We go to Dhaka for an update as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is sworn in to lead Bangladesh’s caretaker government just days after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student-led protests over inequality and corruption. Yunus is known as the “banker to the poor” and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work developing microloans that helped lift millions out of poverty. Yunus thanked Bangladeshi youth for giving the country a “rebirth” and vowed to work for the public good.
“This is uncharted territory,” says Shahidul Alam, an acclaimed Bangladeshi photojournalist, author and social activist, who has spent decades documenting human rights abuses and political and social movements in the country. Alam was jailed in 2018 for his criticism of the government and spent 107 behind bars, during which time he says he was tortured by the authorities. “This repression has taken such a toll on so many people for so long, the nation is just hugely relieved.”
We also speak with Nusrat Chowdhury, an associate professor of anthropology at Amherst College and author of Paradoxes of the Popular: Crowd Politics in Bangladesh. She says it’s very significant that student leaders are being brought into the new government and says Yunus is a rare public figure in Bangladesh who exists “beyond party politics” and has the chance to unify the country.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Thousands filled the streets across the United Kingdom this week in massive rallies against racism and Islamophobia, a show of unity to counter a recent surge in far-right violence. British police have arrested hundreds of right-wing rioters for carrying out a string of attacks in England and Northern Ireland targeting Muslims and migrants. While the wave of violence was partly spurred by…
The leader of student protests over jobs and economic injustice in Bangladesh in recent weeks said Tuesday that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus had accepted the students’ call for him to take over the country’s interim government, following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A spokesperson for the country’s president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, told the Associated Press…
Abuja, August 6, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Nigerian authorities to investigate reports that dozens of journalists were assaulted, harassed, and detained while covering cost-of-living protests, which began on August 1.
CPJ is investigating multiple incidents including one in the capital Abuja on August 3, where masked security forces fired bullets and teargas at several journalists wearing “Press” vests and their media-branded cars at the national stadium.
Attacks on the press have been reported across the country since July 31, including by unidentified assailants who smashed the windows of a Channels Television-branded bus carrying 11 journalists and a car carrying two journalists in the northern city of Kano and others who assaulted journalists while they were reporting in southern Delta State, as well as police arrests of reporters in Maiduguri in northeastern Borno State.
“Nigerian authorities must identify and hold accountable all those responsible for shooting at, attacking, harassing, and arresting numerous journalists while covering the #EndBadGovernance protests,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The Nigerian public and the world deserve to be informed about the nationwide protests, but too often, journalists covering demonstrations are met with violence. Nigerian security forces must prioritize the safety of the press.”
Abuja police spokesperson Josephine Adeh told CPJ via messaging app that police did not carry out any attacks on the media. Delta State police spokesperson Bright Edafe told CPJ by phone that police in the state had not received any official complaints about attacks on the press.
CPJ is working to confirm whether the journalists that it interviewed filed police complaints.
CPJ’s calls to Borno State Commissioner for Information Usman Tar and Kano State police spokesperson Abubakar Zayyanu Ambursa requesting comment went unanswered.
We get an update from Dhaka, where Bangladesh’s president dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, a day after the long-ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student protests. The military says an interim government will be formed to lead the country to new elections, but its makeup remains unclear, with many students demanding the installation of Nobel Prize…
An oil tanker scheduled to carry 300,000 barrels of military-grade jet fuel to Israel has been prevented from docking in Spain and Gibraltar following pressure from activists. The oil is expected to be used in Israeli Air Force’s F16 and F35 jets as part of the country’s genocidal assault on Gaza. The Overseas Santorini was supposed to dock in Gibraltar on July 30, but it did not stop…
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country after weeks of student-led protests against government nepotism, corruption and repression. The demonstrations have been met with lethal police force, resulting in over 300 deaths. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s first president, had led the country since 2009. Though the protests were initially focused on nepotism in…
As most Chinese nationals at the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris waved Chinese national flags in a bid to cheer their team on, some were there holding banners that carried a very different message — protesting Beijing’s human rights record.
