Footage showed an explosion in the studio and Sahar Emami, a presenter for the outlet, ducking for cover as debris and smoke filled the frame. CPJ was unable to immediately verify reports of journalists killed and injured at the scene.

“CPJ is appalled by Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state television channel while reporters were live on air,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Israel’s killing, with impunity, of at least 185 journalists in Gaza has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region. This bloodshed must end now.”

“Listen, what you hear is the sound of the aggressor,” Emami said on air before the strike. “You hear the sound of the aggressor attacking the truth.” Minutes after the strike, Emami continued reporting from another studio and said reporters were killed.

Another anchor for the outlet said reporters were injured. 

“I don’t know how many of my colleagues were martyred or injured,” said Younes Shadlou, a senior correspondent for IRIB,  in an Instagram video. Shadlou is seen with blood on his hands in front of the building with fire and smoke. 

The Israel Defense Forces had issued an evacuation warning for the area in which the headquarters was located. The IDF later confirmed the precision strike in a statement saying it had targeted a communication center that was being used by the Iranian military “under the guise of civilian activity.” CPJ was unable to independently confirm these allegations.

“The Iranian regime’s propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of the area’s residents,” said Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz. “We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”

CPJ’s email to IDF’s North America Media Desk to ask about the targeting of journalists did not immediately receive a response.

CPJ’s multiple attempts to contact officials from the broadcaster were unanswered, as Iran imposed severe internet restrictions since the outbreak of the conflict on Friday. Despite broadcasting, the outlet’s website is inaccessible.

“There is absolutely no logical reason for Israel to target a media outlet or facility in Iran that holds no weapons and poses no threat to anyone,” said Peyman Jebelli, head of IRIB. “In any war or conflict around the world, attacking a media outlet is unjustifiable…But when we look at the history of the Zionist state and its wars against the people of this region, we see that journalists and media organizations have consistently been among its targets.”

As of June 16, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 185 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the Israel-Gaza War began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

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

Lauren Tomasi, a correspondent for Australia’s 9News, was struck by a crowd-control munition while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and other local law enforcement units as well as federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

On June 8, the protests were focused around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA, where detainees from prior immigration raids were being held, 9News reported.

In a live broadcast moments before Tomasi was hit, she reported that, “After hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated. The LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA.”

Tomasi is seen turning to show the line of law enforcement officers behind her when the Los Angeles Police officer at the end closest to her abruptly turns and fires a crowd-control munition into her leg.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

“The repeated arrests of Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou, and Mahaman Sani deepens a pattern of censorship on security-related subjects,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Nigerien authorities must stop criminalizing journalism, immediately release all three of the Sahara FM journalists, and allow them to return to their newsroom.”

On May 7, police officers in the northern city of Agadez initially arrested and questioned the journalists about their reporting that day on an alleged breakdown in cooperation between Niger and Russia, according to a person close to the case, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, and a statement by Aïr Info Agadez, the online news site owned by Sahara FM’s parent company. An investigating judge released them without charge on May 9, but they were re-arrested the next day.

The journalists’ reporting was based on a May 5 report by the privately owned, France-based news outlet LSi Africa. “They were questioned on who asked them to relay this information,” the person close to the case said.

On May 14, Agadez gendarmerie transferred the three journalists to the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Niamey, Niger’s capital.

Following a coup in 2023, CPJ and other rights groups raised concerns about press freedom in the country. In April 2024, Idrissa Soumana Maïga, editor of the private newspaper L’Enquêteur, was detained for more than two months for reporting on allegations that Russian agents had placed listening devices in public buildings. Military authorities have also temporarily suspended or banned several international media outlets, including for coverage of the long-running jihadist insurgency in the country.

CPJ’s calls for comment to the police in Agadez and the gendarmerie’s public number went unanswered.

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

A decision by the Broadcasting Standards Authority to uphold a complaint against a 1News broadcast last November is a warning to news media, says the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

The authority ruled that a TVNZ news item on violence in Amsterdam in the Netherlands breached BSA rules.

1News described violence in the streets of Amsterdam on November 7 and 8 following a soccer match as “disturbing” and ‘antisemitic’ and stated the graphic video of beatings were Maccabi Tel Aviv fans under attack just for being Jewish.

• READ MORE: Framing violence: How Israel shaped the narrative and its impact on Dutch politics
• Israeli football hooligans bring culture of genocide to Amsterdam
• Inaccurate 1News reporting on football violence breached broadcasting standards, rules BSA

Videographers who took the footage which 1News had used, complained to their news agencies that this description was wrong. The violence had been perpetrated by the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans against those they suspected of being Arab or supporters of Palestine.

The visiting Israelis were the attackers — not the victims, said the PSNA statement, as widely reported by global media correcting initial reports.

Before the match these same Maccabi fans had gathered in large groups to chant “Death to Arabs” — a racist genocidal chant which if used with the races reversed (“Arabs” replaced by Jews”) “would have been rightly condemned in purple prose by Western news media such as TVNZ”, said PSNA co-chair John Minto in the statement.

“But no such sympathy for Palestinians or Arabs,” he added.

Requested broadcast correction
PSNA said in its statement that it had immediately requested that TVNZ broadcast a correction. TVNZ refused, though admitting they had got the story wrong.

PSNA then referred a complaint to the BSA which upheld the complaint as failing to meet the accuracy standard.

Minto said in the statement that the BSA decision should be seen as a warning to news media to be aware that Israel was using “fabricated charges of antisemitism, to justify and divert attention from its genocide in Gaza and silence its critics”.

“Just because [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and the then US President Joe Biden made statements turning Amsterdam attackers into victims, doesn’t mean TVNZ news should automatically parrot them,” Minto said.

“That’s effectively what the BSA concluded.”

Framing violence: How Israel shaped the narrative and the impact on Dutch politics   Video: Al Jazeera

Minto also pointed to what he called a recent fabricated hysteria about antisemitism in Sydney, which the New South Wales police found to be completely based on hoaxes by a criminal gang.

“In the US, Trump is using the same charge as an excuse to close down university courses and expel anyone who protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Minto said.

“Of course, we strongly condemn the real antisemitism of anti-Jewish, Nazi-type Islamophobic groups,” Minto says.

Call for media ‘self education’
“It should be easy for professional reporters and editors to tell the difference between criticism of Israeli apartheid, ethnic cleansing and violence on one hand, and on the other hand Nazis and their fellow travellers who condemn Jews because they are Jews.

“The BSA is, in effect, demanding the news media educate themselves.”

In a half-hour report on 16 November 2024 headlined “Media bias, inaccuracy and the violence in Amsterdam”, Al Jazeera’s global mediawatch programme The Listening Post said “one night of violence revealed … Western media’s failings on Israel and Palestine”.

“In the wake of an ugly eruption of violence on the streets of Amsterdam, the media coverage of the story [was] put under the microscope with editors scrambling to revise headlines, rework narratives, and reframe video content.”

In an investigative documentary, The Full Report, on 22 January 2025, Al Jazeera’s Dutch correspondent Step Vaessen reported how Israel had framed the violence, shaped the narrative, manipulated the global media, and impacted on Dutch politics.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

“Together with a revamped ‘foreign agent’ law nearing enactment, repressive amendments to Georgia’s broadcast law look tailor-made to muzzle the country’s vibrant and defiant independent press,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s programs coordinator. “Georgian authorities should withdraw these restrictive media laws and reverse their deepening press freedom crackdown.”

The first bill would allow complaints over broadcasters’ ethics and impartiality to be heard by the Communications Commission (ComCom), a nominally independent regulatory body elected by parliament with the power to fine broadcasters up to 3% of revenue or suspend and revoke their licenses for infractions. At present, disputes over ethics and impartiality are adjudicated by broadcasters’ own self-regulatory bodies.

Ruling party officials argue that the changes introduce a “British model” of broadcast regulation. But analyses by local rights groups say the bill contains vaguer clauses than the UK’s Broadcasting Code and will be used to further government authoritarianism.

CPJ has previously criticized the expansion of ComCom’s powers to regulate and sanction broadcasters over content due to fears of partisan use.

A second bill would ban broadcasters from receiving “direct or indirect” funding from a foreign source.

The government’s move shuts off a potential avenue of survival for government-critical national broadcasters, who are already facing acute financial problems.

CPJ’s email seeking comment from the ruling Georgian Dream party did not immediately receive a reply.

Separately, on March 31, Georgian authorities denied entry to French photojournalist Jérôme Chobeaux, who has been reporting on ongoing anti-government protests. Authorities have previously denied entry to several Western photojournalists covering the protests, as well as multiple journalists from Russia, Belarus, and elsewhere.

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

Mhlanga, who works with the privately owned broadcaster Heart and Soul TV, was arrested on February 24 and charged with incitement for covering war veterans who called for the resignation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposed proposals to extend his term. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to US$700 under the 2021 Cyber and Data Protection Act.

Mhlanga remains in pretrial detention at the capital’s Harare Remand Prison, an overcrowded facility with harsh conditions considered “not fit for animals.”

