This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The summer of 2020 was a hinge point in American history. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police inspired racial justice demonstrations nationwide. At the time, the FBI was convinced that extreme Black political activists could cross the line into domestic terrorism – a theory federal agents had first termed “Black identity extremism.”
That summer, Mickey Windecker approached the FBI. He drove a silver hearse, claimed to have been a volunteer fighter for the French Foreign Legion and the Peshmerga in Iraq, and had arrest records in four states that included convictions for misdemeanor sexual assault and menacing with a weapon, a felony. He claimed to the FBI that he had heard racial justice activists speak vaguely of training and violent revolution in Denver.
The FBI enlisted Windecker as a paid informant, gave him a recording device and instructed him to infiltrate Denver’s growing Black Lives Matter movement. For months, Windecker spied on activists and attempted to recruit two Black men into an FBI-engineered plot to assassinate the state’s attorney general.
Windecker’s undercover work is the first documented case of FBI efforts to infiltrate the 2020 racial justice movement. Journalist Trevor Aaronson obtained over a dozen hours of Windecker’s secret recordings and more than 300 pages of internal FBI reports for season 1 of the podcast series Alphabet Boys.
This episode of Reveal is a partnership with Alphabet Boys and production company Western Sound.Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow
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This post was originally published on Reveal.
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A semifinal tennis match in the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, New York, was delayed by nearly 50 minutes on Thursday evening due to an interruption by climate protesters. Three of the four demonstrators were removed from the stands immediately after standing up and appearing to shout “End Fossil Fuels” at the beginning of the second set, which featured U.S.
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Sixty-one people involved with the movement to Stop Cop City were indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges on Tuesday. Stop Cop City organizers with the movement have long warned that such charges might be forthcoming, as part of a stunning crusade by Georgia officials and law enforcement to crush the grassroots movement. On January 18, police raided a tree-sit protest…
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By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist
Japan yesterday began the decades-long release of more than one million tonnes of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean in defiance of protests across the region.
Protesters in Auckland decried New Zealand’s “convenient silence” on Japan’s nuclear waste release at a rally.
Among the crowd was a young Pacific advocate who called on the New Zealand government to oppose the release.
- READ MORE: Niue and Tuvalu ‘concerned, dismayed, disappointed’ with Fukushima release
- Other Fukushima reports
“We’re calling for New Zealand to release a statement opposing the dump and then come up with a regional consensus that the leaders’ meeting [Pacific Islands Forum Summit] in November can accept,” said codirector Marco de Jong of Te Kuaka New Zealand Alternative.
At the Auckland protest on Friday morning, de Jong said New Zealand was taking the easy way out.
He said the government’s silence was convenient and left Pacific nations to fight on their own.
“The ocean is suffering, climate change is accelerating. And the Pacific is being rendered as a sacrifice zone, a military buffer and climate disaster area,” de Jong said.
‘Nuclear legacies’
“Things like the nuclear waste dump compound harms. There are nuclear legacies that have not been addressed. And this is part of a broader story.”Auckland University sociology lecturer Dr Karly Burch speaking at the Fukushima protest in Auckland yesterday . . . “It’s really important to put it in the context of nuclear imperialism and nuclear colonialism.” Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis Aaron Lee, an Aucklander originally from South Korea, said the issue was causing tension back home.
“It should not be happening,” Lee said.
He said if it really was “clean water” and “clean treated wastewater”, why could not Japan use it in its agricultural lands?
Lee said protesters had been fiercely opposing the release in South Korea.
Auckland University sociology lecturer Dr Karly Burch told the protest: “It’s really important to put it in the context of nuclear imperialism and nuclear colonialism.”
“It involves targeting indigenous peoples and their lands and waters to sustain the nuclear production process,” she said.
Legal thresholds
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) standards were basically legal thresholds or standards, Dr Burch said.“So they’re saying up to this amount, it’s legally allowable to pollute, it’s legally allowable to have bodies exposed to a certain amount of ionising radiation.”
“And so it’s really important that when we hear these things, when we hear these approvals, we’re thinking of them in legal terms, because that’s really what this is all about.”
She said the IAEA’s legal standards were “extremely narrow” in their focus.
