been raised about the quality of her predecessor Patricia Scotland’s leadership for some time and the change will hopefully go some way in alleviating concerns.

    Notably, the CHOGM has selected another woman to lead its secretariat. This is an important endorsement of female leadership among member countries where women are often dramatically underrepresented at national levels.

    While it received little or no fanfare, the Commonwealth has also released its revised Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance. This is a welcome contribution, given the threats to media freedom in the Pacific and elsewhere. It reflects a longstanding commitment by the Commonwealth to supporting democratic resilience among its members.

    These principles do not come with any enforcement mechanism behind them, and the most that can be done is to encourage or exhort adherence. However, they provide another potential buffer against attempts to curtail their remit for publishers, journalists, and bloggers in Commonwealth countries.

    The outcomes reveal both progress and persistent challenges for Pacific island nations. While Apia’s Commonwealth Ocean Declaration emphasises oceanic issues, its lack of provisions on deep-sea mining exposes intra-Commonwealth tensions. The change in leadership offers a pivotal opportunity to prioritise equity and actionable commitments.

    Ultimately, the success of this gathering will depend on translating discussions into concrete actions that address the urgent needs of Pacific communities facing an uncertain future.

    But as the guests waved farewell, the question of what the Commonwealth really means for its Pacific members remains until leaders meet in two years time in Antigua and Barbuda, a small island state in the Caribbean.

    Tess Newton Cain is a principal consultant at Sustineo P/L and adjunct associate professor at the Griffith Asia Institute. She is a former lecturer at the University of the South Pacific and has more than 25 years of experience working in the Pacific Islands region. Republished with the permission of BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Mariam Shahin has been making films about Gaza for more than 30 years.

    She has also made many documentaries and short films for Al Jazeera English since it launched in 2006.

    When she moved to Gaza in 2005, she felt a powerful sense of optimism following the Israeli withdrawal.

    Mariam Shahin
    Mariam Shahin . . . revisiting the Gaza people and lives the film maker has met over the years. Image: MS

    But by 2009, war had badly damaged its infrastructure, neighbourhoods, businesses and communities — and that optimism had evaporated.

    Now, in the wake of the even more destructive war that began on 7 October 2023, Shahin seeks out the people she has met in Gaza over the years.

    She reflects on the wasted potential and devastated lives after 16 years of blockade and a year of one of the most destructive wars in Middle East history.


    Echoes of a Lost Gaza: 2005-2024.     Video: Al Jazeera

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller, The University of Melbourne

    In February 2017, as Donald Trump took office, The Washington Post adopted the first slogan in its 140-year history: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

    How ironic, then, that it should now be helping to extinguish the flame of American democracy by refusing to endorse a candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.

    This decision, and a similar one by the second of America’s big three newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, disgraces journalism, disgraces the papers’ own heritage and represents an abandonment of civic responsibility at a moment when United States faces its most consequential presidential election since the Civil War.

    At stake is whether the United States remains a functioning democracy or descends into a corrupt plutocracy led by a convicted criminal who has already incited violence to overturn a presidential election and has shown contempt for the conventions on which democracy rests.

    Why did they do it?
    Why would two of the Western world’s finest newspapers take such a recklessly irresponsible decision?

    It cannot be on the basis of any rational assessment of the respective fitness for office of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

    It also cannot be on the basis of their own reporting and analysis of the candidates, where the lies and threats issued by Trump have been fearlessly recorded. In this context, the decision to not endorse a candidate is a betrayal of their own editorial staff. The Post’s editor-at-large, Robert Kagan, resigned in protest at the paper’s decision not to endorse Harris.

    This leaves, in my view, a combination of cowardice and greed as the only feasible explanation. Both newspapers are owned by billionaire American businessmen: The Post by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, and the LA Times by Patrick Soon-Shiong, who made his billions through biotechnology.

    Bezos bought The Post in 2013 through his private investment company Nash Holdings, and Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times in 2018 through his investment firm Nant Capital. Both run the personal risk of suffering financially should a Trump presidency turn out to be hostile towards them.

    During the election campaign, Trump has made many threats of retaliation against those in the media who oppose him. He has indicated that if he regains the White House, he will exact vengeance on news outlets that anger him, toss reporters in jail and strip major television networks of their broadcast licenses as retribution for coverage he doesn’t like.


    Trump threatens to jail political opponents.  Video: CBS News

    Logic would suggest that in the face of these threats, the media would do all in their power to oppose a Trump presidency, if not out of respect for democracy and free speech then at least in the interests of self-preservation. But fear and greed are among the most powerful of human impulses.

    The purchase of these two giants of the American press by wealthy businessmen is a consequence of the financial pressures exerted on the professional mass media by the internet and social media.

    Bezos was welcomed with open arms by the Graham family, which had owned The Post for four generations. But the paper faced unsustainable financial losses arising from the loss of advertising to the internet.

    At first he was seen not just by the Grahams but by the executive editor, Marty Baron, as a saviour. He injected large sums of money into the paper, enabling it to regain much of the prestige and journalistic capacity it had lost.

    Baron, in his book Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post, was full of praise for Bezos’s financial commitment to the paper, and for his courage in the face of Trumpian hostility. During Trump’s presidency, the paper kept a log of his lies, tallying them up at 30,573 over the four years.

    Against this history, the paper’s abdication of its responsibilities now is explicable only by reference to a loss of heart by Bezos.

    At the LA Times, the ownership of the Otis-Chandler families also spanned four generations, but the impact of the internet took a savage toll there as well. Between 2000 and 2018 its ownership passed through three hands, ending up with Soon-Shiong.

    Both newspapers reached the zenith of their journalistic accomplishments during the last three decades of the 20th century, winning Pulitzer Prices and, in the case of The Post, becoming globally famous for its coverage of the Watergate scandal.

    This, in the days when American democracy was functioning according to convention, led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as president.

    The two reporters responsible for this coverage, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, issued a statement about the decision to not endorse a candidate:

    Marty Baron, who was a ferociously tough editor, posted on X: “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.”

    Now, of the big three, only The New York Times is prepared to endorse a candidate for next month’s election. It has endorsed Harris, saying of Trump: “It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States.”

    Why does it matter?
    It matters because in democracies the media are the means by which voters learn not just about facts but about the informed opinion of those who, by virtue of access and close acquaintance, are well placed to make assessments of candidates between whom those voters are to choose. It is a core function of the media in democratic societies.

    Their failure is symptomatic of the malaise into which American democracy has sunk.

    In 2018, two professors of government at Harvard, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, published a book, How Democracies Die. It was both reflective and prophetic. Noting that the United States was now more polarised than at any time since the Civil War, they wrote:

    America is no longer a democratic model. A country whose president attacks the press, threatens to lock up his rival, and declares he might not accept the election results cannot credibly defend democracy. Both potential and existing autocrats are likely to be emboldened with Trump in the White House.

    Symbolically, that The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times should have gone dark at this moment is reminiscent of the remark made in 1914 by Britain’s foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey:

    The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.The Conversation

    Dr Denis Muller is senior research fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne. 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.

  • The publisher of The Washington Post announced Friday that the paper wouldn’t make an endorsement in the U.S. presidential race, with its newsroom reporting that the decision was made by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, who intervened to stop a drafted endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Publisher William Lewis wrote that the paper would return to its “roots” of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday, October 25, joined eight partner organizations of the Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists and members of the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium in issuing a report on the state of Georgia’s press freedom ahead of the country’s pivotal October 26 election.

    The report, which follows an October fact-finding mission to Georgia, highlights the “climate of fear” under which journalists operate following the passage of a Russian-style “foreign agents” law and issues recommendations on key challenges faced by independent media, including physical attacks, intimidation campaigns, and impunity.

