The more traditional restrictions, such as the outright banning and suspension of media outlets, confiscation of newspapers and magazines from newsstands and overt editorial interference by censors, are still widespread. The prevalence of these measures is illustrated by recent events in Sudan, where the circulation of five independent newspapers – Al-Sudani, al-Ahdath, Ajras al-Huriya, al-Rai al-Shaab and The Citizen – was banned due to their publication of critical articles. In Tonga, the Government recently appointed an editorial committee whose responsibility is to review and edit campaign speeches by candidates, removing any reference to the pro-democracy protests in November 2006.
The new media, particularly the Internet, have not remained free of censorship or direct repression. Due to its low cost, decentralized nature and large audience, the Internet has become one of the most important means for the circulation of independent ideas. As a result, it is a key target of attempts to monitor, control and censor the digital media, particularly bloggers, Internet contributors and cyber-dissidents. In some cases, Governments have blocked virtually all access to the Internet by its own citizens, such as during the peaceful protests in Myanmar in September 2007, thus thwarting all communication with the outside world. In other cases, Internet access has been allowed but independent websites, and even “politically sensitive terms” within search engines, remain censored. This has been possible to a large extent due to the complicity of leading Internet corporations – the majority of which are based in democratic countries – that have accepted these limitations. Worryingly, some Internet companies have even disclosed personal information of their users in order to allow Governments to identify and convict internet writers.
These explicit censorship measures now exist alongside more subtle tactics that severely restrict the independence of the press whilst seemingly allowing States to maintain a façade of respect to democratic principles such as freedom of expression. In this regard, Governments have exerted severe economic pressure, including through selective use of State advertisement, aiming to strangle independent media outlets. They have also exploited subjective regulations such as licensing to suspend or shut down the broadcast or printed media. Libel lawsuits have similarly been used deliberately as a means to imprison critical journalists or to punish them with disproportionate fines. Examples of these measures abound. In Guyana, for instance, CNS Channel 6 was suspended for four months for “infringing the terms of its license” after an interviewee, speaking during a live broadcast, called for attacks against the President.
The impact of these measures is not restricted to the media outlets or journalists they target. Rather, they serve to create an unsafe and unstable environment for the functioning of the press as a whole, leading them to shun critical reporting and impose self-censorship.
International legal instruments protect the right of every citizen to receive information and ideas of all kinds, through any media of his or her choice. Governments have thus a legally binding commitment to end censorship, protect a free and independent media and guarantee their right to criticize. Freedom of the press cannot be applicable exclusively for those with whom we agree. On the contrary, the key to freedom of expression is to respect the rights of those with whom we disagree to voice their own opinion. Without this right, democracy itself cannot flourish. I therefore call on all states to dismantle policies that contribute directly or indirectly to censorship, eliminating a practice of which the sole goal is to silence dissent, opposition and criticism.
Shana as described by REUTERS colleagues
By Nidal al-Mughrabi REUTERS-GAZA
Shana, who was unmarried, was a gentle and popular figure among the 15-strong Reuters news team in the Gaza Strip. The bureau was honored by Britain’s Royal Television Society for its coverage of last year’s factional fighting in Gaza.
Hundreds of journalists and well-wishers flocked to the hospital where Shana’s body was taken. The family planned to hold a funeral on Thursday.
Journalists have become casualties on numerous occasions in the Palestinian territories. Media watchdogs estimate that nine have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 2000.
An Israeli soldier shot a Reuters photographer in the leg in Gaza in October. Two Reuters journalists were wounded by an Israeli tank shell in the enclave in 2003.
Also in 2003, one of the most widely renowned Palestinian journalists to work for Reuters, television cameraman Mazen Dana, was shot dead by a U.S. soldier in Baghdad. Six other Reuters journalists have been killed in that conflict.
David Schlesinger calls for an immediate and complete investigation into the incident
I am very sorry to report that 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip.
Our hearts obviously go out to his family, as we mourn another loss in our journalistic family. Our thoughts are with his colleagues in Israel and in Gaza who must go on reporting even when surrounded by tragedy.
I’ve called for an immediate and complete investigation into the incident. We know, of course, that journalism is a dangerous business. We know, of course, that we rush into danger when others rush away. We know, of course, that accidents happen.
But I also believe sincerely and absolutely that all of us — news organizations, governments and the military — have an obligation to make reporting safer and to take the utmost care when professional journalists are doing their jobs.