Chris Mhike, the journalist’s lawyer, told CPJ that Mhlanga’s imprisonment has affected his health, with the journalist looking frail and suffering body aches. “There’s no running away from the fact that he has suffered terribly from this episode. His part-time studies are disrupted,” Mhike told CPJ, adding, “after these painful weeks in prison, his health has notably deteriorated.”

“What is happening is actually an attempt to try and make sure that we silence all journalists who are doing their work,” said Perfect Mswathi Hlongwane, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, in an interview about Mhlanga’s detention. “This is bad for the profession, this is bad for the country.”

Sanctions for people who ‘demonize’ the president

Zanu-PF, the ruling party since independence in 1980, is facing internal tensions. The party last year adopted a motion to try to amend the constitution to extend Mnangagwa’s time in office beyond the 2028 completion of his second, final term.

Amid the intraparty strife, government officials have sought to tamp down on rhetoric they view as insufficiently loyal to Mnangagwa, whether from politicians or the media. Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe recently threatened criminal sanctions against people who “insult and demonise the Office of the President,” while Information Minister Jenfan Muswere warned broadcasters against advocating for the government’s overthrow.

A war veteran that Mhlanga interviewed, Blessed Geza, was among Zanu-PF members who sharply opposed the extension. Geza was expelled from the party earlier in March and has been calling for protests. Mnangagwa says he will leave office at the end of his current term.

In its attempt to silence the press, the government is employing the tried and tested strategies of jailing independent journalists and introducing laws to restrict freedom of expression.

Prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono faced repeated harassment and was arrested several times in 2020 and 2021. He was initially denied bail during his latest detention, in January 2021, until Zimbabwe’s High Court freed him after three weeks in prison. Journalist Jeffrey Moyo, whose work has appeared in The New York Times and other foreign media, was also arrested and initially denied bail in 2021. After spending more than a year in prison, Moyo was convicted of breaking the country’s immigration laws and given a two-year suspended sentence.

On March 12, Muswere announced plans for new social media legislation, citing the need to regulate unethical journalism and govern “ghost accounts operated by individuals seeking to demonise their own country.”

Muswere has also sponsored the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, which the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, passed on March 4. The bill, awaiting Senate approval, would entrench Mnangagwa’s control over broadcasting by removing requirements that the president consider recommendations from a parliamentary committee in appointing Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe board members.

‘I feel unsafe’

Even when threats don’t come from the government, failure to address press freedom violations can leave journalists fearful.

Three days after journalist Dumisani Mawere published a February 9 report on his local WhatsApp group accusing a private security employee of sexual misconduct with a minor, two of the company’s staff threatened him by phone before seeking him out at his home in the northern town of Kariba. When Mawere complained to the police, they summoned the alleged offenders, who returned to threaten the journalist, he said.

“They charged at me, pointed fingers at me, clenched their fists, and issued direct death threats — explicitly reminding me that ‘Kariba is very small,’ implying that I could easily be killed,” Mawere, a journalist with Kasambabezi community radio station, told CPJ, adding that he was frustrated that the police let the suspects go. “Right now, I feel unsafe and vulnerable in my work as a journalist.”

CPJ’s phone calls and messages to national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Angelina Munyeriwa, and government spokesperson Nick Mangwana went unanswered.

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

An Istanbul court arrested Toktas on January 26 after pro-opposition Halk TV broadcast a conversation between its journalist Barış Pehlivan and an expert financial witness. The court said Halk TV had secretly recorded the two men’s telephone conversation and it had publicly named the witness to put pressure on him. Four other Halk TV staff were placed under judicial control and banned from foreign travel.

“Suat Toktaş and his four Halk TV colleagues must not be jailed for airing an interview that the government disagreed with. The public deserve to hear all sides of this story, which is of national importance and involves a top Turkish politician,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should immediately halt their prosecution of Halk TV and instead take a positive step towards improving Turkey’s dismal press freedom record.”

Pehlivan’s interview took place after Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu hosted a news conference where he named the witness, who he alleged had filed biased reports in numerous politically motivated lawsuits against opposition-controlled municipalities. The witness told Pehlivan that the mayor’s allegations were false.

The interview was aired on a program hosted by Seda Selek, with Serhan Asker as director and Kürşad Oğuz as program coordinator.

All five journalists were charged with violating the privacy of communication through the press and influencing those performing judicial duties, a crime for which the prosecution has requested up to nine years in prison. Pehlivan and Oğuz face an additional charge of recording non-public conversations between individuals and could be jailed for up to 14 years, according to the indictment, reviewed by CPJ.

CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor requesting comment did not receive a response.

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

“Suat Toktaş’ arrest and the detaining of the other Halk TV personnel is a political move by Turkish authorities to silence critical voices,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should immediately release Toktaş, lift the measures of judicial control imposed on other Halk TV staff, and stop using the legal system to harass the media.”

Istanbul prosecutors opened an investigation against Halk TV following a Monday broadcast interview with an expert witness used in municipal investigations, alleging that the interview was secretly recorded without permission and attempted “to manipulate a trial by exposing the name of the court expert in a way that would make [him] a target.”

In a Monday press conference, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu alleged that the expert witness, who has been involved in multiple investigations against the opposition-controlled municipality, frequently did not offer opinions in their favor. Istanbul prosecutors also opened an investigation against İmamoğlu following the press conference for “making a target” of the expert.

An Istanbul court arrested Toktaş pending trial on Wednesday, and released under judicial control Halk TV hosts Barış Pehlivan and Seda Selek, along with program coordinator Kürşad Oğuz and director Serhan Asker under judicial control, banning them from foreign travel. 

Pehlivan and Selek were detained by the police in Ankara on Tuesday. Halk TV released a statement on Wednesday saying that Oğuz had recorded the conversation and Toktaş authorized it to be aired, which led to their detention in Istanbul.

CPJ’s email to Istanbul’s chief prosecutor did not receive a response.

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

The FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Center in the capital Islamabad has also registered a first information report, which opens an investigation, against Singh, an anchor for local news outlet Such TV. The report accuses him of using his social media account to “propagate a misleading, concocted, and baseless campaign against state institutions and security agencies of Pakistan.” The allegations relate to Singh’s social media activity during November 2024 protests that he covered in Islamabad by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, according to a copy of the report reviewed by CPJ.

“Pakistan’s security agencies must immediately stop the harassment of journalist Harmeet Singh and allow him to work without intimidation,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “In 2024, journalists in Pakistan have faced unprecedented violence by both state and non-state actors. It is the government’s responsibility to put an end to this.”

On Saturday, a special court in Islamabad granted Singh pre-arrest bail until December 21, in connection with the FIA complaint.

Singh, one of Pakistan’s few Sikh journalists, has faced threats to his life in the past, especially after his brother was killed in a personal animosity case. He told CPJ that he believes the authorities’ efforts are an attempt to silence him and other journalists from reporting the on-the-ground realities in Pakistan.

The targeting of Singh is part of a broader pattern of intimidation against journalists in Pakistan. On November 27, senior journalist Matiullah Jan was arrested on terrorism charges after reporting on protests by supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan.

CPJ reached out to Pakistan Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar for comment but received no response.

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

A broadcaster photographer for NBC television affiliate WDTN was injured when a man struck him with a cane during an attempted robbery in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 17, 2024.

The station reported that a photographer and reporter were covering the aftermath of an underground fire downtown at approximately 5:15 p.m. when two men attempted to steal their video camera and tripod.

The photographer was struggling with one of the assailants when the second struck him with a cane, according to WDTN. The assailants fled a short while later without the equipment.

On Oct. 25, Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck Jr. announced the arrest and indictment of two men — Billith Lane and Christian Morrow — on charges of robbery with physical harm.

“These defendants outrageously robbed a TV news cameraman in broad daylight,” Heck said in a statement. “They needlessly attacked the victim, sending him to the hospital. Such acts of violence demands they be held accountable.”

Both Lane and Morrow are being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 bonds, and their arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 29, the news release said.

WDTN did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

An unidentified NBC photojournalist was one of several journalists whose cameras were seized outside a courthouse in Delphi, Indiana, on Oct. 18, 2024, ahead of a murder trial with strict media access restrictions.

In a ruling in June ahead of the trial for Richard Allen in the alleged murder of two teens in 2017, Special Judge Frances Gull wrote that “the court has lost confidence in the ability of the media to cover hearings appropriately.” Gull then gave a media orientation Oct. 17, the Indianapolis Star reported, specifying that photographs or video of jurors was forbidden, and that no electronic devices would be permitted in the courtroom.

Journal & Courier photojournalist Alex Martin told the Star that the following morning he saw two vans approaching the Carroll County Courthouse where tarps had been placed over the fences. Martin said he lowered one camera to his hip and placed a second on the ground.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

In May, RTÜK fined and issued a gag order after the outlet mentioned the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule in 1915, which Turkey refuses to recognize as genocide as the successor of the Ottoman Empire. RTÜK canceled the outlet’s license in early July when the outlet continued to broadcast. The matter went to court while the outlet remained on air, but Açık Radyo announced the final cancellation in an October 11 statement.

“The decision by Turkey’s broadcast regulator to revoke Açık Radyo’s license has significant implications for media freedom and public access to information,” the Friday statement said. The signatories asked RTÜK to restore Açık Radyo’s broadcasting license and “cease its censorship of critical and independent outlets.”

