Israel has the means, the weapons and the sheer gumption to do so, and Palestinians in Gaza find themselves with few options for survival.  The strategic objectives of the Jewish state, involving, for instance, the elimination of Hamas, have been shown to be nonsensically irrelevant, given that they are unattainable.  Failed policies of de facto annexation and occupation are re-entering the national security argot.

In yet another round of proceedings, this time initiated by a UN General Assembly resolution, the International Court of Justice is hearing from an array of nations and bodies (40 states and four international organisations) regarding Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza since March 2.  Also featuring prominently are Israel’s efforts to attack the United Nations itself, notably UNRWA, the relief agency charged with aiding Palestinians.

As counsel for the Palestinians, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh outlined the central grievances.  The restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” lacked precedent “in the history of the organisation”.  Being not only “antithetical to a peace-loving state”, such actions were “a fundamental repudiation by Israel of its charter obligations owed both to the organisation and to all UN members and of the international rule of law”.

Israel had further closed all relevant crossings into the Strip and seemingly planned “to annex 75 square kilometres of Rafah, one-fifth of Gaza, to [its] so-called buffer zone, permanently.  This, together with Israel’s continuing maritime blockade, cuts Gaza and its people off from direct aid and assistance and from the rest of the world”.

The submission by Ní Ghrálaigh went on to document the plight of Palestinian children, 15,600 of whom had perished, with tens of thousands more injured, missing or traumatised.  Gaza had become “home to the largest cohort of child amputees in the world, the largest orphan crisis in modern history, and a whole generation in danger of suffering from stunting, causing irreparable physical and cognitive impairments”.

South Africa, which already has an application before the Court accusing Israel of violating the UN Genocide Convention, pointed to the international prohibition against “starvation as a method of warfare, including under siege or blockade”. Its representative Jaymion Hendricks insisted that Israel had “deployed the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation” against “the protected Palestinian population, which it holds under unlawful occupation.”  The decision to expel UNRWA and relevant UN agencies should be reversed, and access to food, medicine and humanitarian aid resumed.

In a chilling submission to the Court, Zane Dangor, director general of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, detected a scheme in the cruelty.  “The humanitarian aid system is facing total collapse.  This collapse is by design.”

Israel’s response, one increasingly rabid to the obligations of humanitarian and international law, was best stated by its Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar.  In announcing that Israel would not participate in oral proceedings derided as a “circus”, he restated the long held position that UNRWA was “an organisation infiltrated beyond repair by terrorism.”  Courts were once again being abused “to try and force Israel to cooperate with an organisation that is infested with Hamas terrorists, and it won’t happen”.

Then came an agitated flurry of accusations shamelessly evoking the message from Émile Zola’s “J’Accuse” note of 1898, penned during the convulsions of the Dreyfus Affair: “I accuse UNRWA. I accuse the UN.  I accuse the Secretary General, I accuse all those that weaponize international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself.”

The continuing blackening of UNRWA was also assured by Amir Weissbrod of Israel’s foreign ministry, who reiterated the claims that the organisation had employed 1,400 Palestinians with militant links.  Furthermore, some had taken part in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.  That such a small number had participated was itself striking and should have spared the organisation the savaging it received.  But Israel has longed for the expulsion of an entity that is an accusing reminder of an ongoing, profane policy of oppression and dispossession.

In her moving address to the Court, Ní Ghrálaigh urged the justices to direct Israel to allow aid to enter Gaza and re-engage the offices of UNRWA.  Doing so might permit the re-mooring of international law, a ship increasingly put off course by the savage war in Gaza.  The cold, somewhat fanatical reaction to these proceedings in The Hague by Israel’s officials suggest that anchoring international obligations, notably concerning Palestinian civilians, is off the list.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”

Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.

Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.

At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:

• Pro-opposition New Generation Movement NRT TV camera operator Ali Abdulhadi and reporter Shiraz Abdullah were stopped from filming by about seven armed security officers, known in Kurdish as Asayish, according to a video posted by the outlet.

“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.

• Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali collapsed from teargas, a video posted by the privately owned digital outlet showed.

“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.

• An ambulance took pro-PUK digital outlet Zhyan Media’s reporter Mardin Mohammed and camera operator Mohammed Mariwan to a hospital in Koya after they were teargassed.

“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Kurdsat News reporters Gaylan Sabir and Amir Mohammed and camera operators Sirwan Sadiq and Hemn Mohammed were teargassed and their equipment was confiscated, the outlet said.

• Privately owned Westga News said five staff — reporters Omer Ahmed, Shahin Fuad, and Amir Hassan, and camera operators Zanyar Mariwan and Ahmed Shakhawan — were attacked and teargassed. Ahmed told CPJ that a security officer grabbed a camera while they were broadcasting, while Fuad said another camera, microphone, and a livestreaming encoder were also taken and not returned.

