Category Archives: Press freedom

France accused of attack on press freedom after journalist arrest

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Ariane Lavrilleux, who reported on leaked documents alleging French intelligence used to target civilians in Egypt, is in custody

France has been accused of an unacceptable attack on press freedom after the arrest of an investigative journalist who reported on leaked documents that alleged French intelligence was used to target civilians in Egypt.

Police arrived at the home of Ariane Lavrilleux at dawn on Tuesday and took her into custody after searching her property. The news agency AFP reported that she was being questioned by agents of the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency.

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Philippine Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa acquitted of tax charges

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The dropping of charges against Ressa and Rappler, the news website she founded, is the latest legal victory for the Nobel laureate

Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been acquitted of her final tax evasion charge in the latest legal victory for the veteran journalist as she battles to stay out of prison over cases that she has previously described as part of a pattern of harassment.

The 59-year-old, who won a Nobel peace prize in 2021, has spent a number of years fighting multiple charges that were filed during then president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

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Myanmar journalist jailed for 20 years for cyclone coverage

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Sentencing of Sai Zaw Thaike at one-day trial for treason and defamation shows press freedom has been ‘completely quashed’ under junta, editor says

A Myanmar court has sentenced a photojournalist to 20 years in prison with hard labour over his coverage of the aftermath of a deadly cyclone, according to Myanmar Now, the media organisation he worked for.

The sentence given to Sai Zaw Thaike, a photographer for the independent online news service, appeared to be the most severe for any journalist detained since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

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George Soros foundation’s retreat from Europe could ‘turn off the lights’ for human rights

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Activists fear the billionaire’s legacy will be lost as his Open Society Foundations curbs its activities across the EU

He survived the Nazi occupation of his native Hungary, made a fortune on Wall Street and became one of the most steadfast backers of democracy and human rights in the eastern bloc.

But human rights activists and independent media fear the legacy of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, 93, could be about to be undone in his homelands, as his donor network announced it will curb its activities across the EU from 2024.

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Thursday briefing: Vice took millions from Saudi Arabia – but has its deal backfired?

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In today’s newsletter: As the upstart media company faces bankruptcy, it has developed strong ties with the country, leaving some to question what compromises companies are willing to make to do business

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It’s hard to put into words the transformation that Saudi Arabia has undergone in the past six years.

Mohammed bin Salman, commonly referred to as MBS, was appointed the crown prince in 2017 and is now the de facto ruler of the kingdom. There have been notable reforms under his new regime. Women are allowed to drive; the guardian system – under which men have legal powers over women – has been relaxed; and cinemas reopened after 35 years.

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Kansas newspaper raided by police to have seized items returned

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Police raid on office of Marion County Record drew widespread condemnation by press freedom advocates

Authorities have announced the controversial search warrant of a local Kansas newspaper office has been withdrawn.

The Marion county attorney Joel Ensey announced that following a review of the search warrants made last Friday at multiple locations in Marion county, he has “come to the conclusion that insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized”.

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‘Stressed beyond her limits’: co-owner of Kansas newspaper dies after police raid

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Police served a search warrant to the Marion County Record’s Joan Meyer, 98, after the paper’s investigation into local restaurateur

The co-owner of a small Kansas newspaper whose offices and staff were raided by local police officers conducting a leak investigation has died after the situation left her “stressed beyond her limits”, according to the publication.

Joan Meyer, 98, collapsed on Saturday afternoon and died at her home a day after she tearfully watched officers who showed up at her home with a search warrant cart away her computer as well as an internet router, reported the Marion County Record, which she co-owned. After officers also photographed the bank statements of her son, Record publisher Eric Meyer, and left her house in mess, Meyer had been unable to eat or sleep, her newspaper said.

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Solomon Islands newspaper pledged to promote ‘truth about China’s generosity’ in return for funding

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The Solomon Star denies accusations of ‘giving away’ its independence by accepting thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment

Local media in Solomon Islands have been accused of compromising their independence by entering into agreements with Chinese news organisations and accepting thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment from the Chinese embassy.

Since the Solomon Islands government signed a high-profile security agreement with China in March 2022, some newspapers in the Pacific country have received cars, cameras, phones and printing machinery that costs thousands of dollars from the Chinese government, via its local embassy, according to local journalists. Some have raised concern about the gifts and the continued close dialogue between media organisations in China and Solomon Islands.

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Student journalists in Indonesia face backlash after reporting on sexual harassment

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Students say they are being targeted with expulsion, physical assault and death threats after writing about sensitive subjects

Yolanda Agne, 23, was just months away from graduating in journalism at a university in Maluku province, Indonesia, when she was banned from finishing her studies.

In March last year, the student magazine Lintas – of which Agne was then editor-in-chief – published a damning piece on the prevalence of sexual harassment on her campus at Ambon Islamic State Institute. Among the alleged perpetrators were eight lecturers, with incidents dating over a six-year period.