Aaron Lee, a New Zealand resident from South Korea attends protest at Consulate General of Japan building in Auckland. Image: RNZ Asia/Elliott Samuels The IAEA backs it’s standards the UN nuclear watchdog boss told RNZ in July 2023.
Despite assurances, protesters in and around the Pacific Ocean have hit the streets.
In Suva, hundreds of protesters gathered and chanted: “If it’s safe, put it in Japan.”
“Pacific Islands Forum, United Nations, We are the Pacific, We are angry,” protesters chanted.
And at least 16 protesters in Seoul were arrested as they attempted to enter the Japanese embassy.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Fukushima protest march | 25/8/23#fyp #fiji #FukushimaNuclearWasteWater pic.twitter.com/zHvjem9wTD— fijivillage (@fijivillage) August 24, 2023
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Activists fighting to halt the fiercely contested police training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, known as Cop City, have collected a whopping 104,000 signatures for a city-wide ballot referendum on the city government’s lease for the massive $90 million project. Organizers call it the “most successful” citizen-driven petition in the city of roughly 500,000 residents with a deep history of struggle…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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By Asenaca Uluiviti and Sadhana Sen
Fiji recently lost Dr Meraia Taufa Vakatale, a monumental woman leader who broke many glass ceilings with her numerous firsts. As an educationalist, diplomat and politician, she profoundly impacted on the lives of tens of thousands in Fiji and the Pacific region, particularly young women in politics and anti-nuclear activists.
Dr Vakatale was Fiji’s first woman deputy prime minister, the first woman to be elected as a cabinet minister, the first female to be appointed as a deputy high commissioner, and the first Fijian woman principal of a secondary school in Fiji.
Dr Vakatale was also a fervent anti-nuclear activist. In 1995 she took a costly stand against her party and the then Sitiveni Rabuka government on renewed French nuclear testing on Moruroa Atoll in “French” Polynesia.
Joining a protest march against French testing led to her losing her cabinet position in the Rabuka-led government, in which she served as a member of the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT) party.
She held the portfolio of Education, Science and Technology in two stints — from 1993 to 1995 and then, after being reinstated, from 1997 to 1999. In 1997, she was appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
In 2000, she resigned as President of the SVT party over the 2000 coup fallout.
She was a woman ahead of her time. Dedicated to her principles, she “paid it forward” to Pasifika generations by her fight to keep the Pacific a nuclear-free zone.
Idealism inspired thousands
Dr Taufa Vakatale’s spirited and unwavering determination, her activism, idealism and her principles inspired thousands of women and youth to fearlessly pursue their dreams.The name Taufa Vakatale was first linked to the renowned all-girls Adi Cakobau School when she became a pioneer student there in 1948, aged 10 years. She was also the first female student at the all-male Queen Victoria School.
She completed her 6th form year at Suva Grammar School, where she became the first Fijian female to pass the NZ University Entrance. She entered the University of Auckland and in 1963 was the first Fijian woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree, privately funding her studies from her wages as a teacher in Fiji.
Taufa Vakatale went on to further studies in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1971. On return to Fiji, she became the first Fijian woman president of the Fiji YWCA and principal of her old school, the Adi Cakobau School.
The YWCA in Fiji was the driving force of the anti-nuclear protest movement in the early 1970s, while she was president.
In her time as an educator, Dr Vakatale disciplined fairly, understood her students, and entrusted them with positive goals for their future, instructing them to “leave the world better than we found it”.
She was respected and honoured. Her feats helped ease the students’ own steps, to bring to life the Adi Cakobau School motto.
Towering moral stature
Of petite and elegant frame, in moral stature Dr Vakatale towered above many. In diplomacy she served as Fiji’s Deputy High Commissioner to the UK in 1980, while single-handedly raising her daughter to become a lawyer.The University of St Andrews in Scotland awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Letters for her contribution to the cause of Pacific women, while Fiji bestowed her with the Order of Fiji in 1996.
The extraordinary Dr Meraia Taufa Vakatale died on 24 June 2023, aged 84. She leaves behind her only daughter Alanieta Vakatale, three granddaughters, and many more following in her footsteps to leave this world a better place.
Thirty eight years on from the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and the adoption of the Pacific nuclear-free zone treaty, the Rarotonga Treaty, and with the imminent release of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant radioactive waste into the Pacific ocean, the leadership and sacrifices of Dr Vakatale must be hailed, and her life celebrated.