Read the joint statement here.

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

“CPJ is concerned by the bomb threats targeting MDR broadcasting centers in Magdeburg and Erfurt,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Threats against media outlets disrupt crucial public service broadcasting and create a climate of fear for journalists that can have a chilling effect on press freedom. German authorities must investigate, identify those responsible, and take measures to prevent such threats in the future.”

On Saturday afternoon, the centers in Magdeburg, the capital of central Saxony-Anhalt state, and Erfurt, in central Thuringian state, were temporarily evacuated before police gave the all-clear and began a criminal investigation. 

CPJ emailed the Saxony-Anhal and Thuringia police’s press department requesting comment on the pending investigation but did not receive a reply.

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

A broadcast news crew with ABC affiliate KGO-TV was robbed at gunpoint while reporting in Oakland, California, on Sept. 7, 2024.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that at about 5:30 p.m., multiple armed individuals exited a car and “rushed” the station’s reporter, a crew member and a security guard, as the news team reported in North Oakland. A spokesperson for Oakland’s police union told The Mercury News that the robbers took the crew’s television camera and microphone, as well as the security guard’s firearm.

KGO-TV declined to comment on the incident. Police have reported no injuries in connection with the robbery and no arrests have been made, according to the News.

More than a dozen journalists — all either photojournalists or members of broadcast news crews — have been robbed at gunpoint in the Bay Area since 2019. A security guard for KPIX-TV was shot in the leg when he exchanged fire with an armed robber in February 2019, and a security guard with KRON-TV died from injuries he suffered during an attempted robbery of a news crew in November 2021.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

A broadcast news crew with ABC affiliate KGO-TV was robbed at gunpoint while reporting in Oakland, California, on Sept. 7, 2024.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that at about 5:30 p.m., multiple armed individuals exited a car and “rushed” the station’s reporter, a crew member and a security guard, as the news team reported in North Oakland. A spokesperson for Oakland’s police union told The Mercury News that the robbers took the crew’s television camera and microphone, as well as the security guard’s firearm.

KGO-TV declined to comment on the incident. Police have reported no injuries in connection with the robbery and no arrests have been made, according to the News.

More than a dozen journalists — all either photojournalists or members of broadcast news crews — have been robbed at gunpoint in the Bay Area since 2019. A security guard for KPIX-TV was shot in the leg when he exchanged fire with an armed robber in February 2019, and a security guard with KRON-TV died from injuries he suffered during an attempted robbery of a news crew in November 2021.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

“Anticipation is growing. The warriors are ready. They’re preparing themselves. The paddlers are already on their waka,” Scotty Morrison, alongside veteran journalist Tini Molyneux, told viewers from the banks of the Waikato River.

It was Thursday, and the body of Kiingi Tuheitia was being escorted to the barge to take him to his resting place on Taupiri maunga.

That prompted Morrison — the presenter of TVNZ’s Te Karere and Marae — to recall that council permission was required in 2006 for Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu to make the same journey.

RNZ MEDIAWATCH AND READ MORE:

• Hope new Kuini will be voice for rangatahi
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• Kuini Nga wai hono i te po named new Māori Queen, Kiingi Tuheitia laid to rest

Times have changed.

“In 2008 after the Waikato River settlement … a request was put in by Waikato Tainui that they had more control over the river. This time they could say: ‘We’re taking our King on the awa at this particular time,'” Morrison said.

“That’s mana motuhake for you,” Molyneux replied.

Times have changed a lot for the media since 2006 too.

Whakaata Māori now has two TV channels, which both carried live coverage of the ceremonies over five days.

The Kiingitanga’s own channel also broadcast live throughout on YouTube and Facebook as well.

The Kiingitanga’s own channel live broadcast.

Another broadcaster who joined that epic broadcast on Friday, Matai Smith, reminded viewers that the notion of media is not what it was in 2006 either.

“We know that we live in a world of TikTok and Instagram. [We know] the relevance of the Kiingitanga to Waikato Tainui, but also to us here in Aotearoa — and many of us could be seen as quite ignorant of the significance of this kaupapa,” Smith said.

After Kuini Nga wai hono i te po became the eighth Māori monarch — and the second youngest ever anointed — Mihingarangi Forbes also made the point about social media on RNZ’s Morning Report.

“I’ve been checking the socials because she is 27 years old, and the average age of Māori is also 27 years old. This is the way that this generation communicates,” Forbes said, noting that her own social feeds filled up with tributes to the new Kuini.

While the tangihanga itself was a sombre and highly ceremonial occasion, the live coverage also had moments of levity on the paepae — and between broadcasters and their guests.

All this played out at Tuurangawaewae marae less than a fortnight after dignitaries and the media gathered for the annual Koroneihana celebration of the coronation of Kiingi Tuheitia.

The historic moment in te ao Māori and New Zealand history was covered comprehensively over five days thanks to collaboration between Whakaata Māori and the iwi radio network Te Whakaruruhau. It was probably the longest continuous multimedia coverage of any event in our media’s history.

So how was all this done?

One of those in the media pack at Tuurangawaewae throughout was former Whakaata Māori presenter Kawe Roes, who is now a digital media reporter for Waatea News.

The Auckland-based Waatea also provides news to Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori — the national iwi radio network.

“Tainui and the Kiingitanga already have systems in place to make it easy for broadcasting. They’ve been doing live streams for nearly 15 years,” Roes told Mediawatch.

“In my years of broadcasting, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the amount of talent that was put into making sure Kiingi Tuheitia had the best broadcast for his tangihanga for the whole world to watch.

“Once Tuheitia had taken the throne, he literally became the king of social media. By doing that so early Kiingitanga and Koroneihana events were able to transition from a special broadcast that might have been done in the TVNZ days to a livestream.

“The hardest part wasn’t getting anyone there. We had so many people to choose from, including journalists like myself who are versed in te reo and English. You also had Māori journalists who were just versed in English and Iwi radio networks were also part of that.”

Roes said it was one big collective effort.

“The kaupapa was that the broadcast was more important than the brands. Even though we’re in different organisations, we all know each other. We’re a very small family, and I think by having that rapport made the job easier.

“We shared all our knowledge. I was sharing knowledge of Kiingitanga and Tainui whakapapa with a New Zealand Herald reporter.”

Just last month, Waatea News cut ties with the New Zealand Herald after it published Hobson’s Pledge adverts opposing iwi applications for customary marine titles.

“We put that to the side. If I, as a Māori journalist, can’t help him then what am I doing on my job, really?

“At the end of the day, we’re here to put out an amazing story. And for me, that’s what made it beautiful.”

Were they broadcasting in the service of Kiingitanga and iwi around the country? Or to be the eyes and ears of people who could not be there? To capture it all for history? Or all of the above?

“From our Māori broadcasting perspective, it was all about quality … because we knew it was going to be historic. The journalists, they took all the knowledge around them, and they put out some amazing content.”

Back to the future

The Kiingitanga evolved to deal with the Crown over urgent matters such as land sales and alienation. Now there is a young queen who is of the digital generation at a time when Māori/Crown relations are again tense and controversial.

“So it’s going to be interesting to see how she shapes Kiingitanga into this modern age. She is the boss. She is now the queen of Māoridom and how she wants to roll with tikanga, how she wants to roll in a digital space is up to her,” Roes said.

“From what I can tell, a lot of the status quo will remain. The only thing I would suggest is be careful who you’re talking to, not because of what you’re going to say, but we don’t want to overuse the majesty, and people end up hōhā listening to her.

“The reality is — in my Tainui perspective — we look at them with a sense of tapu. That means you don’t naturally go up to them and start talking. But we might see her going to Waitangi for instance.

“With young people, that might be where she thrives a bit more, and she can connect more with rangatahi — and she’s an easy lady to talk to.”

Māori media have treated the Kuini’s accession in a reverential way. But when seeking the voice of Māoridom on political or controversial things, that will have to change.

“I think the King changed the media landscape when throwing out support for the Māori Party. We’ve got an example there on how we can critique and how we can ask questions.

“But you’ll only ever get to the monarch through spokespersons, and that’s why you have people like Rahi Papa and (Kīngitanga’s chief of staff and adviser) Ngira Simmonds, who bring those thoughts to the media. Tainui are across how to deal with media — an iwi who have been dealing with the Crown for 166 years.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“India’s planned broadcast bill could have a chilling effect on press freedom,” CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi said on Thursday. “We are extremely concerned by the opacity surrounding the proposed law and its enactment process, and urge the Indian authorities to be transparent to ensure the bill is not tantamount to online censorship.”

A draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, released to a few select groups in July but not officially made public, would classify online content creators as “digital news broadcasters” and compel them to register with the government. 

They would also have to set up internal vetting committees at their own expense to approve content before it is posted online. Failure to comply could result in imprisonment and fines. 

The provisions in the bill came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost support in a national election earlier this year – a development that supporters blamed partly on social media influencers for boosting the opposition’s chances.

Following criticism, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said on X, formerly Twitter, that a fresh draft bill will be published and it would extend the deadline for stakeholder comments until October 15, 2024. 

The ministry did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.