• Pro-PUK Slemani News Network reporter Kochar Hamza was carried to safety by protesters after she collapsed due to tear gas, a video by the digital outlet showed. She told CPJ that she and her camera operator Sivar Baban were treated at hospitals twice.

“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.

• A team from Payam TV, a pro-opposition Kurdistan Justice Group satellite channel, required treatment for teargas exposure.

“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.

• Madah Jamal, a reporter with the pro-opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union Speda TV satellite channel, told CPJ that he was also teargassed.

• Pro-PUK digital outlet Xendan’s reporter Shahen Wahab told CPJ that she and camera operator Garmian Omar suffered asthma attacks due to the teargas.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Gali Kurdistan’s reporter Karwan Nazim told CPJ that he had to stop reporting because he couldn’t breathe and asked his office to send additional staff.

“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

Raided and arrested

Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.

“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.

KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”

In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.

“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.

“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.

CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is deeply concerned by the attacks on the Zoom News TV crew in Sulaymaniyah and the Alsumaria TV crew in Baghdad,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “We call on Iraqi authorities to thoroughly investigate these incidents and ensure their security forces are properly trained to interact with journalists.”

On August 18, in Halabja, Sulaymaniyah province, Iraqi Kurdistan Asayish security forces attacked Zoom News TV reporter Avin Atta and cameraman Zhyar Kamli while they were reporting on a demonstration against the killing of a porter, known as a kolbar, by Iraqi border forces in the Hawraman area.

Atta told CPJ that an Asayish official twisted her arm behind her back, dislocating her shoulder and wrist, after she refused to hand over their camera and microphone. The security forces released Atta and Kamli after reviewing their footage for more than an hour. 

CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment sent via messaging app to Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency.

Zoom News TV supports the newly formed People’s Front, a political party participating in Kurdistan’s October 20 parliamentary elections.  

Separately, Iraqi SWAT forces assaulted Alsumaria TV reporter Amir Al-Khafaji and cameraman Omar Abbas while they were covering an August 19 Baghdad protest by medical school graduates demanding jobs.

Al-Khafaji told CPJ by phone that four SWAT officers beat him and confiscated their equipment and phones after he tried to stop them from attacking Abbas.

After taking the journalists to a police station in Baghdad’s Al-Rusafa district, the officers accused them of assaulting security forces and refused to release them until they signed a pledge not to attack security forces again. “We were shocked and denied the allegations,” said Al-Khafaji.

CPJ received no response to its call for comment from Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Miqdad Miri.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On June 13 the NDP’s revenue critic hosted a press conference at the parliamentary press gallery calling “on the Liberal government to investigate Canadian charities that allegedly funneled taxpayer money in support of Israeli military operations and illegal settlements in Palestine.” After sponsoring a parliamentary petition on the subject, Ashton posted a letter she’d sent previously to Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau demanding the government investigate charities funding Israeli military operations in Gaza and illegal Israeli settlements. Ashton ended the May 27 post noting, “Not one cent of Canadian tax-dollars should be funding genocide.”

Ashton’s statement was referenced in a public letter headlined Stop Subsidizing Genocide signed by Gabor Mate, Yann Martel, Linda McQuaig, Roger Waters, Monia Mazigh, Amir Khadir, Desmond Cole, Libby Davies, Ellen Gabriel, Alex Neve and Sarah Jama. The letter calls into question the more than a quarter billion dollars a year sent to Israel and the Canada Revenue Agency’s failure to “enforce its rules on registered charities assisting foreign militaries, racist organizations and West Bank settlements.”

June 13 was set to be an important step forward for the Just Peace Advocates and Canadian Foreign Policy Institute led “colonialism is not charity” campaign that’s been gaining steam in Palestine solidarity circles. But the Ottawa press conference was upended by the revelation Ashton charged taxpayers $17,000 for a trip she took in December 2022. According to an article published that morning by CBC parliamentary bureau reporter John Paul Tasker, Ashton brought her husband and two young children with her on a trip over the Christmas period that took them to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. Ashton represents a northern Manitoba ridding so the airfare for the four of them cost $13,000. Ashton’s finances were okayed by the appropriate authorities, yet CBC Power and Politics did a 13-minute five-person discussion about Ashton’s expenses. The National Post, Winnipeg Sun, Truth North, Global News and Rebel News also reported on Ashton’s finances.

Apparently, four journalists attended the press conference and two of them asked multiple questions about Ashton’s finances, but none covered the Israel-focused charity subject. The dominant media completely ignored the substance of the presser though wide social media circulation of a clip from the press conference suggest significant interest in charities funding Israel’s genocide.

