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Category: Media

  • In Canada, a pattern of police intimidation of freelance journalists is emerging

    COMMENTARY: By Savanna Craig

    On the morning of April 15, I headed to a branch of Scotiabank in downtown Montreal to cover a pro-Palestine protest. Activists had chosen the venue due to the Canadian bank’s investments in Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.

    I watched as protesters blocked the bank’s ATMs and teller booths and the police were called in.

    Police officers showed up in riot gear. When it was announced the activists were going to be arrested, I didn’t expect that I would be included with them.

    Despite identifying myself as a journalist numerous times and showing officers my press pass, I was apprehended alongside the 44 activists I was covering. It was inside the bank that I was processed and eventually released after hours of being detained.

    I now potentially face criminal charges for doing my job. The mischief charges I face carry a maximum jail sentence of two years and a fine of up to C$5000 (NZ$6000). I could also be restricted from leaving the country.

    Canadian police can only suggest charges, so the prosecution has to decide whether or not to charge me. This process alone can take anywhere from a few months to a year.

    I am the second journalist to be arrested in Canada while on assignment since the beginning of 2024.

    Arrested over homeless raid
    In January, journalist Brandi Morin was arrested and charged with obstruction in the province of Alberta while covering a police raid on a homeless encampment where many of the campers were Indigenous. It took two months of pressure for the police to drop the charges against her.

    Over the past few years, a pattern of arrests has emerged, with police specifically targeting journalists working freelance or with smaller outlets. Many of these journalists have been covering Indigenous-led protests or blockades.

    Often they claim that the media workers they have come after “do not look like journalists”.

    The Canadian police continue to use detention to silence and intimidate us despite our right to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To specify, under section two of the charter, Canadians’ rights to freedom of thought, belief and expression are protected.

    The charter identifies the media as a vital medium for transmitting thoughts and ideas, protecting the right for journalists and the media to speak out.

    Furthermore, a 2019 ruling by a Canadian court reasserted the protection of journalists from being included in injunctions in situations where they are fulfilling their professional duties.

    The court decision was made in the case of journalist Justin Brake, who was arrested in 2016 while documenting protests led by Indigenous land defenders at the Muskrat Falls hydro project site in Newfoundland and Labrador. Brake faced criminal charges of mischief and disobeying a court order for following protesters onto the site, as well as civil contempt proceedings.

    Victory for free press
    Despite Brake’s victory in the court case, journalists have still been included in injunctions.

    In 2021, another high-profile arrest of two Canadian journalists occurred in western Canada. Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano were documenting Indigenous land defenders protecting Wet’suwet’en territory near Houston, British Columbia, from the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline when they were arrested.

    They were held in detention by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for three days until they were released.

    In an interview, Toledano said he and Bracken were put in holding cells with the lights on 24 hours a day, minimally fed and denied access to both toothbrushes and soap.

    “We were given punitive jail treatment,” Toledano explained. They faced charges of civil contempt which were dropped a month later.

    Even though I knew about these cases, had analysed numerous press freedom violations in Canada over the last few years, and had researched the different ways in which journalists can experience harassment or intimidation, nothing prepared me for the experience.

    Since I was arrested, I have not had the same sense of security I used to have. The stress, feeling like I have eyes on me at all times and waiting to see whether charges will be laid, has taken a mental toll on me.

    Exhausting distraction
    This is not only exhausting but it distracts me from the very important and essential work I do as a journalist.

    I have also, however, received a lot of support. It has been genuinely heartwarming that Canadian and international journalists rallied behind me following my arrest.

    Journalists’ solidarity in such cases is crucial. If just one journalist is arrested, it means that none of us are safe, and the freedom of the press isn’t secure.

    I know that I did nothing wrong and the charges against me are unjust. Being arrested won’t deter me from covering blockades, Indigenous-led protests or other demonstrations. However, I am concerned about how my arrest may discourage other journalists from reporting on these topics or working for independent outlets.

    I have been covering pro-Palestine activism in Montreal for eight years, and more intensely over the last eight months due to the war in Gaza. For years I have been one the few journalists at these protests, and often, the only one covering these actions.

    The public must see what’s happening at these actions, whether they are pro-Palestine demonstrations opposing Canada’s role in Palestine or Indigenous land defenders opposing construction on their territory.

    Regardless of its judgment on the matter, the Canadian public has the right to know what fellow citizens are protesting for and if they face police abuses.

    Held to account
    The presence of a journalist can sometimes be the only guarantee that police and institutions are held to account if there are excesses.

    However, there is a clear lack of political will among officials to protect journalists and make sure they can do their work undisturbed.

    Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante did not denounce my arrest or urge police to drop my charges. Instead, when asked for a comment on my arrest, her office stated that press freedoms are important and that they will allow police to carry out their investigation.

    Just one city councillor wrote to the mayor’s office urging for my arrest to be denounced. Local politicians have also been largely mute on detentions of other journalists, too, with few exceptions.

    The comment from the mayor’s office reflects the attitude of most politicians in Canada, who otherwise readily declare their respect for freedom of expression.

    On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put out a statement saying that “journalists are the bedrock of our democracy”.

    Yet he never took a stance to defend Morin, Brake, Bracken, Toledano and many others who were arrested while on assignment. He, like many other politicians, falls short on words and action.

    Until concrete steps are taken to prevent law enforcement officers from intimidating or silencing journalists through arrest, press freedom will continue to be in danger in Canada.

    Journalists should be protected and their chartered rights should not be disregarded when certain subjects are covered. If journalists continue to be bullied out of doing their work, then the public is at risk of being kept in the dark about important events and developments.

    Savanna Craig is a reporter, writer and video journalist covering social movements, policing and Western imperialism in the Middle East. Republished from Al Jazeera under Creative Commons.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • In Canada, a pattern of police intimidation of freelance journalists is emerging

    COMMENTARY: By Savanna Craig

    On the morning of April 15, I headed to a branch of Scotiabank in downtown Montreal to cover a pro-Palestine protest. Activists had chosen the venue due to the Canadian bank’s investments in Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.

    I watched as protesters blocked the bank’s ATMs and teller booths and the police were called in.

    Police officers showed up in riot gear. When it was announced the activists were going to be arrested, I didn’t expect that I would be included with them.

    Despite identifying myself as a journalist numerous times and showing officers my press pass, I was apprehended alongside the 44 activists I was covering. It was inside the bank that I was processed and eventually released after hours of being detained.

    I now potentially face criminal charges for doing my job. The mischief charges I face carry a maximum jail sentence of two years and a fine of up to C$5000 (NZ$6000). I could also be restricted from leaving the country.

    Canadian police can only suggest charges, so the prosecution has to decide whether or not to charge me. This process alone can take anywhere from a few months to a year.

    I am the second journalist to be arrested in Canada while on assignment since the beginning of 2024.

    Arrested over homeless raid
    In January, journalist Brandi Morin was arrested and charged with obstruction in the province of Alberta while covering a police raid on a homeless encampment where many of the campers were Indigenous. It took two months of pressure for the police to drop the charges against her.

    Over the past few years, a pattern of arrests has emerged, with police specifically targeting journalists working freelance or with smaller outlets. Many of these journalists have been covering Indigenous-led protests or blockades.

    Often they claim that the media workers they have come after “do not look like journalists”.

    The Canadian police continue to use detention to silence and intimidate us despite our right to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To specify, under section two of the charter, Canadians’ rights to freedom of thought, belief and expression are protected.

    The charter identifies the media as a vital medium for transmitting thoughts and ideas, protecting the right for journalists and the media to speak out.

    Furthermore, a 2019 ruling by a Canadian court reasserted the protection of journalists from being included in injunctions in situations where they are fulfilling their professional duties.

    The court decision was made in the case of journalist Justin Brake, who was arrested in 2016 while documenting protests led by Indigenous land defenders at the Muskrat Falls hydro project site in Newfoundland and Labrador. Brake faced criminal charges of mischief and disobeying a court order for following protesters onto the site, as well as civil contempt proceedings.

    Victory for free press
    Despite Brake’s victory in the court case, journalists have still been included in injunctions.

    In 2021, another high-profile arrest of two Canadian journalists occurred in western Canada. Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano were documenting Indigenous land defenders protecting Wet’suwet’en territory near Houston, British Columbia, from the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline when they were arrested.

    They were held in detention by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for three days until they were released.

    In an interview, Toledano said he and Bracken were put in holding cells with the lights on 24 hours a day, minimally fed and denied access to both toothbrushes and soap.

    “We were given punitive jail treatment,” Toledano explained. They faced charges of civil contempt which were dropped a month later.

    Even though I knew about these cases, had analysed numerous press freedom violations in Canada over the last few years, and had researched the different ways in which journalists can experience harassment or intimidation, nothing prepared me for the experience.

    Since I was arrested, I have not had the same sense of security I used to have. The stress, feeling like I have eyes on me at all times and waiting to see whether charges will be laid, has taken a mental toll on me.

    Exhausting distraction
    This is not only exhausting but it distracts me from the very important and essential work I do as a journalist.

    I have also, however, received a lot of support. It has been genuinely heartwarming that Canadian and international journalists rallied behind me following my arrest.

    Journalists’ solidarity in such cases is crucial. If just one journalist is arrested, it means that none of us are safe, and the freedom of the press isn’t secure.

    I know that I did nothing wrong and the charges against me are unjust. Being arrested won’t deter me from covering blockades, Indigenous-led protests or other demonstrations. However, I am concerned about how my arrest may discourage other journalists from reporting on these topics or working for independent outlets.

    I have been covering pro-Palestine activism in Montreal for eight years, and more intensely over the last eight months due to the war in Gaza. For years I have been one the few journalists at these protests, and often, the only one covering these actions.

    The public must see what’s happening at these actions, whether they are pro-Palestine demonstrations opposing Canada’s role in Palestine or Indigenous land defenders opposing construction on their territory.

    Regardless of its judgment on the matter, the Canadian public has the right to know what fellow citizens are protesting for and if they face police abuses.

    Held to account
    The presence of a journalist can sometimes be the only guarantee that police and institutions are held to account if there are excesses.

    However, there is a clear lack of political will among officials to protect journalists and make sure they can do their work undisturbed.

    Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante did not denounce my arrest or urge police to drop my charges. Instead, when asked for a comment on my arrest, her office stated that press freedoms are important and that they will allow police to carry out their investigation.

    Just one city councillor wrote to the mayor’s office urging for my arrest to be denounced. Local politicians have also been largely mute on detentions of other journalists, too, with few exceptions.

    The comment from the mayor’s office reflects the attitude of most politicians in Canada, who otherwise readily declare their respect for freedom of expression.

    On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put out a statement saying that “journalists are the bedrock of our democracy”.

    Yet he never took a stance to defend Morin, Brake, Bracken, Toledano and many others who were arrested while on assignment. He, like many other politicians, falls short on words and action.

    Until concrete steps are taken to prevent law enforcement officers from intimidating or silencing journalists through arrest, press freedom will continue to be in danger in Canada.

    Journalists should be protected and their chartered rights should not be disregarded when certain subjects are covered. If journalists continue to be bullied out of doing their work, then the public is at risk of being kept in the dark about important events and developments.