As French police cordoned off major roads outside key venues on Friday evening ahead of the opening ceremony along the River Seine, Liu Feilong and Qian Yun joined the eager crowd.
But instead of cheering, they held up a placard in support of the democratic island of Taiwan, which is targeted by Chinese military incursions on a near-daily basis.
Crowds of spectators gather near a security cordon in Paris ahead of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, July 26, 2024. (RFA)
The slogan on the placard was partly aimed at Liu Shaye, China’s outspoken ambassador to France who recently described Taiwan’s democratically elected government as “a rebel regime” that could be toppled by China at any time.
“Liu Shaye and the Chinese Communist Party are the real rebel regime,” the placard said.
The Chinese government’s propaganda machine has kicked into high gear to ensure favorable coverage at this year’s Olympics, with Chinese athletes ordered not to talk to journalists not sanctioned by senior officials.
Liu and Qian’s protest went largely unnoticed amid the throngs of sports fans on the Parisian streets on the opening night of the Games.
Fleeing persecution in China
But for some activists in exile, who also protested during a visit to Paris by Chinese President Xi Jinping in May, such actions are becoming a way of life.
Two hours earlier, Liu and Qian turned up outside the Chinese embassy in Paris and held up a Chinese national flag, not out of patriotic support for Chinese athletes, but in protest over human rights issues.
On their version of the flag, the group of five gold stars had a black skull scrawled on it.
“I just want to express my hope that the Chinese government will care about human rights,” Qian told RFA Mandarin.
Neither Liu nor Qian is a stranger to political persecution in China.
Netherlands-based Chinese rights activist Liu Feilong holds up a placard calling Beijing a “rebel regime” in Paris ahead of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, July 26, 2024. (RFA)
Qian, who fled China in 2021 and is now in his early thirties, was kicked out of junior high school for expressing doubts about the official view of history. He and his family were harassed and targeted by police and local government officials, who labeled him “mentally ill” in 2014, putting him at risk of detention at any time.
He called on the Chinese government to “stop engaging in this kind of persecution.”
“The way they labeled me as mentally ill was too casual,” said Qian, who cited the 2018 case of Dong Yaoqiong, forcibly detained in a psychiatric facility in the central province of Hunan after she splashed black ink over a poster of Xi Jinping for a social media video protest.
Liu, who hails from the southern province of Guangdong and wore a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Guangdong Youth” in Chinese and English, said he also left China in 2021, in the hope of living in greater freedom in the Netherlands.
“Freedom that different voices and different political views are expressed, free from fear, and without having to worry about being held accountable or investigated,” he said.
But even in a free country, some risks remain, with overseas dissidents and activists frequently reporting surveillance and harassment by supporters and agents of the Chinese state, even on foreign soil.
Qian Yun and his family have been persecuted by the local government for a long time, and were forcibly diagnosed as “mentally ill” in 2014, in Paris, July 26, 2024. (RFA)
In May, a close associate of Liu’s had first-hand experience of Beijing’s “long-arm” law enforcement methods.
“[Fellow activist] Chen Kui and I protested against Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris,” he said. “The next day, state security police in China paid a visit to his friends and relatives and threatened them.”
Similar treatment was meted out to another overseas activist known by his nickname Jiang Bu, said Liu, adding that he himself has cut off all contact with his folks back home in a bid to protect them.
“The Chinese government really fears this sort of opposition voice,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin and Fong Tak Ho for RFA Cantonese.
New York, July 26, 2024– The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Bangladesh authorities to investigate the killings of journalists Hasan Mehedi, Md. Shakil Hossain, and Abu Taher Md Turab and other attacks on reporters covering deadlynationwide protests over government job quotas.