    Read the full report: Press Freedom and Journalist Safety in Peril, Rising Polarisation and a Climate of Fear.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Laura Flanders & Friends and was authored by Laura Flanders & Friends.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie in Taipei

    It was a heady week for the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) — celebration of seven years of its Taipei office, presenting a raft of proposals to the Taiwan government, and hosting its Asia-Pacific network of correspondents.

    Director general Thibaut Bruttin and the Taipei bureau chief Cedric Alviani primed the Taipei media scene before last week’s RSF initiatives with an op-ed in the Taiwan Times by acknowledging the country’s media freedom advances in the face of Chinese propaganda.

    Taiwan rose eight places to 27th in the RSF World Press Freedom Index this year – second only to Timor-Leste in the Asia-Pacific region.

    But the co-authors also warned over the credibility damage caused by media “too often neglect[ing] journalistic ethics for political or commercial reasons”.

    As a result, only three in 10 Taiwanese said they trusted the news media, according to a Reuters Institute survey conducted in 2022, one of the lowest percentages among democracies.

    “This climate of distrust gives disproportionate influence to platforms, in particular Facebook and Line, despite them being a major vector of false or biased information,” Bruttin and Alviani wrote.

    “This credibility deficit for traditional media, a real Achilles heel of Taiwanese democracy, puts it at risk of being exploited for malicious purposes, with potentially dramatic consequences.”

    Press freedom programme
    At a meeting with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te and senior foreign affairs officials, Bruttin and his colleagues presented RSF’s innovative programme for improving press freedom, including the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), the first ISO-certified media quality standard; the Paris Charter on Artificial Intelligence and Journalism; and the Propaganda Monitor, a project aimed at combating propaganda and disinformation worldwide.

    RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin speaking at the reception celebrating seven years of Taipei's Asia Pacific office
    RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin speaking at the reception celebrating seven years of Taipei’s Asia Pacific office. Image: Pacific Media Watch

    The week also highlighted concerns over the export of the China’s “New World Media Order”, which is making inroads in some parts of the Asia-Pacific region, including the Pacific.

    At the opening session of the Asia-Pacific correspondents’ seminar, delegates referenced the Chinese disinformation and assaults on media freedom strategies that have been characterised as the “great leap backwards for journalism” in China.

    “Disinformation — the deliberate spreading of false or biased news to manipulate minds — is gaining ground around the world,” Bruttin and Alviani warned in their article.

    “As China and Russia sink into authoritarianism and export their methods of censorship and media control, democracies find themselves overwhelmed by an incessant flow of propaganda that threatens the integrity of their institutions.”

    Both Bruttin and Alviani spoke of these issues too at the celebration of the seventh anniversary of the Asia-Pacific office in Taipei.

    Why Taipei? Hongkong had been an “likely choice, but not safe legally”, admitted Bruttin when they were choosing their location, so the RSF team are happy with the choice of Taiwan.

    Hub for human rights activists
    “I think we were among the first NGOs to have established a presence here. We kind of made a bet that Taipei would be a hub for human rights activists, and we were right.”

    About 200 journalists, media workers and press freedom and human rights advocates attended the birthday bash in the iconic Grand Hotel’s Yuanshan Club. So it wasn’t surprising that there was a lot of media coverage raising the issues.

    RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin (centre) with correspondents Dr David Robie and Dr Joseph Fernandez
    RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin (centre) with correspondents Dr David Robie and Dr Joseph Fernandez in Taipei. Image: Pacific Media Watch

    In an interview with Voice of America’s Joyce Huang, Bruttin was more specific about the “insane” political propaganda threats from China faced by Taiwan.

    However, Taiwan “has demonstrated resilience and has rich experience in resisting cyber information attacks, which can be used as a reference for the world”.

    Referencing China as the world’s “biggest jailer of journalists”, Bruttin said: “We’re very worried, obviously.” He added about some specific cases: “We’ve had very troublesome reports about the situation of Zhang Zhan, for example, who was the laureate of the RSF’s [2021 press freedom] awards [in the courage category] and had been just released from jail, now is sent back to jail.

    “We know the lack of treatment if you have a medical condition in the Chinese prisons.

    “Another example is Jimmy Lai, the Hongkong press freedom mogul, he’s very likely to die in jail if nothing happens. He’s over 70.

    “And there is very little reason to believe that, despite his dual citizenship, the British government will be able to get him a safe passage to Europe.”

    Problem for Chinese public
    Bruttin also expressed concern about the problem for the general public, especially in China where he said a lot of people had been deprived of the right to information “worthy of that name”.

    “And we’re talking about hundreds of millions of people. And it’s totally scandalous to see how bad information is treated in the People’s Republic of China.”

    Seventeen countries in the Asia-Pacific region were represented in the network seminar.

    Representatives of Australia, Cambodia, Hongkog, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, South Korea, Tibet, Thailand and Vietnam were present. However, three correspondents (Malaysia, Singapore and Timor-Leste) were unable to be personally present.

    Discussion and workshop topics included the RSF Global Strategy; the Asia-Pacific network and the challenges being faced; best practice as correspondents; “innovative solutions” against disinformation; public advocacy (for authoritarian regimes; emerging democracies, and “leading” democracies); “psychological support” – one of the best sessions; and the RSF Crisis Response.

    RSF Oceania colleagues Dr David Robie (left) and Dr Joseph Fernandez
    RSF Oceania colleagues Dr David Robie (left) and Dr Joseph Fernandez . . . mounting challenges. Image: Pacific Media Watch

    What about Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand) and its issues? Fortunately, the countries being represented have correspondents who can speak our publicly, unlike some in the region facing authoritarian responses.

    Australia
    Australian correspondent Dr Joseph M Fernandez, visiting associate professor at Curtin University and author of the book Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, notes that Australia sits at 39th in the RSF World Press Freedom Index — a drop of 12 places from the previous year.

    “While this puts Australia in the top one quarter globally, it does not reflect well on a country that supposedly espouses democratic values. It ranks behind New Zealand, Taiwan, Timor-Leste and Bhutan,” he says.

    “Australia’s press freedom challenges are manifold and include deep-seated factors, including the influence of oligarchs whose own interests often collide with that of citizens.

    “While in opposition the current Australian federal government promised reforms that would have improved the conditions for press freedom, but it has failed to deliver while in government.

    “Much needs to be done in clawing back the over-reach of national security laws, and in freeing up information flow, for example, through improved whistleblower law, FOI law, source protection law, and defamation law.”

    Dr Fernandez criticises the government’s continuing culture of secrecy and says there has been little progress towards improving transparency and accountability.

    “The media’s attacks upon itself are not helping either given the constant moves by some media and their backers to undermine the efforts of some journalists and some media organisations, directly or indirectly.”

    A proposal for a “journalist register” has also stirred controversy.

    Dr Fernandez also says the war on Gaza has “highlighted the near paralysis” of many governments of the so-called established democracies in “bringing the full weight of their influence to end the loss of lives and human suffering”.

    “They have also failed to demonstrate strong support for journalists’ ability to tell important stories.”


    An English-language version of this tribute to the late RSF director-general Christophe Deloire, who died from cancer on 8 June 2024, was screened at the RSF Taipei reception. He was 53. Video: RSF

    Aotearoa New Zealand
    In New Zealand (19th in the RSF Index), although journalists work in an environment free from violence and intimidation, they have increasingly faced online harassment. Working conditions became tougher in early 2022 when, during protests against covid-19 vaccinations and restrictions and a month-long “siege” of Parliament, journalists were subjected to violence, insults and death threats, which are otherwise extremely rare in the country.

