6 Feb 2017 | 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.
Three journalists working for Quotidien, a daily current affairs show, were violently ejected from of a conference at Palais des Congrès on 1 February after attempting to ask a question to leader of the National Front party Marine Le Pen, newspaper Libération reported.
Journalist Paul Larrouturou, who had an accreditation allowing him to be present during the Salon des Entrepreneurs, attempted to ask Le Pen about claims she had misused European parliament funds to pay her body guards.
Larrouturou asked Le Pen: “Was your bodyguard really your parliamentary assistant or…”.
The journalist was grabbed from behind before finishing the question. He and two of his colleagues were then prevented from coming back inside by security.
The National Front told French newspaper Le Parisien that it did not take responsibility for the actions of the security guards, saying: “It’s not us. There were no instructions [from us]. We don’t run the Palais.”
However, the journalists said it was a member of Le Pen security who gave the order to expel them.
This is not the first incident where the three journalists encountered problems with the Front National. They were assaulted by Front National supporters during the 1 May 2015 party march.
Turkish journalist Arzu Demir was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation through two books she has authored, independent news website T24 reported.
The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court handed down a three year sentence for each book in a trial session held on 26 January.
Demir was being tried on charges of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation,” “praising a crime and a criminal” and “inciting the public to commit a crime” in her books Dağın Kadın Hali, meaning The Female State of the Mountain and Devrimin Rojava Hali, meaning The Rojava State of Revolution.
Dağın Kadın Hali features interviews with 11 women who are Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government. A Turkish court had banned the book and ordered it to be pulled from bookstore shelves on 15 March 2016.
The Rojava State of Revolution, banned in April 2016, investigates the current attempts to rebuild in the Syrian Kurdish city of Rojava.
In an interview with independent news website Bianet, Arzu Demir said: “I have always said, since the start of these trials, that the case is a political trial based on the current conditions. This ruling is proof of that. All I did, as I said in my statement, was journalism.”
“I am glad that I’ve written [these books] and I am continuing to write,” she added.
The court did not introduce any possible reductions to the journalist’s sentence on the grounds that she had shown “no regret” for the alleged crime.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) raided the flat of former editor-in-chief of Vesti.Reporter magazine, Inna Zolotukhina, in Kharkiv around 7.30 AM on 27 January, Detector Media reported.
“I opened the door and a crowd of men entered the apartment. There were seven people, three of them from Kyiv’s Security Service of Ukraine, two from Kharkiv’s Security Service of Ukraine and two witnesses”, Zolotukhina told Detector Media.
At the same time, another search was conducted at the journalist’s mother’s house in Brovary near Kyiv.
Later Zolotukhina wrote on her Facebook page that she had been interrogated by the SBU as a witness on 30 January. According to the journalist, the questioning lasted from 10.00 to 18.30.
“I have signed a non-disclosure agreement, so now I can’t say anything”, the journalist wrote.
The search and interrogation were linked to a criminal case on separatism brought against unidentified persons at Media Invest Group holding which publishes Vesti Newspaper and Vesti.Reporter Magazine. Many journalists and employees of the holding have been interrogated in connection to the case.
On 25 January a court in Baku sentenced journalist Fuad Gahramanli to 10 years in prison, Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety reported.
The case is related to the armed incident between religious group, Muslim Union Movement, and police officers in the village of Nardaran where six people died, including two police officers.
Fuad Gahramanli is not a member of the religious group but was accused of promoting them on Facebook, where he urged people not to abandon the MUM’s leader and to continue protesting, IRFS reported.[/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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31 Jan 2017 | Azerbaijan, Belarus, Europe and Central Asia, France, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom
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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.
Police detained Aleksandra Ageyeva, a correspondent for the media outlet Sota Vision, at a mass demonstration near the Russian Constitutional Court building on 24 January.
According to Ageyeva, she was detained while filming the detainment of a demonstrator who was protesting against the imprisonment of opposition human rights activist Ildar Dadin.
Dadin is the first Russian citizen to be convicted for a “repeated violation” under a new law on mass rallies and meetings by peacefully protesters. He is currently serving a two-and-a-half year prison sentence and claims that his captors repeatedly abuses him.
