23 Mar 2017 | Belarus, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
Dear Mr. President
We, 48 undersigned organizations from 24 countries, strongly condemn the continuing wave of detentions and harassment of peaceful protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, anarchists and opposition party members in Belarus.
Most of the detentions and harassment are linked to participation in peaceful protests demanding the cancellation of Presidential Decree No. 3, the so-called “social parasite” legislation, which imposes a tax on unemployed people in Belarus. Decree No. 3 obligates citizens to work a specific number of days or pay a special duty to the State under threat of arrest. This is contrary to Art. 41 of the Belarusian Constitution and violates international human rights law.
According to reports from Belarusian and international human rights organizations, as of 22 March 2017 more than 250 people have been detained since 3 March 2017, including at least 31 journalists. At least 110 people have been sentenced to 3-15 days of administrative arrest. Many of them remain in detention, while others have been subject to different forms of harassment.
We strongly condemn the fact that several detentions of peaceful protesters at different places across Belarus have been carried out with the excessive use of force by Belarusian security officers.
Several Belarusian organizations have announced a demonstration that will take place in Minsk and in other cities in Belarus on 25 March 2017. We are deeply concerned about the physical and psychological integrity of the participants of these protest marches.
As the president of Belarus we urge you:
- to respect the right to peaceful assembly and expression
- to ensure that there are no obstructions to the exercising of these rights in Belarus, including in relation to the planned demonstration on 25 March 2017 in Minsk and in other cities across the country
- to guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all peaceful protesters at the demonstration on 25 March 2017 in Minsk as well as at all other peaceful demonstrations across Belarus
- to refrain from the use of excessive force by security officers on 25 March 2017 in Minsk as well as at all other peaceful demonstrations across Belarus
- to ensure that journalists are able to fully exercise their professional duties, including during peaceful demonstrations
- to immediately and unconditionally release all protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists and opposition members who have been detained in connection with the current wave of demonstrations solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of assembly and expression
- to refrain from preventively detaining journalists, human rights defenders, civil society activists, anarchists and opposition activists
- to immediately stop the persecution, harassment and intimidation of those who exercise their right to freedom of assembly, expression and association and ensure these rights to all Belarusian citizens
- to abolish Presidential Decree No. 3 since it violates international human rights law
Signatories:
Albanian Helsinki Committee
Analytical Center for Interethnic Cooperation and Consultations (Georgia)
Article 19 (UK)
Association UMDPL (Ukraine)
Bir Duino (Kyrgyzstan)
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights (Russia)
Charity foundation “East-SOS” (Ukraine)
Civic Belarus (Czech Republic)
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Johannesburg
Committee to Protect Journalists (USA)
Crude Accountability (USA)
FIDH, Paris
Freedom Files (Russia/Poland)
German-Russian Exchange (Germany)
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Helsinki Committee of Armenia
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland)
Human Rights Center “Postup” (Ukraine)
Human Rights Center (Azerbaijan)
Human Rights Information Center (Ukraine)
Human Rights Monitoring Institute (Lithuania)
Humanrights.ch (Switzerland)
Index on Censorship (UK)
Institute Respublica (Ukraine)
International Partnership for Human Rights (Belgium)
IRFS (Azerbaijan)
JEF Europe: Young European Federalists, Brussels
Kazakhstan Interantional Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (Ukraine)
KRF Public Alternative (Ukraine)
Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights (Switzerland/Germany)
Macedonian Helsinki Committee
Memorial International, Moscow
Menschenrechte in Belarus e.V. (Germany)
Moscow Helsinki Group (Russia)
NESEHNUTI – Independent Social Ecological Movement (Czech Republic)
Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Ostgruppen – Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights
Promo LEX (Moldova)
Protection of Rights without Borders NGO (Armenia)
Public Verdict Foundation Russia)
Reporters Without Borders International, Paris
The Netherlands Helsinki Committee
The Swiss Helsinki Committee
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Geneva
7 Mar 2017 | Digital Freedom, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features
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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 recent reports that give us cause for concern.
The German foreign intelligence services, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has allegedly been wiretapping over 50 journalists and editorial departments of major international news organisations.
The report, published in the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, revealed that the BND has been monitoring phone numbers and emails of journalists from organisations such as BBC and the New York Times since 1991.
Although journalists in Germany are protected by constitutional rights including the right to source confidentiality and witness-refusal, the German parliament recently passed a law in October 2016 which legally allows the government to target and surveil foreign journalists.