Most likely, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs or B’nai Brith shared information on Ashton’s finances to the media. They may have done so when they caught wind of the press conference or when Ashton posted on May 27 about the hyper-sensitive subject of taxpayer-subsidized charities funneling funds to Israel in contravention of CRA rules.

Likely, the Israel lobby has been keeping tabs on Ashton who has long been in their crosshairs. In 2017 the Jewish supremacist organization published a press release titled “B’nai Brith Denounces MP Niki Ashton for Standing in ‘Solidarity’ with Terrorists.” It began “B’nai Brith Canada strongly denounces federal NDP leadership candidate Niki Ashton for attending a rally this week in support of Palestinian terrorists and for questioning Israel’s right to exist in a Facebook post.”

Alternatively, journalists sat on details about Ashton’s expenses and social media posts from her husband dating back to December 2022. They then so happened to release the information just as Ashton challenged a little discussed subject that’s Canada’s most significant contribution to Palestinian dispossession.

Criticizing Ashton’s expenses serves to undercut her standing on public expenditures. As such, it was the perfect scandal to reveal about a politician challenging Israel charities laundering public funds.

But, the real scandal is how journalists either instigated or allowed themselves to be used to undermine a discussion about unlawful activity that costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year to help a foreign government caught interfering in Canadian politics.

Beyond undercutting Ashton’s standing on public expenditures, it was a powerful message to the NDP. Apparently, NDP foreign critic Heather MacPherson was planning to participate in the press conference until the expenses information came to light. It will be interesting to see if the NDP and Ashton shy away from challenging Canada’s biggest contribution to Palestinian dispossession because of the ‘scandal’.

Part of why the Israel lobby likely pursued this line of response to Ashton challenging Israel charities is that they don’t have a good retort to the criticism. In addition to the large transfer of public funds, the charity issue undercuts their claim Israel is unfairly “singled out”. In fact, no other wealthy, faraway, country receives a remotely comparable amount of charity fundraising. And many of the Israel-focused registered charities violate existing CRA rules. Since 2005, for instance, the Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz’s HESEG Foundation has raised nearly $200 million to assist non-Israelis who join the Israeli military despite CRA rules that clearly state “supporting the armed forces of another country is not” charitable activity.

The Israel lobby is known for underhanded tactics and are likely behind the recent attack on Niki Ashton.

For those of us appalled by Israel’s holocaust in Gaza our response to this slander of Ashton must be to redouble our efforts to demand “not one cent of Canadian tax-dollars should be funding genocide.”

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Yves Engler.

CPJ has documented a number of attacks on journalists in the run-up to the January 7 polls, and on Thursday joined its partners in the #KeepItOn coalition in calling on authorities to ensure unfettered access to the internet throughout the election.

Separately, CPJ is investigating reports that foreign journalists were denied access to Bangladesh to cover the polls.

“Bangladesh authorities must conduct swift and impartial investigations into all recent attacks on journalists in the lead-up to the national election and hold the perpetrators accountable,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, on Friday. “Our access to information depends on the ability of journalists to cover the polls independently and without fear of reprisal at this critical juncture.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power since 2009, is Bangladesh’s longest-serving leader and is seeking a fourth term in the polls. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has announced a boycott of the vote and the government has deployed troops nationwide, amid fears of violence. At least 27 journalists covering political rallies in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, in October were attacked by supporters of the BNP and the ruling Awami League and police.

On December 10, Amir Hamja and Niranjan Goswami, district correspondents for the privately owned broadcasters Desh TV and mytv, respectively, were covering an opposition protest in the Shayestaganj sub-district of northeast Habiganj district when they were hit by metal splinter bullets fired by police to disperse protesters, according to news reports and the journalists, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Goswami said he was hit by around 30 splinters and was having trouble with his vision after a doctor determined it was too risky to remove one from his right eye. Hamja said he would undergo surgery to remove a splinter from his left eyebrow.

Separately, on November 30, Awami League parliamentary candidate Mostafizur Rahman and around 15 to 20 of his supporters assaulted Rakib Uddin, a correspondent with the privately-owned broadcaster Independent Television in the southeastern city of Chittagong, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Uddin told CPJ that Rahman punched him in the face and, with his supporters, kicked him, after the journalist questioned him about a potential violation of Bangladesh’s electoral code of conduct at a local government office. He said unidentified men that he believed to be Rahman’s supporters had followed him since the attack.