    Research published in December 2023 revealed that high rates of abuse and threats directed at journalists put the country at risk of “mob censorship” – citizen vigilantism seeking to “discipline” journalism. Women journalists bore the brunt of the online abuse with one respondent describing her inbox as a “festering heap of toxicity”.

    While New Zealand society is wholeheartedly multicultural, with mutual recognition between the Māori and European populations enshrined in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, this balance is under threat from a draft Treaty Principles Bill.

    The nation’s bicultural dimension is not entirely reflected in the media, still dominated by the English-language press. A rebalancing is taking place, as seen in the success of the Māori Television network and many Māori-language programmes in mass media, such as Te Karere, The Hui and Te Ao Māori News.

    Media plurality and democracy is under growing threat with massive media industry cuts this year.

    New Zealand media also play an important role as a regional communications centre for other South Pacific nations, via Tagata Pasifika, Pacific Media Network and others.

    Papua New Guinea's Belinda Kora (left) and RSF colleagues
    Papua New Guinea’s Belinda Kora (left) and RSF colleagues . . . “collaborating in our Pacific efforts in seeking the truth”. Image: Pacific Media Watch

    Papua New Guinea
    The Papua New Guinea correspondent, Belinda Kora, who is secretary of the revised PNG Media Council and an ABC correspondent in Port Moresby, succeeded former South Pacific Post Ltd chief executive Bob Howarth, the indefatigable media freedom defender of both PNG and Timor-Leste.

    Currently PNG (91st in the RSF Index) is locked in a debate over a controversial draft government media policy – now in its fifth version – that critics regard as a potential tool to crack down on media freedom. But Kora is optimistic about RSF’s role.

    “I am excited about what RSF is able and willing to bring to a young Pacific region — full of challenges against the press,” she says.

    “But more importantly, I guess, is that the biggest threat in PNG would be itself, if it continues to go down the path of not being able to adhere to simple media ethics and guidelines.

    “It must hold itself accountable before it is able to hold others in the same way.

    “We have a small number of media houses in PNG but if we are able to stand together as one and speak with one voice against the threats of ownership and influence, we can achieve better things in future for this industry.

    “We need to protect our reporters if they are to speak for themselves and their experiences as well. We need to better provide for their everyday needs before we can write the stories that need to be told.

    “And this lies with each media house.

    The biggest threat for the Pacific as a whole? “I guess the most obvious one would be being able to remain self-regulated BUT not being accountable for breaching our individual code of ethics.

    “Building public trust remains vital if we are to move forward. The lack of media awareness also contributes to the lack of ensuring media is given the attention it deserves in performing its role — no matter how big or small our islands are,” Kora says.

    “The press should remain free from government influence, which is a huge challenge for many island industries, despite state ownership.

    Kora believes that although Pacific countries are “scattered in the region”, they are able to help each other more, to better enhance capacity building and learning from their mistakes with collaboration.

    “By collaborating in our efforts in seeking the truth behind many of our big stories that is affecting our people. This I believe will enable us to improve our performance and accountability.”

    Example to the region
    Meanwhile, back in Taiwan on the day that RSF’s Thibaut Bruttin flew out, he gave a final breakfast interview to China News Agency (CNA) reporter Teng Pei-ju who wrote about the country building up its free press model as an example to the region.

    “Taiwan really is one of the test cases for the robustness of journalism in the world,” added Bruttin, reflecting on the country’s transformation from an authoritarian regime that censored information into a vibrant democracy that fights disinformation.

    Dr David Robie, convenor of the Asia Pacific Media Network’s Pacific Media Watch project and author of several media and politics books, including Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, has been an RSF correspondent since 1996.

    RSF Asia Pacific correspondents and staff
    RSF Asia Pacific correspondents and staff pictured at the Grand Hotel’s Yuanshan Club. Image: RSF

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, says Israel’s declaration that six Al Jazeera journalists are members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad “sounds like a death sentence”.

    “These 6 Palestinians are among the last journalists surviving Israel’s onslaught in Gaza [with 130+ of their colleagues killed in the last year],” Albanese wrote on X. “They must be protected at all costs.”

    Al Jazeera Media Network has strongly condemned the “unfounded’ accusations by Israel’s military, saying it views them “as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide”.

    The network noted that Israeli forces in Gaza have killed more than 130 journalists and media workers in the past year, including several Al Jazeera journalists, “in an attempt to silence the messenger”.

    Al Jazeera has strongly rejected the Israeli military claim.

    In a post on X, the Israeli military had accused some of the named Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents as “operatives” working for Hamas’s armed wing to promote the group’s “propaganda” in the besieged and bombarded enclave.

    The six named journalists are Anas al-Sharif, Talal Aruki, Alaa Salama, Hosam Shabat, Ismail Farid, and Ashraf Saraj.

    According to an Al Jazeera Network statement, the military published “documents” that it claimed proved the “integration of Hamas terrorists within” Al Jazeera. The military claimed the papers showed lists of people who have completed training courses and salaries.

    ‘Fabicated evidence’
    “Al Jazeera categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces their use of fabricated evidence,” the network said.

    “The network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide,” the statement read.

    It said the “baseless” accusations came following a recent report by Al Jazeera’s investigative unit that revealed potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces during the continuing assault on Gaza, where more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed — many of them women and children.

    Al Jazeera said its correspondents had been reporting from northern Gaza and documenting the dire humanitarian situation unfolding “as the sole international media” outlet there.

    Israel has severely restricted access to Gaza for international media outlets since it launched its assault on the Palestinian territory on October 7, 2023, in response to a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.


    Gaza: The Al Jazeera investigation into Israeli war crimes.

    Northern Gaza has been under siege for 19 days as Israeli forces continue a renewed ground offensive in the area.

    About 770 people have been killed in Jabalia since the renewed assault began, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, with Israel blocking the entry of aid and food from reaching some 400,000 people trapped in the area.

    ‘Wider pattern of hostility’
    “The network sees these accusations as part of a wider pattern of hostility towards Al Jazeera, stemming from its unwavering commitment to broadcasting the unvarnished truth about the situation in Gaza and elsewhere.”

    Last month, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and ordered its immediate closure following the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet in May 2024 to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations within Israel.

    Israeli forces have killed at least three Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza since October last year.

    In July, Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli air attack on the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. The pair were wearing media vests and there were identifying signs on their vehicle when they were attacked.

    In December, Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Samer Abudaqa was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, was also wounded in that attack.

    Dadouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli air raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in October last year.

    In January, Dahdouh’s son, Hamza, who was also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in an Israeli missile strike in Khan Younis.

    Prior to the war on Gaza, veteran Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli forces as she covered an Israeli raid in Jenin in the West Bank in May 2022.

    Republished from Al Jazeera.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • On October 26, Georgia heads into what is widely viewed as its most critical election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The incumbent party Georgian Dream is pitted against a loose coalition of pro-Western parties united under the Georgian Charter, a roadmap for Georgian integration into the European Union.

    Georgia’s relation to the EU is a central issue of the vote. While the population is overwhelmingly in favor of joining the union — the country was granted EU candidate status last year  — Georgian Dream has taken a sharply anti-Western turn, sparking fears it is steering the country into neighboring Russia’s embrace. In May, parliament overrode a presidential veto to pass a Russian-style “foreign agents” law, directly targeting the heavily donor-reliant independent press. If Georgian Dream wins the parliamentary election, it has vowed to crack down on what it calls the “collective” opposition, a threat many fear extends to the pro-opposition press.

    On a fact-finding mission to Georgia this month with several partner groups, CPJ asked  local journalists, advocates, and a journalist turned opposition politician what they feel is at stake in the upcoming vote. Their answers have been edited for length and clarity.

