Global Press Freedom Has Taken An ‘Unbelievable’ Hit This Year

Media freedom has undergone a “deep and disturbing” decline in several parts of the world and at the global level this year, according to a new release from Reporters Without Borders.

Thus far in 2016, 57 journalists have been killed in connection with their work, 187 remain imprisoned and 44 are currently being held hostage, according to the organization’s latest December tallies. These figures represent professional journalists only. When including media netizens and citizen reporters, the numbers of those slain, detained and held for ransom climb to at least 74, 348 and 52, respectively.

The freedom of information advocacy group, also known as Reporters Sans Frontières, ranks 180 countries’ levels of press freedom to produce an overall world evaluation. Between 2013 and the start of this year, the global score plummeted by 13.6 percent. Factors evaluated by the group ― all of which worsened during this period ― include media independence, transparency and censorship, among others. The final grade for 2016 has yet to be calculated and released, but the overall picture is grim.

“What is very disturbing and concerning is that we have seen all continents are affected by this drop in press freedom,” Delphine Halgand, RSF’s U.S. director, told The WorldPost. “Since the start of 2016, the decline has been unbelievable.”

The Americas’ score tumbled by 20.5 percent in the three years leading up to 2016, which RSF attributes to a jump in targeted violence against journalists in Mexico and Central America.

The score for Europe and the Balkans, meanwhile, decreased by 6.5 percent as a result of the expanding impact of ultraconservative governments and extremist movements.

In Central Asia and eastern Europe, press freedom declined by 5 percent due to deteriorating free speech conditions in nations under authoritarian leadership.

Several countries already notorious for their lack of press freedom, like Egypt, China and North Korea, saw their scores drop even lower in RSF’s annual Press Freedom Index. Other countries, including typically higher-ranking ones like Poland, took shocking nosedives this year as governments tightened control of state-owned media outlets.

Americans are often surprised to see that the United States ranks 41st on the index, Halgand said.

RSF decried the U.S. government’s “war on whistleblowers” in the name of protecting national security, and cited American journalists’ lack of rights to withhold their sources and other confidential information.

A large group of press freedom organizations recently penned an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump, whom the Committee to Protect Journalists has already declared a “threat to press freedom.” The incoming leader of the free world has continuously berated and vilified the “disgusting” media, and denied press credentials to news organizations that covered his campaign in ways that displeased him.

Press Council to award press freedom medals

The Australian Press Council will award two people the Press Freedom Medal as part of its 40th Anniversary Conference in May.

The announcement:

The Australian Press Council will honour two courageous individuals by awarding them the Press Freedom Medal as part of the proceedings of its 40th Anniversary Conference in May 2016.

The award is to be given annually to dedicated men and women who through their work as journalists, legal practitioners, community activists or advocates of press freedom ensure that critically important issues are brought to public attention.

The names of the recipients of the 2016 Press Freedom Medal will be made public officially at an award ceremony at 10:15 a.m. on 5 May, which is the second day of the Press Council’s international conference.

“The inaugural award winners are absolutely outstanding journalists who overcame threats and major obstacles to ensure that critical stories saw the light of day,” said the Press Council’s Chair, Professor David Weisbrot. “In future years, the Press Freedom Medal could just as easily be awarded to a judge who makes a crucial ruling that bolsters press freedom, or a community group, or individual activists who in their own way have contributed substantially to press freedom.”

“The theme of our conference is ‘Press Freedom in a Challenging Environment’, so it is entirely appropriate that this year we honour two people who have made such an important contribution through their reporting work.”

The two award winners for 2016 were selected by a special committee of Press Council members, taking into account the professional achievements over a number of years of a selection of journalists and other individuals. Particular articles or a series of articles that cast light on incidents or situations of major importance to the Australian community were also taken into consideration.

In the past, a Press Council Medal was awarded occasionally to a Council member for outstanding service to the organisation. At its quarterly meeting in February 2016, the Council decided to reinstate the practice of awarding medals, but instead for outstanding service to journalism and press freedom.

The names of this year’s Press Freedom Medal recipients, along with biographical material and photos, will be released to media under embargo 24 hours prior to the 5 May ceremony.
To help celebrate the organisation’s 40th Anniversary and its proud history of promoting press freedom and high standards of media practice, the Council is hosting a major international conference in Sydney.

Key themes of the conference will include:
– the influences of technological, social and commercial change on journalism quality;
– the need for reform of secrecy, censorship and defamation laws, and the risks of over-regulation by governments;
– the role of independent press councils in enhancing press freedom by setting high standards and maintaining public confidence.

For information about the conference or to book tickets, click here. For more information about the Press Freedom Medal or the activities of the Press Council, contact the Director of Research and Communications by email at michael.rose@presscouncil.org.au or by telephone: 0451 978 276.