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

“Taliban officials must immediately reverse their decision to suspend the broadcast licenses of 14 active media outlets in Nangarhar province that collectively reach millions of people,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “The Taliban continues to exert pressure on media outlets to control their programming and broadcasting operations in Afghanistan. They must cease these tactics and allow the independent media to operate freely.”

The order also stipulated that the outlets must renew their licenses and pay any outstanding fees or risk having all the outlet’s licenses revoked, according to CPJ’s review of the order, the exiled Afghanistan Journalists Center watchdog group, and a journalist who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity. 

ATRA is a regulatory body that operates as part of the Taliban’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Outlets with suspended radio and TV licenses: 

• Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV
• Sharq 
• Arzasht 

Radio networks affected: 

• The Nan
• Radio Safa
• Meena 
• Radio Dost
• Mazal
• Manar
• Muram
• Haqiqat 
• Hood 
• Spinghar
• Ulfat

CPJ’s text messages to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment did not receive a reply.

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

A journalist for CNN Turk was repeatedly slapped and nearly struck by an SUV on June 1, 2024, during a live broadcast in rural Pennsylvania.

Yunus Paksoy, the Washington D.C. bureau chief for CNN Turk, an Istanbul-based news channel affiliated with CNN, was broadcasting live with his iPhone outside the Chestnut Retreat Center in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, which is believed to be the residence of the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.

A GMC SUV drove directly toward Paksoy so that he had to jump from the curb into the roadway to avoid being hit, according to a criminal complaint.

On air, Paksoy is heard saying in English: “Pull away. Pull away. Just pull away. What the hell do you think you’re doing here? Are you mad? Are you mad? What are you doing?”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

James Cullity, a news photographer for television station WFXT, was attacked alongside other members of the press while reporting outside a courthouse in Taunton, Massachusetts, on June 3, 2024. His alleged assailant was charged with multiple counts of assault later that day.

According to a police report shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a man identified as Louis Chaves was being arraigned at the Taunton District Court on unrelated assault charges and was released on a $250 bond. Following his hearing, Chaves and his wife exited through a side door of the courthouse and were approached by a gaggle of broadcast journalists from multiple local stations seeking comment on the allegations against him.

“Louis appeared to be overcome with rage at the sight of the reporters and started advancing on a cameraman,” the police report stated, identifying Cullity as the targeted journalist.

In footage aired by Boston-based WFXT, Chaves’ wife can be seen attempting to hold him back while he lunges at Cullity, grabs the journalist by the shirt and kicks him. Cullity also appears to shout at Chaves to stop while backing up to avoid being assaulted further.

Chaves then directed his attention and aggression toward a second photojournalist, identified in the police report as Brian Felsenthal of the Rhode Island-based station WPRI-TV. The Tracker has documented that assault here. Other journalists present were charged at but not struck.

After walking a short distance away, Chaves also picked up a branch from a nearby tree and attempted to throw it at the group of journalists but it struck the tree in front of him instead.

Cullity went to a local police station to report the attack at 4 p.m., according to the police, and told officers that he did not suffer any injuries and his equipment was undamaged.

Chaves was arrested several hours later and booked on three charges: assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon for his alleged attacks on Cullity, and assault and battery for his alleged attack on Felsenthal.

He was arraigned at 10 a.m. the following day and released on the same bond, but was issued a warning and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.

According to court records reviewed by the Tracker, Chaves has a pretrial hearing on Aug. 8.

Neither Cullity nor WFXT responded to requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

On May 14, the Uruguayan Senate approved the proposed “Law of Audiovisual Content Broadcasting Services” without consulting civil society organizations or other groups, according to news reports.

Article 72 of the proposed law states that broadcasting services “have the duty to provide citizens with information, analysis, opinions, comments, and evaluations in a complete, impartial, serious, rigorous, plural, and balanced manner among and regarding political actors.” Local civil rights groups, including press freedom organization CAinfo, have warned this could potentially serve as a state control mechanism over the media.

The House of Representatives must vote in June to either approve or reject the bill without amendments, according to the news reports.

“Uruguayan lawmakers should not approve the proposed broadcasting law and should ensure that any new legislation is discussed broadly,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in Sao Paulo. “Control over what constitutes ‘complete, impartial, serious, rigorous, plural, and balanced’ information should never be in the hands of the state.”

Fabián Werner, president of CAinfo, told CPJ that the bill would put Uruguay in a dangerous position, especially ahead of the country’s general elections scheduled for October 27.

“This new law was rushed through the Senate to avoid democratic discussion and goes against international standards of freedom of expression,” he said. “It is very bad for democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.”

Werner said that Uruguay’s current media law, approved by the government of former President José Mujica in 2013, was widely discussed with civil society sectors and international organizations such as UNESCO before and after passage.

International organizations, including the Inter American Press Association, UNESCO, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have also expressed concerns about the proposed law.

CPJ emailed the president of the Uruguayan House of Representatives, Ana Olivera, but did not immediately receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Geoffrey King/CPJ Technology Program Coordinator and Tom Lowenthal/CPJ Staff Technologist.

According to multiple press reports citing a leaked draft of the broadcast bill, electronic and television broadcasts of “exclusive investigative journalism” would be restricted under the proposed changes, which are currently tabled for debate in the House of Representatives.

The bill, which also includes prohibitions on broadcasting LGBTQ content, does not provide details on how the proposed ban on investigative reporting would be implemented, Reuters reported, citing the leaked draft. Lawmakers who sit on Commission 1, the House committee overseeing the bill, have said the revisions are initial and still subject to change, the Reuters report said.

“Indonesian lawmakers should immediately scrap their wrongheaded amendments to the broadcasting law,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Indonesia’s democracy works precisely because journalists can investigate and report freely on their findings. Any changes to the broadcasting law should protect, not imperil, press freedoms.”   

Changes to the 2002 Broadcast Law were first deliberated by legislators in 2020, on the grounds that the law required updating, Reuters reported. If the proposed revisions are passed, they would apply to all content broadcast in the country, including via online streaming platforms, the Reuters report said.

The revised law could be passed as early as September, according to news reports. A discussion of the bill scheduled for Wednesday in the House of Representatives was postponed at the request of the Gerindra Party, a Tempo report said.

Indonesia’s democracy faces new challenges as it transitions from the outgoing President Joko Widodo to president-elect Prabowo Subianto, an ex-soldier linked to rights abuses, including the disappearances of activists in the late 1990s. Prabowo has variously denied and acknowledged the unresolved accusations.

Critics of the proposed amendments quoted in a South China Morning Post report suggested that both Widodo and Prabowo have incentives to curb the media’s ability to investigate their past actions.

Indonesia’s House of Representatives and Executive Office of the President did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

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

On May 21 and 22, Guinea’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology revoked the broadcasting licenses of the private radio stations FIM, Espace, Sweet, Djoma, and Djoma TV and Espace TV stations, according to CPJ interviews with FIM editor Sekou Bah, Djoma Média press group’s manager Kalil Oularé, and Kabiné Condé, manager at Hadafo Médias, which owns Sweet FM and Espace Guinée.

Since December 2023, the outlets, as well as Evasion FM and TV, have been blocked by authorities in Guinea “for security reasons.”

“Guinean authorities should unconditionally reinstate the broadcast licenses of FIM, Espace, Sweet, Djoma, Espace TVstation, and Djoma TV, and allow them to resume operating without restriction,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ Africa, in Maputo, Mozambique. “These media outlets have been blocked since last year, and the revoking of their broadcast licenses is an alarming, compounding effort to censor the news in Guinea.”

The ministry’s decision, which was published by local media, cited “non-compliance with the specifications in accordance with current regulations.” Oularé and Condé told CPJ that the ministry did not specify the reasons.

CPJ called Fana Soumah, the Guinean Minister of Information and Communication, who promised to call back after a meeting but did not. CPJ’s other calls went unanswered.

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

Between May 11 and 13, Tunisian police arrested and released two additional journalists amid a new wave of arrests targeting several civil society figures, political activists, and the media.

“Tunisian police’s arrest of five journalists in one week is a clear indication of how President Kais Saied’s government is determined to undermine press freedom and independent journalism,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi, drop all charges against them, and cease harassing reporters doing their job.”

On Saturday, May 11, masked police officers raided the bar association headquarters in the capital, Tunis, and arrested Dahmani, a lawyer and political affairs commentator for local independent radio station IFM and television channel Carthage Plus, according to news reports and a local journalist following the case, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

A court on Monday transferred Dahmani to prison on charges of spreading false news that undermines public safety and inciting hate speech. Dahmani’s arrest comes after she did not respond to a May 10 summons for questioning regarding her May 8 comments on Carthage Plus, where she criticized Tunisia’s living conditions and discussed immigration issues.

Police stopped French broadcaster France 24’s live coverage of the raid and Dahmani’s arrest by forcibly removing the camera from the tripod and arresting their camera operator, Hamdi Tlili, then breaking his camera, according to a report by France 24 and the local journalist who spoke with CPJ. Tlili was released later that day; he is not currently facing charges but can be summoned for questioning.