It is, of course, striking that this tragedy occurred on the last day for Reuters as it has been and the day before Thomson Reuters begins as a news and information power in the world. I can but reflect on our more than a century and a half of bravery and sacrifice in the service of the news, and to vow that Reuters news in the new company will forge a new tradition, building on the old, that we can all be incredibly proud of.
16 April 2008 REUTERS
Reuters cameraman killed after filming in Gaza, PEC and ICPJ condemn strongly
A specialized legal instrument could have helped Bilal Hussein during his two-year detention in Iraq by US forces
GENEVA, April 17 (PEC-ICPJ) – For the second consecutive time in less than 72 hours one journalist is released, the other killed, both in different countries.
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) and the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists (ICPJ) while welcoming the release of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein (36 years old), more than two years after he was detained by U.S. Marines on suspicions of links to insurgents, condemns in the strongest possible manner the killing of Reuters cameraman during the Israeli attack against Gaza Wednesday.
The Reuters cameraman 24-year-old Fadal Shana was killed while filming the Israeli tank attack in central Gaza.
According to Al Jazeera Satellite channel Shana was killed when he finished filming and was taking his car to send his footage about the brutal attack.
Fadel Subhi Shana appeared, prior to his death, on the Arabic channel and said that he will never quit his job except if he dies or his legs are amputated.
The two Geneva based organizations presents their sincere condolences to the family of the young cameraman and his loved ones as well as to Reuters.
Shana is the 7th journalist killed in April, thus stepping up the number of killed journalists since the beginning of the year to 27 among them three women journalists.
On 15 April the PEC issues a statement with the same spirit of rejoice and condemnation for the safe release of the British journalist and condemns the killing of journalist Khadim Hussain Sheikh in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
The release Wednesday of Bilal Hussein, which is long overdue, shows the importance of having a special legal instrument to defend dangerous jobs when the situation is marked by armed conflict as well as in other situations when journalists are arrested under different allegations.
The PEC and the ICPJ wish Bilal Hussein well when reuniting with his family and congratulates the AP for his release.
Hussein - who had been held since April, 12, 2006 - was never brought to trial.
The Iraqi photographer Hussein was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005.
The PEC and the ICPJ wish Hussein a long and productive career to come.
Last week, two young, female radio broadcasters from the Triqui indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico were on their way back from covering a local assignment. But they never made it home. Their vehicle was ambushed on a local highway, instantly killing the two reporters and wounding four other passengers. The police found at least 20 spent AK-47 bullet cartridges at the scene.
Their deaths kicked off perhaps the bloodiest week for journalists in 2008, and illustrated some telling trends when it comes to violence against the media: all the reporters killed last week were covering news in their own countries, and so far, as with 90 percent of journalists' murders, their killers have not been found.
Before they met their deaths, Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, 21, and Teresa Bautista Merino, 24, worked as announcers for La Voz que Rompe el Silencia, a community radio station serving the Trique indigenous community in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, report the National Center for Social Communication (CENCOS) and ARTICLE 19. The station has been broadcasting since January, a year after the municipality was given administrative autonomy.
Oaxaca has been wracked by intense political confrontations in which journalists often pay the price. Indigenous community radio stations are particularly at risk, says the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), as proven by the recent assaults on members of Radio Nandia and Radio Calenda radio stations, also based in Oaxaca. The attacks on both stations and their staff are still unpunished.
ARTICLE 19, AMARC and RSF have appealed to the Mexican government for clarification around the deaths of Bautista and Martínez, punishment for those responsible and protection for the witnesses.
But more than that, they "demand an end to the climate of impunity that is allowing such acts of aggression, disappearances and murders to continue to be committed against members of community media, as well as journalists and media outlets in general."
Panama City:
Elsewhere in Latin America, a television cameraman was killed while covering a gang fight in Panama City, reports the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Eliécer Santamaría died on 8 April after he was stabbed while covering a story about gangs exchanging gunfire in the capital, according to new reports.
"This killing highlights the dangers that journalists face when they cover news in their own countries," says IFJ. "While war reporting takes many lives, our colleagues are often much more vulnerable when reporting on criminal activity in their own communities."
