Category Archives: Press freedom

Australia denies Cameroonian journalist visa for press freedom conference

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Authorities believed Mimi Mefo, an award-winning journalist who works for Deutsche Welle in Berlin, might try to stay

A Berlin-based journalist who was due to speak at a press freedom conference in Brisbane has said she was denied a visa by the Australian government because they believed she might try to stay.

Mimi Mefo, an award-winning Cameroonian journalist who currently works for Deutsche Welle, was scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the Integrity 20 conference on Friday.

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PM’s department evades question on Brian Houston’s White House invite – politics live

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ALP requests documents about Barr investigation into the Mueller report. Plus, new AFP commissioner faces Senate estimates, and media companies unite against secrecy laws. All the day’s events, live

Scott Morrison adds to the answer to Warren Snowdon’s question:

On 13 September of this year, I can confirm that the tender was awarded to Australian company Oricon an engineering company that, will lead the Kakadu road strategy and they’ll work in a consortium with PwC, and PwC Indigenous consulting, beginning the work immediately.

The roads of strategy will be developed in.conjunction with the tourism master plan, access to key sites and planned upgrades. I thought the member would be interested in that additional information.

The folders are stacked.

We are done as soon as Greg Hunt finishes this dixer.

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Amal Clooney: give UN power to investigate journalist deaths

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UK media freedom envoy speaks out after targeted killing of Jamal Khashoggi

A “glaring gap” exists in the world’s ability to investigate targeted state killings of human rights defenders and journalists such as Jamal Khashoggi, said Amal Clooney, the UK special envoy on media freedom.

She also said the UN special rapporteur Agnès Callamard, who undertook the UN’s investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, “had been forced heroically to manage a large-scale investigation with ridiculously few resources”.

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Johnson offers words of praise to Egypt’s leader despite repression

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Banning of BBC and crackdown on protests seemingly not on agenda at PM’s talks with Sisi

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, lavished praise on Egypt at a bilateral meeting with its president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in New York, hours before the UK hosted a global media freedom conference with Amal Clooney, the UK’s special envoy on media freedom.

Sisi has just instigated a fresh massive crackdown on journalists following the outbreak of protests against corruption in Egypt.

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China denies credentials to Wall Street Journal reporter

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Chun Han Wong, who covered Xi Jinping extensively, is in effect expelled from country

Chinese authorities have declined to renew the press credentials of a Beijing-based Wall Street Journal reporter, in effect expelling a journalist who extensively covered President Xi Jinping and Communist party politics.

The foreign ministry said on Friday in response to a faxed question about the Singaporean reporter Chun Han Wong’s visa that some foreign journalists with the “evil intention to smear and attack China” were not welcome.

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Evening Standard and Independent unable to rebut concerns over Saudi ownership

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News outlets unsure who employs Saudi investor after fears of state interference

The Evening Standard and the Independent say they are unsure who employs the Saudi Arabian businessman who bought a substantial stake in both news outlets, amid concerns that the Saudi government could exert editorial influence over them.

The Russian oligarch’s son Evgeny Lebedev, who controls both publications, sold 30% stakes in them to offshore companies fronted by a Saudi businessman, Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel.

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Letter: press freedom campaigners call for action on ‘vexatious lawsuits’

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In an open letter to Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, the Observer’s editor, charities and campaigners urge new legislation to stop the abuse of defamation law

Following the recent global conference on media freedom held in London by the UK government, we write to draw your attention to what appears to be a growing trend to use strategic litigation against public participation (“SLAPP”) lawsuits as a means of intimidating and silencing journalists working in the public interest.

Such legal threats are designed to inhibit ongoing investigations, and prevent legitimate public interest reporting. Abuse of defamation law, including through SLAPP lawsuits, has become a serious threat to press freedom and advocacy rights in a number of countries, including the UK.

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Brexit funder Arron Banks threatens Netflix over Great Hack documentary

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Legal threat comes as campaigners warn UK government that courts are being used to intimidate journalists

Letter: press freedom campaigners call for action on ‘vexatious lawsuits’

Related: The Great Hack: the film that goes behind the scenes of the Facebook data scandal

The businessman Arron Banks and the unofficial Brexit campaign Leave.EU have issued a legal threat against streaming giant Netflix in relation to The Great Hack, a new documentary about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the abuse of personal data.

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Three formally charged in Malta for murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia

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Trial over anti-corruption journalist’s killing may not take place for years, say experts

Three men have been formally charged over the 2017 murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese anti-corruption journalist and blogger who was killed by a car bomb in November 2017.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, and Vincent Muscat, all in their fifties, were arrested in December of that year.