Separately, on May 11, in Tunis, police arrested Bssais and Zghidi, both IFM radio journalists who present a morning show, “L’emmission Impossible,” where they provide political commentary on current political affairs, according to a report by Reuters news agency and the local journalist.  On Wednesday, a Tunis court ordered the journalists’ detention on charges of “publishing news that includes personal data and false news aimed at defamation” until their trial, which is expected at the end of the month.

The journalists’ lawyers told France 24 that Zghidi’s arrest stems from his social media posts in solidarity with the imprisoned journalist Mohamed Boughaleb, and Bssais’ arrest was in connection to his television and radio commentary critical of President Saied.

Police arrested Boughaleb, a reporter with Carthage Plus and local independent radio station Cap FM, in Tunis, over social media posts on March 22; on April 17, a Tunis court sentenced him to six months in prison on defamation charges.

In another incident on Monday, police arrested freelance photojournalist Yassin Mahjoub, who was covering the arrest of lawyer Mehdi Zargouba during a second police raid of the bar association headquarters. Police deleted all of Mahjoub’s pictures and released him without charge the same day.

On Tuesday, the European Union issued a statement expressing concern over the recent wave of arrests of civil society figures and journalists in Tunisia.

CPJ’s email to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior did not receive a response.

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

KTBC broadcast photographer Carlos Sanchez was charged on April 26, 2024, with the felony assault of a peace officer, the Austin American-Statesman reported, two days after he was arrested filming a student protest at the University of Texas at Austin. The charge was downgraded to two misdemeanors on April 30.

Sanchez said he was pushed into a state trooper as Texas Department of Public Safety officers drove back a pro-Palestinian protest line on campus, NBC affiliate KXAN-TV reported. Another officer immediately pulled him backward and threw him to the ground, arresting him. Sanchez was initially charged with criminal trespassing, but the charge was dismissed the following day.

The American-Statesman reported that the law enforcement agency then launched a criminal investigation into the incident. A warrant for Sanchez’s arrest on the second-degree felony charge was issued on April 26, after additional witnesses — including the trooper who was said to have been hit — were identified and additional footage obtained.

E.G. “Gerry” Morris, an attorney representing Sanchez, told the American-Statesman that they learned the felony charge had been dropped when Sanchez arrived at the jail on April 30 to turn himself in.

KTBC reported that the Texas Department of Public Safety detective investigating the incident acknowledged that the allegations did not rise to a felony offense. A new warrant for Sanchez’s arrest was issued later that day on two misdemeanor counts: assault against a peace officer and impeding a public servant.

Morris told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Sanchez turned himself into custody on May 1 and was released on his own recognizance after being booked.

“Mr. Sanchez was performing an important news gathering function during a chaotic event when he inadvertently bumped into a police officer. He did not commit a crime,” Morris wrote the Tracker via email. “We look forward to someone taking a unbiased look at the evidence and exonerating Mr. Sanchez. That may ultimately occur with a jury.”

In a thread posted on the social media platform X, Society of Professional Journalists President Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins called the new misdemeanor charges “blatant retaliation and intimidation.”

“TX DPS is trying to make an example out this photographer to scare other journalists from covering these highly publicized protests on campuses across TX,” Blaize-Hopkins wrote. “What they are doing is unconstitutional and just plain vindictive.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

A 200-foot AM radio tower for Jasper, Alabama, broadcaster WJLX was stolen “without a trace” on Feb. 2, 2024, according to the station.

“I’ve been around the business my whole life, I’ve been in it professionally for 26 years and I’ve never heard of an entire tower being stolen,” WJLX General Manager Brett Elmore told Birmingham television station WABM.

WJLX, which is now unable to broadcast on its AM frequency, said it has since had to shut down its broadcast operations entirely, including its FM station. The Federal Communications Commission told WJLX on Feb. 8 that it could not operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. It will continue to stream its programming only via the internet and its apps, it said.

Elmore has also filed a request with the FCC for WJLX to remain silent for now without losing its license, The Washington Post reported. The paper said if stations remain silent for more than one year, the FCC considers them expired.

The station’s absence was a cause for worry for Sharon Tinely, president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association, who told WABM, “What if there were a crisis going on right now that the community needs to hear information from local sources on a local radio station and they can’t.”

“This is a huge loss,” Elmore told the Guardian. “People have reached out and asked how they can help, but I don’t know how you can help unless you have a 200ft tower and an AM transmitter.”

The tower was uninsured, according to Elmore, and replacing it could cost $60,000-plus. WJLX has set up a GoFundMe account and so far raised over $8,000.

That station said it was alerted to the theft when a landscaping cleanup crew arrived at the tower site to clean up the property, only to find it completely cleared out by the thieves. “I couldn’t believe it,” Elmore recalled.” I asked him [the landscaper] if he was sure he was at the right place. He responded, ‘the tower is gone. Wires are scattered everywhere.’”

The radio tower was located in a wooded area, behind a local poultry plant, The Guardian reported. Elmore told the paper that thieves had cut the tower’s wires and somehow removed it, while also taking the station’s AM transmitter from a nearby building.

Elmore said he believes the thieves may have targeted the tower to sell the metal and also told The Guardian that about six months ago, a nearby radio station had its air conditioning unit, copper pipes and other materials stolen.

The station has filed charges with the Jasper Police Department and the case is currently under investigation.

“This is a federal crime and whoever did this it’s not worth your time, effort or energy,” Elmore told WABM. “Because when we find you, you are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

On Saturday, Senegalese President Macky Sall announced that the presidential election originally scheduled for February 25 would be indefinitely postponed, citing a dispute over the candidate list. On Monday, as Senegalese lawmakers began debating the duration of the postponement, protesters took to the streets, and police responded with arrests and tear gas.

“Senegalese authorities must immediately lift the mobile internet suspension, reverse the decision to permanently withdraw Walf TV’s broadcasting license, and ensure journalists are not restricted or harassed while covering ongoing protests,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program. “As Senegal grapples with the postponement of elections, journalists play a vital role in helping the public understand what is happening. Their ability to report, including via mobile internet, must be protected, not censored.”

On Sunday, Senegal’s Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy (MCTPEN) announced it had “temporarily” suspended access to mobile internet due to “hateful and subversive” messages on social media, without indicating the duration of the cutoff.

Internet users began to notice disruption to their mobile connectivity on Monday, according to CPJ’s review of service in the country. Mobile internet accounts for 97% of user connections, according to a September 2023 report by Senegal’s Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority, which regulates the sector.

Also on Sunday, Senegalese authorities permanently withdrew the broadcasting license of Walf TV, the television broadcast service of the privately owned media group Wal Fadjri and one of the country’s major broadcasters, according to CPJ’s review of access to the channel in the country and a copy of the MCTPEN’s decision. The ministry cited Wal Fadjri’s “state of recidivism,” the broadcasting of violent images exposing teenagers, and “subversive, hateful, and dangerous language that undermines state security.”

Walf TV’s broadcasts on Sunday focused on the escalating protests, according to CPJ’s review, which did not identify any calls to violence in that coverage.

The same day, officers with Senegal’s gendarmerie in Dakar, the capital, harassed and briefly detained reporters Sokhna Ndack Mbacké, with the privately owned online news site Agora TV, and Khadija Ndate Diouf, with the privately owned television channel Itv, before releasing them without charge, Mbacké and Diouf told CPJ. Mbacké told CPJ that the officers snatched her phone, insulted both of them, and that one officer threatened her with imprisonment if he saw her again.

Separately, a different group of gendarmerie officers harassed Hadiya Talla, editor-in-chief of the privately owned news site La Vallée Info, interrupting his live broadcast from the protests in Dakar, according to Talla, who spoke to CPJ. First, an officer grabbed Talla’s phone and insulted him before returning it, and then later an officer interrupted his live coverage and ordered him to stop reporting, before letting Talla continue.

The same day, a group of gendarmes twice threw tear gas in the direction of Clément Bonnerot, correspondent for the French-language global broadcaster TV5 Monde, as he stood alone in a Dakar street, filming the security forces, according to Bonnerot and CPJ’s review of a video he shared of the scene. Bonnerot told CPJ that another gendarme later accused him of “following him” and warned not to “provoke him.”

CPJ’s calls to Ibrahima Ndiaye, spokesperson for the gendarmerie, went unanswered.

Also in June 2023, Senegalese authorities in June 2023 suspended Walf TV for a month over its coverage of demonstrations following Sonko’s arrest and threatened to withdraw its broadcasting license in the event of a repeat offense.

Previously, in June, July, and August 2023, the Senegalese government disrupted access to the internet and social media platforms amid protests over the arrest and prosecution of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. TikTok has remained blocked in the country. Similar blocks of social media platforms were reported in 2021.

Around the world, CPJ has repeatedly documented how internet shutdowns threaten press freedom and journalists’ safety. CPJ offers guidance for journalists on how to prepare for and respond to internet shutdowns.

At least five journalists—Daouda Sow, Maniane Sène Lô, Ndèye Astou Bâ, Papa El Hadji Omar Yally, and Ndèye Maty Niang, who is also known as Maty Sarr Niang—have remained jailed in Senegal since last year in connection with their work.

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

WANF television reporter Asia Wilson and photographer Lauren Swaim were held hostage for about an hour and a half in the late evening of Dec. 11, 2023, while on assignment in Jonesboro, Georgia. Neither journalist was injured and the man who threatened them was arrested.

