29 May 2017 | Azerbaijan, Digital Freedom, Europe and Central Asia, France, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Uncategorized
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Each week, Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom project verifies threats, violations and limitations faced by the media throughout the European Union and neighbouring countries. Here are five recent reports that give us cause for concern.
24 May, 2017 – The body of the well-known editor-in-chief and founder of local newspaper Ton-M was found in the sauna in his backyard on 24 May in the town of Minusinsk in the Krasnodarski province, Regional Investigative Committee reported.
Dmitri Popkov was shot five times by an unidentified perpetrator according to the Regional Investigative Committee.
Popkov funds Ton-M which includes commentary on police corruption, garnering significant public attention for the publication. In an interview with RFE/RL, Popkov claims his newspaper became “an obstacle” for local officials who are now “threatening and intimidating journalists”.
Popkov founded the publication after a court found him guilty of beating a child and he was stripped of his position on Minusinsk City Council in 2012, according to The Moscow Times. Popkov claimed the case was an excuse to fire him.
Outside of the newspaper business, Popkov is recognisable in his region as a regional parliament deputy for the Communist Party.
22 May, 2017 – An independent reporter was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in administrative detention for allegedly resisting police.
Nijat Amiraslanov is from the Gazakh region and his lawyer and friends say the charges are fictitious. They say he was arrested for his reporting and online posts.
19 May, 2017 – During a workers’ protest against market liberalisation, dock workers assaulted and intimidated reporters covering the event.
A cameraperson for Canal Sur Television and Antena 3 programme was injured requiring medical assistance at a local hospital after being punched and kicked.
19 May, 2017 – Four Sözcü employees received arrest warrants after being accused of “committing crimes on behalf of the Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETÖ),” as well as assisting attempts to “assassinate and physically attack the president and armed rebellion against the Government of the Republic of Turkey”.
The issued warrants include the newspaper’s owner Burak Akbay, manager of the newspaper’s website Mediha Olgun, Financial Affairs Manager Yonca Kaleli and the İzmir correspondent Gökmen Ulu. Kaleli was included in the investigation for “suspicious money transfers” for the secular opposition publication.
The charges against the four stemmed from their 15 July 2016, publication of the address and photos of a hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was vacationing.
Yonca Kaleli, Gökmen Ulu and Mediha Olgun have since been detained. Akbay is currently abroad.
18 May, 2017 – Macron’s head of communication insulted journalist Yann Barthès of Quotidien on channel TMC during the presidential campaign and now at the Elysee by calling him a “dickhead” and a “mentally-retarded person”, according to Le Monde M magazine.
Macron’s Sylvain Fort commented in reaction to show host Barthè’s coverage of the first round of the presidential election. Fort denies he used the latter phrase.
Quotidien showed Macron celebrating his victory at La Rotonde. Quotidien journalist Paul Larouturou asked Macron whether this episode was the equivalent of Nicolas Sarkozy’s celebration of his presidential victory at Fouquet’s. Macron told the journalist “you don’t understand anything about life”, adding he had “no lesson to receive from a small Parisian milieu”.
The magazine reported that access was restricted to Quotidien team and that Fort contacted Barthès directly to insult him.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Mapping Media Freedom
Click on the bubbles to view reports or double-click to zoom in on specific regions. The full site can be accessed at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
29 May 2017 | Events
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Organised by International Federation for Human Rights, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Index on Censorship and others, this is a discussion of threats to human rights defenders, journalists and online activists working in Yemen’s dangerous environment.
Human rights defenders in war-torn Yemen undertake their work in a dangerous and hostile environment as they face human rights violations at the hands of all parties to the conflict. Journalists and online activists undertake their work under threat to their safety as public freedoms including freedom of assembly in addition to freedom of expression remain severely restricted.
All those who are party to the conflict in Yemen have an obligation to protect civilians and continue negotiations, and respect and protect public freedoms including freedom of assembly in addition to freedom of expression during the conflict.
The side event aimed at highlighting how serious violations and abuses of international law have continued throughout the fighting and urge support for the UN High Commissioner’s call for an international, independent investigation into civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen, a call repeatedly made by national, regional and international civil society organisations.
On 2 October 2015, the council adopted HRC resolution 30/18, a deeply flawed resolution, drafted by Saudi Arabia, a party to the conflict that ignored earlier calls for an international inquiry and instead endorsed a Yemeni national commission. In August 2016, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in concluding that the Yemeni commission was not acting in accordance with international standards, said the “commission did not enjoy the cooperation of all concerned parties and could not operate in all parts of Yemen,” and “has not been able to provide the impartial and wide-ranging inquiry that is required by serious allegations of violations and abuse.” At the mid of 2017, an adequate independent international investigation had yet to be established.
The side event will also call for the release of detained human rights defenders and for those responsible for guaranteeing the safety of journalists and for an investigation to be established into the murder of journalists and activists.
Speakers
Radhia Al-Mutawakel, chairperson of Mwatana Organisation, Yemen
Afrah Nasser, blogger from Yemen
Sherif Mansour, Committee to Protect Journalists
Kristine Beckerle, Human Rights Watch
Moderator:
Khalid Ibrahim, executive director, Gulf Centre for Human Rights[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]
When: Tuesday 20 June 2017, 4-5:30pm
Where: Palais des Nations Room XVI, Geneva
Join the online conversation by using #HRC35 for social media
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26 May 2017 | Campaigns -- Featured, Europe and Central Asia, Russia, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Russian journalist Dmitri Popkov was killed in his backyard in the late evening of 24 May after being shot five times by an unidentified perpetrator.
Popkov is the editor-in-chief and founder of local newspaper Ton-M, whose investigations, including on police corruption, have garnered significant public attention. According to RFE/RL, Popkov claimed his newspaper became “an obstacle” for local officials who are now “threatening and intimidating journalists”.
“The climate of impunity makes Russia one of the most dangerous countries to do journalism,” said Hannah Machlin, project manager at Index on Censorship. “Popkov is the second journalist to be killed in 2017. Index calls on Russian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Earlier this year on 9 May, Nikolay Andruschenko, an investigative correspondent for weekly newspaper Novyi Petersburg, died as a result of injuries following two brutal assaults. Andruschenkov also conducted investigations into corruption, abuse of power and torture by the police. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