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Life imitates art as El Salvador pressures book fair to bar dissenting writer

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Barbers on Strike, author Michelle Recinos’s collection of short stories, has apparently upset strongman president Nayib Bukele

First the soldiers came for those with mohawks. Then they came for the hairdressers themselves.

“They were good kids,” quips the narrator in one of the latest tales by the Salvadorian author Michelle Recinos, “although I’d never trusted them with my hair.”

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Syria cancels accreditation of two BBC journalists

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British broadcaster says it will continue to provide impartial news after being accused by Bashar al-Assad’s government of politicised coverage

Syria’s information ministry says it has cancelled the accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of “false” and “politicised” coverage.

The accreditations of an unidentified correspondent and a camera operator had been revoked following “subjective and false information and reports” on Syria, the ministry said on its website on Saturday. It described other BBC reports as “politicised”.

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Russia may be open to prisoner swap for jailed US reporter Evan Gershkovich

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Kremlin spokesman says there have been ‘certain contacts on the subject’ with the US but says any discussion will be held in secret

The Kremlin has suggested it could be open to a possible prisoner exchange involving jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, but reaffirmed that such talks must be held away from the public eye.

Asked whether Monday’s consular visits to Gershkovich, who has been held behind bars in Moscow since March on charges of espionage, and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian citizen in US custody on cybercrime charges, could potentially herald a prisoner swap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow and Washington had touched on the issue.

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US ambassador to Russia says jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in ‘good health’

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Ambassador Lynne Tracey was allowed to meet the journalist in a Moscow jail in her second such visit since his arrest in March

Russia has granted the US consular access to jailed Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich after a more than two-month gap, with the US ambassador reporting him in good health.

The state department said ambassador Lynne Tracey met Gershkovich at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow on Monday, only her second such meeting with him since he was arrested on 29 March during a reporting trip in the Urals.

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Draft EU plans to allow spying on journalists are dangerous, warn critics

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Move to allow spyware to be placed on reporters’ phones would have a ‘chilling effect’, say media experts

Draft legislation published by EU leaders that would allow national security agencies to spy on journalists has been condemned by media and civic society groups as dangerous and described by a leading MEP as “incomprehensible”.

On Wednesday, the European Council – which represents the governments of EU member states – published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act that would allow spyware to be placed on journalists’ phones if a national government thought it necessary.

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Moscow court rules US reporter accused of spying must remain in detention

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US ambassador says she is ‘extremely disappointed’ at decision not to release WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich

A Moscow court has ruled that the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich must remain in pre-trial detention on espionage charges until at least late August, rejecting the American journalist’s appeal to be released.

Gershkovich appeared slightly pale and with longer hair after almost three months’ detention in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, which is reserved for targets of FSB investigations. He was smiling in some photos.

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Outrage in Guatemala as crusading journalist given six-year prison term

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José Rubén Zamora, 66, convicted and sentenced on money-laundering charges press freedom groups say were trumped up

A veteran journalist and founder of one of Guatemala’s oldest newspapers has been sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering, in a case widely condemned as politically motivated.

José Rubén Zamora, 66, was convicted on Wednesday by a three-judge panel in Guatemala City, who ruled that there was “no doubt” the outspoken critic of government corruption masterminded the laundering of almost $40,000 in 2022. The court absolved Zamora of blackmail and peddling influence charges.

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US House unanimously calls on Russia to release journalist Evan Gershkovich

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Gershkovich was arrested in March on espionage charges, which both he and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, deny

The US House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday for a resolution calling for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia for three months.

The vote was 422-0 in favor of the nonbinding measure.

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Nobel laureate Maria Ressa says research by Oxford institute can be used against reporters

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Exclusive: methodology used by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism risks undermining media in global south, says Ressa

Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa has claimed Oxford University’s leading journalism institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.

One of the world’s most prominent and respected journalists, Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), because of deep concerns about how it compiles an annual Digital News Report.

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UN experts express ‘grave concern’ over detention of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong

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Communication sent to Beijing government says media mogul’s prosecutions relate to his criticism of China

A group of UN experts have expressed “grave concern” over the arrest and detention of Jimmy Lai, a former media mogul in Hong Kong who has been charged with violating the territory’s national security law.

In a joint communication sent to the Chinese government, the experts from the UN working group on arbitrary detention and several special rapporteurs focused on human rights said Lai’s arrest and multiple prosecutions related to “his criticism of the Chinese government and his support for democracy in Hong Kong”.

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Radio broadcaster shot dead in the Philippines, say police

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Cresenciano Bunduquin is the latest to be killed in a country that is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist

A radio broadcaster was shot dead outside his home in the central Philippines on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a long list of journalists killed in the country.

Cresenciano Bunduquin, 50, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro province, Colonel Samuel Delorino told Agence France-Presse.

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