Radio Journalist seriously wounded-wife killed
The same day, a radio journalist was seriously wounded and his wife was killed in a shooting attack in Curuguaty, Paraguay, report the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Alfredo Tomás Avalos was shot in the head and his Brazilian wife, Silvana Rodrígues, was killed by two men on a motorcycle.
RSF says that Avalos, a local politician who had a regular public affairs program on FM radio, often spoke out against drug trafficking on the Paraguay-Brazil border and this would have made him a target for the drug gangs. Last year he was the target of a kidnapping attempt in 2007 and is being sued by suspected drug cartel boss Aristeu Falkenbak.
The violence against journalists and writers last week is "increasing at alarming rates," says IFJ, and extends beyond Latin America.
Bulgaria:
A popular writer in Bulgaria who wrote a series of books on the rise of Bulgaria's criminal underworld was shot and killed in the country's capital on 7 April, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Georgi Stoev, a former bodyguard and a retired member of the notorious racketeering group VIS, was on a busy Sophia street when two unidentified men fired at him at close range. He died of his wounds in hospital later that day.
Shortly before his death, Stoev had given a series of interviews to the Bulgarian press, announcing his willingness to testify against a well-known mafia boss and complaining about a lack of interest by prosecutors to follow up on the revelations in his books, according to local press reports.
Manila:
And in Asia, a journalist in a Manila suburb was murdered on 7 April, the first journalist to be killed this year in the Philippines, report the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, CPJ and IFJ.
Benefredo Acabal was shot five times at close range by an unidentified gunman who fled the scene on a motorcycle. Acabal, publisher and columnist for the local paper "Pilipino Newsmen" in Cavite province, south of Manila, died while en route to the hospital. Police are still investigating whether Acabal had been targeted for his journalism, or for his involvement in a trucking business.
Thirty-three journalists have been killed during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rule, whose reign has been characterised by an extraordinary number of extrajudicial killings, says CMFR.
Pakistan
Then just yesterday, a journalist was killed in the unstable province of Balochistan in southwestern Pakistan. Khadim Hussain Sheikh, a stringer for Sindh TV and a local bureau chief for the national Urdu-language daily "Khabrein", was shot by unidentified gunmen as he and his brother left his home by motorbike in the town of Hub, just north of Karachi, reports CPJ. The motive for the killing is unknown.
Pakistani authorities and ethnic Baloch militants have been involved in a long and violent fight for control over Balochistan province, which is rich in natural gas reserves.
"We urge the newly elected government to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the press by vigorously investigating this case, which would help break the cycle of impunity that surrounds the killing of journalists," says CPJ.
Demands to fight impunity can be heard not only in Pakistan but worldwide - in one of the deadliest weeks for journalists so far this year.
Source IFEX: The "IFEX Communiqué" is the weekly newsletter of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), a global network of 81 organisations working to defend and promote the right to free expression.
IFEX is managed by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
ICPJ joins the PEC in rejoicing at the safe release of Richard Butler, condemns killing of Hussain Sheikh in Pakistan
GENEVA April 15 (PEC) – The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) welcomes the safe release of CBS' journalist Richard Butler after more than two months in captivity in Basra, Iraq.
More than 25 journalists or their Iraqi assistants were abducted in 2007 in Iraq and more than 270 Iraqi journalists have been killed since March 2003.
The PEC while rejoicing the safe release of the British journalist condemns the killing of journalist Khadim Hussain Sheikh in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.
The Pakistani journalist was killed in a shooting attack and his brother seriously injured.
Up to date 26 journalists were killed since the beginning of 2008.
The Geneva based NGO reminds the media community that up to date the journalists are left without a specialized legal instrument to protect them and their work in conflict zones and other dangerous situations.
As the world approaches the celebrations of World Press Freedom Day, attacks on journalists continue with impunity and highlights the absence of a protection instrument.
This PEC statement is supported by the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists (ICPJ).
Recalling Black Spring of 2003 on March 18 a groups of Cuban demonstrators called upon the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to interfere in favor of 27 imprisoned journalists four years ago.
Cuba, according to Amnesty International the second prison for journalists after China.
Head of the Cultural Association of the Cuban Community in Switzerland Reinaldo Gomez Ballina said that the current calls outside and inside Cuba reflect the extreme worry at curbing freedom of opinion and expression in Cuba.
The call of the Cubans in exile coincided with the meeting of the 7th session of the Human Rights Council for a media free from state control.