Asenaca Uluiviti is a community legal officer in Auckland. She has worked as a state solicitor in Fiji and at its diplomatic mission in the UN, and has served as chairperson of Fiji YMCA, and on the NZ board of Greenpeace. She went to the Adi Cakobau School. Sadhana Sen is regional communications adviser at the Development Policy Centre. Republished from the DevPolicy blog through a Creative Commons licence.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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By Sera Sefeti in Suva
International environmental campaign group Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior is currently sailing across the Pacific, calling at ports and collecting evidence to present to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — the World Court — during a historic hearing in The Hague next year.
Rainbow Warrior staff and crew will be joined by Pasifika activists sailing across the blue waters of the Pacific, campaigning to take climate change to the globe’s highest court.
Their latest six-week campaign voyage started in Cairns, Australia, on July 31 and will call on Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Fiji. Currently, they are on a port call in Suva.
- READ MORE: ‘Frustrated’ USP law students were catalyst for landmark UN climate vote
- The Rainbow Warrior affair – a human rights transition from nuclear to climate change refugees — David Robie
- Other Pacific climate crisis reports
Greenpeace Australia’s Pacific general council member Katrina Bullock told IDN: “Part of what we really wanted to do during the ship tour was to bring together climate leaders from different parts of the world to talk and share their experiences because climate impacts might look different in different parts of the world.”
Staff and volunteers at Greenpeace’s iconic campaign vessel have been welcoming local people here, especially youth, to speak to their campaign staff about what they do and why climate justice campaigns are important to save the pristine environment in the region that is facing a multitude of problems due to climate crisis.
“Everybody is sharing the same struggles, so we had Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul (indigenous Torres Straits Islanders from Australia) who came with us to Vanuatu, where they joined up with some terrific activists from the Philippines who are also looking at holding their government accountable,” Bullock said.
“If we become climate refugees, we will lose everything — our homes, community, culture, stories, and identity,” says Uncle Paul whose ancestors have lived on the land for 65,000 years.
‘Our country will disappear’
“We can keep our stories and tell our stories, but we won’t be connected to country because country will disappear”.
Pacific climate voyage . . . A South African crew member on the bridge of the Rainbow Warrior briefing Fiji visitors on board. Image: Kalinga Seneviratne/IDN That is why he is taking the government to court, “because I want to protect my community and all Australians before it’s too late.”
The two indigenous First Nations leaders from the Guda Maluyligal in the Torres Strait are plaintiffs in the Australian Climate Case suing the Australian government for failing to protect their island homes from climate change.
They are training other Pacific islanders on activism to hold their governments to account.
The UN General Assembly on 29 March 2023 adopted by consensus a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the obligations of states in respect of climate change.
This opinion aims to clarify the legal obligations of states in addressing climate change and its consequences, particularly regarding the rights and interests of vulnerable nations — and people.
It is the first time the General Assembly has requested an advisory opinion from the ICJ with unanimous state support.
Resolution youth-driven
The resolution was youth-driven, and it originated with a law school students’ project at the University of the South Pacific’s Vanuatu campus and ultimately led to the Vanuatu government tabling it at the UN.This Pacific-led resolution has been hailed as a “turning point in climate justice” and a victory for the Pacific youth who spearheaded the campaign.
The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, entrusted with settling legal disputes between states. It entertains only two types of cases: contentious cases and requests for advisory opinions.
“We have been collecting evidence from across the Pacific of climate impacts to take to the world’s highest court as part of the ICJ initiative,” Bullock said.
“We have also had the opportunity to mobilise communities and bring the leaders from all parts of the world together to share their experiences and do some community training.”
The Rainbow Warrior has a long history of daring activism and fearless campaigning and has been sailing the world’s oceans since 1978, fighting various environment destroyers and polluters.
Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira . . . killed by French secret agents in New Zealand’s Auckland Harbour in July 1985. Image: ©David Robie/Café Pacific Media In 1985, the first Rainbow Warrior ship was sunk by a terrorist bombing at New Zealand’s Auckland port by French security agents with the death of a Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, on board because the ship and its crew were fearlessly campaigning against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The ship’s crew also evacuated the people of Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands who were irradiated by US nuclear testing and moved them to a safer atoll.