    Savanna Craig is a reporter, writer and video journalist covering social movements, policing and Western imperialism in the Middle East. Republished from Al Jazeera under Creative Commons.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Shooting that left young couple dead angers Cambodians on social media

    The case of a prominent businessman accused of shooting a young couple during a dispute inside a Phnom Penh home has angered Cambodians on social media and prompted King Norodom Sihamoni to revoke the accused man’s honorary title.

    Srey Sina, 50, was arrested in neighboring Kandal province after he apparently fled the scene following Monday’s shooting, which left Long Lysong, 27, and his fiancee Khin Kanchana, 26, dead and two others wounded, according to Phnom Penh police.

    Srey Sina told police he shot the young couple with a handgun after Long Lysong used abusive language following an argument between neighbors over a parking space, the felling of a mango tree and a clothes line, the Khmer Times reported.

    The long-running dispute was originally between Long Lysong and a woman who rents one of Srey Sina’s houses, the newspaper said. 

    On Facebook, Cambodians urged Phnom Penh authorities to hold Srey Sina accountable, and expressed worries that he would use his influence and money to gain his release from jail.

    ENG_KHM_TYCOON SHOOTING_06182024.10.jpg
    Srey Sina appears in two images displayed on the Kampuchea Thmey Daily Telegram page June 17, 2024. (@kptnews via Telegram)

    Srey Sina, a wealthy real estate investor, held the title of Oknha, which is bestowed on Cambodians involved in business who are committed to charity or generous with donations to the government. 

    But earlier this week, the Cambodian Oknha Association said in a statement that he wasn’t a member of their association, even though he held the Oknha title. The group said it would request to have the title withdrawn to “the honor and reputation of the Okhna title.”

    Prime Minister Hun Manet made a similar public plea, and on Friday, the king issued a decree stripping Srey Sina of the Oknha title.

    ‘Difficult to accept’

    The prime minister’s brother, Minister of Civil Service Hun Many, said on Facebook that he was “devastated” to learn of the “horrific incident.” He called Long Lysong “my brother” and urged Cambodians to promote a culture of peace, tolerance and forgiveness.

    “We really don’t want this to happen and condemn such barbaric abuse of human life,” he said. “I applaud and thank the law enforcement forces who worked hard to catch criminals accountable to the law.”

    Long Lysong died at the scene, Khin Kanchana died at a hospital and two other young men received minor injuries, according to the Khmer Times. Police have arrested two other people suspected of involvement in the case.

    Hun Manet and his father, Senate President Hun Sen, have arranged for lawyers to represent the victims’ families in court, the Khmer Times reported.

    “We have lost everything and received nothing,” Lysong’s sister, Long Lyhor, told Kiripost. “It is difficult to accept as it happened immediately. It’s cruel that [the suspect] shot 12 bullets, resulting in two people dying and another two staff being injured.” 

    Long Lysong and Khin Kanchana became engaged last November and planned to marry later this year, Kiripost reported. 

    One of the attorneys representing family members, Son Chumchuon, told Radio Free Asia that the incident has caused mental suffering and monetary losses. Long Lysong was the family’s breadwinner, he said.

    “We have to assess the extent of the damages. We have to look at how much (their death) affects the future living conditions of their dependents,” he said. “Their parents have the right to seek compensation.”

    Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Surgeon General Takes Steps To Place Mental Health Warnings On Social Media Sites

    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. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: The Surgeon General is calling on […]

    The post Surgeon General Takes Steps To Place Mental Health Warnings On Social Media Sites appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Pacific Media Conference to celebrate 30th birthday of Pacific Journalism Review

    By Mark Pearson

    Journalists, publishers, academics, diplomats and NGO representatives from throughout the Asia-Pacific region will gather for the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference hosted by The University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, next month.

    A notable part of the conference on July 4-6 will be the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the journal Pacific Journalism Review — founded by the energetic pioneer of journalism studies in the Pacific, Professor David Robie, who was recently honoured in the NZ King’s Birthday Honours list as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

    I have been on the editorial board of PJR for two of its three decades.

    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024
    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024

    As well as delivering a keynote address titled “Frontline Media Faultlines: How Critical Journalism can Survive Against the Odds”, Dr Robie will join me and the current editor of PJR, Dr Philip Cass, on a panel examining the challenges faced by journalism journals in the Global South/Asia Pacific.

    We will be moderated by Professor Vijay Naidu, former professor and director of development studies and now an adjunct in the School of Law and Social Sciences at the university. He is also speaking at the PJR birthday event.

    In addition, I will be delivering a conference paper titled “Intersections between media law and ethics — a new pedagogy and curriculum”.

    Media law and ethics have often been taught as separate courses in the journalism and communication curriculum or have been structured as two distinct halves of a hybrid course.

    Integrated ethics and law approach
    My paper explains an integrated approach expounded in my new textbook, The Communicator’s Guide to Media Law and Ethics, where each key media law topic is introduced via a thorough exploration of its moral, ethical, religious, philosophical and human rights underpinnings.

    The argument is exemplified via an approach to the ethical and legal topic of confidentiality, central to the relationship between journalists and their sources.

    Mark Pearson's new book
    Mark Pearson’s The Communicator’s Guide to Media Law and Ethics cover. Image: Routledge

    After defining the term and distinguishing it from the related topic of privacy, the paper explains the approach in the textbook and curriculum which traces the religious and philosophical origins of confidentiality sourced to Hippocrates (460-370BC), via confidentiality in the priesthood (from Saint Aphrahat to the modern Catholic Code of Canon Law), and through the writings of Kant, Bentham, Stuart Mill, Sidgwick and Rawls until we reach the modern philosopher Sissela Bok’s examination of investigative journalism and claims of a public’s “right to know”.

    This leads naturally into an examination of the handling of confidentiality in both public relations and journalism ethical codes internationally and their distinctive approaches, opening the way to the examination of law, cases and examples internationally in confidentiality and disclosure and, ultimately, to a closer examination in the author’s own jurisdiction of Australia.

    Specific laws covered include breach of confidence, disobedience contempt, shield laws, whistleblower laws and freedom of information laws — with the latter having a strong foundation in international human rights instruments.

    The approach gives ethical studies a practical legal dimension, while enriching students’ legal knowledge with a backbone of its philosophical, religious and human rights origins.

    Details about the conference can be found on its USP website.

    Professor Mark Pearson (Griffith University) is a journalist, author, academic researcher and teacher with more than 45 years’ experience in journalism and journalism education. He is a former editor of Australian Journalism Review, a columnist for 15 years on research journal findings for the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association Bulletin, and author of 13 books, including The Communicator’s Guide to Media Law and Ethics — A Handbook for Australian Professionals (Routledge, 2024). He blogs at JournLaw.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Gen Z Influencers Abandon Biden

    America’s Lawyer E102: The Surgeon General is calling for warning labels on social media so that parents are aware of the threats these sites pose to young users. Documents have revealed that the Pentagon ran a secret anti-vaccine campaign overseas to prevent China from vaccinating people against COVID 19. And President Biden is suffering from […]

    The post Gen Z Influencers Abandon Biden appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Corporate Media Capitalizes On Political Hate & Strategists Fear Biden’s Reelection Chances

    The news media loves to tell us that the country is more divided than ever, and in some ways that’s true. Plus, President Biden is still struggling in the polls, and he’s got an approval rating of around 33%, causing some serious concerns with Democratic strategists who feel that Biden may have already lost the […]

    The post Corporate Media Capitalizes On Political Hate & Strategists Fear Biden’s Reelection Chances appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Fleeing prolonged media crackdown, Ethiopian journalists struggle in exile

    When Belete Kassa’s friend and news show co-host Belaye Manaye was arrested in November 2023 and taken to the remote Awash Arba military camp known as the “Guantanamo of the desert,” Belete feared that he might be next.

    The two men co-founded the YouTube-based channel Ethio News in 2020, which had reported extensively on a conflict that broke out between federal forces and the Fano militia in the populous Amhara region in April 2023, a risky move in a country with a history of stifling independent reporting.  

    Belay was swept up in a crackdown against the press after the government declared a state of emergency in August 2023 in response to the conflict.

    After months in hiding, Belete decided to flee when he heard from a relative that the government had issued a warrant for his arrest. CPJ was unable to confirm whether such an order was issued.

    “Freedom of expression in Ethiopia has not only died; it has been buried,” Belete said in his March 15 farewell post on Facebook. “Leaving behind a colleague in a desert detention facility, as well as one’s family and country, to seek asylum, is immensely painful.” (Belaye and others have been released this month after the state of emergency expired.)

    Belete’s path into exile is one that has been trod by dozens of other Ethiopian journalists who have been forced to flee harassment and persecution in a country where the government has long maintained a firm grip on the media. Over the decades, CPJ has documented waves of repression and exile tied to reporting on events like protests after the 2005 parliamentary election and censorship of independent media and bloggers ahead of the 2015 vote.

    In 2018, the Ethiopian press enjoyed a short-lived honeymoon when all previously detained journalists were released and hundreds of websites unblocked after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister.

    But with the 2020 to 2022 civil war between rebels from the Tigray region and the federal government, followed by the Amhara conflict in 2023, CPJ has documented a rapid return to a harsh media environment, characterized by arbitrary detentions and the expulsion of international journalists.

    A burned tank stands near the town of Adwa in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on March 18, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Baz Ratner)

    CPJ is aware of at least 54 Ethiopian journalists and media workers who have gone into exile since 2020, and has provided at least 30 of them with emergency assistance. Most of the journalists fled to neighboring African countries, while a few are in Europe and North America. In May and June 2024, CPJ spoke to some of these exiled journalists about their experiences. Most asked CPJ not to reveal how they escaped Ethiopia or their whereabouts and some spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears for their safety or that of family left behind.

    CPJ’s request for comment to government spokesperson Legesse Tulu via messaging app and an email to the office of the prime minister did not receive any response.

    Under ‘house arrest’ due to death threats

    Guyo Wariyo, a journalist with the satellite broadcaster Oromia Media Network was detained for several weeks in 2020 as the government sought to quell protests over the killing of ethnic Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa. Authorities sought to link the musician’s assassination with Guyo’s interview with him the previous week, which included questions about the singer’s political opinions.

    Following his release, Guyo wanted to get out of the country but leaving was not easy. Guyo said that the first three times he went to Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, National Intelligence and Security Service agents refused to let him board, saying his name was on a government list of individuals barred from leaving Ethiopia.

    Guyo eventually left in late 2020. But, more than three years later, he still feels unsafe.

    In exile, Guyo says he has received several death threats from individuals that he believes are affiliated with the Ethiopian government, via social media as well as local and international phone numbers. One of the callers even named the neighborhood where he lives. 

    “I can describe my situation as ‘house arrest,’” said Guyo, who rarely goes out or speaks to friends and family back home in case their conversations are monitored.

    Transnational repression is a growing risk globally. Ethiopia has long reached across borders to seize refugees and asylum seekers in neighboring Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, and South Sudan, and targeted those further afield, including with spyware.

    Ethiopians fleeing from the Tigray region register as refugees at the Hamdeyat refugee transit camp in Sudan, on December 1, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Baz Ratner)

    Journalists who spoke to CPJ said they fear transnational repression, citing the 2023 forcible return of The Voice of Amhara’s Gobeze Sisay from Djibouti to face terrorism charges. He remains in prison, awaiting trial and a potential death penalty.