“CPJ is deeply disturbed by the killing of journalists Hasan Mehedi, Md. Shakil Hossain, and Abu Taher Md Turab while they were reporting on the quota protests in Bangladesh,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The Bangladesh government must hold to account those responsible for all assaults on journalists and fully restore internet and phone services to allow the free flow of information needed to cover matters of public interest.”
Bangladesh authorities imposed an internet shutdown and severely disrupted mobile services on July 18. Broadband internet was partially restored in limited areas on Tuesday evening, but mobile services and social media remained blocked as of July 26.
Mehedi, a reporter for the news website Dhaka Times, was fatally shot on July 18 while covering clashes in the Jatrabari area of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, according to news reports. Dhaka Times editor Arifur Rahman Dolon told CPJ that Mehedi was killed by law enforcement officials, but limited internet availability prevented him providing additional details.
Hossain, a correspondent for Daily Bhorer Awaj newspaper, was also killed on July 18 while reporting in Bangladesh’s central Gazipur city, according to the Sweden-based investigative news website Netra News and the journalists’ association Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Turab, a reporter for the Daily Jalalabad and Daily Naya Diganta newspapers, was wearing a press vest when he was fatally shot by police firing into a July 19 procession of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party in northeast Sylhet city, according to New Age newspaper and a Daily Jalalabad reporter, who spoke to CPJ anonymously for fear of reprisal.
Meanwhile on July 18, protesters set fire to the headquarters of state-run Bangladesh Television in Dhaka, as well as several of the broadcaster’s vehicles, when riot police retreated inside the premises.
CPJ has confirmed attacks on the 14 journalists listed below and is continuing to investigate reports that dozens more have been assaulted either by police, protesters, or supporters of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. Of the 14, several required hospital treatment for injuries including head wounds.
Police attacks
July 16 Police fired rubber bullets at newspaper correspondents Mehedi Mamun (Daily Bonik Barta); Wajahatul Islam, (Daily Janakantha); Abdur Rahman Khan Sarjil, (Dainik Bangla), and freelancer Jubayer Ahmed, despite their identifying themselves as journalists covering demonstrations at Jahangirnagar University (JU), on the outskirts of Dhaka, Mamun and Islam told CPJ.
July 17 – Police grabbed the phone of Abdullah Al Mamun, a correspondent for Prothom Alo newspaper, while he was recording police action against students trying to leave JU’s campus. Al Mamun told CPJ that, despite identifying himself as a journalist and showing his press card, officers beat him with rifles and batons and fired a rubber bullet at him as he tried to flee.
– Shadique Mahbub Islam, a features writer for The Business Standard newspaper, told CPJ that police fired sound grenades at him and two other unidentified reporters while they were photographing a protester’s arrest at the Dhaka University (DU) campus. Police trying to surround protesting students again fired two sound grenades and tear gas in front of Islam later that day.
July 18 – Muktadir Rashid, a correspondent for Bangla Outlook website, told CPJ that he was hit with birdshot pellets as police and ruling party activists fired at protesters near Dhaka’s Mirpur police station.
– Jibon Ahmed, a photojournalist for Daily Manab Zamin newspaper, told CPJ that police in Dhaka fired lead pellets at a group reporting in the same area after he raised his hands and identified himself and around seven others as journalists.
Chhatra League attacks
July 15 – The Business Standard’s Islam told CPJ that despite showing his press identification, Chhatra League supporters beat him with rods and threw bricks at him as they forcibly dispersed protesters at DU’s campus.
– Prabir Das, a senior photographer for The Daily Star newspaper, told CPJ that Chhatra League supporters beat him with sticks while he was reporting from DU’s campus. Dipu Malakar, photojournalist for Prothom Alo newspaper, said he was also reporting on campus when a Chhatra League supporter threw a brick at him.
July 16 Chhatra League supporters beat Sakib Ahmed, a correspondent for the South Asian Times, with a rod and snatched his press card while he was reporting at JU, the journalist told CPJ.