CPJ’s text messages to Rahman, Habiganj Police Superintendent Md Akhter Hossain, and Krishna Pada Roy, commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ulate had taken over the case in August 2022 from two other lawyers, Romeo Montoya García and Mario Castañeda, after the prosecutor in Zamora’s case announced that they were under investigation. After less than three months of representing Zamora, Ulate left Guatemala for a trip to Honduras. The attacks, he said, stopped abruptly.

Looking back, Ulate believes the harassment was part of a clear pattern. Other lawyers who would go on to represent Zamora — there were 10 in total by the time of the journalist’s June conviction on money laundering charges widely considered to be retaliation for his work — were harassed, investigated, or even jailed. 

“We knew that the system was against us, and that everything we, the legal team, did around the case was being closely scrutinized,” Ulate told CPJ. 

Zamora’s experience retaining legal counsel, while extreme, is hardly unique. CPJ has identified lawyers of journalists under threat in Iran, China, Belarus, Turkey, and Egypt, countries that are among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. To be sure, lawyers are not just targeted for representing journalists. “Globally lawyers are increasingly criminalized or disciplined for taking on sensitive cases or speaking publicly on rule of law, human rights, and good governance issues,” said Ginna Anderson, the associate director of the American Bar Association, which monitors global conditions for legal professionals. 

But lawyers and human rights advocates told CPJ that when a lawyer is harassed for representing a journalist, the threats can have chilling effects on the free flow of information. Inevitably, journalists unable to defend themselves against retaliatory charges are more likely to be jailed – leaving citizens less likely to be informed of matters of public interest.  

A barometer of civil liberties 

Attacks on the legal profession – like attacks on journalists – can be a barometer of civil liberties in a country, legal experts told CPJ. Hong Kong, once viewed as a safe harbor for independent journalists, is one such example. The territory has seen multiple members of the press prosecuted under Beijing’s 2020 national security law, including media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, who faces life imprisonment. Lai, a British citizen, is represented by both U.K. and Hong Kong legal teams, which work independently of each other, and both have faced pressure.  

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, the head of the U.K. team, has spoken openly on X, formerly Twitter,  about attacks on Lai’s U.K.-based lawyers, from smears in the Chinese state press to formal statements by Hong Kong authorities. Gallagher has faced death threats, attempts to access her bank and email accounts, and efforts to impersonate her online. “That stuff is quite draining and attritional and designed to eat into your time. They want to make it too much hassle to continue the case,” Gallagher told the Irish Times.

The Hong Kong legal team representing Lai — who has been convicted of fraud and is on trial for foreign collusion — has also appeared to have come under pressure from authorities. After Lai’s U.K. lawyers angered Beijing by discussing Lai’s case with a British minister, the Hong Kong legal team issued a statement distancing itself from the U.K. lawyers.   

Any appearance of working with foreigners could compromise not only Lai’s case but also the standing of his lawyers, said Doreen Weisenhaus, a media law expert at Northwestern University who previously taught at the University of Hong Kong.  

“They have to appreciate the potential harm that they could face moving forward — that they could become targeted — as they try to vigorously represent Jimmy Lai,” she told CPJ. 

CPJ reached out to Robertsons, the Hong Kong legal firm representing Lai, via the firm’s online portal and did not receive a reply.

Moves to isolate and intimidate lawyers working on Lai’s case are part of a larger crackdown over the last decade, including China’s 2015 roundup of 300 lawyers and civil society members. “In many ways, China institutionalized wholesale campaigns of going after journalists, activists, and now lawyers,” said Weisenhaus.  

Defending journalists who cover protests 

In Iran – another country where the judiciary operates largely at the government’s behest –   lawyers representing journalists have been targeted in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. Those protests saw the arrests of thousands of demonstrators and dozens of journalists, including Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who helped break the story of Amini’s hospitalization. The two reporters are accused of spying for the United States; the two remain in custody while awaiting the verdict in their closed-door trials.  

Hamedi and Mohammadi’s lawyer, Mohammed Ali Kamfiroozi, who also represented human rights defenders, received warnings to dissuade him from continuing his work: phone calls from unlisted numbers, threats in the mail, ominous messages to his family, and an official letter from authorities telling him to stop his work, according to CPJ’s sources inside the country. Nevertheless, Kamfiroozi continued his work, publishing regular updates about his clients’ cases on X until he, too, was arrested on December 15, 2022 while inquiring at a courthouse about a client.

Kamfiroozi’s last post on X before his arrest lamented the state of Iran’s judiciary: “This level of disregard for explicit and obvious legal standards is regrettable.” 

Kamfiroozi was released from Fashafouyeh prison after 25 days in detention and has not returned to his work as a lawyer, according to CPJ’s sources inside the country. A new legal team has since taken over the journalists’ cases. Since then, the crackdown on the legal profession has continued, with lawyers being summoned by the judiciary to sign a form stating they will not publicly release information about clients facing national security charges – a common accusation facing journalists. Lawyers who fail to sign can be disbarred and arrested at the discretion of local judges. 