    “We know historically that Ethiopian intelligence have been active in East Africa and there is a history of fleeing people being attacked here in Kenya,” Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region at PEN International, the global writers’ association that advocates for freedom of expression, told CPJ.

    Several of the journalists exiled in Africa told CPJ that they did not feel their host countries could protect them from Ethiopian security agents.

    “The shadow of fear and threat is always present,” said one reporter, describing the brief period he lived in East Africa before resettling in the United States.

    ‘We became very scared’

    Woldegiorgis Ghebrehiwet Teklay felt at risk in Kenya, after he fled there in December 2020 following the arrest of a colleague at the now-defunct Awlo Media Center.

    As with Guyo, Woldegiorgis’s initial attempt to leave via Addis Ababa failed. Airport security personnel questioned him about his work and ethnicity and accused him of betraying his country with his journalism, before ordering him to return home, to wait for about a week amid investigations.

    When Woldegiorgis finally reached the Kenyan capital, he partnered with other exiled Ethiopian journalists to set up Axumite Media. But between November 2021 and February 2022, Axumite was forced to slow down its operations, reducing the frequency of publication and visibility of its journalists as it was hit by financial and security concerns, especially after two men abducted an Ethiopian businessman from his car during Nairobi’s evening rush hour.

    “It might be a coincidence but after that  businessman was abducted on the street we became very scared,” said Woldegiorgis who moved to Germany the following year on a scholarship for at-risk academics and relaunched the outlet as Yabele Media.

    ‘An enemy of the state’

    Tesfa-Alem Tekle was reporting for the Nairobi-based Nation Media Group when he had to flee in 2022, after being detained for nearly three months on suspicion of having links with Tigrayan rebels.

    He kept contributing to the Nation Media Group’s The EastAfrican weekly newspaper in exile until 2023, when a death threat was slipped under his door.

    “Stop disseminating in the media messages which humiliate and tarnish our country and our government’s image,” said the threat, written in Amharic, which CPJ reviewed. “If you continue being an enemy of the state, we warn you for the last time that a once-and-for-all action will be taken against you.”

    Tesfa-Alem moved houses, reported the threat to the police, and hoped he would soon be offered safety in another country. But more than two years after going to exile, he remains in limbo, waiting to hear the outcome of his application for resettlement.

    Last year, only 158,700 refugees worldwide were resettled in third countries, representing just a fraction of the need, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR; that included 2,289 Ethiopians, said UNHCR global spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur in an email to CPJ. The need is only growing: “UNHCR estimates that almost 3 million refugees will be in need of resettlement in 2025, including over 8,600 originating from Ethiopia,” Sarrado Mur said. 

    “Unfortunately, there are very limited resettlement places available worldwide, besides being a life-saving intervention for at-risk refugees,” said Sarrado Mur.

    Without a stable source of income, Tesfa-Alem said he was living “in terrible conditions,” with months of overdue rent.

    “Stress, lack of freedom of movement, and economic reasons: all these lead me to depression and even considering returning home to face the consequences,” he said, voicing a frustration shared by all of the journalists that spoke to CPJ about the complexities and delays they encountered navigating the asylum system.

    ‘No Ethiopian security services will knock on my door’

    Most of the journalists who spoke to CPJ described great difficulties in returning to journalism. A lucky few have succeeded.

    Yayesew Shimelis, founder of the YouTube channel Ethio Forum whose reporting was critical of the Ethiopian government, was arrested multiple times between 2019 and 2022.

    In 2021, he was detained for 58 days, one of a dozen journalists and media workers held incommunicado at Awash Sebat, another remote military camp in Ethiopia’s Afar state. The following year, he was abducted by people who broke into his house, blindfolded him, and held him in an unknown location for 11 days.

    “My only two options were living in my beloved country without working my beloved job; or leaving my beloved country and working my beloved job,” he told CPJ. 

    At Addis Ababa airport in 2023, he said he was interrogated for two hours about his destination and the purpose of his trip. He told officials he was attending a wedding and promised to be back in two weeks. When his flight took off, Yayesaw was overwhelmed with relief and sadness to be “suddenly losing my country.”

    “I was crying, literally crying, when the plane took off,” he told CPJ. “People on the plane thought I was going to a funeral.”

    In exile, Yayesew feels “free”. He continues to run Ethio Forum and even published a book about Prime Minister Abiy earlier this year.

    “Now I am 100% sure that no Ethiopian security services will knock on my door the morning after I publish a critical report,” he said.

    But for Belete, only three months on from his escape, such peace remains a distant dream.

    He struggles to afford food and rent and worries who he can trust.

    “When I left my country, although I was expecting challenges, I was not prepared for how tough it would be,” he told CPJ.

    Belete says it’s difficult to report on Ethiopia from abroad and that sometimes he must choose between doing the work he loves and making a living.

    “I find myself in a state of profound uncertainty about my future,” said Belete. “I am caught between the aspiration to pursue my journalism career and the necessity of leading an ordinary life to secure my livelihood”.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Kanaky, Palestine and West Papua – ‘same struggle’, David Robie talks Pacific to Earthwise

    Pacific Media Watch

    Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths of Plains FM96.9 radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region.

    Dr Robie has just been made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM) and Earthwise ask him what this means to him. Why has he campaigned for so long for Pacific issues to receive media attention?

    Do Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia really feel like part of the Pacific world? What are the growing concerns about increasing militarisation in the Pacific and spreading Chinese influence?

    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024
    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024

    And why is decolonisation in Kanaky New Caledonia from France such a pressing issue? Dr Robie also draws parallels between the Kanak, Palestinian and West Papuan struggles.

    Dr Robie also talks about next month’s Pacific Media International Conference in Suva, Fiji, on 4-6 July 2024.

    Broadcast: Plains Radio FM96.9

    Interviewee: Dr David Robie, deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) and a semiretired professor of Pacific journalism. He founded the Pacific Media Centre.
    Interviewers: Lois and Martin Griffiths, Earthwise programme

    Date: 12 June 2024 (28min), broadcast June 17.

    Youtube: Café Pacific: https://www.youtube.com/@cafepacific2023

    https://plainsfm.org.nz/

    Café Pacific: https://davidrobie.nz/

    The Earthwise interview with David Robie.                         Video: Plains Radio FM96.9FM

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Corporate Media Pushes Civil War With Team Sport Politics

    The news media loves to tell us that the country is more divided than ever, and in some ways that’s true. But it isn’t because of our political differences – it is because of our tribalism – the “team sports” mentality that we’ve attached to our politics. Mike Papantonio is joined by Independent newspaper publisher Rick Outzen to explain […]

    The post Corporate Media Pushes Civil War With Team Sport Politics appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • A Message About Noam Chomsky: An Update

    No doubt like many other people around the world, we have been surprised and increasingly concerned that Noam Chomsky has not commented publicly on current events for around one year; in particular, on the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

    The most recent major interview we could find was this from 5 June 2023 with Piers Morgan.

    As mentioned in a message we posted on our Facebook page last Friday, we had just seen messages on Reddit, a public forum social network, one of the most visited internet sites in the world, from Bev Stohl, Noam’s longtime assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for 24 years until he moved to the University of Arizona in 2017.

    Stohl’s first message in a series titled, ‘Updates on Noam’s Health from his long-time MIT assistant, Bev Stohl’, was posted on 5 February 2024:

    Hi Fellow Redditors,

    I’ve been replying to questions on other people’s posts about why Noam Chomsky hasn’t been returning emails, or interviewing. I’m grateful for the few of you who suggested that I create my own post. So, here it is.

    I’m in contact with a close family member, and we know the basics, and hope to know more in the near future. In a nutshell, Noam is 95 years old and suffered a medical event in June. As many have noticed, he has not been writing, corresponding, or interviewing, as his health situation has taken the majority of his time and energy. He is still with us, now watching the news (he doesn’t look happy about what he’s watching). I will answer basic questions and give you updates as the family member I’m in touch with feels comfortable.

    Meanwhile, keep doing your good work.

    Best,

    Bev Stohl

    On 23 April, Stohl added:

    ‘Noam has not made significant progress, I’m sorry to say. I doubt he will be able to return to the public eye, as he is not communicating much if at all.’

    As we said in our Facebook message, it was upsetting to learn about Noam’s health. We felt it was important to share this information as the comments from Noam’s former assistant were already in the public domain, but were not well known or widely disseminated. We had direct confirmation from another reliable source who has known Noam very well for decades that he had suffered a stroke last year.

    Obviously, Noam has contributed an incredible amount to the world in his 95 years, almost beyond compare. His vital insights and in-depth knowledge of US politics and the Middle East have been terribly missed during Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. And Noam’s silence, amazingly, has been barely remarked upon in news reports, if at all, or on the internet. That changed after our Facebook post and tweet linking to it went viral.

    Peter Cronau, the Australian investigative journalist, responded:

    ‘Noam #Chomsky’s contribution is insurmountable. His inspiration is a force for change. His analysis is a pathway to understanding.

    ‘Noam is ill, so send your thoughts and live an exemplar life, and bring the change he inspires.

    ‘As relevant today as when written with Ed Herman, “The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism: The Political Economy of Human Rights” contains the gem of the weaknesses of imperialism and how it must be dismantled.

    ‘For many journalists of a generation, “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” [also co-written with Ed Herman], provides the breakdown of how the news media are so powerfully able to set the misleading narratives that sabotage democracy.

    ‘The honour and pleasure of supporting him during his first visit to Australia, helping edit and publish his book of that tour, “Powers and Prospects”, remains.

    ‘Intelligent beyond belief, but understanding and tolerant of those willing to learn, Noam has persuasively and persistently given us the understanding of this modern world, and the knowledge we need to be able to get on with the project of changing it for the benefit of all.

    ‘Viva Noam Chomsky!’

    Former MSNBC and Al Jazeera journalist, Mehdi Hasan, founder of a new media organisation called Zeteo, said:

    ‘Sending prayers Noam’s way. There has been no one else like him in our lifetime.’

    Aaron Maté of The Grayzone thanked Chomsky ‘for a lifetime of immeasurable service to humanity.’

    Matt Kennard, co-founder of Declassified UK, wrote:

    ‘One of the most beautiful minds and souls there’s ever been.

    ‘We send our love to you, Noam.’

    Time magazine and the Independent both followed up on our post with news stories.

    Associated Press (AP) has now reported that Noam is currently hospitalised in Brazil, the home country of his wife, Valeria. She took him to a Sao Paulo hospital for specialist treatment, once he could more easily travel from the United States following his stroke. She confirmed to AP the details of a piece in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo which noted that Noam has difficulty speaking and the right side of his body is affected. He is visited daily by a neurologist, speech therapist and lung specialist.

    Valeria told the newspaper that:

    ‘her husband follows the news and when he sees images of the war in Gaza, he raises his left arm in a gesture of lament and anger.’

    The newspaper added the heartening news that:

    ‘His condition has improved significantly. He [has] left the ICU [intensive care unit] and is now in a regular room.’

    Media Lens owes a huge debt of gratitude to Noam Chomsky. The example he sets as a rational, decent, tirelessly committed individual motivated by compassion for human suffering was a key inspiration, not just for the creation of Media Lens, but for our involvement in political activism at all.

    We send our very best wishes to Noam and his family at this challenging time.