DJV, the German journalist union, issued a press release in which the BND informed the union that they were only looking at “operational aspects” of its work that would be “exclusively against Federal Government or against the competent bodies of the German Bundestag”.
Eleven Russian law enforcement officials including three FSB officers, an investigator, and four police officers, raided the Moscow apartment of Zoya Svetova, an activist and journalist for Open Russia and the New Times.
Lawyers Marina Andreyeva and Anna Stavitskaya reported via a Facebook post that Svetova’s computers, memory cards, and other devices were searched in connection to an investigation and criminal case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled businessman whom Svetova has been linked to. Khodorkovsky, a known foe of the Kremlin, served 10 years in prison following a trial for financial charges before being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin.
According to the lawyers and Svetova’s colleagues at Radio Free Europe, documents collected during the search are still being processed as of 28 February.
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Mehman Huseynov, a popular video blogger, was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation charges by the Surakhani district court.
Huseynov was detained on 9 January in Baku for allegedly violating administrative rules for sharing videos which claimed to expose corruption among Azerbaijani officials. He was held for five days and the court fined him 200AZN (€100) for disobeying the police upon arrest. Huseynov was convicted of lying about being tortured while in detention, claiming that police officials places a bag over his head and repeatedly assaulted him.
Huseynov is known as an investigative journalist who focuses on uncovering corruption among Azerbaijani government officials and has been monitored by authorities for several years. Huseynov is also the first person to be arrested on slander charges in Azerbaijan.
Radio Vesti, the largest national professional radio channel in Ukraine, has lost its broadcasting license in the capital Kyiv as well as the Kharkiv city area as a result of a ruling by the National Radio and TV Council.
According to Ukrinform, the National Council Deputy Chairman Juliana Feschuk said that Radio Vesti failed to comply with two warnings to change its program concept and failure to comply with quotas for Ukranian language broadcasts. The law requires 50 per cent of broadcasts to be in Ukranian but Radio Vesti reportedly had 49.22 per cent. The term of the license ended on 13 February.
Marina Bakumenko, the head of Radio Vesti’s legal department, said that the company has filed an appeal through the Frankivsk district court of Lviv.
The National Union of Journalists in Ukraine said that approximately 90 per cent of the staff and 100 employees could lose their jobs as a result of the decision.
Journalist Aleksandar Todevski and cameraperson Vladimir Zhelcheski of Alon, a news website, were allegedly assaulted by protesters during a pro-opposition protest in Skopje. The two were taken to the hospital and a camera was damaged as a result of the assault.
Reports by various news outlets including private national broadcaster Telma and the news website SDK.mk, unidentified protesters beat and kicked the Todevski and Zhekcheski during a protest in front of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. Protesters were rallying in support of the former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE in opposition to the formation of a new coalition government.
Although the assailants were photographed by other media crews, police have reportedly not looked into an investigation. Journalist associations in Macedonia, including OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, condemned the incident, saying that recent attacks on journalists are constantly being overlooked by authorities.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
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/
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1 Mar 2017
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Reporters working to share the truth are being harassed, intimidated and prosecuted – across the globe.
Index on Censorship is a nonprofit fighting against these corrosive attacks on press freedom.
Index documents threats to media freedom in Europe via a monitoring project and campaigns against laws that stifle journalists’ work.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Mapping Media Freedom” title=”Documenting threats to the press in Europe and neighbouring countries” profile_image=”85817″]Mapping Media Freedom – a major Index on Censorship project and a joint undertaking with the European Federation of Journalists, partially funded by the European Commission – covers 42 countries, including all EU member states, plus Bosnia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, Albania along with Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Azerbaijan. The platform was launched in May 2014 and has recorded over 3,900 incidents threatening media freedom.
“The precarious state of press freedom across the globe is underlined by the volume of verified incidents added to Mapping Media Freedom in 2017. The spectrum of threats is growing, the pressure on journalists increasing and the public right to transparent information is under assault. People who are simply trying to do their job are being targeted like never before. These trends do not bode well for 2018.” — Joy Hyvarinen, Index on Censorship head of advocacy[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Changes to the Official Secrets Act” title=”Proposals to update spy laws a threat to journalism” profile_image=”81191″]Proposed legislation that could see journalists and whistleblowers sentenced up to 14 years for leaking official documents has no place in a democracy. The proposals were drawn up by the Law Commission as part of a review of the Official Secrets Act and would cover any data that affects the UK’s national and international interests, including economic interests. The public’s right to know about the Brexit negotiations, for instance, could be put into jeopardy if these proposals were brought into force.