A total of four protesters were detained along with Ageyeva at the scene. The police explained that the demonstrators were detained because they were supposedly jaywalking. Ageyeva spent around 11 hours in police custody.
The General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus ruled to extradite Alexander Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli travel blogger to Azerbaijan, on 20 January.
On 15 December 2016 he was detained in Minsk on an extradition request from Azerbaijan, where he is wanted for visiting the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and for criticising Azerbaijani policies.
A criminal case under two articles of the criminal code was filed in Azerbaijan which, if convicted, can lead to a prison sentence from five to eight years.
Lisa Giachino, editor-in-chief of the environmental magazine L’âge de faire, was arrested on 20 January at the border with Italy in the Roya valley, as she was following migrants for a story, news website Basta reported.
She is believed to have been kept in custody since 5am for “assisting migrants at the border,” and because she does not have a press card the police have refused to believe she is a journalist.
According to Nice Matin newspaper, Giachino was following six migrants for the story.
Giachino was later freed. She told Libération: “[Police officers] told me: ‘If we see you again with migrants, careful!’ It’s not normal to tell this to a journalist.”
Oleksiy Bobrovnikov, an investigative journalist and special correspondent for TSN programme on 1+1 TV channel, publicly wrote on his Facebook on 10 January that he left Ukraine after receiving numerous threats.
Since 2015 Bobrovnikov has been investigating the fatal shooting of officers and volunteers who oppose smuggling along what is known as the “grey zone,” the dividing line between western Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Bobrovnikov confirmed to Mapping Media Freedom that he left the country in mid-December because he feared his life was in danger. He said he had received five warnings connected with his investigation telling him his life was in danger.
“The threats ranged from a pat on the shoulder to threats coming from people with weapons in their hands. Other people investigating trade with occupied territories also received similar threats,” Bobrovnikov wrote.
According to Ukrayinska Pravda, two individuals working to fight against the smuggling were killed on 2 September 2015, near Schastye, a town in the Luhansk region.
St Helens Council passed a motion on 18 January calling on retailers in the borough to stop selling daily newspaper The Sun, The St Helens Star reported.
The motion is not enforceable by law, but recommends retailers do not distribute the publication.
At the council meeting on Wednesday evening, Parr councillor Terry Shields asked the authority to support the Total Eclipse of The Sun campaign, which the paper’s controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster as a reason to boycott.
The campaign describes itself as a peaceful campaign group with more than 50,000 members.
Councillors approved the motion at the town hall. The three Conservative councillors abstained from the vote.
A spokeswoman says: “We have enjoyed great success now having over 240 establishments not selling the paper. This includes small newsagents, major supermarkets and petrol stations. Cafes, pubs, hotels and local hospitals, have also joined in, showing their support to the campaign.”[/vc_column_text][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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24 Jan 2017 | Albania, Belarus, Europe and Central Asia, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Sweden, Turkey
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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.
On 18 January a Turkish court ordered the arrest of three journalists on charges of “membership in an armed terror group,” T24 reported.
These journalists include Ömer Çelik, former news editor of DİHA daily; Tunca Öğreten, former editor of Diken news portal, and BirGün daily staff member Mahir Kanaat.
They were detained on 25 December 2016 with three others; Derya Okatan, managing editor for the ETHA news agency; DİHA reporter Metin Yoksu, and Yolculuk newspaper managing editor Eray Saygın.
After 24 days, the court ruled to release Yoksu, Sargın and Okatan on probation terms. Under the order they are barred from international travel and will have to regularly check in with their local police station.
Pre-trial custody can last up to 30 days under Turkey’s emergency rule, which was implemented on 20 July 2015 following a coup attempt.
On 25 December 2016, pro-government Sabah daily announced that the journalists would be detained in connection to email correspondence of Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s energy minister and the son-in-law of the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that were leaked to the media.
The arrests bring the number of journalists in Turkish prisons to 151.
The Gothenburg offices of Swedish public service TV and radio, SVT, were evacuated on Tuesday 10 January after a suspicious package containing white powder and written threats was sent to staff member Janne Josefsson, the broadcaster reported.
SVT reported that “the letter was opened and the contents spread on a coffee machine and stairs”.
SVT Chief Executive Hannah Stjärne commented on the incident: “This threat has disabled a socially important journalistic operation for several hours and is a blow to the open society which we must protect.”