Belarusian lawyers have also been muzzled in the wake of nationwide protests. After widespread demonstrations following the disputed August 2020 presidential election — during which dozens of journalists were arrested — Belarusian lawyers were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements preventing them from speaking publicly about many criminal cases. At least 56 lawyers representing human rights defenders or opposition leaders were disbarred or had their licenses revoked in the two years after the protests, and some were jailed, according to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Initiative, the American Bar Association, and the group Lawyers for Lawyers. 

Belarusian lawyer Siarhej Zikratski, whose clients included the now-shuttered independent news outlet Tut.by, imprisoned Belsat TV journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva, and program director of Press Club Belarus Alla Sharko, was required to undergo a recertification exam which ultimately resulted in authorities revoking his license. He fled the country in May 2021 after he was disbarred and amid ongoing pressure from the government on his colleagues.

In the months after he left, Tut.by was banned in Belarus and Andreyeva, who was nearing the end of a two-year imprisonment, was sentenced to another eight years on retaliatory charges. (Sharko was released in August 2021 after serving eight months.) 

“They took away my beloved profession and my business,” Zikratski wrote in a Facebook post announcing his emigration to Vilnius, Lithuania. “I will continue to do everything I can to change the situation in Belarus. Unfortunately, I cannot do that from Minsk.”

Lawyers in exile can lose their livelihoods 

While exile is not an uncommon choice to escape state harassment, it comes at a cost: lawyers are unable to continue their work in their home countries. 

“The bulk of the harassment against media and human rights lawyers, including criminal defense lawyers who represent journalists and other human rights defenders [occurs] in-country,” said Anderson of the ABA. “Increasingly this is forcing lawyers into exile where they face enormous challenges continuing to practice or participate in media rights advocacy.” 

This was the case for Ethiopian human rights lawyer Tadele Gebremedhin, who faced intense harassment from local authorities after he began defending reporters covering the country’s civil conflict in the Tigray region that began in November 2020.   

Gebremedhin represented freelance journalists Amir Aman Kiyaro and Thomas Engida, Ethio Forum journalists Abebe Bayu and Yayesew Shimelis, Awramba Times managing editor Dawit Kebede, and at least a dozen others, including the staff of the independent now-defunct broadcaster Awlo Media Center, whose charges are related to their reporting on the Tigray region. 

Gebremedhin told CPJ that the harassment started in May 2021 with thinly veiled threats from government officials and anonymous calls telling him not to represent journalists because members of the media are terrorists. He strongly suspected that he was under physical and digital surveillance, and his bank account was blocked.  In November 2021, he was detained by authorities and held for 66 days without charge before being released. 

“That was my payment for working with the journalists,” Gebremedhin said. 

He fled to the United States shortly after his release from police custody, and now works as a researcher at the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center. Just a few of the dozens of reporters he defended are still working in journalism. While they are not behind bars, the damage done to civil society remains, Gebremedhin said. 

Lawyers arrested alongside journalists

Sometimes, lawyers are arrested alongside the journalists they represent. In the runup to Turkey’s May 2023 presidential elections, Turkish lawyer Resul Temur was taken into government custody in Diyarbakır province for his alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkish authorities consider a terrorist organization, along with several Kurdish journalists who were also his clients. 

Authorities took his work phone, computer, and all of his electronic devices, including his 9-year old daughter’s tablet, and all of the paper case files he had in his office, Temur told CPJ. He was released pending investigation, and fears he’ll soon be charged. 

“Lawyers like me who are not deterred by judicial harassment will continue to be the targets of Turkish authorities,” he said.

In Egypt, a country where numerous human rights defenders have been locked up, Mohamed el-Baker, the lawyer of prominent blogger and activist Alaa Abdelfattah, was arrested as he accompanied Abdelfattah to police questioning in September 2019. Authorities charged both with spreading false news and supporting a banned group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

After serving nearly four years of his sentence and amid growing international pressure, el-Baker was granted a presidential pardon in July. However, it remains unclear if the lawyer will be allowed to return to work. Many of his clients, Abdelfattah among them, remain in prison. 

Retaliation leads to censorship

The damage, from Egypt to Turkey to Guatemala and beyond, is great. When lawyers for reporters fear retaliation as much as the journalists do, it creates an environment of censorship that harms citizens’ ability to stay informed about what is happening in their countries.

“When journalists can’t have access to lawyers, they’re kind of left on their own,” Weisenhaus told CPJ. “I think we’ll still see courageous journalists who will continue to write about what they perceive as the wrongs in their country and their society. But those numbers could dwindle if they’re constantly being prosecuted and convicted.”