    The post A Message About Noam Chomsky: An Update first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Azerbaijan extends pre-trial detention of 6 journalists accused of receiving Western funding

    Stockholm, June 12, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by a series of Azerbaijani court decisions this week that further extended the pre-trial detention of six journalists with the anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media.

    The Khatai District Court in the capital, Baku, extended the pre-trial detention of Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi, and project manager Mahammad Kekalov by three months on Wednesday, June 12.

    On Tuesday, the same court extended the detention of outlet journalist Nargiz Absalamova by three months, and on Monday, it extended the detention of journalists Hafiz Babali and Elnara Gasimova by one and two months, respectively.

    Police raided Abzas Media and began arresting its staff in November 2023 on allegations of conspiring to illegally bring money from Western donor organizations into the country. The six journalists, who have all been charged with conspiracy to smuggle currency, face up to eight years in prison if convicted, according to Azerbaijan’s criminal code.

    “CPJ is deeply disappointed that Azerbaijani authorities have once again prolonged the unwarranted incarceration of six journalists with Abzas Media and denounces the charges as retaliation for critical reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release all detained Abzas Media staff and drop charges against the 13 journalists in the country who currently face similar accusations. Journalists must not be causalities of Azerbaijan’s diplomatic tussles with the West.”

    The Abzas Media staff are among 11 journalists from four independent media outlets currently jailed in Azerbaijan on similar accusations amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West. Two more have been released under travel bans pending trial.

    Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli arrives at court on June 11, 2024. (Photo: Farid Ismayilov)

    Abzas Media denounced the charges as reprisal for “a series of investigations into the corruption crimes of the president and officials appointed by him.”

    In April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev rejected criticism of the arrests, saying media representatives “who illegally receive funding from abroad” had been arrested within the framework of the law.

    On May 21, a court extended by one month the pre-trial detention of Kanal 13 director Aziz Orujov and journalist Shamo Eminov on similar charges.


    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.

  • Free media watchdog RSF mourns death of its secretary-general Christophe Deloire at 53

    Pacific Media Watch

    The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders global media freedom watchdog has announced that it is deeply saddened by the death of its secretary-general, Christophe Deloire, following a battle with cancer. He was 53.

    Christophe Deloire, who died last Saturday, had held the post since 2012 and for 12 years transformed the association, marked by renewed growth and impact, into a global champion for the defence of journalism.

    Founding president of the Forum on Information and Democracy since 2018 and appointed general delegate of the États Généraux de l’Information in 2023, Christophe Deloire was a tireless defender, on every continent, of the freedom, independence and pluralism of journalism, in a context of information chaos.

    Journalism was his life’s struggle, which he fought with unshakeable conviction, said RSF in a statement.

    Many of those media freedom defenders working in the Asia-Pacific region, including Pacific Media Watch, met him at a regional collaboration in Paris in 2018.

    Under Deloire’s leadership, RSF had stepped up advocacy for media freedom in the Pacific.

    Pacific Media Watch joins Reporters Without Borders in extending its deepest condolences to Deloire’s wife Perrine, his son Nathan, his parents, and all those close to him.

    For Pierre Haski, chairman of RSF’s board of directors, said: “Christophe Deloire led the organisation at a crucial time for the right to information.

    “His contribution to defending this fundamental right has been considerable. The board of directors shares in the grief of his family and friends.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pakistan province enacts harsh defamation law, Supreme Court presses legal action against 34 media outlets 

    New York, June 11, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm on Tuesday that Pakistan’s east Punjab province hastily enacted a defamation law that is likely to greatly restrict press freedom, and the country’s Supreme Court issued notices to 34 media outlets in connection with their programming.

    On Saturday, June 8, acting Punjab governor and speaker of the provincial assembly Malik Ahmad Khan, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party member, approved a defamation law passed on May 20 despite concerns from journalists, human rights organizations, and opposition lawmakers, according to news reports.

    The law, which is being challenged by journalists and press bodies in the Lahore High Court, replaces Punjab’s Defamation Ordinance, 2002 and loosely defines “defamation” and “broadcasting” to include social media platforms. 

    Separately, on June 5, Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued show-cause notices to 34 news channels, asking them to explain, within two weeks, why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for airing press conferences by two parliamentarians who criticized the judiciary, according to multiple news reports.

    The court issued the order while hearing a contempt case against the two parliamentarians, who questioned senior judges alleging the ISI– Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency– was interfering in judicial matters.

    “Pakistan’s Punjab government must swiftly repeal the recently enacted defamation law and ensure that any such legislation does not impinge on press freedom,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The media must also be allowed to broadcast key political speeches and developments without interference or fear of reprisal.”

    Under Punjab’s new defamation law, claimants may initiate legal action “without proof of actual damage or loss.” Penalties range from three million rupees (US $10,792) to punitive damages 10 times that amount. Tribunals may also order defendants to tender an unconditional apology or issue a directive to suspend or block the social media account or website where the alleged defamatory content was disseminated. 

    Pakistan has intermittently blocked access to X, formerly Twitter, since February.

    The law also mandates special tribunals, whose members will be appointed by the Punjab government in consultation with the chief justice of the Lahore High Court to adjudicate offenses within 180 days. 

    According to Farieha Aziz, a freelance journalist and co-founder of the digital rights organization Bolo Bhi, the appointment procedure represented a conflict of interest because those who select tribunal members can also be complainants.

    The law further authorizes the tribunal to pass a preliminary decree against a defendant if they do not obtain a leave to defend, or permission to defend themselves against the accusations, at the outset of trial. Moreover, the law bars commenting on pending proceedings, which Aziz called a “gag order.”

    “If a public official has brought a case under the law, it is in public interest to know,” Aziz said.

    Defamation claims filed by a “constitutional office” holder such as the prime minister, Supreme Court and Lahore High Court judges, and army chiefs, will be tried through a separate procedure, raising concerns surrounding violations of constitutional rights.

    Pakistan’s political environment remains volatile after February elections– widely described as flawed– led to the formation of a coalition government of the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party, with the former taking power in Punjab.

    Punjab governor Sardar Saleem Haider, a PPP member who was abroad when the defamation law was enacted, earlier stated on June 5 that the provincial government would address the concerns of journalists and other stakeholders, suggesting the legislation would be sent back to the assembly for further consultation.

    Punjab information minister Azma Zahid Bokhari did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment.


    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.

  • Journalists Covering 2024 Election Face Hostilities and Fear Police Action

    In 2016, as The New Republic reporter Walter Shapiro wandered around a hockey arena in eastern Pennsylvania where former President Donald Trump was holding a rally, he could find no one willing to speak with him. He remembers a middle-aged woman attendee telling him, “Why should I talk to you? You are from the liberal press.” Just days earlier, Trump had falsely accused CNN of turning off its…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • OSHA Investigates Teen Death At Poultry Plant & Lawmakers Receive Death threats Over TikTok Ban

    The Department of Labor and OSHA are conducting an investigation into the death of a 16-year old at a poultry processing plant. Also, as lawmakers in Washington ban TikTok in the United States, angry constituents are lobbing death threats at them. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so […]

    The post OSHA Investigates Teen Death At Poultry Plant & Lawmakers Receive Death threats Over TikTok Ban appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • CPJ, others call on Slovakia’s Parliament to reject public broadcasting bill

    Berlin, June 10, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists joined seven international press freedom organizations in urging Slovak members of parliament on Monday to reject the proposed public service broadcasting bill scheduled for parliamentary review next week.

    The statement says that despite modifications, the bill still allows the government to politicize the public broadcaster, which would fatally compromise its independence. Therefore, it is contrary to the European Media Freedom Act’s provisions on the independence of public media.

    Referring to the recent shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico in the background of a polarized society, the statement says that the “need for pluralistic and independent public media, that can facilitate debate across the political spectrum in a time of crisis, has never been greater.”

    Read the full statement:

    Slovakia PSM bill june 24.docxDownload


    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.

  • Defend ‘Pacific voice’ over geopolitics, climate crisis – keep pressure on decolonisation, Robie tells Wansolwara

    By Monika Singh in Suva

    New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) awardee Professor David Robie has called on young journalists to see journalism as a calling and not just a job.

    Dr Robie, who is also the editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network, was named in the King’s Birthday Honours list for “services to journalism and Asia Pacific media education”.

    He was named last Monday and the investiture ceremony is later this year.

    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024
    PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024

    The University of the South Pacific’s head of journalism Associate Professor Shailendra Singh told Wansolwara News: “David’s mountain of work in media research and development, and his dedication to media freedom, speak for themselves.

    “I am one of the many Pacific journalists and researchers that he has mentored and inspired over the decades”.

    Dr Singh said this recognition was richly deserved.

    Dr Robie was head of journalism at USP from 1998 to 2002 before he resigned to join the Auckland University of Technology ane became an associate professor in the School of Communication Studies in 2005 and full professor in 2011.

    Close links with USP
    Since resigning from the Pacific university he has maintained close links with USP Journalism. He was the chief guest at the 18th USP Journalism awards in 2018.

    Retired AUT professor of journalism and communication studies and founder of the Pacific Media Centre Dr David Robie
    Retired AUT professor of journalism and communication studies and founder of the Pacific Media Centre Dr David Robie. Image: Alyson Young/APMN

    He has also praised USP Journalism and said it was “bounding ahead” when compared with the journalism programme at the University of Papua New Guinea, where he was the head of journalism from 1993 to 1997.

    Dr Robie has also co-edited three editions of Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) research journal with Dr Singh.

    He is a keynote speaker at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference which is being hosted by USP’s School of Pacific Arts, Communications and Education (Journalism), in collaboration with the Pacific Island News Association (PINA) and the Asia-Pacific Media Network (APMN).

    The conference will be held from 4-6 July at the Holiday Inn, Suva. This year the PJR will celebrate its 30th year of publishing at the conference.

    The editors will be inviting a selection of the best conference papers to be considered for publication in a special edition of the PJR or its companion publication Pacific Media.

    Professor David Robie and associate professor and head of USP Journalism Shailendra Singh at the 18th USP Journalism Awards. Image: Wnsolwara/File

    Referring to his recognition for his contribution to journalism, Dr Robie told RNZ Pacific he was astonished and quite delighted but at the same time he felt quite humbled by it all.

    ‘Enormous support’
    “However, I feel that it’s not just me, I owe an enormous amount to my wife, Del, who is a teacher and designer by profession, and a community activist, but she has given journalism and me enormous support over many years and kept me going through difficult times.

    “There’s a whole range of people who have contributed over the years so it’s sort of like a recognition of all of us, especially all those who worked so hard for 13 years on the Pacific Media Centre when it was going. So, yes, it is a delight and I feel quite privileged.”

    Reflecting on his 50 years in journalism, Dr Robie believes that the level of respect for mainstream news media has declined.

    “This situation is partly through the mischievous actions of disinformation peddlers and manipulators, but it is partly our fault in media for allowing the lines between fact-based news and opinion/commentary to be severely compromised, particularly on television,” he told Wansolwara News.

    He said the recognition helped to provide another level of “mana” at a time when public trust in journalism had dropped markedly, especially since the covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of a “global cesspit of disinformation”.

    Dr Robie said journalists were fighting for the relevance of media today.