“It is unthinkable that whistle blowers and those to whom they reveal their information should face jail for leaking and receiving information that is in the public interest. It is shocking that so few organisations were consulted on these proposed changes.” — Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Index on Censorship[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Section 40, Crime and Courts Act” title=”Section 40 would allow the corrupt to silence investigative journalists” profile_image=”85827″]Section 40 is part of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which deals with a whole range of issues but also implemented some of the recommendations contained in the Leveson Report into phone hacking by newspapers. Index on Censorship strongly opposes the introduction of section 40.
Section 40 addresses the awarding of costs in a case where someone makes a legal claim against a publisher of “news-related material”. The provision means that any publisher who is not a member of an approved regulator at the time of the claim can be forced to pay both sides’ cost in a court case — even if they win.
“If such laws were introduced in another country, British politicians would be speaking out against such shocking media censorship.” — Rachael Jolley, editor, Index on Censorship magazine[/staff][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1474531377622{margin-right: -15px !important;margin-left: -15px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/3″ el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1487957370833{margin-right: 15px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;margin-left: 15px !important;background-color: #f21400 !important;}”][vc_column_text]
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28 Feb 2017 | Index Reports, Mapping Media Freedom, Press Releases
Freedom of expression campaign group Index on Censorship launches Media Freedom Month in March with the release of its annual report into media freedom in Europe. The report shows journalists face regular harassment, legal sanctions and even jail for doing their job – even in supposed democracies. Index’s Media Freedom Month aims to raise awareness of and funding for its work campaigning on press freedom.
“Right now, journalists and journalism are threatened from all directions: UK journalists who travel to the US are being told they need to hand over their mobile phone contacts and Facebook passwords. US journalists are being labelled as peddlers of ‘fake news’ over any articles the President dislikes and reporters across Europe face a host of laws that hamper their ability to work,” said Index chief executive Jodie Ginsberg.
Media Freedom Month will begin with the launch on Tuesday of the latest Mapping Media Freedom report on Europe and will end with an exclusive study of media freedom in the United States that goes well beyond the current focus on Donald Trump and his relationship with the press.
“A country without a free media is not a free country: Journalism provides a vital check on corruption and abuse of power and we must fight to protect it,” said Ginsberg.
Between 1 January and 31 December 2016, Mapping Media Freedom’s network of correspondents, partners and other journalists submitted a total of 1,387 verified threats to press freedom in 42 European countries.
“The precarious state of press freedom across the globe is underlined by the volume of verified incidents added to Mapping Media Freedom in 2016. The spectrum of threats is growing, the pressure on journalists increasing and the public right to transparent information is under assault. People who are simply trying to do their job are being targeted like never before. These trends do not bode well for 2017,” Hannah Machlin, Mapping Media Freedom project officer, said.
Some of the major themes in the data – and which journalists should be wary of in 2017 – include:
- Violence from right-wing groups
- Dangers faced when reporting on protests and demonstrations organised across the political spectrum
- Impunity: Physical attacks on journalists not properly investigated; government officials intimidating reporters without fear of punishment
- Difficulties reporting on refugees, including being denied access and violence
- Silencing journalists by arresting them on ties to terrorist or extremist groups
- Criminalised libel laws subjecting media outlets to high fines
- Economic difficulties leading to the closure or restructuring media outlets and buyouts by wealthy businesspeople, often leading to job cuts and dismissals
- State of emergency laws being used to detain journalists without charge
- Death threats and smear campaigns disseminated online
The 2016 report is available in web and pdf format at https://mappingmediafreedom.org/plus/
For more information, please contact Hannah Machlin, Mapping Media Freedom project officer at [email protected]
About Mapping Media Freedom
Mapping Media Freedom – a major Index on Censorship project and a joint undertaking with the European Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, partially funded by the European Commission – covers 42 countries, including all EU member states, plus Bosnia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, Albania along with Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in (added in April 2015), and Azerbaijan (added in February 2016). The platform was launched in May 2014 and has recorded over 2,700 incidents threatening media freedom.
About Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a freedom of expression charity that campaigns against censorship and promotes free expression worldwide. Founded in 1972, Index has published some of the world’s leading writers and artists in its award-winning quarterly magazine, including Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, Samuel Beckett and Kurt Vonnegut. It also has published some of the greatest campaigning writers from Vaclav Havel to Elif Shafak.