    CPJ emailed the Georgian Dream party for comment on the concerns raised by interviewees, but did not receive a reply.

    Mamuka Andguladze (Photo: Courtesy of Media Advocacy Coalition)

    Mamuka Andguladze, chair of Media Advocacy Coalition, which promotes media rights

    How important are this month’s elections for press freedom in Georgia?

    The upcoming elections represent a critical juncture for press freedom in Georgia. At stake is not only the integrity of our democratic processes but also the very foundation of independent Georgian journalism. In what is already a very challenging landscape, the adoption of the “Russian law” [the “foreign agents” law] poses a severe threat to independent media’s survival. The law stigmatizes media outlets as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power” essentially as “foreign agents.” It subjects them to invasive monitoring and an obligation to provide authorities with any information they demand, which could threaten outlets’ sources and contacts, making it impossible for them to operate. This is not to mention heavy fines for alleged violations.

    Georgian journalists are frequently the target of violence, as we saw during the terrible events of July 2021 [when anti-LGBT demonstrators attacked dozens of journalists] and the tragic death of camera operator Aleksandre Lashkarava [who was beaten at the protests]. They are subject to verbal attacks from officials and orchestrated intimidation campaigns. This creates a climate of fear which diminishes the quality of reporting, as journalists are less likely to investigate sensitive topics. Online harassment and disinformation campaigns against critical journalists and media are rampant. Longstanding issues of impunity for attacks against journalists fuel further violence. The ongoing boycott by the ruling party toward independent and critical media and severe problems with access to official information remain existential threats. Economic pressures are intense, with many outlets struggling for funding.

    Despite all these challenges, past experiences — when the media actively covered mass protests against the “Russian law” and contributed to increasing public awareness — give me hope. I have great faith in our independent media and am confident that they are capable of defending their own rights and the historical choice of the Georgian people to join the European family.

    Nino Zuriashvili (Photo: Courtesy of Studio Monitor)

    Nino Zuriashvili, head of Studio Monitor, an independent outlet making investigative documentaries

    What is at stake for independent media in the upcoming elections?

    We in Georgia have never had such an important election. After 33 years of independence from the Soviet Union, it’s a shame, but we are once again deciding our direction, our orientation – either we will again be a province of Russia or we will join the European Union as an equal country.

    It means we’ll either have a Russian-style government or a European-style one. And we know what they do with journalists in Russia.

    What does this “orientation” mean for the media? It’s not just a word. It means we’ll either have a Russian-style government or a European-style one. And we know what they do with journalists in Russia. Dozens of journalists have been killed. Journalists are not free there, they are intimidated, they are forced out of the country. In the media we face two possible futures: independence, the freedom to work and grow, to develop as professionals, or be intimidated, imprisoned, killed, to flee and seek asylum.

    What difficulties has Studio Monitor faced under the current authorities, and what problems might you face after the elections?

    We already know that if the current government remains in power, Studio Monitor will be a major target of the “Russian law.” We specialize in investigations into corruption, nepotism, and official abuses. We also took the lead in organizing media protests against the “Russian law.” We know that many in the government are irritated by us. A ruling party politician who is widely thought to have organized a campaign of intimidation against opponents of the [“foreign agents”] law publicly named us as a key target. They stencil graffitied “Agents’ HQ” outside our office, put up dozens of posters of me outside our office and outside my apartment with slogans like “No place in Georgia for agents,” and graffitied my car with obscene images calling me a prostitute and an agent. Like many others, I received dozens of abusive calls, swearing at me and telling me to stop calling the [“foreign agents”] law a “Russian law.” They even called my sister and threatened her over my opposition to the law. This all happened at the same time as leading opponents of the law were severely beaten outside their homes. So it was deeply intimidating, even if we continue to resist.

    So we know what to expect if the ruling party stays in power. Even if they haven’t used the [“foreign agents”] law ahead of the elections, we know they will start to use it afterwards, and we know that over time, they will make this law more and more strict. We’ve seen how this went in Russia and we know what awaits.

    That’s why this election is different. This election will decide our fate. Independent media could disappear.

    Nika Gvaramia (Photo: Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili)

    Nika Gvaramia, former director of broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi and 2023 CPJ International Press Freedom Award winner, now a leader of opposition group Coalition for Change

    You left the media earlier this year to become an opposition leader, but you still keep a close eye on the press. How important are these elections for media freedom in Georgia?

    These elections are crucial, not just for media freedom in Georgia, but for every kind of freedom. This is not a regular election, where you’re choosing between better or worse governance; it’s about authoritarianism, it’s about choosing between Western civilization or Russia and some kind of political Mordor [the realm of Dark Lord Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”]. Under authoritarianism, there is no special space for different kinds of freedom. And there is no chance that a Russian-backed regime could be favorable to freedoms of speech and the media. That means that everything is at stake in these elections, including perhaps first of all freedom of speech.

    If there is no change of government in a few weeks, it means that [independent] media will be shut down. The “Russian law” is about closing down media outlets, closing down critical NGOs. And one of the promises of the ruling party if they win a constitutional majority is to abolish all opposition parties. If they are abolishing opposition parties, what do you think they will do with the media? Georgian media is highly professional, highly devoted, and pretty fearless, so the media is a number one target. If Georgian Dream prevails, there will be no opposition parties, they will be shutting down media and NGOs, and there will be tens or hundreds of political prisoners – as a former political prisoner myself, I know. [Gvaramia served more than a year of a three and a half year sentence in retaliation for his reporting before being released from prison in May 2023.]

    How will you reform the press freedom environment if your coalition comes to power?

    International pressure played a crucial role in my release, especially the efforts of CPJ. Following this, I set up the Ahali [“New”] party, because I feel I can make more of a difference being directly engaged in politics. When we win – not if – we will open negotiations with the EU, we will repeal any law that is against the European understanding of democracy.  We’ve signed a charter pledging to do this, and we will follow it.

    Georgian media has been deeply damaged by this regime, especially financially. As former director of Georgia’s leading independent broadcaster, I can say that they have deliberately passed laws restricting the advertising market, which is vital for independent TV, put pressure on broadcasters’ financial backers and on those who place ads. They have hit broadcasters with SLAPP suits [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation] and fines from the broadcast regulator that is under their control. Not to mention mob violence, incited and orchestrated by the government. Georgian media desperately needs more income, and we need to bolster the media’s financial situation by bringing in special tax regulations and restoring a properly functioning advertising market. And simply more free speech. On paper, Georgia has great laws on press freedom and freedom of speech, on a par with the United States; they just need to be put into effect. We will do that.

    Independent media, opposition parties, NGOs, and most importantly – Georgian society itself, especially the young, what we call the BIG generations, “Born In Georgia” [after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991] – we are all united. We must and we will prevail.

    Nestan Tsetskhladze (Photo: Anka Gujabidze)

    Nestan Tsetskhladze, editor-in-chief of independent news website Netgazeti

    How are you viewing these elections in terms of the press’s ability to function?

    Independent Georgian media have never had an easy time, but now things are particularly bad. If the law passed in 2024 on “foreign agents”—which we call the “Russian law”—and the law on the protection of “family values” [which allows for fines against media outlets found “promoting” LGBT issues] are not repealed after the elections, these laws — which amount to the legalization of censorship — will prevent independent media outlets from continuing their activities in Georgia, just as happened in Russia after the adoption of similar legislation.

    This is the first election out of many that we have covered which could decide our own fate, as journalists and free people in Georgia.

    This is the first election out of many that we have covered which could decide our own fate, as journalists and free people in Georgia. So it’s an unusual situation for us too — the result of this election could abolish our profession and everything we’ve been working on for two decades, as journalists and as media outlets. However, I don’t think that will happen, and I believe that the citizens of this country will not choose repression, the disappearance of the media, and civil society.