Modern sailing ship
Today’s Rainbow Warrior is a sophisticated modern sailing ship with a multinational crew that includes Indians, Chileans, South Africans, Australians, Fijians, and many other nationalities.Last week they were sharing their stories of environmental destruction with local youth and children to take the fight further with the help of stories collected from people in the Pacific.
According to Bullock, the shared stories were filled with trauma and loss as they went from island to island.
“We were in Vanuatu, and some of the women shared their experiences of what it was like after a cyclone to lose lots of herbal medicine and the plants that you rely on as a community, and what that means to them and why Western pharmacies aren’t a substitute.”
The Rainbow Warrior activists were shown the loss of land and gravesites and collected many stories they believe will make an impact. While they are berthed in Fiji, students and community members were given guided tours on the boat and informed on their work – including how they navigate the high seas.
One such group was the students and teachers from a local primary school, Vashistmuni Primary School in Navua, who were excited and fascinated to learn about the work the Rainbow Warrior does.
Their teacher said that while it is part of their curriculum to learn about climate change and global warming, “it was good to bring the kids out and witness firsthand what a climate warrior looks like and its importance.
‘Hopefully, they take action’
“Hopefully, they go back and take action in their local communities.”For Ani Tuisausau, Fijian activist and core focal point of the climate justice working group in Fiji, her choice to take this up was personal.
“I am someone who is constantly going to my dad’s island, so compared to how it was then to how it is now, it is different,” she told IDN.
“There are some places where I used to swim. They are polluted, and then, of course, the sea level rises. I don’t want my kids growing up and missing out on the beauty of our beaches and what I experienced when I was younger.
“For that to happen, there needs to be a change in mindsets,” argues Tuisausau, “and this is the best opportunity on board the Rainbow Warrior — they get to hear the stories of what is happening in the Pacific and compare and relate to what is happening in our backyard.”
The Rainbow Warrior’s stories include intense stories and dignified climate migration but also the loss of culture and land. The team is confident that collecting these stories will give them a fighting chance at the ICJ.
Bullock says that when she started with the Rainbow Warrior five years ago, she thought facts and figures were a way to change mindsets.
“But now I realise that while facts and figures are important, stories are crucial because they touch hearts and move people to action”.
Rainbow Warrior leaves Suva tomorrow and heads back to Australia via Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Sera Sefeti is a Wansolwara journalist at the University of the South Pacific. This article was produced as a part of the joint media project between the non-profit International Press Syndicate Group and Soka Gakkai International in consultation with ECOSOC on 13 August 2023. IDN is the flagship agency of IPS and the article is republished by Asia Pacific Report as part of a collaboration.
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In December 2018, a powerful tide of demonstrations erupted in Sudan, beginning in the cities of Ad-Damazin and Atbara and quickly sweeping across the country, becoming what would be called the “December Revolution.” These demonstrations were sparked by the sharp rise in the prices of key commodities such as bread and fuel, as well as the frightening deterioration of economic conditions.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Berlin, July 21, 2023 — Polish authorities should investigate the forcible removal by police of freelance photojournalist Maciej Piasecki from a recent climate protest, and allow journalists to work without interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
During a climate protest in Warsaw on Friday, July 14, as police attempted to subdue and detain a protester, a group of six or seven officers forcibly removed from the scene freelance photojournalist Maciej Piasecki, who was on assignment for privately owned news website OKO.press, preventing him from documenting events, according Piasecki, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, his employer, and other media reports.
The incident, at around 2 p.m., was captured in a video published by OKO.press and corroborated by Piasecki and those reports, which said it occurred during a demonstration in which activists glued their hands to the pavement outside the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
Police removed protesters from the scene by violently apprehending them, according to Piasecki and OKO.press. As Piasecki covered these events live on his TikTok channel, officers shouted to each other instructions to remove him from the scene as well, as seen in video reviewed by CPJ.
Piasecki can be heard saying that he wants to continue covering the events, according to an OKO.press transcript. Police then pushed him aside, and the video shows the police officer grabbing his neck from behind and dragging him toward the ground. Piasecki told CPJ and local media that he did not resist and was not injured, but the officer broke his own leg as they fell to the ground.