Protester attacks
July 11 Protesters in the Shahbagh area of Dhaka pushed Somoy TV reporter Toha Khan Tamim and hit him with a helmet. Demonstrators also damaged the camera of the broadcaster’s senior video journalist Prince Arefin before chasing him, according to Omar Faroque, the broadcaster’s chief input editor.
July 16 Protesters in northern Bogura city beatJamuna Television senior reporter and local bureau chief Meherul Sujon with bamboo sticks while he was wearing a press card and carrying a microphone, the journalist told CPJ.
Bangladesh’s state information minister Mohammad Ali Arafat and Chhatra League president Saddam Hussain did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to defend the ongoing war on Gaza as thousands of people outside protested his appearance. The speech came two months after Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for committing war crimes in Gaza. Over 100 Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, skipped the speech, but those in attendance gave Netanyahu numerous standing ovations as he painted a distorted picture of what’s happening in Gaza, making no mention of efforts to reach a ceasefire or the more than 16,000 Palestinian children killed in Israel’s assault. Foreign policy analyst Phyllis Bennis says the speech was “horrifying,” but says it showed that “support for Israel has become a thoroughly partisan issue.” Bennis adds that peace activists in the U.S. have built a broad consensus against the war on Gaza and military support for Israel, and says Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to chart a new path on Middle East policy as she runs for president.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Hundreds of Jewish activists were arrested in the U.S. Capitol complex on Tuesday after staging a sit-in to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. and address to Congress this week, carrying signs and wearing shirts with slogans like “Not in Our Name” as they demanded an end to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Protesters with Jewish Voice…
The death toll in Bangladesh from a crackdown on massive student protests has risen to at least 174, with more than 2,500 people arrested, after police and soldiers were granted “shoot-on-sight” orders amid the unrest. The protests were in response to a highly contested quota system for civil service jobs, with 30% of government positions reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in the…
The death toll in Bangladesh from a crackdown on massive student protests has risen to at least 174, with more than 2,500 people arrested, after police and soldiers were granted “shoot-on-sight” orders amid the unrest. The protests were in response to a highly contested quota system for civil service jobs, with 30% of government positions reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971. The country’s high court rolled that back Sunday to only 5%, but students are still demanding that a curfew be fully lifted, schools reopened, and detained students and protest leaders released. “The collective anger that you’re seeing is over inequality, lack of opportunity, and a perception that those who are close to the ruling class and ruling elite are getting all the benefits,” says journalist Salil Tripathi, author of a book on the Bangladeshi war of independence.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
The PANG media team at this month’s Pacific International Media Conference in Fiji caught up with independent journalist, author and educator Dr David Robie and questioned him on his views about decolonisation in the Pacific.
Dr Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), a co-organiser of the conference, shared his experience on reporting on Kanaky New Caledonia and West Papua’s fight for freedom.
He speaks from his 40 years of journalism in the Pacific saying the United Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum need to step up pressure on France and Indonesia to decolonise.
The leaders of the subregional bloc — from Fiji, FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu — met in Tokyo on the sidelines of the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10), to specifically talk about New Caledonia.
They included Fiji’s Sitiveni Rabuka, PNG’s James Marape, Solomon Islands’ Jeremiah Manele, and Vanuatu’s Charlot Salwai.
In his interview with PANG (Pacific Network on Globalisation), Dr Robie also draws parallels with the liberation struggle in Palestine, which he says has become a global symbol for justice and freedom everywhere.
Asia Pacific Media Report’s Dr David Robie . . . The people see the flags of Kanaky, West Papua and Palestine as symbolic of the struggles against repression and injustice all over the world.
“I should mention Palestine as well because essentially it’s settler colonisation.
“What we’ve seen in the massive protests over the last nine months and so on there has been a huge realisation in many countries around the world that colonisation is still here after thinking, or assuming, that had gone some years ago.
“So you’ll see in a lot of protests — we have protests across Aotearoa New Zealand every week — that the flags of Kanaky, West Papua and Palestine fly together.