Wilson and Swaim were preparing to go live from the parking lot of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office shortly before 11 p.m. when a man approached their marked news vehicle, the station reported. The man allegedly said he had a gun and would shoot them if they called for help.

Allen Devlin, an anchor at WANF, told the station that the newsroom lost all contact with the journalists until they started receiving surreptitious texts from Wilson at approximately 10:44 p.m. that Devlin called “bone-chilling.”

“It was just things like — sporadic, not even in complete sentences — ‘we need help,’ ‘we’re scared’ and ‘he’s going to shoot,’” he said.

The newsroom alerted the sheriff’s office and, when they did not receive confirmation of the crew’s safety, called 911.

Assignment Editor Gary Stilwell said an officer called him back and said that he had spoken with the crew — a man and a woman — and that they were safe. Gary responded that both journalists were women, and asked the officer to go back.

As time continued to pass, three WANF employees took it upon themselves to drive the 20 minutes to the sheriff’s office, flagging down a police officer along the way.

WANF reported that approximately an hour and a half after Wilson and Swaim were taken hostage, police arrived at the scene and arrested the man, later identified as Brandon R. Logan. Neither journalist was injured and police did not recover a firearm.

Logan was charged with false imprisonment, simple battery, simple assault, terroristic threats and loitering or prowling, among others. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24, 2024.

According to WSB-TV, Logan allegedly shoved one of the station’s employees and attempted to strike the other.

WANF Vice President and General Manager Erik Schrader said the broadcast outlet’s focus is on getting answers on how law enforcement responded.

“What we’re really looking for is to figure out what took so long,” Schrader said. “Where was the breakdown, what caused this to last seemingly a whole lot longer than it needed to last.”

Neither journalist nor WANF responded to requests for additional comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

WANF television photojournalist Lauren Swaim and reporter Asia Wilson were held hostage for about an hour and a half in the late evening of Dec. 11, 2023, while on assignment in Jonesboro, Georgia. Neither journalist was injured and the man who threatened them was arrested.

Swaim and Wilson were preparing to go live from the parking lot of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office shortly before 11 p.m. when a man approached their marked news vehicle, the station reported. The man allegedly said he had a gun and would shoot them if they called for help.

Allen Devlin, an anchor at WANF, told the station that the newsroom lost all contact with the journalists until they started receiving surreptitious texts from Wilson at approximately 10:44 p.m. that Devlin called “bone-chilling.”

“It was just things like — sporadic, not even in complete sentences — ‘we need help,’ ‘we’re scared’ and ‘he’s going to shoot,’” he said.

The newsroom alerted the sheriff’s office and, when they did not receive confirmation of the crew’s safety, called 911.

Assignment Editor Gary Stilwell said an officer called him back and said that he had spoken with the crew — a man and a woman — and that they were safe. Gary responded that both journalists were women, and asked the officer to go back.

As time continued to pass, three WANF employees took it upon themselves to drive the 20 minutes to the sheriff’s office, flagging down a police officer along the way.

WANF reported that approximately an hour and a half after Wilson and Swaim were taken hostage, police arrived at the scene and arrested the man, later identified as Brandon R. Logan. Neither journalist was injured and police did not recover a firearm.

Logan was charged with false imprisonment, simple battery, simple assault, terroristic threats and loitering or prowling, among others. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24, 2024.

According to WSB-TV, Logan allegedly shoved one of the station’s employees and attempted to strike the other.

WANF Vice President and General Manager Erik Schrader said the broadcast outlet’s focus is on getting answers on how law enforcement responded.

“What we’re really looking for is to figure out what took so long,” Schrader said. “Where was the breakdown, what caused this to last seemingly a whole lot longer than it needed to last.”

Neither journalist nor WANF responded to requests for additional comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Former broadcasting minister Willie Jackson has defended Aotearoa New Zealand’s public interest journalism fund that his government started during the covid-19 pandemic, after the new deputy prime minister characterised it as “bribery”.

Speaking to media on Monday after his swearing in, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters accused state-funded media organisations of a lack of independence from the previous Labour government.

Peters was asked how quickly he expected government departments to take action on removing te reo Māori from their names.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: Journalism fund for media outlets all around the country – Willie Jackson
• Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters attacks state-funded media independence

“Well, we’ll see the speed at which TVNZ and RNZ — which are taxpayer owned — understand this new message. We’ll see whether these people, both the media and journalists — are they independent?,” he said.

“Well, isn’t that fascinating, I’ve never seen evidence of that in the last three years.” he said.

He then laughed, and said “you can’t defend $55 million of bribery, cannot defend $55 million of bribery. Get it very clear”.

That last remark was a reference to the Public Interest Journalism Fund, a three-year $55m contestable fund for journalists initially set up to shore up public interest media during the covid-19 pandemic, which was wound up in July.

Media jobs, development funded
This included funding for 219 jobs and 22 industry development projects. Political coverage was exempted from eligibility to benefit from it. The fund was administered by NZ On Air.

Jackson, who became broadcasting minister in the Labour government two years after the fund was set up, said it was for media around the country, not just state-funded organisations.

“It was introduced during covid because it was a disastrous time in terms of media and we were pressured by good people out there to say, ‘hey, you support financial institutions so how about supporting local media that’s struggling’.”

It was aimed at supporting New Zealand media to keep producing public interest stories, he said and was “not just for RNZ and for TVNZ”.

“What you saw was a great investment in support of media outlets, Māori, Pasifika, regional [outlets] … Gisborne Herald, Otago Daily Times, Asburton Guardian, they got support and an opportunity to rebuild, reset.

“I’m very proud of what we did.”

Influence denied
He denied the then Labour government had any influence over the media as a result.

“The rules are very clear, we can’t interfere, we can’t intervene . . .  You guys have to have your own independence.”

RNZ’s charter requires the broadcaster to be independent, including providing “reliable, independent, and freely accessible news and information”.

While the organisation is funded by the government, by law no ministers of the Crown or person acting on their behalf may give direction to RNZ relating to programming, newsgathering or presentation, or standards, and cannot have staff removed.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On October 19, Georgia’s parliament passed amendments to the country’s broadcasting law extending the Georgian National Communications Commission’s (GNCC) authority to fine or suspend broadcasters for alleged content violations, according to news reports.

The amendments, reviewed by CPJ, reinstate powers of sanction over hate speech granted to GNCC by a December 2022 bill, previously criticized by CPJ, but reversed in June 2023. They also grant the GNCC new powers to fine and suspend broadcasters for alleged “obscenity.”

Under the amendments, the GNCC—whose members are proposed by the government and elected by parliament—would be able to fine broadcasters up to 3% of their income or suspend their licenses for repeat infractions. The local office of anticorruption NGO Transparency International said the changes could become “a punitive lever used against critical media.”

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has two weeks to sign or veto the bill; however, parliament can override a presidential veto, Mamuka Andguladze, chair of local trade group Media Advocacy Coalition, told CPJ.

“Once again, Georgian authorities seem to be using the pretext of harmonization with EU legislation to sneak through clauses on media regulation that could have a deeply pernicious effect in Georgia’s polarized environment,” stated Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “President Salome Zurabishvili should veto the broadcast law bill, and authorities should engage in real and meaningful consultation with independent experts and broadcast stakeholders to create a regulatory system that does not risk becoming a weapon in government hands.”

Under Georgia’s existing broadcasting law, complaints over alleged hate speech and obscenity are ruled on exclusively by broadcasters’ own self-regulatory bodies. The current amendments would allow complainants to appeal self-regulatory bodies’ decisions on hate speech to the GNCC, and allow the GNCC to make direct rulings on cases of alleged obscenity—defined by the law as “an action that contradicts the ethical norms established in society and does not have a socio-political, cultural, educational or scientific value.”

Ruling party politicians argue the changes are necessary to align Georgia’s legislation with EU law, in particular the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which does not allow hate speech to be subject to broadcaster self-regulation.

Independent rights groups have repeatedly argued that the GNCC is not sufficiently independent from the government to rule on allegations of hate speech, which reports and Andguladze said Georgian authorities often wrongly apply to critical or offensive statements. Allowing the GNCC to rule on loosely defined “obscenity” opens further possibilities for “subjective interpretation and selective use against critical media,” Andguladze said.

Parliament first passed amendments to the law introducing hate speech violations in December 2022, granting GNCC the direct right to rule on them. Following criticism of the law by a Council of Europe Opinion in February 2023, parliament passed further amendments in June, returning regulation of hate speech to broadcaster self-regulation.

In that opinion, experts from the Council of Europe, a human rights organization, stated that the GNCC “cannot be said to be independent” according to Council of Europe standards, and recommended alleged hate speech violations be regulated by a form of “co-regulation”—regulation involving both the state and independent stakeholder or civil society bodies.

Andguladze told CPJ that the latest amendments introduce a system that “looks like co-regulation, but in which co-regulation does not really exist,” adding that an unclear provision in the bill appears to allow the GNCC not only to hear appeals but also to initiate hate speech proceedings against broadcasters. Positive changes enacted in the broadcasting law in June—including the implementation of a Council of Europe recommendation to specify that hate speech does not include “offensive or critical” content—are insufficient to prevent abuse, he said.