A group of seven or eight police then pressed Piasecki to the ground, allegedly twisting his hands, before handcuffing him, confiscating his camera, and taking him to a police station where he was detained for six hours, searched, and questioned in the presence of his lawyer, according to Piasecki and those reports.
“Polish authorities should conduct a swift and transparent investigation into the detention and forcible removal of freelance photojournalist Maciej Piasecki from a recent climate protest and ensure that members of the press can report on events of public interest without police interference,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Journalists deserve police officers’ protection during protests. Unless authorities have something to hide, they must ensure that reporters can cover issues of public interest without fear of police interference.”
The police threatened to press charges against Piasecki for allegedly ignoring their orders and violating the bodily integrity of police officers, but released him without charge, according to OKO.press and Piasecki. He told CPJ and local media that police returned his camera on July 17, and when he collected his equipment, police confirmed to him that no charges would be brought against him.
“The police obstructed my work since the beginning of the protest, despite… the fact that I was wearing my press ID visibly on a lanyard on my neck,” Piasecki told CPJ.
The protesters were rallying against the forced removal the previous day of fellow demonstrators who had maintained a blockade against intensive logging in Poland’s Carpathian Mountains.
“When police earlier asked me to show my credentials, I showed them my card,” Piasecki said, adding that some officers attempted to block his camera’s field of vision as the protesters were met with force. He insists that other than stating his intention to carry on working, he did not resist the officers in any way.
In an email to CPJ, Warsaw Metropolitan Police spokesperson Sylvester Marczak said that authorities would conduct an investigation into the reporter’s detention “to clarify all circumstances.”
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Berlin, July 13, 2023—French authorities should investigate and hold to account police and activists responsible for attacks on journalists covering the nationwide demonstrations and riots that swept France after police shot and killed a 17-year-old delivery driver at a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
Protesters attacked or obstructed the work of at least 15 journalists covering demonstrations, and police attacked another three journalists, according to news reports and five journalists who spoke with CPJ.
“French authorities must conduct a swift and transparent investigation into reported attacks by police and protesters on journalists covering recent demonstrations,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Reporters deserve to be protected, not harassed, by police officers and must be able to cover protests without fear of injury.”
On June 27, the day the driver was killed, a protester hit Kiran Ridley, a photographer with photo agency Getty Images, three times on his head in the western Parisian suburb of Nanterre, and three other protesters threw stones at him before he could flee from the scene. Ridley was treated for a broken nose and had to undergo facial reconstruction surgery, the reporter told CPJ via messaging app.
On June 28, a car with the logo of Belgian Flemish-language public broadcaster VRT carrying four journalists—reporter Steven Decraen and an unnamed camera operator, sound engineer, and fixer—to report on protests in Nanterre was stopped by four people on motorcycles, according to reports and Decraen, who spoke to CPJ by phone. The individuals threatened the journalists, saying they would set their car on fire if they did not leave the neighborhood, which they did.
The next day group of four or five people on foot again stopped their car in Nanterre and asked them to leave, making hand motions indicating they would cut their throat if they did not, leading the journalists to abandon their reporting plans, according to news reports and Decraen.
During the night of June 29 leading into the early morning hours of June 30, the following additional incidents were reported:
- Four people blocked the VRT car in Nanterre and told them they were not allowed to film and needed to leave. As the car backed up, the group began throwing stones at the vehicle, smashing the rear left window. Decraen said no one was injured, and on June 30 they filed a criminal complaint with police regarding the three incidents.
- An unidentified man used a cobblestone to hit the head of Corentin Fohlen, a freelance photojournalist working with daily newspaper La Libération, in Nanterre, according to news reports and Fohlen, who communicated with CPJ via email. When the journalist, who was wearing a helmet labeled “press,” fell to the ground, three other people punched and hit him in the head and leg with cobblestones and took his camera. An emergency room treated him for minor injuries and bruising on his leg and body.
- Around 10 protesters in in Nanterre surrounded two reporters who work for daily newspaper Le Figaro and whose names have not been disclosed. The protesters accused the journalists of working for the police, hit one of them four or five times on the head, and stole both their phones. One of the journalists was treated in an emergency room for minor injuries to his face, including a cut on his eyebrow.
- An unknown number of protesters surrounded two reporters with Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera, beat them, and stole their camera in Nanterre. The journalists, who have not been publicly identified, reported minor injuries to their temples, neck, and shoulders.
