Category Archives: Press freedom

Russian journalist Ivan Safronov sentenced to 22 years in prison

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Reporter handed a record sentence for trumped-up treason charges that shocked supporters inside the court

A Russian court has sentenced the journalist Ivan Safronov to 22 years in prison on trumped-up treason charges, a record sentence that has shocked friends and supporters who gathered in court on Monday to protest against his imprisonment.

Safronov, a former defence reporter for the Kommersant and Vedomosti dailies, was tried on secret evidence. But case files revealed by Proekt showed that much of the case against him came from public data in his articles and alleged ties to foreigners that were not backed up by evidence.

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Russian journalist facing 24-year jail term for treason refuses to sign ‘confession’

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Ivan Safronov could be handed record sentence after being tried on secret evidence behind closed doors

Moments before the journalist Ivan Safronov was told he would be facing 24 years in prison, a Russian prosecutor offered him a deal.

Sign a confession, she said during a final courtroom break, and she would recommend a 12-year sentence instead. Safronov answered immediately.

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Mikhail Gorbachev: a divisive figure loved abroad but loathed at home

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Despite being celebrated across liberal democracies, the former Soviet leader was reviled and unpopular in Russia

Until his very last day, Mikhail Gorbachev lived in a dual reality – loved and celebrated in Washington, Paris and London, but reviled by large numbers of Russians who never forgave him for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed.

His policy of ‘glasnost’, or openness, gave Russians previously unthinkable levels of freedom, but for many, his rule will be remembered by the dramatic plunge in living standards that followed.

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Russian TV journalist fined for ‘discrediting army’ over Ukraine

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Marina Ovsyannikova, previously fined for bursting into state TV studio, found guilty over social media posts

The Russian former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been fined 50,000 roubles (£681) after being found guilty of discrediting the country’s armed forces in social media posts condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

The ruling was passed on Thursday after a short hearing in a Moscow administrative court. Ovsyannikova rejected the proceedings against her as “absurd”.

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Reporter shot to death in Mexico, the 12th journalist killed there this year

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Attacks on the press have increased 85% in the three years since president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power

Yet another Mexican reporter has been shot to death, bringing to 12 the number of journalists killed this year in the country, one of the world’s most dangerous for media workers.

Antonio de la Cruz, 47, was shot on Wednesday as he was leaving his house with his 23-year-old daughter, who was seriously injured, according to state prosecutors and the newspaper that employed him.

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Delhi police arrest Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair over tweet from 2018

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Journalists demand release of co-founder of Alt News after he was accused of insulting Hindus

The co-founder of a factchecking website has been arrested by police in Delhi weeks after he highlighted derogatory comments made by a spokesperson for Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) about the prophet Muhammad.

Mohammed Zubair, who set up the Alt News website, flagged the remarks made during a television debate at the end of May on Twitter, bringing them attention they may not otherwise have had.

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Haze Fan: China says Bloomberg staffer released on bail earlier this year

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US media firm says it has not made contact with Fan who was detained in Beijing in 2020 on suspicion of national security crimes

Haze Fan, a Bloomberg News staff member in China who was detained in late 2020, was released on bail early this year, according to a statement by the Chinese embassy in Washington that was dated May and reported by the news organisation on Tuesday.

New York-based Bloomberg said in a news report that it was made aware of the embassy statement over the weekend, and that it had not been able to contact Fan.

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Russia bans 29 UK journalists, including Guardian correspondents

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Military figures and MPs on list along with staff from most major British newspapers and broadcasters

Russia has banned 29 members of the British media, including five Guardian journalists, from entering the country, its foreign ministry has said.

Moscow said the sweeping action was a response to western sanctions and the “spreading of false information about Russia”, as well as “anti-Russian actions of the British government”.

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Journalist conviction in Zimbabwe a ‘travesty of justice’, say campaigners

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Media freedom groups say New York Times reporter’s verdict reflects press clampdown as election looms

Media freedom campaigners have criticised the conviction of a journalist in Zimbabwe for allegedly breaking immigration laws, describing the decision as “a monumental travesty of justice” that raises concerns for the press in the lead-up to elections next year.

Jeffrey Moyo, a freelance correspondent for the New York Times, was given a suspended prison sentence of five years and fined $615 by a court in Bulawayo after being found guilty on Tuesday of helping to obtain press accreditation needed by two reporters from his news organisation to enter Zimbabwe.

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Palestinian reporter’s death highlights weakness of Israeli army investigations

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Fatal shooting of Shireen Abu Aqleh in May raises fresh concerns over military inquiries into deaths of Palestinians

In August 2020, 23-year-old Dalia Samoudi was killed when a bullet came through the window of her home in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid on a nearby house.

Al Jazeera reported on the incident, in which witnesses said she had been killed by an IDF soldier firing in the direction of Palestinians throwing stones. Two years later, the television network would report on the death of its longtime correspondent, Shireen Abu Aqleh, in nearly the same spot.