Despite the EU experts having called for a “thorough and systematic” process of consultation with stakeholders, authorities rushed the bill through parliament in expedited form over two days without conducting any consultations with stakeholders, Andguladze added.

On October 27, EU delegation representatives told local media the latest amendments were in line with EU directives but said regulating obscenity is not a requirement of the AVMSD. The European Commission “always emphasized the need for further work regarding the effective independence of the regulator,” the EU representatives said. CPJ emailed the GNCC, the President of Georgia, and Irakli Kobakhidze, leader of Georgia’s parliamentary majority, but did not immediately receive any replies.

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

The post Time to Take Away Fox’s Broadcast Licenses appeared first on Project Censored.

This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Project Censored.

A WPLG-TV photographer was assaulted in Miami, Florida, on Aug. 17, 2023, while covering the release from jail of a woman accused of grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.

The station reported that the woman ran out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center covering her face with papers when she was released on bond. A man, identified as the woman’s father, confronted the WPLG photojournalist for filming her, shoving the journalist and shouting expletives.

In footage from the incident, the man can be heard shouting, “Stop fucking filming my fucking kid” and “You’re a fucking criminal.”

South Miami Police Sgt. Fernando Bosch told WPLG, “I just saw the video and that’s an assault.” The Miami Police Department Public Information Office did not respond to a voicemail requesting additional information.

WPLG did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

A WPLG-TV photographer was assaulted in Miami, Florida, on Aug. 17, 2023, while covering the release from jail of a woman accused of grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.

The station reported that the woman ran out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center covering her face with papers when she was released on bond. A man, identified as the woman’s father, confronted the WPLG photojournalist for filming her, shoving the journalist and shouting expletives.

In footage from the incident, the man can be heard shouting, “Stop fucking filming my fucking kid” and “You’re a fucking criminal.”

South Miami Police Sgt. Fernando Bosch told WPLG, “I just saw the video and that’s an assault.” The Miami Police Department Public Information Office did not respond to a voicemail requesting additional information.

WPLG did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

On Tuesday, August 1, Niang, editor of the privately owned news site Dakarmatin, was charged by the examining magistrate in Dakar, the capital, with calling for insurrection, and acts or maneuvers likely to compromise public security, according to Moussa Sarr, the journalist’s lawyer, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.

Niang has been on hunger strike since he was arrested at his home on Saturday, July 29, and is being held in a special pavilion for sick prisoners at the Aristide Le Dantec hospital due to his fragile health.

“Senegalese authorities must end their sustained legal harassment of journalist Pape Alé Niang and ensure that he is released unconditionally and that all charges against him for his work are dropped,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator in Durban, South Africa. “Senegal’s recent spiral of arrests and harassment against the media, as well as disruptions to internet access, are deeply concerning, especially as the country heads toward elections next year.”

Gendarmerie officers arrested Niang for allegedly calling for insurrection in a broadcast on his outlet’s YouTube channel on July 28, according to Sarr and news reports. In the video, Niang discussed the latest arrest, earlier that day, of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, who is popular with young voters ahead of Senegal’s elections, scheduled for February 25, 2024.  

Insurrection—a charge also laid against Sonko—is punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison, according to Article 85 of Senegal’s penal code. Maneuvers and acts likely to compromise public safety or cause serious political unrest are punishable by three to five years imprisonment.

Sonko’s arrest and the dissolution of his party sparked fresh protests on Monday, when two people were killed. Sonko’s conviction in June on separate charges of corrupting the youth led to clashes in which at least 23 people died.

The government shut down the internet on Monday in response to “the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages on social networks,” according to a statement by Communications Minister Moussa Bocar Thiam, as well as internet traffic analysis by the online security company CloudFlare, and news reports.

In a statement shared in media reports, Thiam also suspended TikTok on Wednesday “until further notice,” saying the social media app was “favored by malicious people for spreading hateful and subversive messages threatening the stability of the country.”

CPJ, as a member of the #KeepItOn coalition, a global network of over 300 organizations, denounced the weaponization of internet shutdowns by Senegal’s government in response to the recent political unrest.

Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Aissata Tall Sall said on Wednesday at the government’s weekly press conference that Niang, like any other journalist, had never been arrested for his work as a journalist, but only because of criminal statements that he had made.

Niang’s lawyer Sarr told CPJ that Senegalese law barred him from sharing details about the search of the journalist’s home and what, if anything, authorities seized because the investigation was ongoing.

Police previously arrested Niang in November and charged him with harming national defense over a video report published by Dakarmatin; he was released in mid-December on bail, and rearrested days later for allegedly breaching his bail conditions. Niang was freed in January, after going on hunger strike to protest his detention.

Niang’s case led to Senegal appearing on CPJ’s 2022 annual prison census of jailed journalists for the second time since it began in 1992. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

A WTXF-TV FOX29 news crew was shot at with a pellet gun from a moving vehicle while reporting outside of City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 17, 2023.

According to FOX29, a news crew was reporting near the intersection of 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard shortly after 10 p.m. In footage posted to Twitter by an unaffiliated account, reporter Shawnette Wilson can be seen giving a live report when she is suddenly struck in the chest with multiple projectiles.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Sometimes lawmakers write legislation that would do the opposite of its stated goal. Nowhere is this more evident than in two recent bills—one introduced at the state level and another in the U.S. Congress—that are supposedly designed to “save local news.”

Both the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) and the federal Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) would allow news publishers—including broadcast companies—to extract payments from large social-media enterprises like Alphabet and Meta in exchange for linking to their content. This would apply to any content regardless of its accuracy or news value.

One of the bigger beneficiaries of California’s CJPA and the U.S. Senate’s JCPA is a conglomerate that seems determined to get rid of local news and replace it with right-wing spin produced at a “National Desk.”

One of the bigger beneficiaries of California’s CJPA and the U.S. Senate’s JCPA is a conglomerate that seems determined to get rid of local news and replace it with right-wing spin produced at a “National Desk” far from the communities this broadcast company is legally obligated to serve.

That conglomerate, Sinclair Broadcast Group, recently announced plans to eliminate entire local newsrooms at local-television stations in five broadcast areas. Sinclair is also drastically cutting newsroom staff at an additional five local stations, pushing all of these stations to fill the resulting news hole with National Desk boilerplate. That means zero local coverage—and lots of the cookie-cutter conservatism that Sinclair has pumped out via the public airwaves for decades.

Saving Local News by Throttling It

Sinclair doesn’t care about the benefits that local news coverage brings to communities. The company owns and operates several stations that broadcast to regions of California, including KAEF in Eureka, KBAK in Bakersfield, KMPH in Fresno, KRCR in Redding, and KRXI around Lake Tahoe. Any of these newsrooms could be next on its chopping block. But lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington are ignoring Sinclair’s dismal track record.

On Tuesday, the CJPA passed through California Assembly’s Judiciary Committee just a few days after the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection advanced it. And in Washington, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has reintroduced the JCPA, which failed to pass in the previous Congress after facing headwinds from a coalition of local-news advocates and media-democracy groups.

Both bills would create a convoluted mechanism for corporate handouts to highly profitable and consolidated media outlets—and both bills would allow these chains to continue to neglect the information needs of the communities they’re supposed to serve.

Both bills would create a convoluted mechanism for corporate handouts to highly profitable and consolidated media outlets—and both bills would allow these chains to continue to neglect the information needs of the communities they’re supposed to serve.

That these bills have any momentum is largely due to the powerful Big Media lobby pushing them. This includes lobbyists working on behalf of Sinclair as well as Gannett Co. and predatory hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which have also cut local newsrooms to the bone even as they’ve continued to buy back stocks, go deeper into debt to acquire more local outlets, and use other financial gimmicks to enrich their owners, executives, and shareholders.

These companies aren’t journalism’s saviors. In many places they’ve created news deserts after shuttering local operations. Lawmakers shouldn’t reward them for such slash-and-burn tactics. Instead, policymakers should pass bills that support local-accountability journalism by putting reporters back on local beats and expanding coverage in communities that companies like Sinclair have failed.

The FCC Must Step Up, Too

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has largely taken a pass on disciplining these companies for repeatedly misleading regulators about their constant misuse of the public airwaves.

An FCC mandate is to “protect and advance diversity, competition, and localism in the media marketplace.” The agency has instead allowed Sinclair to consolidate control over nearly 200 local stations. And in 2018, the conglomerate misled the FCC about the nature of its control over the many stations it already owned in a failed attempt to gobble up even more.

In exchange for exclusive access to so much of our public airwaves, Sinclair thumbs its nose at public-interest obligations, delivering the bare minimum required by the FCC.

The FCC needs to take a long-overdue look at its legacy of failure.

It created sham businesses and shell companies to evade FCC station-ownership limits. It forces these local-TV stations to air “must-run segments” filled with propaganda seemingly pulled straight from a MAGA rally. And it routinely cuts back on local-news staffing while its top executives get rich off the bumper crop of political campaign ads that come around every two years.

Whether it’s via state or federal legislation, or a federal agency that has too often bucked its obligation to serve the public interest, regulators seem intent on saving local news by ignoring—or even perpetuating—the problems that led to its collapse in the first place.