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Amal Clooney criticises raid on ABC newsroom in Sydney – video

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The human rights lawyer has spoken out against the raid by Australian federal police on the offices of the national public broadcaster in June. Speaking at a media freedom conference in London on Wednesday, Amal Clooney stressed that threats to press freedom exist everywhere – including in countries with a strong tradition of protecting journalists 

• Trump's rhetoric 'makes journalists vulnerable to abuse', says Amal Clooney


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The Guardian view on Jamal Khashoggi’s murder: Saudi Arabia and its friends | Editorial

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One way to honour Khashoggi is to celebrate his life. Another is to recognise the lessons of his death

The UN report into October’s murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is the fullest account yet of events and as horrifying as one would expect. Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur, describes a “deliberate, premeditated execution”; secretly recorded conversations before his visit discussed the arrival of the “sacrificial animal” and dismemberment of a body. She concludes that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia should be investigated because there is “credible evidence” that he and other senior officials are liable for the killing – a conclusion also reached by the CIA – despite the kingdom’s insistence that it was a rogue operation.

No reminder should be needed of the brutality of the killing of Khashoggi, a widely respected journalist living in Washington. Even Saudi Arabia’s business and diplomatic allies blanched, or at least felt obliged to put some distance between themselves and the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom, after repeated lies about what happened, announced that it would try 11 suspects for his murder.

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Environment reporters facing harassment and murder, study finds

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Tally of deaths makes it one of most dangerous fields for journalists after war reporting

Thirteen journalists who were investigating damage to the environment have been killed in recent years and many more are suffering violence, harassment, intimidation and lawsuits, according to a study.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which produced the tally, is investigating a further 16 deaths over the last decade. It says the number of murders may be as high as 29, making this field of journalism one of the most dangerous after war reporting.

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Police detain hundreds in Moscow during protests over Russian journalist – video

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Hundreds of people were detained in central Moscow on Wednesday as protesters rallied to demand that charges be brought against the police officers who planted drugs on Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist whose arrest sparked widespread public anger. Ovd-info, a website that tracks arrests, said at least 423 people had been detained

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Hundreds arrested in Moscow during protest over Ivan Golunov

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Protesters call for charges to be brought against police officers who arrested journalist

Hundreds of people have been detained in central Moscow as protesters demanded charges be brought against the police officers who planted drugs on Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist whose arrest sparked widespread public anger.

Alexei Navalny, a prominent Kremlin critic, was among those arrested when police, some clad in riot gear, moved in on 1,500 peaceful protesters who were attempting to reach the headquarters of the interior ministry that oversees police work. The protest, which was not approved by the authorities, took place on Russia Day, a national holiday in honour of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

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Thousands to march in Moscow in support of Russian journalist

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Ivan Golunov who reports on corruption was arrested on controversial drug dealing charges

Thousands of protesters are to march in Moscow in support of Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist arrested on controversial drug-dealing charges that are widely seen as an attempt to silence his reports on corruption.

More than 20,000 people have so far expressed an interest on Facebook in attending the march on Wednesday, which has not been sanctioned by the authorities. The protest will pass by the headquarters of the FSB state security service, before ending outside the interior ministry, which oversees the work of the police. Protests were also expected to take place in a number of other towns and cities across Russia, as calls grew for the charges against Golunov to be dropped.

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Russian journalist Ivan Golunov ‘beaten by police in custody’

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Doctor says investigative reporter may have suffered concussion and broken ribs

A Russian investigative journalist arrested on controversial drug charges has been severely beaten in custody, his lawyer has said.

A doctor who inspected Ivan Golunov said he may have suffered broken ribs, concussion and a haematoma.

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Nigeria accused of ‘scurrilous’ attempt to gag press

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Access to country’s law-making National Assembly will be restricted, says Guild of Editors

Strict new conditions for covering government proceedings and the re-arrest of a prominent journalist on terrorism charges have raised concerns about deteriorating press freedom in Nigeria.

To be permitted to report on the country’s National Assembly, the highest law-making authority, journalists will now have to prove that their media outlet has a daily circulation of 40,000 copies or online media 5,000 daily views.

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Northern Cyprus judge acquits two journalists of insulting Erdoğan

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Press freedom watchdog hails ruling by court in Turkish-occupied territory

Press freedom defenders have reacted with jubilation after a judge in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus acquitted two journalists accused of insulting Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

A court threw out charges of defamation against Şener Levent and Ali Osman Tabak brought after the small-circulation daily Afrika published a cartoon depicting a Greek statue urinating on Erdoğan’s head.

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‘I can’t wait to go to my newsroom’: Reuters journalist Wa Lone walks free – video

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Reuters journalist Wa Lone is swamped by his fellow reporters after being released from prison alongside colleague Kyaw Seo Oo. As he left Yangon’s Insein jail, Wa Lone thanked everyone who had called for their release, adding: "I'm really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. And I can't wait to go to my newsroom." When asked if he could continue to be a journalist in Myanmar, he replied: "I am a journalist. I am going to continue."

The two journalists were reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims when they were arrested and sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking Myanmar's Official Secrets Act. They were freed when President Win Myint issued a pardon for 6,520 prisoners.

 

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Jeremy Hunt: Russian TV station a ‘weapon of disinformation’

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Foreign secretary’s press freedom day speech ramps up British assault on RT

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt will on Thursday declare the Russian government-owned TV station RT to be a “weapon of disinformation” in a speech to mark World Press Freedom Day.

The comments, to an audience in Ethiopia, mark an escalation of a British ministerial assault on the standards of the Russian broadcaster, originally known as Russia Today, which had faced repeated investigations into its output by the media regulator Ofcom.

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