    How is Netgazeti navigating current challenges, including the “foreign agents” law?

    Netgazeti has not registered as a “foreign agent.” This is our editorial decision because we believe that continuing our journalistic activities under the label of a “foreign agent” damages our professional reputation and portrays us as a media outlet without editorial independence, which is not the case. In addition, working under such a label endangers the physical safety of all journalists working here. So far, we have not been fined for not registering as “agents,” but we will appeal any such step at the European Court of Human Rights. We intend to legally fight for our rights as long as possible while continuing to inform the Georgian people.

    We in the media are not burying our heads in the sand during the pre-election period; we do not artificially balance the news, and we do not pretend that the results of the elections are irrelevant. No, we are saying that the worst times will come for journalism if the authorities who support Russian-style laws remain in power and wish for us, independent media and citizens, to disappear. Independent online media do not have a lot of resources for this, unlike the official propaganda, but we do everything we can. And I personally believe that we will be able to hold fair elections and stay in this country. We have worked hard for this for many years, and we are not afraid.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Nick Lewis.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Lawsuits have been filed against the makers of chemical hair relaxers after decades’ worth of studies have shown that the chemicals in these products can cause cancers and other serious health problems in women. Then, during a recent interview with Rachel Maddow, Hillary Clinton said that any American caught using Russian talking points should be […]

    The post Studies Have Linked Multiple Cancers To Hair Relaxers & Hillary Continues To Rant Over Russia appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • A new study has found that there’s something definitely off about YouTube’s video recommendation algorithm, and left-leaning videos get recommended far less than videos from right-leaning creators. Plus, Democrats are warning their base that the polls could be wildly off base and that Donald Trump could over perform the polls like he did in 2016 […]

    The post YouTube Caught Pushing Right Wing Religious Content & Trump Poll Numbers Worry Democrats appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • China hosted a global media summit in Xinjiang this week, bringing together over 500 participants to discuss artificial intelligence, but also used the event to criticize Western reports about the forced labor of Uyghurs and an ongoing genocide were “fabricated lies.”

    Representatives from over 200 media outlets — including executives from Reuters and The Associated Press — government agencies and international organizations attended the 6th World Media Summit, which opened Monday in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to discuss how artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming the media industry.

    The summit was organized by China’s official Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government.

    In addition to speeches about AI, Chinese officials blasted Western news reports that have shed light on the oppression of the 12 million Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as Uyghurs prefer to call it.

    Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)
    Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)

    The United States and some Western parliaments have said there is credible evidence that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” The U.S. Congress has also passed a law banning the import of goods and materials suspected of being made by Uyghur forced labor.

    But Ma Xingrui, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, rejected the accusations, saying all ethnic groups in the region live peacefully.

    “Some anti-China forces in the world have disregarded the facts, wantonly fabricated lies such as ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang, China, and maliciously imposed unilateral sanctions,” he said in a speech, according to a post on the Xinjiang government website.

    “At present, Xinjiang has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and the development situation continues to improve,” he continued.

    Amplifying a narrative

    Ma’s comments are an example of how China is amplifying its own narrative about the Uyghurs living happily and enjoying prosperity despite evidence to the contrary, including many stories by Radio Free Asia.

    China does not permit journalists to travel freely in Xinjiang and convincing Uyghurs contacted by phone to talk to reporters outside the country puts them at considerable risk of punishment.

    Representatives from Al Jazeera, Russian news agency TASS, the Malaysian National News Agency, the Kyrgyz State News Agency, South Africa’s Independent Media, Hungary’s ATV and media organizations from China-friendly countries also attended the event.


    RELATED STORIES

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    “Their fundamental purpose is to drag the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang into poverty and backwardness, and then realize the plot of ‘using Xinjiang to control China,’” Ma said, according to comments from the speech published in Chinese by the Xinjiang government. 

    The report went on to make comments that weren’t clearly attributed to any one person, saying, “Everyone appreciates China’s Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements in various fields and fully recognizes Xinjiang’s important contributions to regional social stability, economic development and cultural prosperity.

    It said that “China’s Xinjiang has repeatedly been the target of false propaganda and malicious attacks. But it turns out that the narrative about human rights violations in Xinjiang is based on false information and is purely for political purposes.”

    Harnessing AI

    Also, it comes as no surprise that China is interested in harnessing the power of AI — the theme of the conference — to spread its narratives, said Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington.

    The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
    The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

    “Urumqi is, of course, a strategic place because the Uyghur region is one of the leading spaces in China where China is spreading disinformation about conditions on the ground,” he told RFA. “It’s a leading part in China’s messaging to the globe.” 

    China’s efforts to promote its narrative appears to be paying off.

    Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council of Palestine, who led a delegation of Palestinian and other Arab politicians on a visit to Xinjiang in March, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that the West was “trying to exploit anything to undermine China’s progress and development” through a smear campaign against Beijing’s Xinjiang policy.  

    “Our visit and observation on the ground were proof that Western propaganda is false,” he said.   

    Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shadia Suzuk for RFA Uyghur.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China hosted a global media summit in Xinjiang this week, bringing together over 500 participants to discuss artificial intelligence, but also used the event to criticize Western reports about the forced labor of Uyghurs and an ongoing genocide were “fabricated lies.”

    Representatives from over 200 media outlets — including executives from Reuters and The Associated Press — government agencies and international organizations attended the 6th World Media Summit, which opened Monday in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to discuss how artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming the media industry.

    The summit was organized by China’s official Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government.

    In addition to speeches about AI, Chinese officials blasted Western news reports that have shed light on the oppression of the 12 million Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as Uyghurs prefer to call it.

    Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)
    Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)

    The United States and some Western parliaments have said there is credible evidence that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” The U.S. Congress has also passed a law banning the import of goods and materials suspected of being made by Uyghur forced labor.

    But Ma Xingrui, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, rejected the accusations, saying all ethnic groups in the region live peacefully.

    “Some anti-China forces in the world have disregarded the facts, wantonly fabricated lies such as ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang, China, and maliciously imposed unilateral sanctions,” he said in a speech, according to a post on the Xinjiang government website.

    “At present, Xinjiang has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and the development situation continues to improve,” he continued.

    Amplifying a narrative

    Ma’s comments are an example of how China is amplifying its own narrative about the Uyghurs living happily and enjoying prosperity despite evidence to the contrary, including many stories by Radio Free Asia.

    China does not permit journalists to travel freely in Xinjiang and convincing Uyghurs contacted by phone to talk to reporters outside the country puts them at considerable risk of punishment.

    Representatives from Al Jazeera, Russian news agency TASS, the Malaysian National News Agency, the Kyrgyz State News Agency, South Africa’s Independent Media, Hungary’s ATV and media organizations from China-friendly countries also attended the event.


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    “Their fundamental purpose is to drag the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang into poverty and backwardness, and then realize the plot of ‘using Xinjiang to control China,’” Ma said, according to comments from the speech published in Chinese by the Xinjiang government. 

    The report went on to make comments that weren’t clearly attributed to any one person, saying, “Everyone appreciates China’s Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements in various fields and fully recognizes Xinjiang’s important contributions to regional social stability, economic development and cultural prosperity.

    It said that “China’s Xinjiang has repeatedly been the target of false propaganda and malicious attacks. But it turns out that the narrative about human rights violations in Xinjiang is based on false information and is purely for political purposes.”

    Harnessing AI

    Also, it comes as no surprise that China is interested in harnessing the power of AI — the theme of the conference — to spread its narratives, said Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington.

    The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
    The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

    “Urumqi is, of course, a strategic place because the Uyghur region is one of the leading spaces in China where China is spreading disinformation about conditions on the ground,” he told RFA. “It’s a leading part in China’s messaging to the globe.” 