Independent Cuban journalist Iria González Rodiles said that the first step the Cuban government should take is to proclaim a general amnesty by which all prisoners of conscience including journalists would be released.
Black Spring of 18 March 2003 represented a severe blow to the media in Cuba and led to a repressive mood against journalists.
The following journalists are among the 27 detained on 18 March 2003 and who are suffering from the deterioration of their health in prison:
Normando Hernández González, directeur de l'agence indépendante Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (CPIC). Sentenced for 25 years in prison in April 2003
Pablo Pacheco Avila, de l'agence CAPI sentenced for 20 years in prison .
Pedro Argüelles Morán, directeur de la Cooperativa avileña de periodistas independientes (CAPI), same sentence.
José Luis García Paneque, directeur de l'agence de presse indépendante Libertad à Las Tunas (Est), sentenced for 24 years since then .
Fabio Prieto Llorente 20 years sentence.
José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, de l'agence Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, sertvces a 16-year sentence.
Demonstration in front of the UN
March 2008
Assault on the Media, an escalating dimension
PEC-ICPJ presentation: a Human Rights Council side event
Protection of journalists in the framework of the Human Rights Council
Some four years ago, in a side event parallel to the Human Rights Commission at the time, the Campaign for an Emblem to protect journalists was launched.
Since then the number of fallen journalists has increased. However, that number has not been instrumental enough to move to a serious consideration of the issue by the Human Rights Council.
The fallen journalists have remained numbers in a tapestry of tragedy, feeding the press statements of media associations, and others.
However, those numbers are human tragedies, victims of serious violations of human rights.
The tragedy is part and parcel of Human Rights: first the sacred right of life is violated, followed by an earth shattering impact of multiple violations of rights when it concerns families of fallen journalists.
Those multiple violations include the right to Housing, to Health, to Food, to Clothing, to Education, to name a few.
In the ongoing debate on the issue of media protection, those multiple rights are overlooked, in order to keep the issue in the domain of the Geneva Conventions which states that journalists are protected as civilians in armed conflicts.
The question is: do not such multiple violations of rights warrant a new approach to the issue and whether the Human Rights Council would be the appropriate mechanism to deal with it?
Secondly, the Council has inherited from the Human Rights Commission the larger title of the Issue of Freedom of Opinion and Expression entrusted to a special rapportuer.
The second question is whether this item should be enlarged to deal with the protection of media in zones of conflict and elsewhere or specify a particular item for that escalating issue and have a group of countries entrusted with a resolution on this issue?
This is because the first issue is integrally linked to the second, and ignoring the pressing issue of the second is no longer feasible with the growing number of fallen journalists, more than 200 in two years with Iraq reaming the highest tally of fallen journalists: more than 250 since the beginning of the war five years ago.
Can this unfolding tragedy of multiple violations of rights call upon the Council to establish a working group to find ways and means to deal with it.
Then we are left with another question do we accept the argument that the multiple violations of rights, as in the case of a specific dangerous profession, that is the media profession, do not warrant attention because the Geneva Convention covers those rights while lacking the mechanism to apply them?
Well, then if so, where are the mechanisms, to date no killings of a media professional or associate has been brought to justice except for the latest assault on a French journalist in Erbil in Northern Iraq this March.
One mechanism that could be discussed is a compensation fund that would be in place after a conflict is over, but then the argument against such a fund would be how will it be financed, who will benefit from it, etc…
This brings me to the escalating dimension in attacks against journalists.
The situation on the ground has aggravated with new dimensions, one such assault was against Ugandan 32 year-old journalist Rebecca Wilbrod Kasujja who was raped and brutally killed.
A French Journalist Cecile Hennion working for Le Monde was stabbed in her hotel in Erbil on Tuesday.
The President of the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists Shihab El Tamimi died in hospital on 27 February 2008 following an attack on his car.
The killing of Shihab El Tamimi is a strong reflection of the plight of Iraqi journalists, more than 250 have been killed since the war in Iraq of March 2003.
However, there has been a change in the past four years on the issue and here I am gratified with the statements made by the Norwegian Foreign Minister Joans Gahr Sore who declared on 3 March to the Human Rights Council (HRC) that his country cannot accept the killing of journalists.
Another gratifying statement was that of the French Minister of State Rama Yade who told the HRC on the same day that there will be no democracies without media or independent journalists.