Additional research contributed by Dánae Vílchez, Özgür Öğret, and CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program staff.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Katherine Jacobsen.

At around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24, between eight and 10 men—some wearing uniforms—detained Abraham, president and anchor of BOL News, while he was going home from the privately owned broadcaster’s office in the capital Islamabad, according to news reports and Raja Amir Abbas, the journalist’s lawyer, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Abraham’s whereabouts remain unknown as of the evening of Thursday, May 25, Abbas said.

The whereabouts of BOL News anchor Imran Riaz Khan, who has been missing since May 11 following his arrest at Punjab’s Sialkot airport, also remain unknown as of Thursday evening, his lawyer Azhar Siddique told CPJ by phone. Earlier in the day, police failed to present the journalist at the Lahore High Court for a fourth time since his arrest, and a senior Lahore police official told the court that the journalist was not in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence or Military Intelligence agencies.

“We are deeply disturbed by the disappearances of journalists Sami Abraham and Imran Riaz Khan amid a worsening media crackdown in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must respect the rule of law and either present Abraham and Khan in court or immediately release them.”

Journalists have been arrested, attacked, and surveilled after the May 9 arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, also chair of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which led to nationwide protests.

Abraham and Imran Riaz Khan, who is not related to the former prime minister, frequently host PTI supporters on their talk shows and post pro-PTI content on their YouTube channels. Two Pakistani journalists who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity – citing fear of reprisal – said they believe the two anchors were targeted as part of the larger crackdown on the party.

Before his disappearance, Abraham posted a series of video reports on his YouTube channel, which has 850,000 subscribers, in support of former Prime Minister Khan and critical of the country’s military establishment.

Abraham was returning home when four cars intercepted his vehicle, and the men forced Abraham out of the car and took him to an unknown location, according to Abbas and a police complaint by Ali Raza, Abraham’s brother. They took Abraham’s two mobile phones, car keys, and the driver’s phone, but did not detain the driver.

In his complaint filed at Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station, Raza said the journalist had been “abducted.” As of Thursday evening, police have not filed a first information report to formally open an investigation into the complaint, Abbas said.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that unnamed sources said police had arrested Abraham. However, Islamabad police issued a statement on Twitter claiming they would waste no time in searching for Abraham and would fully cooperate with the journalist’s family.

Also on Thursday, Abbas told CPJ that he had filed a petition at the Islamabad High Court requesting authorities present Abraham in court and divulge the grounds upon which he has been detained, adding that the next hearing will be held on Friday morning.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Islamabad Police Inspector-General Akbar Nasir Khan and Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb received no replies.

Usman Anwar, inspector-general of the Punjab provincial police, told CPJ via messaging app that “all agencies were working on the case” of missing journalist Imran Riaz Khan and are “looking at all the angles.”

“If someone is hiding on his own, it’s quite difficult to find that person,” Anwar said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Unidentified men separately attacked Shaheen, chief editor of the news website iNEWS, on June 30 and beat Amir, a senior analyst with the privately owned broadcaster Dunya News, on July 1, according to news reports, both journalists, who spoke to CPJ in phone interviews, and a statement by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, which CPJ reviewed.

Both attacks occurred in the Punjab provincial capital of Lahore, and police have opened investigations into the incidents but have not announced any progress, Shaheen and Amir said.

“The attacks against journalists Ayaz Amir and Ahmed Shaheen underscore the significant dangers facing members of the press in Pakistan, which must be urgently addressed by the country’s new government,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Pakistan authorities must spare no effort in investigating the attacks against Amir and Shaheen, ensuring the safety, and holding the perpetrators accountable.”

At about 11:45 p.m. on June 30, Shaheen was driving in the Sui Gas area of Lahore when two men on a motorbike approached his car and one pointed a gun at him and ordered him to stop, he said. He pulled over and one of the men ordered him to hand over his phone and laptop; he hid his phone under his seat, but the other man smashed his backseat window and stole his computer, he said.

Shaheen said he thought the men were attempting to mug him and offered his wallet, but they refused to take it.

One of the men then grabbed Shaheen and repeatedly banged his head against the car window, resulting in heavy bleeding, and fired several gunshots in the journalist’s direction, which hit his car, he said. One man then fled the scene on the motorbike and the other fled on foot, Shaheen told CPJ.

Shaheen repeatedly called the police to report the attack; police operators said officers were on their way, but the journalist waited for two hours and they never arrived, he told CPJ. While he was driving home, he found a police officer and gave a statement, but Shaheen told CPJ that the officer miswrote several details about the case and failed to write down others, including that Shaheen had been injured.

