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.

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.

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.

Your right to know: A new voice for rural journalists

The Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) was established in 2004 and registered as a non-profit organization with the object of assisting the development of independent rural media in Pakistan. This was to be done by conducting training programmes for both male and female journalists, carrying out World Press Freedom Day and freedom of expression seminars, and campaigning to defend and promote the freedom of press.

The RMNP regularly organizes training programmes and seminars in rural centres which address the issues facing the Pakistani media. In particular RMNP has worked for the improvement of professional skills, and to raise rural journalists awareness of professional, social, political, and human rights issues, including those related to the environment.
 
The RMNP collaborates with local press clubs and journalists unions and the Citizens Media Commission of Pakistan on the national level. On the international level it has developed relations with UNESCO, the Commonwealth Journalists Association CJA), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), and the International News Safety Institute (INSI).
 
In addition to capacity building the RMNP is committed to the promotion of the freedom of the press in rural Pakistan. RMNP organises training programmes on basic skills, press freedom, investigative and election reporting, the rights of journalists and journalists ethics. RMNP has played a leading role in promoting the use of the recently introduced access to information laws and is lobbying for improvement of these laws. Urdu translations of these documents have been distributed by RMNP among rural journalists in South Punjab.
 
RMNP is the only organization in rural Pakistan which celebrates World Press Freedom Day every year, and which publishes an annual press freedom report. This year's report was published in and reported on by national and international media. In 2005 , 2006 and 2009 seminars on UNESCO's annual themes were organised. From 1999 to 2004 WPFD seminars were organised by the National Press Union, with the colloboration of the rural Daily Nawa-I-AhmedpurSharqia, now merged in RMNP.
 
RMNP is the only organisation in rural Pakistan which is keeping contact with the international press freedom organisations to promote initiatives that stress the importance of press freedom for democracy and individual and collective liberties. RMNP is active in reporting and publicising crimes against communication professionals in rural Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Freedom of Expression Monthly Newsletter Sadiq News

In 2005 RMNP published Pakistan's first Freedom of Expression newsletter which foreword was written by Mr Javed Jabbar former Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting. It is a monthly published in the Urdu language, the main language used by journalists in rural Pakistan.

Sadiq News was published with the technical assistance of UNESCO with a ceremony on 19th December 2005, and a seminar on the Freedom of Expression Situation in Pakistan. The Minister of State for the Environment, Government of Pakistan, Malik Mohd Amin Aslam Khan, MP Malik Farooq Azam, 250 journalists, representatives of civil society organizations and regional heads of political parties attended. The first colour edition of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News was distributed among all participants and a report of the launch was posted on the websites of the International Freedom Of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the International Journalists Network (USA), the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU), UNESCO, and several other media organizations.
 
So far RMNP has published 13 issues and distributed them free of cost to press clubs, rural journalists unions, and educational institutions. But financial constraints means that since 2007 only one issue is produced each year, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day (3rd May).
 
FOE Newsletter Sadiq News has become so popular in Pakistan that RMNP received many emails from urban Pakistan asking for it to be published on the web in both Urdu and English, and asking for it distribution by mail. Rural journalists value it so highly they have asked for it to be published fortnightly. RMNP on 26th April 2009 in a ceremony organised with the assistance of UNESCO launched first monthly Online Udru edition of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News which is being distributed free of cost to rural journalists in all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir.
 
World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) has provided the appropriate platform in rural Pakistan to strengthen networks, monitoring, and the exchange of information and strategies on FOE. As a result of RMNP's efforts since 1999 four international organizations, UNESCO, World 

Association of Newspapers (WAN) France, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) USA, and International Press Institute (IPI) Austria recommended that RMNP be enrolled in the IFEX community. For the same reason the World Editors Forum (WEF ) sponsored the editor of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News to its annual congress in Capetown, South Africa in June 2007. And similarly the Commonwealth Journalists Association paid for the editor of the FOE Newsletter Sadiq News to attending its triennial conference in Kuching, Malaysia October 2008.