    China’s efforts to promote its narrative appears to be paying off.

    Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council of Palestine, who led a delegation of Palestinian and other Arab politicians on a visit to Xinjiang in March, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that the West was “trying to exploit anything to undermine China’s progress and development” through a smear campaign against Beijing’s Xinjiang policy.  

    “Our visit and observation on the ground were proof that Western propaganda is false,” he said.   

    Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shadia Suzuk for RFA Uyghur.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Dakar, October 16, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Chadian authorities to reverse a directive announcedon October 9 by Abderamane Barka, president of the High Authority for Media and Audiovisual (HAMA) regulator, to suspend or revoke the licenses of outlets that share online content outside of narrowly defined circumstances.

    “Chad’s media regulator should immediately reverse its directive to suspend outlets for sharing news in ways outside of those narrowly defined by authorities and cease efforts to censor the press ahead of elections,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “As Chadians go to the polls later this year, they should be given access to a plurality of diverse media sources and content, not a constricted version of the news.”

    Barka ordered the suspension or revocation of licenses of private newspapers that broadcast audiovisual content online instead of written articles and of private outlets that broadcast content on Facebook that was not first distributed via their traditional newspaper, radio, or TV channels. He also demanded that all media outlets only employ journalists who have official press identity cards.

    Barka said these measures are part of the ongoing cleaning up of Chad’s media landscape as the country heads towards legislative, provincial, and municipal elections on December 29.

    The Chadian Online Media Association said in a statement that the directive appears “to go beyond the existing legal framework” and could pose a risk to freedom of expression, noting that the country’s press law states that the online press provides “mainly written and audiovisual” content.

    Earlier in October, HAMA banned two managers of the private newspaper Le Visionnaire from practicing journalism for not having press cards and suspended the paper for three months over a report into government mismanagement.

    CPJ’s calls to Barka for comment on the directive went unanswered.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Committee to Protect Journalists joined nine media and civil society organizations, including five members of the Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium in a letter welcoming the opening of an investigation into the killing of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina, whose death in Russian custody was confirmed to her father by authorities and multiple reports.

    The signatories urged Russian authorities to make the circumstances of Roshchina’s death public and to conduct a full investigation so that those responsible can be held to account.

    Roshchina, a freelance reporter who covered the ongoing war in Ukraine for several Ukrainian media outlets, went missing on August 3, 2023, in eastern Ukraine; Russian authorities confirmed her detention April 2024. The journalist died September 19 while being transferred from the southwestern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow, the capital, for a prisoner exchange, according to those reports.

    Read the full letter here.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The surgeon general is calling on Congress to approve warning labels for social media websites and apps, alerting parents and young users to the dangers these sites can pose. Also, the Supreme Court has overturned a signature accomplishment of the Trump administration by reversing the order that banned bump stocks on non-automatic weapons. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss […]

    The post Warnings Increase Over Social Media’s Impact On Kids & SCOTUS Overturns Trump’s Bump Stock Ban appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Kampala, October 15, 2024—Instead of providing the latest news updates, the homepages of three leading Tanzanian newspapers are focused on their own suspension over a video seen as critical of the president, as concerns mount over deteriorating press freedom ahead of elections.

    On October 2, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) issued a 30-day suspension order for Mwananchi Communications Limited’s (MCL) online publications affecting the websites of its newspapers — the English-language daily The Citizen, the Swahili-language Mwananchi and the sports-focused Mwanaspoti — and their social media pages. The TCRA accused MCL of publishing prohibited content on social media that “aimed to ridicule and harm the reputation, prestige and status” of the country. The three newspapers’ print editions continue to hit the newsstands.

    The one-month ban is part of a series of recent press freedom violations in Tanzania, as human rights organizations have warned of narrowing civic space ahead of November’s local elections and next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, in which President Samia Suluhu Hassan will stand.

    The Citizen’s October 1 animated video showed a woman resembling the president flipping through television reports in which people complained about abductions and killings. Tanzanians have been shocked by September’s murder of opposition politician Ali Mohamed Kibao, after being taken off a bus, beaten, and doused in acid — the latest in a wave of high-profile opposition figures to “disappear.”

    On October 2, MCL said it had removed the animation because “it depicted events that raised concerns regarding the safety and security of individuals in Tanzania.” However, the deleted video has been shared widely online.

    Separately, on October 9, the TCRA  accused  the privately owned YouTube-based Jambo TV, of breaking the law in its broadcast of criticism of two telecoms companies.

    The regulator objected to the news channel airing a claim by Tundu Lissu, vice chairperson of the opposition Chadema party, that Tigo shared his location data with the government prior to a 2017 attempt to assassinate him, as well as journalist Erick Kabendera’s claim that Vodacom Tanzania shared his data with security personnel who arrested him in 2019.

    A British court heard this month from Tigo’s former parent company Millicom that it had concerns “about a local politician’s mobile phone data being passed to a government agency.” In court filings responding to a former Tigo employee’s claim that he was dismissed for raising concerns about surveillance, Millicom said the individuals involved had been disciplined.

    The TCRA said that Jambo TV should “submit a written defense” and appear before its Content Committee on October 17 “to explain why legal action should not be taken against it.”

    Kabendera had sued Vodacom, alleging that the company “facilitated” his arrest, but his case was dismissed in September. He intends to appeal.

    Samia, who succeeded President John Pombe Magufuli after his death in 2021, initially lifted media bans and promised to improve conditions for the press. However, her government has fallen short of overhauling restrictive laws, such as the 2020 online content regulations cited in this month’s ban on MCL and the case against Jambo TV.

    In violations reminiscent of the anti-press tactics used under Magufuli, at least eight journalists have been arrested while covering opposition events in recent weeks:

    ●     August 11

    Journalists Ramadhan Khamis and Fadhil Kirundwa of privately owned Jambo TV were arrested while covering a Chadema event in the southern city of Mbeya. Kirundwa and Khamis told CPJ they were released the following day on condition that they did not publish footage of the youth rally, in which more than 500 people were arrested.

    ●     September 23

    Police assaulted MCL journalists Lawrence Mnubi, Michael Matemanga, and Baraka Loshilaa and detained them for hours in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam while covering a banned Chadema protest over alleged killings and abductions.

    Police also briefly detained reporter Mariam Shaban of privately owned East Africa TV, and privately owned Nipashe newspaper’s Jenifer Gilla and Jumanne Juma, Shaban and Gilla told CPJ.

    On October 7, government spokesperson Thobias Makoba told CPJ by phone that he could not immediately respond to questions and did not answer subsequent calls and messages. Makoba previously told the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America Africa that the Tanzanian government supports freedom of speech and encourages responsible journalism, while noting that freedom comes with responsibility.

    TCRA spokesperson Rolf Kibaja told CPJ via email that the regulator had invited MCL to a hearing on October 10 “after which further regulatory actions would follow.” He did not respond to requests for clarification or subsequent queries about Jambo TV.

    CPJ requested comment via email and messaging app from Vodacom Tanzania; and via email from its South Africa-based parent company Vodacom Group; Tigo Tanzania; and Luxembourg-based Millicom, which owned Tigo Tanzania in 2017, but did not receive any replies. Police spokesperson David Misime did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment via messaging app.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • There are other issues I would prefer to write about; all are affected by the Middle East crisis.

    Economics

    Economics is a “dismal science” that has a postulate ─ all money is debt. This postulate leads to the realization that the capitalist economy grows and survives with mounting debt and only the government can carry the debt burden. Debt forces the government to manage the economy and a more managed economy continually develops. U.S. Middle East policy generates constant wars, promotes an arms race, and is partly responsible for the continually increasing debt and managed economy.