The officer initially forged the journalist’s signature on the statement, Shaheen said, adding that he then inserted a number of corrections to the statement and signed it.

Shaheen told CPJ that he did not immediately seek medical attention for his head injury because he feared the men may still be pursuing him.

The journalist told CPJ that, because the attackers took his laptop but not his wallet, he thought the attack was likely retaliation for his journalism. He said he did not know what reporting may have sparked the attack.

Two days before the attack, Shaheen alleged in a video for iNEWS that a high-ranking leader of the country’s legislative opposition had engaged in corruption. Shaheen has previously commented on political crises in Pakistan.

In a police report dated July 1, which CPJ reviewed, officers at the Raiwind police station in Lahore said they had opened an investigation into Shaheen’s case for robbery, but not assault.  Shaheen said that his family’s requests to police for an update on the investigation did not receive any responses.

Separately, on the evening of July 1, unidentified individuals assaulted Amir in Lahore, according to the journalist, news reports, and statement by the Pakistan Press Foundation.

The journalist was leaving the Dunya News office when a vehicle intercepted his car and blocked it from moving; a group of men then dragged Amir out of the vehicle, beat him, tore his clothes, and fled with his mobile phone and wallet as bystanders came to the scene, according to those sources.

Amir told CPJ that he sustained bruising on his face from the incident.

One day before the attack, Amir delivered a speech at a seminar, which was attended by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in which the journalist alleged that Khan had “handed over the country to property dealers,” and criticized the military’s role in the country’s political affairs.

On July 2, the Qila Gujjar Singh police station in Lahore registered a first information report against the unidentified assailants, thereby opening an investigation, according to the journalist, a report by his outlet, and a copy of that first information report. The journalist told CPJ that police have not provided any update on the investigation.

Bilal Kamyana, the highest-ranking officer in Lahore’s metropolitan police force, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app on Shaheen and Amir’s cases.

Sarfraz Hussain, press counselor of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C., did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment on both cases. Ambreen Jan, director general of the external publicity wing of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app on both cases.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Criminal charges will not be filed against the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed 22-year-old Amir Locke while the police department was executing a no-knock warrant, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday.

In a statement calling Locke the victim of a "tragedy" that "may not have occurred absent the no-knock warrant used in this case," Freeman and Ellison said that "there is insufficient admissible evidence to file criminal charges in this case."

The officials said that "the state would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota's use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer [Mark] Hanneman. Nor would the state be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke."

Hanneman fatally shot Locke, who was Black, on February 2.

As Minnesota Public Radio explained:

A brief body camera excerpt released by the city after the shooting showed officers opening the door of the apartment where the 22-year-old Locke was staying. Officers did not knock before entering. With the door open, they can be heard shouting "police" and "search warrant."

Seconds later, Locke is seen stirring from underneath a blanket and holding a handgun just before Hanneman shoots him.

According to his family, Locke had no criminal record and was a legal gun owner. The family said Locke bought a gun because he feared for his safety while working as a food delivery driver.

Locke was not named in the search warrant.

The legal team representing Locke's family said Wednesday they were "deeply disappointed" with the decision and his death "should never have happened."

Locke's family and their lawyers also vowed to continue their fight "to ensure accountability for all those responsible for needlessly cutting Amir's life far too short."

Wednesday's announcement, the statement added, "is only the latest reminder that we must work even harder to protect and obtain equal justice and accountability for our communities of color."

The shooting—in the same city where unarmed Black man George Floyd was killed by an officer in May 2020—sparked renewed outrage over police violence and demands for curbs on the use of no-knock warrants.

Last month, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Oman (D-Minn.) introduced the Amir Locke End Deadly No-Knock Warrants Act to address such warrants' "severe and deadly consequences."

"We have the power to save innocent lives with this legislation and must act," she said at the time.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Andrea Germanos.

“It is a great relief that Ethiopian journalists Amir Aman Kiyaro and Thomas Engida are home with their families, after four months of arbitrary detention during which they were not charged with any crime,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “The journalists should never have spent a single day behind bars, and authorities should bring this ordeal to a close by dropping any pending investigations into their work and guaranteeing that they can do their jobs freely and safely.”

On November 28, 2021, authorities arrested Amir, a freelance video journalist who contributes to the Associated Press, and Thomas, a freelance camera operator, as CPJ documented at the time. Authorities accused them of breaching Ethiopia’s state of emergency and anti-terrorism laws by interviewing members of an insurgent group.

The two journalists were granted bail on Tuesday; on Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court rejected a police appeal to keep them in detention, and on Friday they were released, according to media reports and two people familiar with their case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.