Press Freedoms Declining in Hong Kong

Press freedom further declined in Hong Kong in 2015, driven by growing self-censorship and government interference as Beijing expands its influence over the city's boisterous media, a new report said Saturday.

The southern Chinese city prides itself on having relative freedom of expression compared with severely restricted reporting in mainland China, a legacy of Britain's handover of power in 1997.

"Press freedom in China, Hong Kong and Macau deteriorated further in 2015, as the Communist Party of China used every means at its disposal to control the media," the International Federation of Journalists' China Press Freedom Report said.

The report comes at a time when the fate of five booksellers, feared to have been detained in mainland China after disappearing late last year have put residents on edge with concerns the semi-autonomous city's freedoms are being eroded.

The five are from Hong Kong's Mighty Current publishing house, known for salacious titles critical of Beijing leaders.

"There has been strong outcry from the Hong Kong people, with many concerned about their personal safety and freedom of speech," the report said of sentiment after the disappearances.

The report also predicted China's ruling Communist Party will use resources to strengthen its influence in the city, which will hold elections for its legislature later in the year and for a new leader in 2017.

"As Hong Kong goes to elections next year the party is also using its considerable wealth to consolidate its influence over the region," it said.

Last year's report warned of "intervention behind the scenes" at a time when tensions remained high after more than two months of mass protests for fully free leadership elections in late 2014.

Ken Tsang, a pro-democracy activist who was allegedly beaten by police during the protests in an attack captured by television cameras and beamed around the world said the situation in Hong Kong was "terrible".

"Maybe we can say we have lots of freedoms but somebody is threating you at your back, I think all Hong Kong citizens can feel that," Tsang told AFP after a court hearing on Thursday.

"The situation is not that good, we are terrified," he said.

A British colony until 1997, Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" deal that allows it far greater civil liberties than those enjoyed on the Chinese mainland, including freedom of speech and the right to protest.

The report, presented at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club, also called the outlook in 2016 for the rest of mainland China "even worse".

Chinese authorities have detained and harassed reporters, used forced television confessions and other methods in limiting and influencing reporting, the report said.

Regulation laws 'substantial threat to British press freedom'

Laws aimed at regulating the newspaper industry will pose "the most substantial threat to British press freedom in the modern era", campaigners have warned.

A report by freedom of speech experts claims recommendations made following the Leveson inquiry into practices and ethics within the industry will have a serious and long-term impact on the media and democracy.

The document, Leveson's Illiberal Legacy, says a state-backed regulator underpinned by a Royal Charter would pose "imminent danger" to local newspapers, and would have made it "impossible" for the MPs' expenses scandal to have surfaced.

It calls on the Government to repeal sections of the Crime and Courts Act and to annul the Royal Charter.

The report, backed by the Free Speech Network and advised by some of the key freedom of expression campaigners behind the Libel Reform Campaign, claims it is a "myth that Leveson protects human rights".

Professor Tim Luckhurst, who wrote the report's foreword, said: "The impact of state-sanctioned regulation on our precious local newspapers would be uniquely harsh and spectacularly unjust.

"They serve their communities brilliantly. Surely they deserve our protection: their demise would impoverish local communities and cripple local democracy."

Report author Helen Anthony said: "From November, newspapers not signed up to a state recognised regulator could be hit with exemplary damages in libel and privacy proceedings.

"Shortly afterwards, punitive costs awards could be made against newspapers sued for similar proceedings, even if they have broken no laws. This is deeply unfair and prevents free speech. This is bad law, and it was made in a rushed, undemocratic manner."

Responding to the report, Dr Evan Harris of the Hacked Off campaign group in favour of media regulation, said: "Its desperate rhetoric - comparing the Leveson system to that of repressive regimes - and claiming that an independent self-regulator amounts to the end of press freedom - betrays a recognition by the press executives behind the report that the public will never accept the rejection of the Leveson Inquiry, and calls instead for politicians 'to come to heel' and reject the Leveson Report, repeal the incentives and annul the Royal Charter.

"The document fails to provide any proper evidence that acceptance of the Leveson system by the press would have any impact on public interest journalism (like the MPs expenses story), and avoids mentioning that all these publishers have already signed up to a system in Ireland which has similar ingredients to Leveson but which lacks the political independence that Leveson and Royal Charter enshrine."

RFE/RLive: The Case, The Verdict, and Media Freedom in Azerbaijan

On September 1, an Azerbaijani court sentencedinvestigative journalist and RFE/RL contributor Khadija Ismayilova to 7 1/2 years in prison, on charges widely believed to be retribution by Azeri authorities for her reporting on corruption involving the country’s ruling family.