Police have begun an investigation into the source of the threat. The powder was later found to be harmless.
Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin was detained in Minsk on 15 January 2016, shortly after entering Belarus, Euroradio.fm reported. The detention was requested by Azerbaijan, which is seeking to have the blogger extradited.
Lapshin lives in Moscow and is wanted in Azerbaijan for visiting the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and for criticising Azerbaijani policies on his blog.
A representative for Belarus’s Prosecutor General said it was studying Azerbaijan’s extradition request.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Belorussian authorities to release the blogger without condition and allow him to return home.
Two media directors, Armand Shullaku and Alfred Lela, lost their jobs on 12 January after owners changed the “editorial orientation” of their outlets in favour of the government, ZeriaMerikas.es reported.
Shkullaku, who was the director of the news channel ABC News in Tirana, said his employment contract was not renewed for January 2017 and that he believed that the owner of the TV station changed its editorial line so that it now supports the government. “The owner told me that in his opinion, the channel needed a new managerial and editorial approach,” he said.
Lela, former director of the newspaper Mapo, said that the owner of the outlet had also declared his support for Prime Minister Edi Rama and that his contract, which ended on 31 December, was not renewed for that reason. “I was offered a new contract on condition I respected the new editorial affiliation and I refused,” he told Voice of America Albanian language service.
Lulzim Basha, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, wrote on his Facebook page that the dismissal of these two journalists means businesses and media have joined the government against the people.
On 12 January an Istanbul Prosecutor asked for a nine-year sentence in the case of prominent journalist Hasan Cemal, reported Hurriyet Daily News.
Cemal is being charged for “making the propaganda of terrorist organisations” and “praising crime and criminals”.
On 1 September, 2016 Cemal was part of a group of nine editors who took part in the Editor For The Day campaign launched in support of the closed pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündemy, Bianet reported.[/vc_column_text][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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5 Jan 2017
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” content_placement=”middle” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1485540079612{padding-top: 105px !important;padding-bottom: 105px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Media-freedom_journalism.jpg?id=81193) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”MEDIA FREEDOM” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Media freedom is under threat worldwide. Journalists are threatened, jailed and even killed simply for doing their job.
Index on Censorship documents threats to media freedom in Europe through a monitoring project and campaigns against laws that stifle journalists’ work. We also publish an award-winning magazine featuring work by and about censored journalists.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1488194218651{margin-top: 15px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;background-color: #b0281d !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1561022693383{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Rachael-Jolley-Prospect-May-2018.jpg?id=100316) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488194350948{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fmonitoring-and-advocating-for-media-freedom%2F|||”][vc_column_text]
Identifying and analysing issues, trends and drivers and exploring possible response options and opportunities for advocating media freedom[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1533297499193{margin-top: 15px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 15px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;background-color: #b0281d !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1533297255777{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/us-press-freedom-tracker-socialgraphc-image.original.png?id=101995) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488194350948{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”U.S. Press Freedom Tracker” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fpressfreedomtracker.us%2F|||”][vc_column_text]The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a nonpartisan website on the number of press freedom violations in the United States. Index on Censorship is part of the coalition of organisations supporting the effort.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1488191837058{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][three_grid_post category_id=”9044″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1488811315189{margin-top: 15px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;background-color: #d5473c !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488294894976{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Protect media freedom” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fdefend-media-freedom-donate-index%2F%20|||”][vc_column_text]
We monitor threats to press freedom, produce an award-winning magazine and publish work by censored writers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488810838993{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/newspapers.jpg?id=50885) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row disable_element=”yes”][vc_column][three_column_post title=”Mapping Media Freedom” category_id=”6564″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row disable_element=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1498050004462{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][three_grid_post category_id=”6564″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][campaigns_casestudy show_casestudy=”true” category_id=”8996″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle” el_class=”text_white” css=”.vc_custom_1501152281329{margin-top: 15px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 25px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;background-color: #d5473c !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488294894976{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”It’s not just Trump” use_theme_fonts=”yes” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fnot-just-trump-us-media-freedom-fraying-edges%2F|||”][vc_column_text]
A review of threats to press freedom in the United States.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1493803448002{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/USMedia_ReportCover_1460x490-revised.jpg?id=90089) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