Amir and Thomas were among a group of journalists detained in a crackdown that followed Ethiopia’s declaration of a state of emergency in November last year, as CPJ reported. They were not listed in CPJ’s 2021 prison census — which ranked Ethiopia as sub-Saharan Africa’s second-worst jailer after documenting at least nine journalists in custody there as of December 1 — because CPJ did not have the full details of their arrests at the time.

Even though the state of emergency was lifted in February, at least three other journalists — Temerat Negara, cofounder of the online outlet Terara Network, Oromia News Network editor Dessu Dulla, and ONN reporter Bikila Amenu — remain behind bars in the Oromia regional state, according to media reports and a person familiar with the ONN case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Amir, a freelancer who contributes to The Associated Press; Thomas, a freelance camera operator who has worked with various outlets including private broadcaster LTV; and Temerat, co-founder of the online news outlet Terara Network, were among a group of journalists arrested in the weeks after November 2, 2021, when Ethiopian authorities declared a state of emergency amid an ongoing civil war, which gave them the power to carry out sweeping arrests, as CPJ documented at the time.

On February 15, 2022, the state of emergency was lifted, and there was an expectation that all civilians, including the journalists, arrested under the state of emergency provisions would be released within a legally stipulated 48-hour window, according to a journalist’s family members who spoke to CPJ via messaging application and media reports.

However, on February 17, police in the Oromia regional state announced new investigations into Temerat and police told the families of Amir and Thomas that the two journalists would be formally charged under the country’s anti-terrorism law, according to media reports; Selam Belay, Temerat’s wife; Sisay Tadele, Amir’s wife; and a person familiar with Amir and Thomas’ case who requested anonymity for safety reasons, all of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging application.

“Fresh legal proceedings and investigations against these journalists are a transparent and infuriating ploy by the Ethiopian authorities to keep them behind bars, now that the lifting of the state of emergency has taken away the pretext they were using to justify three months of wrongful detentions,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “Authorities should drop any plans to charge Amir Aman Kiyaro and Thomas Engida with terrorism, discontinue investigations against Temerat Negara, and unconditionally release them and any other journalists detained for their work.”

In a court appearance on Thursday, police said they needed more time to investigate Temerat, who has been detained since December 10, 2021, and were granted an additional seven days to hold him, according to a report by Terara Network and a statement by the Ethiopia Human Rights Commission (ERHC), a statutory watchdog body.

“Even if there was a legal basis for journalist [Temerat’s] detention, the circumstances of his continued detention, with a remand order just an hour before the 48 hours legal limit, symbolizes an abuse of power and naked travesty of justice,” ERHC said in the statement.

Family and legal counsel were not present during the hearing, Selam told CPJ, adding that the charges against Temerat are unclear but police have allegedly accused him of smearing the name of Oromia regional state in his reporting, an allegation that was also made in court last year.

The new investigation follows a December 30, 2021, court hearing where police said they no longer needed to investigate the journalist, according to a Terara Network report. Temerat is currently being detained at a police station in Gelan, a town in the Oromia regional state, according to reports and Terara Network.

Hailu Adugna, the Oromia region spokesperson, and Arasa Merdassa, the regional police commissioner, did not answer CPJ phone calls or respond to text messages requesting comment on Temerat’s case. CPJ called, emailed, and Facebook messaged the regional Communications Bureau for comment, but all went unanswered.

Separately, Amir and Thomas were detained on November 28, 2021, as CPJ reported at the time, and have been kept at the Addis Ababa Commission, a station known as Sostegna, without formal charges, according to Sisay and a person familiar with the case. The journalists are expected to be charged in court on February 21, 2022, under the country’s anti-terrorism law, according to those same sources.

An AP spokesperson did not address CPJ’s emailed questions about reports that there are plans to charge Amir, and instead shared a copy of a February 17 letter from the AP to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the letter, Julie Pace, the executive editor of the AP, requests Amir’s release and says the journalist’s “health is of concern, with his family reporting its deterioration during these past months of incarceration.”

In December, Ethiopian authorities accused Amir and Thomas, alongside Addisu Muluneh, a reporter with the government-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporation, of breaching Ethiopia’s state of emergency and anti-terrorism laws by interviewing the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed insurgency group that was declared a terrorist organization last year, as CPJ documented at the time. Addisu was released in January, according to a post to his Facebook account. CPJ’s Facebook messages sent to Addisu were unanswered.

Jeylan Abdi, Ethiopia’s federal police spokesperson, told CPJ by messaging app that Thomas and Amir had been detained for violating the law, and he could not elaborate further, as it is a court matter, and redirected CPJ to the Ministry of Justice. CPJ’s emails to the Ministry of Justice went unanswered. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.