This edition of RFE/RLive will examine the proceedings that led to the verdict and what could happen now. What is being done to support journalists who fall victim to crackdowns by authoritarian governments, and what more can be done to support media freedom and freedom of expression in repressive environments like Azerbaijan?

Karin Deutsch Karlekar directs PEN America’s Free Expression Programs, focusing on global press freedom, digital rights, and broad freedom of expression issues. In May 2015, PEN awarded Khadija Ismayilova with the 2015 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, for a writer imprisoned for his or her work. Prior to joining PEN, she served from 2001-15 as director of Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press project, coordinating the production of a flagship annual report that tracks trends in global media freedom and rates every country in the world. As well as acting as an expert spokesperson on press freedom issues, Karlekar has developed index methodologies and conducted training sessions on press freedom, internet freedom, freedom of expression, and monitoring dangerous speech; authored a number of special reports and academic papers; and conducted research, assessment, and advocacy missions to Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Rachel Denber is Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch, where she specializes in countries of the former Soviet Union. On August 10, Human Rights Watch announced that it had awarded Ismayilova the 2015 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism. Previously, Denber directed Human Rights Watch's Moscow office and did field research and advocacy in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. She has authored reports on a wide range of human rights issues throughout the region. Denber earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in international relations and a master's degree in political science from Columbia University, where she studied at the Harriman Institute. She speaks Russian and French.

Kenan Aliyev is the Executive Editor of "Current Time," the joint RFE/RL-VOA Russian-language television news program serving Russian-speakers in the countries bordering Russia. Until early 2015, Aliyev was also Director of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service. Prior to joining RFE/RL in 2004, Aliyev worked in Washington, DC as a broadcaster for Voice of America and was also a regular contributor to the BBC World Service. Aliyev served as a Baku-based reporter for RFE/RL’s Russian Service and for the local, independent "Azadliq" newspaper before immigrating to the US in 1997.

John M. Donnelly joined Congressional Quarterly in 2004 and is now a senior writer, covering defense and foreign policy issues. He worked previously at Defense Week, where he won many awards for investigative journalism. He has written for numerous other publications, from the Los Angeles Times to the Economist magazine, and has been featured on broadcast news programs, including ABC World News Tonight and NBC’s Meet the Press. Donnelly has been active in the leadership of the National Press Club since 2001 and chairs its Press Freedom Committee. In June 2015, the National Press Club awarded Khadija Ismayilova its John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. He also served on the Standing Committee of Correspondents of the U.S. Congress, which accredits reporters. He is a graduate of the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Arzu Geybulla is an Azeri blogger and journalist who runs a live blog on the case of jailed investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, and has written extensively about Azerbaijan for local and international media. A former Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow with RFE/RL, Geybulla is co-director and managing editor of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, a Washington D.C.-based NGO. She has been featured in Al Jazeera English, The Economist, Global Voices, and Huffington Post Live.

Daisy Sindelar (moderator) is RFE/RL's Regional Broadcasting Director for Europe. A former senior correspondent for RFE/RL, Sindelar specializes in examining ordinary people and the challenges they encounter living in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and is particularly interested in the problems facing women, children, and minorities. Based in Prague, she has also reported from Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A Deadly Assignment

The killing of Irshad Mastoi, a trade unionist and a professional journalist, along with a trainee reporter Abdur Rasool and his office accountant Mohammad Younus on August 28 has further shaken the media in Balochistan.

According to eye witnesses, a person armed with 9mm pistol stormed into the office of the bureau chief of Online News and opened fire at Mastoi at point-blank range and then shot others, probably to destroy the evidence.

Both Mastoi and his accountant were killed on the spot while the trainee reporter succumbed to his injuries on his way to hospital after 45 minutes.

“Call data recovered from the reporter’s mobile shows he called someone at 8:10 or 8:20, roughly 40 minutes after the crime was committed,” says a police official on condition of anonymity.

Mastoi’s close friends, colleagues and family knew that he had been receiving threats from sectarian organisations, banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Baloch militant groups and security agencies over his reportage.

“He had been receiving life threats from unknown callers, who used abusive language and warned him of dire consequences,” one of his friends told The News on Sunday. “Irshad [Mastoi] told me a couple of days before his murder that someone is threatening him on phone for the last few days but did not mention the details,” he says.

Twenty four journalists, three of their family members and a media worker have been killed during the last six years. Baloch militant organisations have claimed the responsibility for the killings of six media men, dubbing them as agents of spy agencies. No one, so far, has claimed the rest of the murders, including that of Irshad Mastoi and his colleagues.

 

 It is the third time that the local journalists in the wake of threats by a tribal notable stopped reporting for their TV channels/newspapers after closing down their press club.