“The people see these as symbolic of the repression and injustice all over the world.”
PANG Media talk to Dr David Robie on decolonisation. Video: PANG Media
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
“This system was designed to do exactly what it is doing and has been doing: concentrating wealth and facilitating racial capitalism and colonialism and extraction,” says author and activist Dean Spade. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Spade and host Kelly Hayes discuss some common traps that activists fall into when discussing repression, and how we can strengthen our practice of solidarity.
Contestations over the Republican National Committee’s efforts to foreclose avenues for lawful protest outside this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) were already heated months before GOP delegates started booking their flights to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the convention. So it was something of a victory for free speech that, after months of mobilizing and negotiations — and in the…
Kampala, July 16, 2024 —Kenyan authorities must conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the July 16 shooting of journalist Catherine Wanjeri wa Kariuki as she covered ongoing protests in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
Kariuki, a reporter for the privately owned Mediamax Network Ltd media group, was shot three times with rubber bullets across her left thigh as she covered anti-government in Nakuru County, according to Greg Onyango, a local journalist who was with Kariuki during the incident and spoke to CPJ, a statement by theMedia Council of Kenya, a statutory industry regulator, localnewsreports, and a video of the incident posted on X. The video shows armed officers firing from a Kenya Police-marked pick-up truck and Kariuki, who was wearing a press vest, screaming on the ground after she was struck.
Onyango told CPJ on the evening of July 16 that had just left the hospital where Kariuki was in surgery. “She was stable but in a lot of pain,” he said.
“The shooting of journalist Catherine Wanjeri wa Kariuki as she covered protests in Kenya is a deeply alarming development in a pattern of violence faced by the press covering recent demonstrations,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Kenyan police should be focused on ensuring the safety of journalists, not targeting them with violence or detention, and authorities should act swiftly to hold accountable those responsible.”
Thousands of Kenyans have repeatedly taken to the streets since June 18 to protest a proposed law that would significantly increase taxes and express broader concerns about governance in the country. Security personnel have violently engaged and briefly detained journalists covering the demonstrations.
Kenya’s police spokesperson Resila Atieno Onyango and the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) chairperson Ann Makori did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.
The Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights and other protesters took to the streets of Fiji’s capital Suva yesterday in a rare demonstration demanding freedom, decolonisation and human rights in Kanaky New Caledonia and West Papua.
The peaceful “pre-Bastille Day” protest came after recent events in Kanaky New Caledonia led to 10 deaths and a heavy build-up of French police and paramilitary forces.
It also followed ongoing human rights abuses and violations by Indonesia in West Papua.
“As France commemorates Bastille Day on July 14 and celebrates their own principles of ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’, its own action in the Pacific contradicts the national day,” said West Papuan activist Rosa Moiwend of the Pacific Network on Globalisation.
PANG’s Rosa Moiwend of West Papua and Asia Pacific Media Network’s Del Abcede of New Zealand in Suva . . . French actions in Pacific “contradict Bastille Day” principles of liberty. Image: APMN
“French colonisation of Pacific territories and its continued acts of suppression in Māohi Niu and Kanaky New Caledonia are quite the opposite of what the French revolution achieved.
“Today, they are symbolic of the Bastille and the monarchy oppressing and abusing the people and denying their right to self-determination in their own lands,” she said.
The May riots and unrest in Kanaky New Caledonia has led to 3500 security personnel being deployed from France.
“At best, this is based on the severely misguided notion that the challenges of the decolonisation process can be resolved by force,” Moiwend said.
France’s true objectives ‘disguised’
“However, it is becoming clearer that the restoration of order and peace is just a disguise for France’s true objectives — a deliberate retrenchment and extension of colonial control.”
Liberation for Kanaky, Palestine and West Papua. Image: FWCC
Almost two months after the outbreak of violence, tensions remain high and there is serious concern about the continuing restrictions on Kanaks.
Widespread reports of atrocities and police brutality against Kanaky youth have angered protest groups across the Pacific.