    “The Fourth Estate, as I knew it in the 1960s, has eroded over the last few decades. It is far more complex today with constant challenges from the social media behemoths and algorithm-driven disinformation and hate speech.”

    He urged journalists to believe in the importance of journalism in their communities and societies.

    ‘Believe in truth to power’
    “Believe in the contribution that we can make to understanding and progress. Believe in truth to power. Have courage, determination and go out and save the world with facts, compassion and rationality.”

    Despite the challenges, he believes that journalism is just as vital today, even more vital perhaps, than the past.

    “It is critical for our communities to know that they have information that is accurate and that they can trust. Good journalism and investigative journalism are the bulwark for an effective defence of democracy against the anarchy of digital disinformation.

    “Our existential struggle is the preservation of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa  — protecting our Pacific Ocean legacy for us all.”

    Dr Robie began his career with The Dominion in 1965, after part-time reporting while a trainee forester and university science student with the NZ Forest Service, and worked as an international journalist and correspondent for agencies from Johannesburg to Paris.

    In addition to winning several journalism awards, he received the 1985 Media Peace Prize for his coverage of the Rainbow Warrior bombing. He was on a 11-week voyage with the bombed ship and wrote the book Eyes of Fire about French and American nuclear testing.

    He also travelled overland across Africa and the Sahara Desert for a year in the 1970s while a freelance journalist.

    In 2015, he was awarded the AMIC Asian Communication Award in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    Professor David Robie (second from right), and USP head of journalism Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, (left)
    Professor David Robie (second from right), and USP head of journalism Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, (left) with the winners of the 18th USP Journalism Awards in 2018. Image: Wansolwara/File

    Geopolitics, climate crisis and decolonisation
    Dr Robie mentions geopolitics and climate crisis as two of the biggest issues for the Pacific, with the former being largely brought upon by major global players, mainly the US, Australia and China.

    He said it was important for the Pacific to create its own path and not become pawns or hostages to this geopolitical rivalry, adding that it was critically important for news media to retain its independence and a critical distance.

    “The latter issue, climate crisis, is one that the Pacific is facing because of its unique geography, remoteness and weather patterns. It is essential to be acting as one ‘Pacific voice’ to keep the globe on track over the urgent solutions needed for the world. The fossil fuel advocates are passé and endangering us all.

    “Journalists really need to step up to the plate on seeking climate solutions.”

    Dr Robie also shared his views on the recent upheaval in New Caledonia.

    “In addition to many economic issues for small and remote Pacific nations, are the issues of decolonisation. The events over the past three weeks in Kanaky New Caledonia have reminded us that unresolved decolonisation issues need to be centre stage for the Pacific, not marginalised.”

    According to Dr Robie concerted Pacific political pressure, and media exposure, needs to be brought to bear on both France over Kanaky New Caledonia and “French” Polynesia, or Māohi Nui, and Indonesia with West Papua.

    He called on the Pacific media to step up their scrutiny and truth to power role to hold countries and governments accountable for their actions.

    Monika Singh is editor-in-chief of Wansolwara, the online and print publication of the USP Journalism Programme. Published in partnership with Wansolwara.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Sir Julius Chan ‘alive and well’ response to fake PNG media post

    By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

    New Ireland Governor and a former Papua New Guinea prime minister Sir Julius Chan told the PNG Post-Courier in a “last man standing” interview at the weekend that this “media crime” should stop.

    He was responding to a fake press release allegedly released by New Ireland Deputy Governor Missen Semmie in Kavieng in the early hours of Saturday morning at 2.30am which claimed Sir J — as he is popularly known — had “succumbed to the call of nature” and passed on.

    But Sir J, now 84, said it was “unbelievable” as Semmie was in his remote village where communication was a problem.

    “I am used to it but some other people are not used to it,” Sir J told the Post-Courier.

    “I am okay, yes, and . . . whether you like me or not, you better be ready because you’ll be going before me.”

    Meanwhile, the Post-Courier reports that the ruling Pangu Pati parliamentary wing had resolved to dismiss the 12 MPs who had defected to the opposition.

    The party also confirmed that party leader and Prime Minister James Marape and deputy leader and Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso would keep their positions.

    This resolution was made during the Pangu caucus meeting at Parliament attended by Pangu MPs.

    Four of the renegade Pangu MPs — Finschhafen MP Rainbo Paita, Moresby Northwest MP Lohia Boe Samuel, Goilala MP Casmiro Aia and Lagaip MP Amos Akem — were present.

    “Those MPs who defected were asked to present their case, after which the meeting resolved that the 12 MPs be given seven days’ notice of their dismissal from the party,” Prime Minister Marape said.

    “The Pangu Pati constitution gives them the choice to appeal if they do choose to appeal, for readmittance to the party.”

    Gorethy Kenneth is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • This Election Season, We Need Tools for Media Literacy More Than Ever

    How can politically-conscious people meaningfully engage with the onslaught of propaganda presented as factual news during an election year? We’re in another election year — one that feels eerily similar to the exceptionally painful 2020 presidential election. The same two candidates, their campaigns, and by extension mainstream media, are forcing voters into an impossible moral battle of deciding…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Company Behind Baltimore Bridge Collapse Has Shady History & New Law Limits Social Media For Kids

    New reports have revealed that the company that operated the vessel that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore have a history of punishing whistleblowers who point out safety violations by the company. Then, the state of Florida has passed a major new law that limits social media use for children, banning popular apps […]

    The post Company Behind Baltimore Bridge Collapse Has Shady History & New Law Limits Social Media For Kids appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Academia is only as free as powerful donors allow it to be

    Anyone who imagines there is something resembling academic freedom in the US, or elsewhere in the West for that matter, needs to read this article in the Intercept on an extraordinary – or possibly not so extraordinary – episode of censorship of a Palestinian academic. It shows how donors are the ones really pulling the strings in our academic institutions.

    Here’s what happened:

    1. The prestigious Harvard Law Review was due to publish its first-ever essay by a Palestinian legal scholar late last year, shortly after Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel. Hurrah (finally) for academic freedom!

    2. However, the essay, which sought to establish a new legal concept of the Nakba – the mass expulsion of Palestinian civilians from their homeland in 1948 to create what would become the self-defined Jewish state of Israel – was pulled at the last moment, despite the fact the editors had subjected it to intense editorial checks and scrutiny. The Harvard Review got cold feet – presumably because of the certainty the essay would offend many of the university’s donors and create a political backlash.

    3. Editors at the rival Columbia Law Review decided to pick up the baton. They asked the same scholar, Rabea Eghbariah, to submit a new, much longer version of the essay for publication. It would be the first time a Palestinian legal scholar had been published by the Columbia Law Review too. Hurrah (finally) for academic freedom!

    4. Aware of the inevitable pushback, 30 editors at the Review spent five months editing the essay, but did so in secret and mostly anonymously to protect themselves from reprisals. The article was subjected to unprecedented scrutiny.

    5. Alerted to the fact that the essay had been leaked and that pressure was building from powerful figures associated with Columbia university and the Washington establishment to prevent publication, the editors published the article this month, unannounced, on the Review’s website. Hurrah (finally) for academic freedom!

    6. But within hours, the Review’s board of directors, comprising law professors and alumni, some with official roles in the federal government, demanded that the essay be taken down. When the editors refused, the whole website was pulled offline. The homepage read “Website under maintenance.”

    7. Hurrah for… the Israel lobby (again).

    If even the academic community is so browbeaten by donors and the political establishment that they dare not allow serious academic debate, even over a legal concept, what hope is there that politicians and the media – equally dependent on Big Money, and even more sensitive to the public pressure of lobbies – are going to perform any better.

    University complicity in the Gaza genocide – brought out of the shadows by the campus protests – highlights how academic institutions are tightly integrated into the political and commercial ventures of western establishments.

    The universities’ savage crackdown on the student encampments – denying them any right to peacefully protest complicity in genocide by the very institutions to which they pay their fees – further underscores the fact that universities are there to maintain the semblance of free and open debate but not the substance. Debate is allowed but only within strictly controlled, and policed, parameters.

    Academic institutions, politicians and the media speak as one on the Gaza genocide for a reason. They are there not promote a dialectics in which truth and falsehood can be tested through open discussion, but to confer legitimacy on the darkest agendas of the establishment they serve.

    Our public debates are rigged to avoid topics that would be difficult for western elites to counter, like their current support for genocide in Gaza. But the very reason we have a genocide in Gaza is because lots of other debates we should have had decades ago have not been allowed to take place, including the one Eghbariah was trying to raise: that the Nakba that began in 1948 and has continued ever since for the Palestinian people needs its own legal framework that incorporates apartheid and genocide.

    Israel’s genocide in Gaza was made possible precisely because western establishments avoided any meaningful scrutiny of, or engagement with, the events of the Nakba for more than 75 years. They pretended either that the ethnic cleansing of 1948 never happened, or that it was the Palestinians’ choice to ethnically cleanse themselves.

    In the decades that followed, western establishments pretended that the illegal colonisation of Palestine by Jewish settlers and the reality of apartheid rule faced by Palestinians – hidden under the rubric of a “temporary occupation” – either weren’t happening, or could be solved through a bogus, bad-faith “peace process”.

    There was never accountability, there was no truth or reconciliation. The western establishment are still furiously avoiding that debate 76 years on, as Eghbariah’s experiences at the hands of the Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews prove.

    We can only pray we don’t have to wait another three-quarters of a century before western elites consider acknowledging their complicity in the genocide of Gaza.

    The post Academia is only as free as powerful donors allow it to be first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • At least 5 journalists harassed or assaulted covering pre-election events in Mozambique

    New York, June 7, 2024 – Mozambican authorities should investigate the harassment and assault of at least five journalists covering election-related events since March, and take concrete steps to ensure the press can freely and safely report on matters of crucial public interest leading up to the country’s October general elections, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday.

    On May 16, in Mozambique’s central Zambézia province, about 10 private security guards assaulted and threatened STV reporter Jorge Marcos and camera operator Verson Paulo at a Renamo opposition party event, according to the two journalists, a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and video footage of the incident reviewed by CPJ.

    The police were also there but did nothing, Marcos said, and Paulo added that his camera was damaged in the incident.

    Marcos said that the private security officers also yelled insults and accused them of working for Venâncio Mondlane, a challenger to presidential hopeful Ossumo Momade, leader of the opposition Renamo party, in October’s election.

    Three private security officers interrupted TV Sucesso reporter Ernesto Martinho and camera operator Valdo Massingue during a May 5 live report from a school in the capital of Maputo, where the ruling Frelimo party was holding a congress to elect its next presidential candidate, according to the MISA statement and the journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

    Frelimo has governed the country and nominated all of its presidents since the country became independent in 1975. Its current president, Filipe Nyusi, is term-limited and will leave office after the upcoming national election.

    The private security officers expelled both journalists from the school grounds, told Martinho that he was banned from covering the event, and threatened to also ban all TV Sucesso journalists. Martinho said that a security officer briefly confiscated his microphone, and Valdo said that security personnel also tried to confiscate his camera.

    “Mozambique’s October 2024 elections will be pivotal, and political parties must not be allowed to dictate what information reaches the public domain by harassing and intimidating journalists,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Mozambican authorities, as well as the leadership of the Frelimo and Renamo parties, must hold those responsible to account for attacks on at least five journalists covering election-related events.”