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Libel loss for Arron Banks gives welcome fillip to media industry

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Analysis: Ruling bucks trend for wealthy individuals to suppress public interest reporting via courts

The decision by a high court judge to dismiss a libel claim brought against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr by the multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks is a timely shot in the arm for public interest journalism.

Concerns have long been mounting that the legal landscape in England and Wales places excessive restrictions on reporting, with London – where the high court is situated – often described as the libel capital of the world.

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Outcry as China stops Pacific journalists questioning Wang Yi

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Beijing’s foreign minister signing bilateral deals with leaders but reporters are blocked, sometimes physically, from asking questions

Journalists covering the Chinese foreign minister’s tour of the Pacific say they have been blocked from filming or accessing events, and that not a single question from a Pacific journalist has been allowed to be asked of Wang Yi.

The allegations raise serious press freedom concerns and alarm about the ability of Pacific journalists to do their jobs, particularly as the relationship between the region and China becomes closer.

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More than 4,000 arrested in Amhara as Ethiopia cracks down on militia

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At least 19 journalists caught up in mass detentions after government moves against Fano, its former ally in Tigray conflict

Ethiopia has launched a sweeping crackdown against an influential armed militia in its Amhara region that has led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people, including journalists, activists and a former general.

The militia group, known as the Fano, played a key role alongside the federal military in beating back November’s southward advance through the Amhara region by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is fighting an 18-month-long civil war against the government and its allies.

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Male Afghan TV presenters mask up to support female colleagues after Taliban decree

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#FreeHerFace campaign gathers force as high-profile men rebel against crackdown on face coverings in Afghanistan

Male TV presenters in Afghanistan are wearing face masks on screen to show solidarity after the Taliban issued an order that all women on news channels must cover their faces.

In a protest dubbed #FreeHerFace on social media, men on Tolo News wore masks to mimic the effect of the face veil their female colleagues have been forced to wear after a Taliban crackdown.

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Spanish journalist held in Poland on suspicion of pro-Russian espionage

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Pablo González, who has joint Spanish and Russian nationality, alleged to have worked for GRU military intelligence

A freelance journalist from Spain is spending his 10th week in Polish custody while prosecutors there investigate what they claim is a case of espionage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a case that raises red flags about press freedom in Europe at a time of war, prosecutors are expected next week to ask a judge for a further three-month extension to the detention of Pablo González, who has freelanced for media including Spain’s La Sexta TV channel, Spanish state news agency EFE and the US-government funded Voice of America.

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Hong Kong’s Human Rights Press Awards scrapped over security law fears

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Foreign Correspondent’s Club’s decision sparks outrage from journalists and resignations from press freedom committee

Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club has scrapped its annual human rights press awards just days before it was due to announce winners, out of fear it would violate the city’s wide-ranging national security law.

The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press.

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Prominent Hong Kong journalist Allan Au reportedly held on sedition charge

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Reporter and lecturer’s arrest in dawn raid another blow to city’s press amid Beijing crackdown

A veteran Hong Kong journalist has been arrested by national security police for allegedly conspiring to publish “seditious materials”, a police source and local media said, in the latest blow against press freedom.

Allan Au, a 54-year-old reporter and journalism lecturer, was arrested in a dawn raid on Monday by Hong Kong’s national security police unit, multiple local media outlets reported.

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Chinese government adviser calls for law to ban ‘fake news’

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Jia Qingguo claims the proliferation of misinformation online has fuelled tensions between China and foreign countries

An adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion.

Jia Qingguo, a member of China’s highest political advisory body, said he also believed the proliferation of misinformation online had fuelled tensions between China and foreign countries.

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Afghan journalist Zahra Joya among Time’s women of the year

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Now a refugee in the UK, Joya and the Rukhshana Media agency defied threats to report on life for women under the Taliban

The Afghan journalist Zahra Joya has been named as one of Time’s women of the year 2022 for her reporting of women’s lives in Afghanistan through her news agency, Rukhshana Media.

Now living as a refugee in the UK, Joya continues to run Rukhshana Media from exile, publishing the reporting of her team of female journalists across Afghanistan on life for women under Taliban rule.

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BBC, Bloomberg and CBC ‘temporarily suspending’ work of all news journalists in Russia

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BBC’s director-general says new Russian legislation ‘appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism’

Global news media said they were temporarily suspending reporting in Russia to protect their journalists after a new law cracking down on foreign news outlets was passed that threatened jail terms of up to 15 years for spreading “fake news”.

Britain’s BBC said Friday it had temporarily halted reporting in Russia, and by the end of the day, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Bloomberg News said their journalists were also stopping work. CNN and CBS News said they would stop broadcasting in Russia, and other outlets removed Russian-based journalists’ bylines as they assessed the situation.

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