Some of his colleagues think that Irshad Mastoi’s recent article on the eve of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s 8th death anniversary became the cause of his murder. He wrote about the life and politics of Baloch leaders and policies of the military establishment in Balochistan besides the military action in which Nawab Bugti was killed. However, some of his close friends suspect the involvement of a politico-sectarian party in his killing for not running the party’s press releases/statements on Online.

Irshad Mastoi, 35, a literary person, father of three children all under four years of age, was the general secretary of Balochistan Union of Journalists, and raised voice for the plight of media people, particularly those murdered or killed in bomb blasts. He maintained the list of targeted journalists and would often jokingly say that he may one day be mentioned among them – today, he ranks 23rd on that list.

Mastoi had a hair-breadth escape five years back in an accident in Gwadar.
He was in a hotel room in Gwadar in December 2009 to cover the signing ceremony of the 7th NFC award. He received severe electric shock when his hand came close to a live high tension wire running close to the window while throwing cigarette outside the window.

He survived but his right hand was amputated in a Karachi hospital. He remained depressed for a couple of months, but with great effort he started writing and typing with left hand. He wished to get a bionic arm that costs over Rs3 million and made huge effort to get aid from any international or national organisation but could not succeed. “It is my great desire that I get a bionic arm so that my useless (amputated) hand can become useful,” he often said to his friends.

The journalist community, which is in protest against the murder of their fellow journalist, does not have any expectation from the police that has failed to nab the killers of their own 22 police officers who fell prey to sectarian violence in the province. FIRs of murders of media people are hardly ever registered and not a single culprit has been arrested.

The compensation for the bereaved families in most cases is pending for years.

There is no freedom of press in Balochistan. The banned organisations whether Baloch or Islamic/sectarian militants, politico-sectarian groups and intelligence agencies want to take over the media. These organisations get space on front page in the local newspapers for their routine press statements and air time in TV channels.

Similarly, the restive districts including Kohlu, Kechh, Khuzdar and Dera Bugti are in control of security forces which also do not allow objective reporting to journalists. Khuzdar Press Club was closed down two months back and it is the third time that the local journalists in the wake of threats by a tribal notable stopped reporting for their TV channels/newspapers after closing down their press club.

Third blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh this year

Four unidentified assailants wielding cleavers and machetes killed a blogger in Bangladesh today, marking the third time in less than three months that a blogger has been slain in the country, according to news reports. Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death while headed to work in the city of Sylhet, the reports said.

"The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina must take urgent steps to ensure the security of critical bloggers in Bangladesh given this series of murders," said CPJ Asia Program Research Associate Sumit Galhotra. "Authorities can show their commitment to curbing this violent trend by finding Ananta Bijoy Das's killers and bringing them to justice."

Das, who had mainly written on science, had also been critical of religious fundamentalism and previous attacks on secular thinkers, CNN reported. He had contributed to the blog Mukto Mona--the blog founded by Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy, who was killed earlier this year--and was also the editor of a scientific magazine named Jukti (Reason), the reports said. He had also written numerous books, one on evolution.

Police said they were investigating the murder. No arrests have been made, news reports said.

In March, assailants publicly hacked to death blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu, and in February Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonna, were attacked by assailants wielding sharp weapons while the couple was visiting Dhaka, according to news reports. Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was killed and his wife was critically injured. While arrests have been made in the cases, no one has been convicted to date. Earlier this month, an Al-Qaeda branch claimed responsibility for the attack on Roy and his wife as well as for the 2013 murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in a video posted online, according to reports. The video also urged followers to carry out other such attacks against other "blasphemers."

• For more data and analysis, visit CPJ's Attacks on the Press.

CPJ: Committee To Protect Journalists

Great website: https://cpj.org/

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide.

CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. CPJ ensures the free flow of news and commentary by taking action wherever journalists are attacked, imprisoned, killed, kidnapped, threatened, censored, or harassed.

Hundreds of journalists are killed, harassed, or imprisoned every year. For 30 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has been there to defend them worldwide.

Journalism plays a vital role in the balance of power between a government and its people. When a country's journalists are silenced, its people are silenced. By protecting journalists, CPJ protects freedom of expression and democracy.

The Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981 by a group of U.S. correspondents who realized they could not ignore the plight of colleagues whose reporting put them in peril on a daily basis.

The idea that journalists around the world should come together to defend the rights of colleagues working in repressive and dangerous environments led to CPJ's first advocacy campaign in 1982. At the time, three British journalists-Simon Winchester, Ian Mather, and Tony Prime-were arrested in Argentina while covering the Falklands War. A letter from CPJ Honorary Chairman Walter Cronkite helped spring them from prison.

Since then, CPJ's mission involves not only journalists but anyone who cherishes the value of information for a free society.