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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...#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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China says reporters tailed and manhandled by security despite assurances from Games officials
Reporting conditions for journalists covering the Beijing Winter Olympics fell short of international standards despite assurances from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCCC) of China has said.
The club said it was “dismayed” that at a time when global attention was trained on China more than ever the government and Olympic officials still failed to uphold their own rules on accredited foreign media. Instead “government interference occurred regularly during the Games”, both inside and outside venues, when journalists tried to interview athletes and local residents.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Mexico
Continue reading...Authorities regularly detain environmentalists, rights campaigners and dissidents to prevent them travelling or attending events, says Human Rights Watch
The Vietnamese government is routinely placing activists under arbitrary house arrest, employing tactics including stationing guards outside their homes, setting up roadblocks nearby and using superglue and padlocks to jam their doors shut, according to a report.
The study by Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented cases involving 170 rights activists, bloggers, dissidents and their family members who were prevented from domestic and international travel between 2004 and 2021. The real number of those affected is likely to be higher, the report warned.
Those targeted had worked on various issues, from land rights and environmental activism, to advocating for media freedom and the rights of political prisoners, to participating in anti-China protests.
Journalist Fahad Shah detained on Friday under terrorism and sedition laws in disputed Indian region
A prominent journalist has been arrested under terrorism and sedition laws, as a crackdown on the press in Indian-administered Kashmir continues to escalate.
Fahad Shah, the founder and editor of the widely read local news website The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on Friday evening when he was summoned to a police station in the southern district of Pulwama.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mandalay to Montevideo
Continue reading...Deutsche Welle boss says retaliation by Moscow, including closure of its bureau, is ‘total overreaction’
Russia is to expel the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) in retaliation for a German ban on broadcasts by Russia’s RT.
The foreign ministry said the press credentials of DW’s correspondents would be revoked, its bureau in Russia closed, and its German-language broadcasts would be banned from Russian satellite television in the near future. It said this was the first stage of its “retaliatory measures”.
Continue reading...To avoid arrest, the staff of the 74 Media left their home city, only to face shellfire in their border refuge. The editor describes the risks faced by his media outlet
Shweeeee … Boooom. The noise of the exploding artillery shell startled me awake in the middle of a July night. Dazed, I stumbled out of bed and tried to check on the other journalists with whom I share a dormitory. As we ran outside, another shell flew overhead.
It was five months after the military takeover in Myanmar and three months since we had been forced to relocate from the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, to territory held by a group known in Myanmar as an ethnic armed organisation (EAO), fighting for self-determination for an ethnic minority state near Myanmar’s border with China. Now this territory was being bombed. We were all terrified; some of my staff were crying as they looked to me for guidance and comfort.
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