- A group of 10 to 12 protesters in Nanterre surrounded Khanh Renaud, a photojournalist with weekly newspaper Le Point, beat and threw cobblestones at him, and then stole his camera. Renaud reported a knee injury and multiple bruises and filed a criminal complaint.
- Around 15 protesters in the central city of Tours surrounded a female journalist, whose name was not disclosed, working for local public TV broadcaster Tours-Val de Loire. They threatened her with death, shoved her, took her camera, destroyed it with a cobblestone, and chased her for about 500 meters before she escaped without injury. Her outlet filed a criminal complaint with the police.
- A group of eight to 10 protesters used their fists and cobblestones to hit Emma Audrey, a reporter for local Radio BIP, several times on her head and body in the eastern city of Besançon, according to news reports and Audrey, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app. The same group used a crowbar to hit the head of Toufik-de-Planoise, a freelance reporter on assignment for Radio BIP, when he briefly removed his helmet labeled “press.” The group shattered Audrey’s protective helmet, and the journalists were treated for a concussion and head wounds in an emergency room.
On the night of June 30, an unknown number of protesters knocked Maël Fabre, deputy editor-in-chief of daily newspaper Ouest France, to the ground and hit him several times in the western city of Angers. He filed a criminal complaint with police on July 1.
On Saturday, July 8, Clément Lanot, a freelance reporter working for independent privately owned news agency CCL Press; Florian Poitou, a photographer with independent, privately owned news agency Abaca; and Pierre Tremblay, a photographer with the French edition of U.S.-based news website HuffPost; were documenting the arrest of a protester in Paris, according to news reports and Lanot, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
A screengrab from footage shot by Clément Lanot shows police shoving a journalist. (Credit: Clément Lanot)
A group of between eight and 10 police officers in riot gear shoved the three reporters to the ground. An officer grabbed Poitou’s camera and threw it on the ground, damaging it, and another officer hit Tremblay with a shield several times despite his identifying himself as a journalist.Poitou filed a complaint with police, and Tremblay was treated for a sprained wrist at an emergency room. On July 9, Paris police told French state news agency AFP that they opened an investigation following complaints from the three journalists.
CPJ’s email to the press department of the French Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the national police, did not receive a reply.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Just Stop Oil and was authored by Just Stop Oil.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, a young man of Algerian descent, during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, has been characterized as a cold-blooded, point-blank execution and has catalyzed massive street demonstrations in cities across the country. Merzouk is the most recent victim of a 2017 law that loosened restrictions on the use of firearms by police in cases where a driver refuses…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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Early on Thursday, June 29, banners were dropped over Interstate-95 coming into Philadelphia that read “Philly Protects Trans Kids” and “Bad Things Happen (to fascists) in Philadelphia.” This very Philly welcoming of the attendees of the Moms 4 Liberty (M4L) annual conference at the Marriott hotel from June 29 to July 2 set the tone for what would be four days of high-energy protests against the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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For weeks now, the people of Jujuy, Argentina, have been in the streets resisting right-wing political attacks on wages and the right to protest. In the past few days the conflict has escalated with severe police repression throughout the largely Indigenous and impoverished province. Reports from on the ground show repression including massive deployments of riot police, people being chased in the…
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The ongoing attack on the network of environmental and abolitionist activists in Atlanta should make all people concerned with the right to protest, the future of the environment and the rise of militarized police forces take notice. At 5 am on June 6, after over 200 community members had spoken against moving forward with the facility, the Atlanta City Council voted to allocate $31 million in…
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This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Residents in Atlanta shattered the record for turnout at a city council meeting Monday, as thousands lined up to voice their opposition to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City. Ultimately, the Atlanta City Council voted 11-4 to approve $30 million in additional funding for the project, bringing the total to $67 million — more than double the original estimate. The contentious vote comes after a SWAT team raided the Atlanta Solidarity Fund last Wednesday and arrested three people who had been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to Cop City, charging them with money laundering and charity fraud. Forty-two protesters still face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City, and activists continue to demand answers over the fatal police shooting of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán in January. For more on Cop City, we speak with Reverend James Woodall from the Southern Center for Human Rights, who spoke at the City Council meeting, as well as Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizer Marlon Kautz, one of the three people arrested in last week’s SWAT raid. Kautz says the charges are “malicious political prosecutions” with the intent to “suppress a political movement.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Berlin, June 5, 2023—Kosovo authorities must investigate the recent attacks on multiple news crews covering protests in the country and ensure journalists can cover demonstrations safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
In late May, protests broke out throughout northern Kosovo over the election of several ethnic Albanian mayors to represent Serb-majority areas, after many Serbs had boycotted the elections.