    Foreign Policy

    Establishing hegemony by making the world recognize American exceptionalism, regardless of opponents are killed in the process, defines U.S. foreign policy. This one-sided and arrogant policy aligns with Israel’s modus operandi. It has been historical, counterproductive in several adventures, is doomed to failure in the present crisis, and will continue to harm the American people.

    Politics

    Extravagant divisions in the electorate and political system demonstrate a lack of comprehension of the political system by government officials and political strategists. Israel’s supporters take advantage of the mayhem in the political system and influence politicians and voters.

    Media

    Knowledge leading to capable decisions has not accompanied the rapid expansion in communications. Money talks and media squawks. Media is a convenient means of controlling and manipulating minds. Israel supporters are adept in using the media to manipulate the American public.

    The Middle East crisis, engineered by Israel and the United States, overrides all other issues. It is unfathomable, an artificial construct that is incomprehensible. The issue can be resolved in one minute of time ─ stop the oppression of the Palestinians and grant them equal rights. Instead, deliberate destructions of the Palestinian community and of those who attempt to aid the Palestinians are the avenues of resolution. A spillover into greater destruction of other peoples, including the perpetrators of the genocide, is predicted. Get rid of everyone and the world’s problems will vanish.

    The unending crises are a mystery and unraveling the mystery has become more of a detective story than an academic pursuit. Why is there a genocide, why is it supported, and can it be stopped? Historians, foreign policy experts, journalists, political commentators, and wise old men have not provided adequate answers to the questions. There is more to committing genocide than power politics.

    At 10:54 PM, October 6, 2024, the world population was 8,226,477,186. Take a guess and estimate that 1.5 billion have sufficient awareness (not knowledge) of the Middle East crisis to attach themselves to a side in the crisis. Only a portion of inhabitants of the western world and India would favor the Israeli aggressive tactics; maybe 100 million in India and 200 million in the western world, compared to 1.2 billion in the rest of the Arab, African, Latin American, Central and Southeast Asia, and China worlds.

    Take a more rigid perspective on what is definitely a genocide ─ no mistake in characterizing the violence against the Palestinians by that term. How does the number of those who know it is a genocide and still favor Israel compare with those who view it as a genocide and want it stopped? My guess is that a small clique of 7 million Zionist Jews (the Christian Zionists may favor Israel but do not influence others) actively influence 100 million people to favor their cause, and a billion of the world’s population react in horror to the genocide. A small clique of 7 million people are moving the world to enormous destruction and one billion remain powerless to prevent it. How can that be?

    The mystery deepens with the revelation that this scenario has no reason. The argument that Jews, who are the wealthiest group in almost all western nations and occupy positions of prestige and importance in much greater portion than others, fear attack and need a land for themselves falls flat. In the land called Israel, only a small portion of the Jewish population can gain excessive wealth and dominance, while all live in constant fear of attack and animosity from much of the universe.

    A one-state Israel, where all ethnicities live together and have equal rights can function as any democratic state. The Israeli Palestinians and Druze have been good citizens. Palestinians in all parts of the world — Chile, United States, Germany, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon — have pursued activities that benefitted their adopted nations. If the Jews in the one-state followed a similar pattern of dominance that Jews in the western world exhibit, then a greater portion of Israeli Jews will achieve enhanced prosperity in the expanded economy. The one-state might benefit the lesser advantaged Israeli Jews.

    Let’s clarify nonsense. Jews can live almost any place throughout the western world and not be oppressed or subjected to violent anti-Jewish attacks. In 2020, Mexico had a population of 126,799,054 and a Jewish population of 58,876 people, 0.05 percent, and an infinitesimal part of the Mexican citizenry. On Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum, one of the relatively few Jews in Mexico, was sworn in as president without incident. Worshippers of contrived anti-Semitism statistics, please explain that happening. There are few cases of physical attacks against Jews, and the ADL promotes the U.S. as a hotbed of anti-Semitism. Compare Jewish life in the United States with the centuries of life of African Americans, who live at the economic margin, are subjected to periodic police attacks that take their lives, and do not consider establishing a land of their own. Anti-Semitism is trivial compared to the discrimination that severely disrupts the lives of other Americans. Let’s not confuse anti-Jewish feeling, due to Jewish support of the genocide of the Palestinian people, with arbitrary prejudice against Jews.

    Why is there a genocide?

    Israeli murderous rampages lack compassion for Palestinian suffering, show no sympathy for the killed and no remorse for even “accidental” killings. Calculated dehumanization of the civilized, educated, endurable, and heroic Palestinian people certifies the inhumanity and criminal bent of the Zionist Jews.

    Israel’s genocidal reaction to Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, a day that will be pressed forever in the American conscience, was unnecessary. The preferred strategy for a responsible military that values life is to reinforce the border, which could easily be made impenetrable. Using Mossad’s network of informers, infiltrators, and military drone and satellite surveillance, the Israeli military has mapped locations and movements of Hamas’ military leaders and fighting wing. Selective targets for drone and commando raids could have disrupted Hamas’ fighting capability. After crippling Hamas, the military could have developed a strategy that totally immobilizes Hamas and minimizes civilian casualties.

    Israeli tank battalions could have surrounded schools, apartment buildings, hospital and refugee centers before broadcasting evacuation and surrender orders. After evacuation, which saves civilian lives, the tanks could have probed or shelled buildings they claimed harvested Hamas. No armed brigades surrounded buildings, no evacuation advisories occurred, and no Hamas operatives have been shown to be present in the wreckage. Just the opposite has happened; the Gazans have been told to flee and then have been shot by snipers. Doctors are shocked at the casualties and reports that have an unusual number of children shot in the head. Whole extended families of 30-70 people have been killed without warning. Israel is fighting an army that has no antitank guns, no heavy weapons, and just a few cadres still willing to fight. There is no Hamas army and there is no real war.

    The Gaza campaign is not a military campaign; it is an excuse for a deliberate genocide. It has nothing to do with political and military strategies that are developed from able and astute minds. It comes from these minds — depraved, egocentric, inhuman, and criminal bent.

    These criminal bent cannot distinguish between right and wrong, are trained to attach themselves to a unique tribe, and emotionally detach themselves from others. The criminal mind drives a great portion of the Israel community. This was shown in an interview by Christine Amanpour with an Israeli woman whose daughter was kidnapped by Hamas. The woman tells Christine Amanpour that “October 7 was a catastrophe for the whole world. Hamas is terrorist and terrorizing its own people. The world thanks us for fighting for them. Hamas is seeking to eliminate us and the free world.”

    It is obvious the woman is reciting a script prepared by the Israeli propaganda machine. She does not concentrate on the travails of her daughter and displays a mind trained to attach itself to a unique tribe and emotionally detach itself from others. Only Israelis matter, and the world should recognize that damage to Israelis is damage to the entire word. Israelis are rescuing all of us. Hamas and its slingshots are “seeking to eliminate nuclear armed Israel and the free world.”

    Here is the difference between terrorist Hamas that terrorizes its own people and benevolent Israel.


    Image Courtesy of CNN Gaza before October 7


    Image courtesy of Reuters  Gaza after October 7

    Terrorist Hamas has terrorized the population by constructing housing, schools, universities, hospitals, sports arenas, and given Gazans the tools to live, while Israel did all it could to disrupt their lives. Benevolent Israel has no compunction in destroying housing, schools, universities, hospitals, and tools that terrorist Hamas has given its people to survive the continuous onslaught against them.

    It’s Gresham’s law ─ bad money drives out good money ─ applied to human existence — bad people drive out good people; in this case, the worst constantly replacing the less worst. There are many Israelis, even settlers, who want to cooperate with the Palestinians, but the plurality that gained government control permits and encourages robbery and murder of Palestinians. The settlers take advantage of the opportunities.