Journalists in the field whether it be that of armed conflict or civil unrest could be described as the commandos of bringing the truth to the public, but not equipped with arms or training for their protection.
The Convention of Disabilities, and that of Enforced Disappearances, which are two features of journalists when fallen, Disabilities and Disappearances: are they both not applicable to journalists when killed?
Therefore my simple question is whether journalists deserve a similar instrument to provide them with rights when they are on the font line in defense of freedom of opinion and expression and the transmission of the truth.
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), established in June 2004 and in response to the growing and intensified assault on the media in Iraq since March 2003, has adjusted its position with great flexibility in order to reach a common denominator uniting all journalists.
Re-enforced by the establishment of the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists (ICPJ), which came into existence in September 2007, as a direct inspiration from the work of the PEC, the PEC board and the ICPJ secretariat in Geneva embarked on a draft convention which both organizations believe would be the common denominator that would eventually unite all journalists.
Taking into account all the questions posed at the outset, both NGOs believe that a new convention would respond to all kind of assaults against journalists and responds to the developments in the field such as calling for the protection of the Internet and Satellite transmissions in zones of civil unrest, following the events in Burma in 2007 and others, and in Tibet in March 2008, when both Internet and Satellite transmissions were knocked off.
Hong Kong cable TV sent the first images of the situation in Tibet on the morning of 16 March 2008.
It is our belief that the concerns of the media in developed countries do not correspond to the concerns of the media in developing countries or those in conflict zones, hence the new draft instrument when negotiated could come out with a common denominator uniting all the media.
Now, the time is ripe to start serious discussions on a draft instrument presented by the PEC and the ICPJ to cover all situations including compensation which is a factor that could respond to the concerns of journalists from the developing world as well as free lance journalists across the globe.
The PEC and the ICPJ condemns the Killing of one Iraqi journalist Wednesday and 6 others from the beginning of the year in several countries as well as the spiral of attacks against others in Sri-Lanka, Macedonia and Somalia
GENEVA, January 31 (PEC-ICPJ) The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) and the International Covenant for the Protection of Journalists (ICPJ) announces that the tally at the end of January in media casualties is 7 journalists killed, the latest in Iraq Wednesday with his driver, another in Somalia on Monday in a landmine explosion.
The PEC and the ICPJ will be announcing at the end of each month during 2008 the tally against journalists in an attempt to mobilize the public and the media and human rights community and others to the importance of developing a Convention for the Protection of Journalists. Since the beginning of 2008, 7 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in seven countries: Honduras, Brazil, Niger, Nepal, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.The attacks against journalists in January 2007 stood at 7 journalists: 4 in Iraq, one in Eritrea, one in Turkey, and one in Haïti. In addition, since the beginning of 2008, three other journalists were attacked, on January 28 the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) announced that Puntland Ministry attacked journalist Abdihakim Yusuf Moalim of Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), a privately owned Radio Station in Bossaso town of Bari Region. Security guard of Deputy Minister of Security of Puntland Ibrahim Artan (Haji Bakin) had violently beaten Abdihakim Yusuf Moalim after Haji Bakin slapped the journalist on Saturday morning January 26, 2008. On Wednesday, the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), strongly condemned the attempted murder of Goran Gavrilov, General Manager of the Stip-based Channel 77, a private radio station network with national coverage in Macedonia. According to information before SEEMO, Gavrilov was attacked by two armed persons in the night between 25 and 26 January in front of his home in Stip, eastern Macedonia. The masked assailants shot at him, but missed, and then violently beat him with metal rods. Five media associations in Sri-Lanka, the Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU), the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF), the Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance (SLTJA) and the Free Media Movement (FMM), announced during the past weekend the knife attack against Sri-Lankan journalist Lal Hemantha Mawalage on Friday night at Athurigiriya, a suburb of Colombo.
The United States condemns the murder of Bashir Nur Gedi, acting Chairman of Shabelle Media Network on Friday, October 19 in Mogadishu. We offer our sympathy and condolences to Gedi's family and colleagues.
Gedi's murder marks the eighth murder of a member of the Somalia media in 2007. Such acts highlight the determination of violent extremists to silence the voice of free media and cannot be tolerated. We call on the Transitional Federal Government to ensure the safety and protection of a free and independent media in Somalia. A vibrant media will be an integral part of Somalia's path to elections in 2009 by facilitating the exchange of views necessary for lasting peace and stability.