    On March 28, journalist Atanázio Amade was arrested while he was covering the voter registration process in the northern Nampula province, after a Frelimo party official alleged that the journalist did not have the proper credentials to be present, according to the journalist who spoke to CPJ and the MISA statement.

    Amade, who works with the community radio Ehale, said that he was taken to a local station where the national police’s district commander Américo Francisco, and directors with Mozambique’s Information and National Security Service (SISE) and the Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), forced him to delete footage of voters waiting in long queues to register and told him that he “was infringing the law and committing fraud because he was monitoring the electoral registration without special authorization.” Amade said he did not know the names of the SISE and SERNIC directors.

    Renamo spokesperson José Manteigas and Frelimo spokesperson Ludmila Maguni did not respond to CPJ’s phone calls or messages. Rosa Chaúque, spokesperson of the police in Nampula told CPJ via phone that she would look into the incident involving Amade and get back to CPJ. Chaúque did not answer several subsequent calls or messages.

    Emina Tsimine, spokesperson for Sernic, told CPJ via message app that Amade did not identify himself before taking photos at the registry posts and that electoral posts have “heightened levels of security.” She added that Sernic and SISE “merely made the journalist aware of the need to identify himself to avoid these situations” and that both police forces took 20 minutes to speak to him to ascertain his identity, not being responsible for the journalist being held for five hours.

    SISE representatives could not be reached for comment.


    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.

  • Taliban orders shutdown of broadcaster Tamadon TV

    New York, June 7, 2024 — The Taliban must reverse its order to shut down private broadcaster Tamadon TV and end its ongoing, unprecedented suppression of Afghan media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

    On Thursday, the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice announced the closure of Tamadon TV, alleging that the broadcaster was affiliated with the Harakat-e-Islami political party, after the Taliban banned all such affiliations, and operating on “seized land,” according to Qari Baraktullah Rasuli, the spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice who posted the statement on X, formerly Twitter, and media reports. Tamadon TV denies the claims.

    In a breaking news announcement earlier that day, Tamadon TV stated that a Taliban delegation was inside its station to shut down operations. However, later the TV station confirmed that the suspension of its operations was postponed until Saturday. The Taliban has not announced an exact date that it plans to close the station. 

    “The Taliban must immediately and unconditionally reverse its decision to ban Tamadon TV and allow the channel to continue broadcasting,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban is expanding its relentless crackdown on Afghan media and suppressing any independent voices. This must end.”

    On June 6, Mohammad Jawad Mohseni, director of Tamadon TV, rejected the Taliban’s claims about the broadcaster’s political affiliations, according to broadcaster Afghanistan International. Mohseni noted that the late founder of the TV station, Ayatullah Asif Mohseni, had resigned as the leader of Harakat-e-Islami in 2005, years before establishing Tamadon TV.

    Mohseni said that “the land for Tamadon TV was purchased from a private owner and has a legitimate and legal title deed, and it is not and has never been government property.”

    On February 18, 2023, about 10 armed Taliban members raided the headquarters of Tamadon TV in Kabul, beat several staff members, and held them for 30 minutes.

    Tamadon TV is predominantly owned and operated by members of the Hazara-Shia ethnic minority and covers political and current affairs as well as Shiite religious programming. Hazara people have faced persecution and escalated violence since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

    The closure order of Tamadon TV follows a series of other restrictions imposed on Afghan media in recent months. In May, the Taliban’s Media Complaints and Rights Violations Commission banned journalists, analysts, and experts from participating in discussions or cooperating with London-based Afghanistan International’s television and radio stations. The Commission called on citizens to boycott Afghanistan International and banned anyone from providing facilities for broadcasting the channel in public places.

    Earlier, in April, the Taliban shut down Noor and Barya TV broadcasters, which were affiliated with other Islamist political parties, citing violations of “national and Islamic values.”

    The Taliban has shut down other broadcasters since it took over the country in 2021,  including Radio Nasim. in central Daikundi Province, Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV in eastern Nangarhar province, and Radio Sada e Banowan in northeastern Badakhshan province. In 2022, the group also banned international broadcasters such as the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America.

    CPJ’s requests for comment sent to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not receive a response.


    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.

  • Understanding the Fate of the Palestinians

    Since day one of their entrance, the Zionists seized opportunities to enhance their strength and further their agenda, extending a single settlement in Ottoman Palestine to complete control of Palestine. Ten pioneers from Russia acquired 835 acres of land southeast of present day Tel Aviv and established Rishon Le-Zion (“First in Zion”). Founded in 1882, the settlement has grown to a city of approximately 260,000.

    The “First in Zion” symbolizes the Zionist thrust — pretend innocence, harden hearts, brutalize innocent inhabitants, and turn oppression of others into security needs for yourself. After the Zionists gained overwhelming power, they used power for severe oppression, to steal more lands, manufacture huge bombs to overcome fists and rocks, and to terrorize a population. Those who contended the oppression were called terrorists. The smiles on Zionists’ faces come from convincing a complacent, unknowing, and confused world to accept ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide as daily happenings that only Zionists are permitted to perpetrate.

    The questions often asked and never answered are, “How did the Zionist Jews get away with this open air and available for all to see genocide, and why has there been no valid response to stop it? Millions of valiant people struggle each day to change the situation and bring peace and justice to the Middle East, and these efforts have not succeeded in halting the onslaught, not even reducing it by one Band-Aid.

    Shocking is the cowardice of prominent and respected persons, such as Barack Obama, who do not speak out forcibly about the genocide in Gaza. Puzzling is that the United States entered World War II to defeat a state claiming ethnic superiority, exhibiting ultra-nationalism, engaging in irredentism, practicing militarism, and perpetrating genocide. For decades the United States has supported another state that claims ethnic superiority, exhibits ultra-nationalism, engages in irredentism, practices militarism, and perpetrates genocide. The US has seen its World War II battle that defeated Nazi Germany give rise to an extremist Zionism, with innocent European Jews and now innocent Palestinians the victims of the battle. Defeat of a despised international opponent has resurrected a lookalike and despised international opponent.

    Building an effective strategy against an opponent requires understanding the opponent’s strategy. The Zionist Jews have major strategies — never compromise, continually pursue the agenda, pay no attention to those who cannot or will not militarily intercede (how many armed divisions does the Vatican have?), turn arguments against them into arguments against the accuser (using debts as collateral), and use to advantage the conditioning of minds that the Holocaust and false charges of anti-Semitism have provided. These strategies are apparent in the war on the Gazans and the reactions to the genocide.

    PM Netanyahu stated that Israel did not start this war and did not want this war. Although the genocide of the Palestinians started in 1948, when Zionist militias were already cleansing the land and telling the world they were being attacked, Netanyahu made it seem that a past did not exist and a new war had started. PM Netanyahu tells us that a relatively small contingent of lightly armed Hamas militias want to kill all Jews, conquer all Israel, and expel all Jewish inhabitants. This invisible army is prepared to overcome a heavily armed and formidable army that, without much resistance, does to the Palestinians what Netanyahu claims little Hamas wants to do to the Jews —  daily massacres,  seizing lands, ethnic cleansing, and constant oppression. Israel took advantage of the October 7 attack to hasten the genocide of the Palestinians and disguise the massacre as a legitimate defense.

    The Zionist strategy demonstrated its effectiveness when the international Zionist organization persuaded the US Congress to inform the world that the campus protests against US assistance to the genocide of the Palestinians were anti-Semitic conspiracies. Periodic television ads that attempt to validate the anti-Semitic conspiracy and plead not to make Jews victims of the protests followed the diabolical plot. The TV ads indirectly tell us not to give overwhelming importance to the genocide of the Palestinians; more important is that the protests make Jews feel uncomfortable because a few protestors accuse Jews, who support a state that calls itself the “Jewish state,” of complicity in genocide that a “Jewish state” they support is committing. The Zionist strategy works well in a dumbed American republic ─ converts action to stop the genocide into sympathy for those approving the genocide

    Focus on the genocide seems a sufficient exercise but lack of success in halting it indicates other severe problems must be addressed. Witnessing the genocide, which is as apparent as the sun rising every 24 hours, having leading and recognized authorities on human rights vigorously exclaim, “This is a genocide,” noting the number of nations voicing their horror and taking action to stop the genocide, regarding the worldwide protests against the genocide, and observing government officials leaving government in protest to the US government’s bizarre assistance in hastening the genocide, and then hearing President Joe Biden say, “What’s happening is not genocide, we reject that,” raises doubts of the sanity of US government officials and operation of a pluralistic democracy where the public’s loud voice is not heard. These genocide deniers can start learning by consulting the Law for Palestine Releases Database, especially the legislative database.

    Rhetoric has not clarified that the moral corruption in allowing Zionist Jews to commit genocide has turned religion, democracy, justice, truth, and human rights into meaningless words. Life has lost reality and values have no substance. The mainstream public remains unaware of the seriousness of the damaging relationship the US has with Israel and the genocide and that these affect all aspects of their lives —political, moral, social, cultural, and economic. A strategic objective is to let them know.

    Throw it at them.
    Huge protests in front of the embassies and media headquarters that support Israel.
    Huge protests that align the main roads and city streets and bring the protests into neighborhoods.
    Full-page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post calling out the genocide.
    Turning anti-Semitism into a vile expression so that its use is uncomfortable. Signs that say “The truth becomes a shit charge of anti-Semitism, and “If truth is anti-Semitism, we are we are all anti-Semites now.”

    Assist Jewish organizations that have joined the battle

    Jewish organizations, such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and If not Now (IFN) have courageously championed Palestinian rights. They deserve praise for their efforts and funding to expand their efforts. These efforts serve a dual purpose — liberate the Palestinians from Israeli oppression and liberate the Jewish people from Zionist oppression.

    The biblical “Exodus” story did not free the Jews. Just the opposite, it has been used to keep Jews in perpetual bondage to a spurious history and to promote constant victimhood, while distracting them from roles they may play in the injustices done to others. JVP and IFN are awakening other Jews to the destructive impulses generated from Israel that prevent worldwide Jewry from recognizing the roots of modern Judaism and revert them to atavistic and reactionary relics of an ancient Hebrew and fictitious past.

    Israel is not a true democracy, and evidence certifies it is a militarist, nationalist, racist, nation that practices apartheid, engages in severe human rights violations, and spies on its citizens. By blindly accepting Zionist behavior, the Jewish people lost the initiative to change Israel’s policies, misdirected the path to a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis, exacerbated the crisis, and harmed the security of Jews throughout the world. The exemplary work by JVP and IFN members is the best rescue plan for a subdued Jewish community. The best Hanukah gift is a check to both these organizations.

    Lawsuits

    Pernicious lawsuits that had no legal value and demonstrated bias of US courts in favor of the Zionists have pulverized the Palestine Authority and organizations supporting Palestinian liberation. Time to have the lawsuits work the other way.

    Lawsuits against false charges of anti-Semitism by the ADL and other organizations can be made. The ADL has lost several cases against its illegal expressions.

    Lawsuits by Jewish groups against those who signify Israel as a Jewish state, a slander to Jewish people that unfairly binds them to the genocide of the Palestinian people..

    Lawsuit to finally have AIPAC declared a lobby for a foreign state. New evidence and a new approach will be needed.