French authorities have extradited seven indigenous Kanak activists to prisons in France while awaiting trial on “conspiracy” charges over the rioting.
“French President Emmanuel Macron must be responsible for the current state of Kanaky New Caledonia,” said PANG in a statement.
“Blaming Kanak leaders and having them arrested and detained in France is a coverup and tactic to assert power. We call on President Macron to release the Kanak leaders and allow them legal representation.”
Olivia Baro from the Pacific Conference of Churches added that the issue of West Papua and the ongoing human rights abuse must not be forgotten, and Indonesia must be held responsible.
West Papuan voices ‘silenced’
Indonesia’s ongoing influence on the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum has continued to silence the voices of West Papuans.
As Pacific peoples, we will continue to stand in solidarity with West Papua and their right to self-determination.
“As we commemorate the Biak massacre this month and remember the many lives lost in West Papua, the continuous suppression of West Papua by Indonesia is a similar struggle to Kanaky New Caledonia, Palestine and many human rights struggles globally,” said Baro.
Despite restrictions set by authorities to prevent Palestine flags and banners at the march, the coalition stands in solidarity with our brothers, sisters and families in Palestine.
The Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji and their allies have been hosting vigils at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre compound for Palestine, West Papua and Kanaky every Thursday over the last eight months.
The call on the Fiji government and Pacific leaders to support the ceasefire in Gaza, and protect the rights of Palestinians, West Papuans and Kanaks.
“The struggles of Palestinians are no different to West Papua, Kanaky New Caledonia,” FWCC Coordinator and NGOCHR Chair Shamima Ali.
“These are struggles of self-determination, and their human rights must be upheld.”
Fiji police at Parliament yesterday on watch for the Pacific human rights protest. Image: Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre
Freelance photojournalist Jon Putman had his camera struck while documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in Los Angeles, California, on June 23, 2024. At least nine journalists were assaulted while covering the violence that day.
The conflict began after the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called for demonstrators to meet at noon outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in west LA to protest the alleged sale of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Multiple journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that scuffles, brawls and exchanges of pepper spray broke out in the streets nearby between the protesters and counterprotesters.
Individuals from both sides — including a rabbi and security volunteers from the Jewish community — attempted to intervene and prevent the violence from escalating. CNN reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers established a perimeter around the synagogue.
In footage captured by independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Putman is visible in a black T-shirt and baseball cap photographing from the street as dozens of people mill around. At 0:23 in the clip, a man with a face bloodied after a fight can be seen knocking Putman’s camera aside with his hand. The same individual similarly attempted to prevent photojournalist David Swanson from photographing him earlier.
Things continuing, both crowds now walking through Pico-Robertson exchanging the occasional fight and lots of taunts. Pro-Palestinian protesters appear to be attempting to walk away or through the neighborhood. Pro-Israel demonstrators following them. pic.twitter.com/csRakK3ylU
— Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) June 23, 2024
Putman did not respond to requests for additional comment about the incident.
The LAPD said in a news release that officers were investigating two reports of battery at the protest and that one individual had been arrested for having a spiked post. A spokesperson for the department told the Tracker via email June 27 that they have no further information.
In June, a Florida appeals court upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’s anti-rioting law. The law, which both increases penalties for existing crimes and creates new crimes aimed at, in DeSantis’s words, ending “the bullying and intimidation tactics of the radical left,” was challenged in a lawsuit that argued it would undermine free speech rights of protesters. The appeals court decided the law…
Japan has objected to China’s installation of a buoy in the high seas over Japan’s southern continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean without explanation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo it was “regrettable” that China set up a buoy at a location in the high seas surrounded by Japan’s exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, “without explaining its purpose and other details.”
An EEZ gives a state – in this case, Japan – exclusive access to the natural resources in the waters and in the seabed.