    The genocide proceeds from a criminal bent leadership that organizes criminal activities, which is rationalized. Provoke the Palestinians to respond to an attack and then accuse them of attacking ─ a favorite and successful trickster investment by the Zionist Jews, which has given them huge dividends. The Zionists expect those robbed and harmed will seek justice, from within and from without. Way to stop that is to get rid of them. With no them, there is nothing to worry about. There is no resurrection.

    Why are nations and groups supporting the genocide?

    All those who support the genocide of the Palestinian people are inflicted with the criminal bent plus gene — might makes right and anyone who does not recognize your might has no right to live. Bill Maher, a political comedian who posed as a human rights advocate, revealed how the American conscience reflects the Zionist conscience. In an HBO episode, Maher exclaimed, “The State of Israel is here to stay and the Palestinians will need to get used to it.” At other times, he defended Israel’s war on the Gazans and defended his positions with,

    History is brutal, and humans are not good people, and, I would submit that Israel did not steal anybody’s land. This is another thing I’ve heard the last couple of weeks, words like ‘occupiers’ and ‘colonizers’ and ‘apartheid,’ which I don’t think people understand the history there. The Jews have been in that area of the world since about 1200 BC, way before the first Muslim or Arab walked the earth. Other people do not understand the history there.

    Bill Maher is considered a political satirist with a large following. He must have been satirizing when stating, “The Jews have been in that area of the world since about 1200 BC, way before the first Muslim or Arab walked the earth.” Any existing Neanderthals to claim the land? Where have the Palestinians prevented Israel’s existence? If they did, how did Israel get so strong? Aren’t the Zionist Jews attempting to prevent Palestinian existence? Aren’t the Palestinians here to stay and shouldn’t the Jews get over it? Maher follows the usual Zionist scheme ─ attribute to the adversary the iniquities and guilt of the Zionists.

    The United States, beginning with the landing of the Pilgrims, and Israel, beginning with the landing of the Zionists, follow identical patterns of history. Both obtained assistance from the indigenous people and then obliterated them. Continuous wars, always in defense, never compromising, always killing mercilessly, and each convinced of their exceptionalism categorize the Israelis and Americans ─ partners in crime against humanity, willing accomplices to genocide.

    Can the genocide be stopped?

    Rays of hope indicate nations will take a firm stand against the genocide and rally support for the Palestinians.

    • China has taken an active role in promoting a ceasefire.
    • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United Nations General Assembly it should recommend use of force if the UN Security Council fails to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
    • Russia has shown sympathy for the Palestinian cause but is unable to act while being tied up in Ukraine.
    • France’s President Macron has asked all nations to stop sending arms to Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response to President Macron’s plea revealed his lack of responsible executive behavior in international relations, his twisted mind, escape from reality, and superior attitude.

    As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side….Yet President Macron and some other Western leaders are now calling for an arms embargo against Israel. Shame on them.

    Let me tell you this, Israel will win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won.

    • Spain, Norway and Ireland have recognized Palestine statehood. Spain announced it would join South Africa’s genocide case before the International Court of Justice against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

    Response from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz repeated Netanyahu’s’ obsessive behavior, the twisted mind, the escape from reality, and the superior attitude. In an X message, addressed to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, Katz wrote,

    Hamas thanks you for your service….Khamenei, Sinwar, and deputy PM Yolanda Diaz (Spain’s deputy PM) call for the elimination of Israel and for the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian terror state from the river to the sea….Sanchez, when you don’t fire your deputy and declare recognition of a Palestinian state — you are a partner to incitement to the genocide of Jews and to war crimes.

    • Iran has entered the hostilities and defiantly said it will not back down. Does Iran have a power that allows its defiance?

    The minds and authorities that gave us genocide of the Native Americans, slavery, and genocide of the Palestinians cannot be changed. There is little hope that revolutions in the United States and Israel will occur and correct the situation. Where are the Obamas? Unfortunately, Israel, together with its supplicating ally, the mighty U.S., feels comfortable. It has destroyed its antagonists. Hamas is impotent, Hezbollah is in disarray, with Netanyahu boasting that “Lebanon could face destruction like Gaza,” a confession that destruction of Gaza and not Hamas guides Israel’s military actions. Iran awaits an attack that Defense Minister Gallant describes as “deadly, precise and, above all, surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results.”

    The rays of hope that indicate nations will take a firm stand against the genocide and rally support for the Palestinians is blocked by the knowledge that all will burn. The world is trapped. Israel has nuclear weapons and will not hesitate to use them, knowing that by its small size and close location to other nations, opponents realize that radioactive fallout from atomic bombs falling on Tel Aviv will jeopardize surrounding nations. The military option is not plausible.

    Israel has always posed the crisis as “it’s us or them,” another departure from reality that is used to justify its criminal behavior. “Us” refers to, “They intend to destroy us”(Israel.)” “Them “refers to, “We destroy them before we are destroyed.” Nobody has shown the power or proclivity to have it “us.” Battle maps show Arab nations with large arrows thrusting huge armies to batter Israel. Where are any of them?

    With Israel having atomic weapons and a mentality that will use them, stopping the genocide by military means predicts it will be “us” and “them,” where “us” are the peace loving people of the world and them are all the Israelis — Jews, Muslims and Christians. Israel has the world in a “lose-lose” situation and will never accept a “win-win” situation. This leaves little room to maneuver and ability to save the Palestinians. Social isolation and economic deprivation, including sanctions of the criminal nation, are paths to forcing the issue. They are long and difficult and have not proven effective in past genocides.

    The solution to stopping Israel’s massacre of the Palestinians lies with the Israelis and Jews around the world. Israel’s genocidal policies have generated internal detractors, social unrest, political divides, an economic decline, and military disagreements. All combat is neutralized by “us” or “them,” supplied by the constant war against the Palestinians, which demands absolute loyalty to the state that is shielding its Jews from another Holocaust. This steady stream of propaganda is similar to the manner in which the Nazi state convinced a plurality of Germans to support the Nazis until the end. It’s a toss up as to who better fits the image of Nazism ─ Deutschland or Zionistland?

    The “us” or “them,” reinforced by a population that has been nurtured on a daily cereal of holocaust and enjoys being a victim, explains the bewildering Israeli Jewish position on blithely, and it is blithely, committing genocide. The real Jews, those in the Western world, who understand Judaism and the struggles of their immigrant ancestors, have been thrust into a battle to rescue Judaism and the Palestinians.

    As mentioned before, Jews live well and peacefully everywhere, except in Israel. If their sleep is disturbed, it is because of Israel and its partners in crime. The anti-defamation League (ADL), better named the Defamation League, is a business; it exists to find anti-Jewish expressions and the more it can manufacture, the more successful it is as a business. The Israel Lobby is a conspiratorial lobbying arm of the Israeli government, reaching deeply into media, DC “Think Tanks,” government agencies, religious institutions, cultural institutions, and households, providing an invisible army of millions, many born in Israel and sent by Israel to corrode the political system, influence the electoral system, and delude the central nervous systems. Defeating the anti-Judaism branches of the anti-Jewish Zionist extremists is a challenge that is met by numbers, dollars, resources, energy, demonstrations, public relations, media advertisements and strategic thinking, which translates to being one step ahead of the most conniving, lying, cheating, and deceiving assortment of killers the world now sees. In the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald,

    Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us.

    It has eluded us now;
    Tomorrow, we will run a little faster,
    Stretch our arms a little longer.

    Boats against the current,
    Borne back ceaselessly into the Past.

    The post Unraveling the Mystery of the Middle East Crisis first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.