    Lawsuits to close Holocaust Memorial museums as improper use of the deaths of the Holocaust victims. The US government and people are guilty of genocide of the Native Americans, enslaving Blacks from Africa, and extreme violence against peoples throughout the world — Latin America, the Caribbean, Vietnam, the Philippines, Iraq, Libya, and others. The Holocaust occurred in a foreign nation and neither the US government nor its people had responsibility for the tragedy. The Holocaust Memorial museums indicate otherwise, are unfair to the American people, have not halted other genocides, have been divisive, and have been accused of promoting hatred. These museums distract Americans from their responsibility for the violence they have committed against other cultures. The Native Americans and African Americans did not use the destruction of their peoples to create museums in which they play victim; they took a positive approach and used them to encourage respect for their cultures. Their inviting museums ridicule the lugubrious Holocaust museums and reveal the latter museums as an insult to the European Jews who died in the Holocaust. Included in the lawsuit can be those who suffered during the Holocaust or had close relatives who died during the Holocaust. Having had aunts, uncles, and cousins from Paris, France, and Warsaw, Poland, some who died in the Holocaust and others who struggled for survival during World War II, I identify with the latter. When writing my book on the struggles for survival of my European family during the 2nd World War, Not Until They Were Gone, I made sure it was not written as a Holocaust story and appeared as a book of heroism and survival.

    Illegal activities by Israelis residing in the United States

    A previous article detailed how Israel sends its citizens to other nations, has them integrate, and steer the country to favor Israel. Exposing, combatting, and bringing law to halt this maneuver and manipulation of American hospitality is a high priority.

    Defeating pro-Israel legislators

    Highest priority is to do in reverse what AIPAC does. Defeating two or three congress politicos who have had marginal victories is possible. If pro-Israelis suffer more defeats, other politicians will rapidly question their allegiances. An organization for accomplishing this vital task requires the highest skill —  demographers who know voting patterns, public relations who understand the constituency and how to approach it, statisticians who can translate voting patterns into probability of victory, fundraisers who can target donors, psychologists who interpret behavior, sociologists who recognize social patterns, political consultants who recognize strengths and faults of candidates, and luck.

    Defeat media co-opting

    This includes responding to social media. Failure to change media co-opting by the Zionists makes other tasks more difficult. Establishing an alternative media has been tried and never permanently succeeded. Why? One insulting obvious reason is that the American public prefers simplicity, excitement, and trash, regardless of the truth. Insulting, but true. It is difficult for moral, dedicated, and honest people to operate at the low level of the Fox network and use the Zionist duplicity that infiltrates and inserts fallacies into conventional media networks. Even if the Fox News types are defeated, their audience will find another Fox News type. Intense brainstorming by smart people who do smart things and understand the devious mind can devise a strategy that limits Zionist influence. Subtlety, invisible conditioning, and making people feel cheated by subscribing to cheaters are my recommendations to the brainstorming operation.

    Getting Things Straight

    It’s troublesome to hear those who struggle to prevent the genocide exhibit lapses in knowledge that affect the solution. As an example, I have heard many people refer to UN Proclamation 188, the Partition Plan, as the UN awarding the Jews a state. Two corrections: (1) The UN General Assembly cannot award. It can only recommend; it is not an enforcing agency. The Palestinians had every right to refuse the plan. (2) I have written several times that the partition plan did not create two states; it divided one Palestinian state into two states ─ a Palestinian state composed of almost 100 percent Palestinians, and a Palestinian state called Jewish for differentiation. In the document that recognized the ‘new state,’ President Truman crossed out the words ‘Jewish state’ and inserted the words ‘state of Israel.’ This state was composed of about 67 percent Palestinians who were native to the area (400,000 Palestinians), a smaller contingent of 200,000 foreign Jews that had been born or came as Zionists to live permanently in Palestine, and another larger contingent of 400,000 foreign Jews who arrived for expediency and not with original intentions of remaining in the British Mandate. They should not have been counted in the census. From that perspective, David Ben-Gurion and a small clique of opportunists took advantage of an ill-advised UN, an ill-led and ill-equipped Palestinian community, and a confused world to declare their state, and, with seasoned militia forces — Haganah, Irgun, Lehi, and Palmach — cleanse the area of Palestinians and establish Israel. Disconcerting that significant information is not properly distributed, which leads to the recommendation that an organization be formed to provide accurate material, answer questions, and correct inaccuracies.

    Conclusion

    Requests for obtaining viable recommendations that will prevent the genocide of the Palestinians have not been forthcoming. Demonstrations have highlighted the massacres and brought those who recognize the genocide to work together, but have not succeeded in changing government policy. Gathering signatures for petitions to congressional representatives has slightly moved some Democratic politicos to change their pro-Israel position but has not prevented committees from assisting Israel and has not prevented legislation that favors Israel.

    Masses of dedicated and well-meaning people are involved in the push to prevent genocide; unfortunately, the present efforts do not appear they will achieve the wanted results. Much more is needed and the lack of inquiries, recommendations, discussions, and feedback to suggestions indicate that the urgent message has fallen on deaf ears.

    When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge of dark evil
    onto the good green land ‘they’ gloated.
    The western skies
    reverberated with joyous accounts:
    “The Tree has fallen !
    The great trunk is smashed! The hurricane leaves no life in the Tree!”
    Had the Tree really fallen?
    Never! Not with our red streams flowing forever, not while the wine of our thorn limbs fed the thirsty roots,
    Arab roots alive, tunneling deep, deep, into the land!
    When the Tree rises up, the branches
    shall flourish green and fresh in the sun
    the laughter of the Tree shall leaf
    beneath the sun
    and birds shall return
    Undoubtedly, the birds shall return.
    The birds shall return.

    Fadwa Touqan, “The Deluge and the Tree”

    The post Understanding the Fate of the Palestinians first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Media Watch: ‘Little Pinks’ use AI in Tiananmen Square massacre debate

    Disclaimer: Due to the graphic nature of the key image in this fact check, we have digitally blurred certain parts of the photos in the main text to avoid discomfort for some readers. These altered photos are labeled accordingly in their captions. The original, unedited versions of all photos are included at the end of the article for readers to view at their discretion.

    Wu Renhua didn’t expect a nearly 35-year-old photo to become his most viewed post on X within 24 hours of uploading. 

    A black and white photo showing the bodies of three young adults lie sprawled on makeshift cots, each with visible head wounds. That’s what Wu posted.

    Wu claimed that the photo was taken following the Chinese government crackdown on student protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989. 

    In light of the 35th anniversary of the bloody crackdown this week, Wu said he had decided, for the first time, to publish the photo, which he said was taken near his university around noon that day. 

    His post got more than 2.4 million views as of Thursday. 

    ChatGPT as evidence?

    It didn’t take long for doubting voices to chime in. Swarms of jingoistic Chinese nationalist online users – known as “Little Pinks” – accused Wu of misrepresenting Vietnam War photos, citing responses from the latest model of the AI tool ChatGPT as evidence of their claims. 

    Some even created a fake web page that placed Wu’s photo alongside a genuine image from the Vietnam War to cast doubt on his claim. 

    China’s Communist Party has done its utmost to stymie any form of public discussion of the incident 35 years ago, ignoring domestic and international calls for justice.

    Authorities have also worked tirelessly to scrub the affair from history books, online discussion and the media. 

    2024-06-06_15h39_41.png
    Netizens cited responses provided by ChatGPT (left) to claim that Wu Renhua’s photos of Tiananmen were fake. (Screenshots/X. Parts of these images have been digitally blurred due to their graphic nature.)

    But Li Wei-Ping, a researcher at the University of Maryland’s School of Journalism, said GhatGPT is not a reliable source since it is primarily driven by user conversation. 

    Li said the fact that ChatGPT produces different answers to identical questions shows that there has been an update to its database with user input. 

    “Especially considering that the vast majority of information in Simplified Chinese databases is heavily influenced by China’s censorship,” Li told AFCL. “Never use ChatGPT as your sole fact checking tool. Determining authenticity is not one of its uses.” 

    GhatGPT also warns on its website: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”

    AFCL has previously released reports showing ChatGPT’s unreliability on controversial questions.

    2024-06-06_15h41_06.png
    Hints at the bottom of the webpage warn that ChatGPT may make mistakes. (Screenshot/ChatGPT)

    Different language, different answer

    AFCL asked ChatGPT in different languages about the photo and it showed different results. 

    In traditional Chinese, which is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, ChatGPT said that it didn’t know the answer and needed more information. 

    In simplified Chinese, which is used in mainland China, it answered that the photo was taken from days of protests and strikes that erupted across Paris in May 1968. 

    In English, it replied that the scene was taken from the My Lai Massacre committed by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War.

    Hsu Chih-Chung, an associate professor at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, who specializes in image processing and machine learning, explained that this inconsistency is due to differences in content found in the open-source information used by ChatGPT’s different language services, which were not always consistent.

    2024-06-06_15h41_56.png
    ChatGPT responded inconsistently when asked the same question in different languages. (Screenshot/ChatGPT. Part of the image on the left has been digitally blurred due to its graphic nature.)

    Different time, different answer

    ChatGPT’s responses varied even when asked the same question at different times in the same language.

    On the morning of June 3, when asked in English where the picture came from, ChatGPT gave no response.

    When directly asked if the image was taken during the 1989 student protests, the AI responded that it was.

    Later that afternoon, when asked the same question in English, ChatGPT instead said the picture was from the 1976 Thammasat University massacre in Thailand.

    When then asked if the image might have been taken at Tiananmen Square, ChatGPT confidently rejected the claim.

    2024-06-06_15h42_47.png
    ChatGPT also gave different answers when asked the same question at different times. (Screenshots/ChatGPT)

    Different image search methods 

    National Cheng Kung University’s Hsu said the reason for ChatGPT’s differing responses is that its methods for checking images is still quite distinct from well-known search engines such as Google, which uses algorithms to compare a given image with many other images in its database. 

    Hsu noted that while ChatGPT can indeed search for pictures sent by users through comparison with other images on the internet, when doing so it still uses text as its basis of recognition. 

    In other words, it analyzes a digital image and then attempts to search for similar content based on what it thinks it sees in the image, instead of directly comparing the image with other pictures in the database, he said. 

    This has led some commentators to fear that private institutions or governmental organizations could “mis-educate” ChatGPT by creating large numbers of fake web pages used to export false or one-sided information.

    Hsu agreed that the ability of a single user to arbitrarily train, influence and tailor responses from ChatGPT is dangerous, but added that such action cannot affect the machine’s general database. 

    From Tiananmen? Not certain, but likely. 

    A reverse image search on Google shows that there is no previous record of the image in Google’s databases, which supports Wu’s assertion that this is the first time the image has been published. 

    A test using the AI detection tool Hive also estimated that the photo had only a 0.8% likelihood of having been produced by AI. 

    2024-06-06_15h43_36.png
    An AI detection tool concluded that the photo is unlikely to be synthesized. (Screenshot/Hive)

    Apart from that, AFCL found, the scene captured in Wu’s photo shares a high degree of similarity with a scene at the two-hour and 48-minute mark of The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a documentary about the Tiananmen protests directed by Carma Hinton. 

    While the documentary does not specify where the image was taken, several key details in both frames match. These include the general positioning of the bodies, tears on the edges of the cots where the bodies lie, and a likely fire hydrant opening in the wall behind the deceased people.