The buoy was set up in mid-June in the so-called Shikoku Basin region north of Japan’s southernmost Okinotori Island by the Chinese survey vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 during a voyage through Japan’s waters.
Japan urged China not to undermine its maritime interests, with Hayashi saying that Japanese authorities would monitor the situation.
China responded by saying that the Chinese vessel placed a tsunami buoy in the high seas of the western Pacific Ocean “for the purpose of scientific research and serving public good.”
Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Mao Ning said it was a “well-established international practice” to conduct scientific research in the high seas.
“Japan has no right to interfere in such activities,” she added.
Last July, the Xiang Yang Hong 22 installed an ocean survey buoy inside Japan’s EEZ near the Senkaku Islands, which are under Japan’s control but also claimed by China. Japan protested and asked China to remove the buoy.
Mao said that the uninhabited islands, which China calls Diaoyu Dao, are part of China’s territory and it was “legitimate and lawful” for China to set a hydrological and meteorological data buoy in the waters there.
Increased activities
The 3,000-ton Xiang Yang Hong 22 is China’s first large-scale buoy operation vessel, specializing in deploying, recycling and repairing large buoys used mainly for oceanographic observation.
However, China is known for having installed buoys to mark sovereignty and reinforce its claims in disputed areas.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, or AMTI, at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a report China’s neighbors have been resisting its attempts to set up buoys across the region.
China installed a 15-meter-wide buoy in the East China Sea in 2021 to bolster a network of smaller buoys to collect data for safeguarding its maritime interests and to demonstrate Chinese sovereignty, the group said.
China has also been ramping up activities in the South China and East China seas, especially near the Philippines and Japan.
Japanese and Philippine foreign and defense ministers are meeting on Monday in Manila to discuss deepening their security cooperation.
Philippine defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and his Japanese counterpart, Minoru Kihara, are expected to sign a reciprocal access agreement, or RAA, that will allow either country to deploy troops to the other’s territory.
They are also expected to discuss a Japanese program, launched in 2023, that provides weapons to partners free of charge.
Japan has RAAs with only two other countries, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Independent videographer Justin Jun was pulled by multiple individuals and smacked in the head while documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in Los Angeles, California, on June 23, 2024. At least nine journalists were assaulted while covering the violence that day.
The conflict began after the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called for demonstrators to meet at noon outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in west LA to protest the alleged sale of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Multiple journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that scuffles, brawls and exchanges of pepper spray broke out in the streets nearby between the protesters and counterprotesters.
Individuals from both sides — including a rabbi and security volunteers from the Jewish community — attempted to intervene and prevent the violence from escalating. CNN reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers established a perimeter around the synagogue.
At 0:28 in footage captured from a helicopter by KCAL-TV photojournalist John Schreiber, a man can be seen kicking independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel’s phone out of his hand. Jun caught the phone, but when he attempted to return it the pair of journalists were swarmed by individuals Beckner-Carmitchel identified as pro-Israeli demonstrators.
“The crowd surrounded us, so I grabbed him (Jun) really close and gave him a bear hug to try to make sure that nobody can get us down on the ground and to protect my face and stomach and to protect my gear,” Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker.
Multiple fights broke out between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators today near a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of LA. Looks like some live-streamers/journalists were also attacked as a phone was kicked out of one man's hand. @kcalnewspic.twitter.com/JApVUC180U
Schreiber’s footage shows two men pulling Jun back while a third attempts to kick his video camera. One of the men who had pulled him into the street then strikes him in the back of the head with an open hand. Beckner-Carmitchel is also seen being punched multiple times while holding onto Jun.
Independent photojournalist Nick Stern steps in to attempt to stop the attack, but as the journalists move away from the crowd Jun helps keep Beckner-Carmitchel upright after an assailant kicks him in the groin.
The LAPD said in a news release that officers were investigating two reports of battery at the protest and that one individual had been arrested for having a spiked post. A spokesperson for the department told the Tracker via email June 27 that they have no further information.