More than a dozen ethnic Albanian journalists have been attacked or harassed while covering the protests, according to news reports and Xhemajl Rexha, chair of the independent trade organization Association of Journalists of Kosovo.
“Kosovo authorities must thoroughly investigate the recent attacks on news crews covering protests in the country and hold the perpetrators to account,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Kosovo authorities, as well as international NATO-led forces in the area, must ensure that members of the press can safely cover protests without fear of harassment or assault.”
May 29
In the northern town of Zvečan, a group of 15 to 20 Serb protesters approached about 10 Albanian-speaking reporters and demanded that they stop filming, according to news reports and Rexha. When the journalists refused, the protesters began throwing rocks and eggs and shouted ethnic slurs at them.
Masked individuals also attempted to seize a camera from a journalist with the Kosovo news Periskopi and tore the camera operator’s shirt, and three people wearing masks separately knocked a camera out of the hands of a journalist with the Kosovo news website Gazeta Papirus.
People also painted Serbian nationalist symbols on a parked car with the logo of the privately owned Albanian TV station Top Channel in Zvečan.
In the northern town of Leposavić, crews with the local broadcaster RTV Dukagjini, news website Kallxho, and the regional outlet Balkan Investigative Reporting Network found their cars vandalized with their tires slashed and painted with Serbian nationalistic symbols after they returned from reporting.
Protestors also slashed the tires and broke the windows of a car with the logo of the privately owned Kosovo TV channel TëVë 1 and set it on fire while the journalists covered protests in the northern town of Zublin Potok.
May 30
In Leposavić, eight to 10 protesters, some wearing masks, approached news crews with RTV Dukagjini and the privately owned Kosovo website KOHA and demanded they stop filming. As the reporters continued to cover the demonstrations, protesters threw rocks and eggs and tried to block them from filming by putting their hands in front of their cameras. Protestors also took a camera from a TëVë 1 camera operator and broke it.
Also in Leposavić, four or five people threw bricks and stones at two cars, each marked as “Press,” while they were carrying journalists with the privately owned independent Albanian TV channels A2 CNN and News23, and the news websites Panorama and News24. No one was injured.
A2 CNN reporter Jul Kasapi was later quoted by his employer saying that officers with the NATO-led international peacekeeping Kosovo Force, or KFOR, stood by and did not intervene.
In North Mitrovica, protesters took a mobile phone from Berat Bahtiri, a camera operator for privately owned Kosovo broadcaster RTV21. Police later found it destroyed, Rexha told CPJ. Bahtiri suffered minor injuries on his arms during a scuffle over the phone.
In the northern town of Zubin, protesters threw an explosive at a taxi containing a news crew with the Albanian service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster RFE/RL, which did not damage the vehicle or result in any injuries.
Masked protesters in Zveçan shot at a car marked “Press” carrying camera operator Bledar Rexha and reporter Butrint Bejra, with the privately owned Albanian station Syri TV. One bullet hit the car, but no one was injured.
Also in Zveçan, unidentified people broke windows, punctured tires, and painted Serb nationalist symbols on two cars used by journalists with KOHA and the privately owned Kosovo TV station T7. Separately in Zveçan, people punctured the tires of two cars used by journalists with the privately owned Kosovo TV channels Kanal 10 and ATV, and also punctured the tires and shot bullets into a car, which was not marked press, used by journalists working for Periskopi.
May 31
An unknown individual punched RTV21 reporter Burim Zariq in the abdomen while he was recording protests in Zveçan. The journalist did not report any serious injury.
On June 2, CPJ joined 12 other press freedom organizations in a joint statement calling on Kosovo authorities to implement the necessary measures to guarantee reporters’ safety as they report on the protests. CPJ emailed KFOR and the Kosovo police for comment but did not receive any replies.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Just Stop Oil and was authored by Just Stop Oil.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