    Below is a screenshot comparison between the image posted by Wu (left) and the scene from The Gate of Heavenly Peace (right).

    2024-06-06_15h44_19.png
    A screenshot comparison between the image posted by Wu (left) and the scene from The Gate of Heavenly Peace (right). Parts of these images have been digitally blurred due to their graphic nature.

    However, there are key differences between the two images. In the documentary, all three bodies have red bandanas tied around their heads, and the body in the center has a license plate laid across its upper shoulder. These details are not present in Wu’s image.

    Wu told AFCL that the two photos were taken at the same location. 

    He noted that many witnesses of the scene were still alive, several of whom had left comments under his post affirming they had personally seen the images captured in the photos on the day of the crackdown. 

    When asked about some of the internal discrepancies between his photo and the shot from the documentary, Wu reponded that it was likely caused by the difference in time between when the two photos were taken. 

    He explained that the license plate was taken from a military vehicle and was likely placed atop the body as evidence. 

    Wu then stated that both the license plate and the red bandanas may have been carried away by sympathetic onlookers who wished to salvage objects from the scene before government forces could carry away evidence of the crackdown. 

    The Gate of Heavenly Peace’s director Hinton has not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

    AFCL failed to independently verify the photo. 

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.

    The below unedited images are graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.

    2024-06-06_15h45_19.png

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    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Rita Cheng and Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • John Minto: The first casualty of war is truth – the rest are mostly civilians

    COMMENTARY: By John Minto

    Good slogans have people nodding their heads in agreement because they recognise an underlying truth in the words.  

    I have a worn-out t-shirt which carries the slogan, “The first casualty of war is truth — the rest are mostly civilians”.

    If you find yourself nodding in agreement it’s possibly because you have found it deeply shocking to find this slogan validated repeatedly in almost eight months of Israel’s war on Gaza.

    The mainstream news sources which bring us the “truth” are strongly Eurocentric. Virtually all the reporting in our mainstream media comes via three American or European news agencies — AP, Reuters and the BBC — or from major US or UK based newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Washington Post or The New York Times. 

    This reporting centres on Israeli narratives, Israeli reasoning, Israeli explanations and Israeli justifications for what they are doing to Palestinians. Israeli spokespeople are front and centre and quoted extensively and directly.

    Palestinian voices, when they are covered, are usually at the margins. On television in particular Palestinians are most often portrayed as the incoherent victims of overwhelming grief.

    In the mainstream media Israel’s perverted lies dominate. 

    Riddled with examples
    The last seven months is riddled with examples. Just two days after the October 7 attack on Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters were accused of chanting “Gas the Jews” outside the Sydney Opera House.

    The story was carried around the world through mainstream media as a nasty anti-semitic slur on Palestinians and their supporters. Four months later, after an intensive investigation New South Wales police concluded it never happened. The words were never chanted.

    However the Radio New Zealand website today still carries a Reuters report saying “A rally outside the Sydney Opera House two days after the Hamas attack had ignited heated debate after a small group were filmed chanting “Gas the Jews”.

    Even if RNZ did the right thing and removed the report now the old adage is true: “A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its trousers on”. Four months later and the police report is not news but the damage has been done as the pro-Israel lobby intended.

    The same tactic has been used at protests on US university campuses. A couple of weeks ago at Northeastern University a pro-Israel counter protester was caught on video shouting “Kill the Jews” in an apparent attempt to provoke police into breaking up the pro-Palestine protest.

    The university ordered the protest to be closed down saying “the action was taken after some protesters resorted to virulent antisemitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews’”. The nastiest of lies told for the nastiest of reasons — protecting a state committing genocide.

    Similarly, unverified claims of “beheaded babies” raced around the world after the October 7 attack on Israel and were even repeated by US President Joe Biden. They were false.

    No baby beheaded
    Even the Israeli military confirmed no baby was beheaded and yet despite this bare-faced disinformation the Israeli ambassador to New Zealand was able to repeat the lie, along with several others, in a recent TVNZ interview on Q&A without being challenged.

    War propaganda such as this is deliberate and designed to ramp up anger and soften us up to accept war and the most savage brutality and blatant war crimes against the Palestinian people.

    Recall for a moment the lurid claims from 1990 that Iraqi soldiers had removed babies from incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals and left them to die on the floor. It was false but helped the US convince the public that war against Iraq was justified.

    Twelve years later the US and UK were peddling false claims about Iraq having “weapons of mass destruction” to successfully pressure other countries to join their war on Iraq.

    Perhaps the most cynical misinformation to come out of the war on Gaza so far appeared in the hours following the finding of the International Court of Justice that South Africa had presented a plausible case that Israel was committing genocide.

    Israel smartly released a short report claiming 12 employees of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) had taken part in the October 7 attack on Gaza. The distraction was spectacularly successful.

    Western media fell over themselves to highlight the report and bury the ICJ findings with most Western countries, New Zealand included, stopping or suspending funding for the UN agency.

    Independent probe
    eedless to say an independent investigation out a couple of weeks ago shows Israel has failed to support its claims about UNRWA staff involved in the October 7 attacks. It doesn’t need forensic analysis to tell us Israel released this fact-free report to divert attention from their war crimes which have now killed over 36,000 Palestinians — the majority being women and children.

    The problem goes deeper than manufactured stories. For many Western journalists the problem starts not with what they see and hear but with what their news editors allow them to say.

    A leaked memo to New York Times journalists covering the war tells them they are to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to avoid using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land.

    They have even been instructed not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” or the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza settled by Palestinian refugees driven off their land by Israeli armed militias in the Nakba of 1947–49.

    These reporting restrictions are a blatant denial of Palestinian history and cut across accurate descriptions under international law which recognises Palestinians as refugees and the occupied Palestinian territories as precisely what they are — under military occupation by Israel.

    People reading articles on Gaza from The New York Times have no idea the story has been “shaped” for us with a pro-Israel bias.

    These restrictions on journalists also typically cover how Palestinians are portrayed in Western media. Every Palestinian teenager who throws a stone at Israeli soldiers is called a “militant” or worse and Palestinians who take up arms to fight the Israeli occupation of their land, as is their right under international law, are described as “terrorists” when they should be described as resistance fighters.

    The heavy pro-Israel bias in Western media reporting is an important reason Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, and the ongoing violence which results from it, has continued for so long.

    The answer to all of this is people power — join the weekly global protests in your centre against Israel’s settler colonial project with its apartheid policies against Palestinians.

    And give the mainstream media a wide berth on this issue.

    John Minto is national chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). This article was first published by The Daily Blog and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pro-government newspaper publisher attacks journalist Vuk Cvijić over investigative report

    Berlin, June 5, 2024—Serbian authorities should conduct a swift, thorough, and transparent investigation into the recent physical attack against journalist Vuk Cvijić, hold those responsible to account, and ensure the journalist’s safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

    Vuk Cvijić, a reporter for the weekly newspaper Radar, was walking by a cafe around 1 p.m. on May 29 in the capital, Belgrade, when publisher Milan Lađević began shouting insults and expletives, asking how he dared to write an article connecting him to Slobodan Malešić, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ, and news reports. Malešić is the former head of police in Novi Sad, a city in northwestern Serbia, and is currently being tried on organized crime charges.

    Lađević is co-owner of Media Network, which publishes pro-government newspaper Telegraf, and was sitting with his deputy, Boris Vukovic. 

    Cvijić said he tried to move away from the pair when Lađević stood up, approached the journalist, and punched him on the right side of his chin, causing Cvijić to fall on the sidewalk and break his phone screen. He was treated at a hospital for a contusion and given medication.

    Cvijić told CPJ that Lađević was referencing an article printed by the weekly magazine NIN — where the journalist worked in 2023 — in which the journalist described Lađević as a close ally of Malešić, according to CPJ’s review of the 2023 November article.

    Lađević denied attacking the journalist in a statement to the newspaper Republika, which serves as the online edition of Telegraf, and claimed Cvijić was the one who provoked, insulted, attacked them, and then staged the incident. CPJ emailed questions to Lađević but received no reply.

    The Belgrade prosecutor’s office started an investigation and took statements from Lađević, Vukovic, and Cvijić, but had not issued any further updates as of Wednesday, according to Cvijić. CPJ’s emailed questions to the prosecutor’s office did not receive a response.

    “It is a welcome development that Serbian authorities have started an investigation following the recent attack against journalist Vuk Cvijić. They must ensure that the investigation is swift, thorough, and transparent, hold those responsible to account, and ensure the journalist’s safety,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Independent journalists in Serbia work in an increasingly hostile atmosphere, and authorities must demonstrate a zero-tolerance policy for such attacks.”

    Veran Matić, a 1993 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award and member of Serbia’s Working Group for the Security and Protection of Journalists, told N1 TV that police and prosecutors gave high priority to the investigation. Matić said it was important that the case was resolved as the attack was against an investigative journalist in an increasingly toxic climate in Serbia, and Lađević is the head of a media company that “often targets journalists like Vuk Cvijić, with untruths [and] fake news.”

    Radar condemned the attack in a May 29 statement and demanded Serbian authorities properly investigate the case, adding that independent media and the Serbian society as a whole face “a dangerous spiral of violence — unfortunately, encouraged by the authorities and media close to them.”

    Press freedom groups SafeJournalists network, Media Freedom Rapid Response partners and Coalition for Media Freedom condemned the attack in a May 30 statement as the most recent incident in ongoing attacks against journalists in Serbia.  

    CPJ has documented how independent journalists in Serbia face an increasingly hostile atmosphere in 2024 with a growing number of physical and online attacks due to the anti-press rhetoric from President Aleksandar Vučić’s supporters, government officials, and pro-government media.

    Journalists working for NIN quit the newspaper in January 2024 and launched Radar in March, citing a need to protect professional integrity amid criticism that NIN’s new owner is curtailing editorial independence.


    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.

  • 2024 Polls Have Just Become Clickbait Creations For Corporate Media

    Presidential polling is all over the place right now, making it hard to know who is actually in the lead. But is this because Americans are evenly split, or is the media just getting worse at polling? Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any […]

    The post 2024 Polls Have Just Become Clickbait Creations For Corporate Media appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Veteran PNG editor promotes Tok Pisin writing, trains journalists

    Inside PNG

    Anna Solomon, a Papua New Guinean journalist and editor with 40 years experience, is now providing training for journalists at the Wantok Niuspepa.

    Wantok is a weekly newspaper and the only Tok Pisin language newspaper in PNG.

    Solomon, who spoke during last month’s public inquiry on Media in Papua New Guinea, asked if the Parliamentary Committee could work with the media industry to set up a Complaints Tribunal that could address issues affecting media in PNG.


    Anna Solomon talks about the media role to “educate people” at the public media inquiry.  Video: Inside PNG

    She also called for better Tok Pisin writers as it was one of two main languages that leaders, especially Parliamentarians, used in PNG to communicate with their voters.

    At the start of the 3-day public inquiry (21-24 May 2024), media houses also called for parliamentarians and the public to understand how the industry functions.

    The public inquiry focused on the “Role and Impact of Media in Papua New Guinea” and was led by the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communication with an aim to improve the standard of journalism within the country.

    Republished from Inside PNG with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.