Once we recognize the miscues and market failures driving the journalism crisis, it becomes hard to justify simply handing money over to these same incumbents. This recognition requires we shift our focus away from bills like the CJPA and JCPA toward public policy that creates funding for local-accountability journalism, including noncommercial initiatives.

The FCC needs to take a long overdue look at its legacy of failure. Promoting competition, localism, and diversity means giving more locally owned outlets access to the public airwaves—outlets that will serve their communities in ways Sinclair has not.

In a strategic sleight of hand, the large news-media companies want us to conflate the public importance of local journalism with their own bottom lines. When companies like Sinclair lobby for these bad bills, they want us to forget their actual record of mistreating their own reporters. They want to pretend they’re not getting rich by maintaining this broken system that’s misusing our airwaves and poisoning our democracy.

The problem is that too many of our elected representatives and appointed media regulators are all too willing to give Sinclair a pass, and have opted to “save local news” by becoming accessories to its demise.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Tim Karr.

SPECIAL REPORT: By ABC Backstory editor Natasha Johnson

When Tahlea Aualiitia talks about hosting the ABC’s new Pacific-focused news and current affairs TV programme, The Pacific, her voice breaks and she becomes emotional.

Personally, it’s a career milestone, anchoring her first TV show after a decade working mostly in radio, producing ABC local radio programmes and presenting Pacific Mornings on ABC Radio Australia. But it’s also much more than that.

Aualiitia grew up in Tasmania and is of Samoan (and Italian) heritage. She has strong connections to the country and the Pacific Islander community in Australia.

• SEE MORE: Follow The Pacific

What moves her so profoundly about The Pacific is that the 30-minute, weekly programme is being broadcast across the Pacific on ABC Australia, the ABC’s international TV channel, as well as in Australia (on the ABC News Channel and iview), and is produced by a team with a deep understanding of the region and features stories filed by local journalists based in Pacific nations.

“For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important,” she says.

“I’m probably going to cry because for so long I feel that in Australia and on mainstream TV, Pacific Islanders have been, at best, under-represented and, at worst, misrepresented.

“Given the geopolitical interest, there is more focus on the Pacific but my hope for this show is that it will highlight Pacific voices, really centre those voices as the people telling their stories and change the narrative.

‘The ABC cares’
“It shows the ABC cares, we are not just saying we decide what you watch, we’re involving you in what we’re doing, and I think that that makes a difference.”

Aualiitia’s father was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 12, then later to Australia. Her mother’s brother married a Samoan woman, so Samoan culture was celebrated in her immediate and extended family.

She recalls a childhood shaped by Samoan food, dance and song, and the importance of family, faith and rugby. But from her experience, “the narrative” about the Pacific in Australia has tended towards being negative or patronising.

“I think people tend to see the Pacific as a monolith and there are a lot of stereotypes about what a Pacific Islander is, especially in view of the climate change crisis — there’s this idea everyone’s a victim and they should all just move to Australia,” she says.

“There’s a lot of stuff you carry as a brown journalist. When I hear a story on the news about a Pacific Islander and a crime, I brace myself and think about what that might mean for my day, is it going to make my day at harder when I walk out onto the street, will it make my day at work harder?

“I’ve had people say to me when they learn I have an arts degree, ‘oh, your parents must be so proud of you because you’re the first person in your family who has gone to uni’. And that’s not true, my dad has a PhD in chemistry.

“It’s indicative of ideas that people have of what you’re capable of, what you can do, and that’s the power of the media to shape those narratives and change those narratives.

Facebook ‘reality’ check
“When I started presenting Pacific Mornings, I would interview people from across the Pacific and people would find me on Facebook, message me, saying, ‘I didn’t know any Pacific Islanders were working at the ABC’.

“I was just doing my job, but they said they were proud of me, of the visibility and that it was a good thing that it was happening. So, I hope this programme re-frames things a little bit by showing the rich diversity of the Pacific, its different cultures, resilience, and the joy of being Pacific.”

The Pacific is being produced by the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom (APN), based in Melbourne, with funding from ABC International Broadcast and Digital Services.

While the scope of the ABC’s international services has fluctuated over the years, depending on federal government funding levels, an injection of $32 million over four years to ABC International Services allocated in the 2022 budget has enabled this first-of-its-kind programme to be made, among a suite of other initiatives under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy.

“The APN has been a trusted content partner for the ABC’s International Services team for many years and already has deep Pacific expertise,” says Claire Gorman, head of international services.

“We have been working with the APN to produce our flagship programmes Pacific Beat and Wantok for ABC Radio Australia and have been wanting to produce a TV news programme for Pacific audiences for some time, but until now have not have the funding for it.

“The Pacific is the first of many exciting developments in the pipeline. We believe it is more important than ever before for Australians and Pacific audiences to have access to independent, trusted information about our region.”

Pacific-wide team
Joining Aualiitia on air is long-serving Pacific Beat reporter and executive producer Evan Wasuka and journalist Johnson Raela, who previously worked in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.

Correspondent Lice Movono, based in Suva, Fiji, and Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong in Honiara, Solomon Islands, are contributing to the programme as part of a developing “Local Journalism Network”, also funded under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy, to use the expertise of independent journalists located in the region.

Behind the scenes are APN supervising producer Sean Mantesso, producers Gabriella Marchant, Dinah Lewis Boucher, Nick Sas and APN managing editor Matt O’Sullivan.

“The ABC has covered the Pacific for decades but largely for the Pacific audience,” says O’Sullivan.

“In recent years, that’s mostly been via Pacific Beat and increasingly through digital and video storytelling. We’ve felt for some time that there’s growing interest in the Pacific within Australia and there’s also a massive Pacific diaspora in Australia with strong links to the region.

“So, we’ve felt a need to share our content more broadly. The Pacific programme will cover the breadth of Pacific life beyond palm trees and tourism, from politics to jobs and the economy, climate change, culture and sport.”

Lice Movono has been working as a journalist in Fiji for 16 years and has previously filed for the ABC. She believes elevating the work of regional journalists across the ABC programs and platforms, through the Local Journalism initiative, will help provide more informed coverage of Pacific affairs.

“I believe it’s critical for journalists from within the Pacific to be at the centre of storytelling about the Pacific,” she says.

“A few years ago, while working in a local media organisation, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Europe and it shocked and saddened me to find that there are people on the other side of the world who have little or no understanding of what it means to live with the reality of climate change here in the region.

“So, it means everything for me to work with the ABC, which has one of the widest, if not the widest reach in the Pacific region and to have access to a platform that tells stories about the Pacific and Fiji, in particular, to the rest of the world, to tell authentic stories through the lens of a Pacific Islander, and an Indigenous one at that, about the realities of what Pacific people face.”

While the covid pandemic and various lockdowns curbed a lot of international news gathering, it provided an opportunity to showcase the work of locally based reporters on ABC domestic channels.

“We’ve often used stringers in the region, but covid showed us the value journalists in country can offer,” says O’Sullivan.

“Because we couldn’t fly Australian-based crews into the region during the pandemic, we relied more on journalists in the Pacific telling their stories, for example during the 2021 riots in Solomon Islands.

“We are now building on that foundation of local expertise and knowledge by establishing the Local Journalism Network of independent journalists to report for the ABC.

“We’ve had producers doing training with them, teaching them how to shoot good TV pictures and we’ve provided mobile journalism kits that enable them to quickly do a TV cross.

“In filing for the ABC, they can tell stories local media often can’t but the challenge for us is protecting them.”

Support and protection from the ABC has been welcomed by Movono. Renowned for her tough questioning, she has endured personal threats and harassment over the course of her career, but the country is now moving into a new era of openness with the newly-elected Rabuka government repealing the controversial Media Industry Development Act that was introduced under military law in 2010 and has been regarded as a restraint on media freedom.

In an international scoop, Movono landed an interview with the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific.

“When I knew that there was going to be a segment of The Pacific where we could Talanoa with leaders of the Pacific, it was important for me to position the ABC as the one international organisation that Rabuka would do an interview with,” she says.

“I knew, with the new government only weeks into power, it was going to be a challenge. The government is dealing with a failing economy, a divided country, high inflation, high levels of poverty, the ongoing recovery from covid and trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“But he has made progress as a Pacific leader, as the leader of a country just coming out of a military dictatorship, and he’s done some significant work in the region. So, it was a very significant interview, probably one of the most important assignments of my career.”

In addition to new content and engagement of local journalists, ABC International Services is also expanding the FM footprint for ABC Radio Australia and enhancing media training across the region.

As she prepared for the first episode of The Pacific to go to air, Tahlea Aualiitia was keen to hear the feedback from the audience and — with some trepidation– from family and friends in Samoa.

“I think that’s the part that I’m most nervous about,” she says.

“I know that they will lovingly make fun of my struggling to pronounce Samoan words properly, given I grew up in Australia, but I know they’re already proud of me because of the work I’m doing here.

“Having said that, my brother is a doctor, so I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level of family pride but I’m getting closer!”

The Pacific premiered on ABC Australia last Thursday. This article is republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Veteran Fijian journalist Netani Rika and his wife were resting in their living room when he was suddenly woken, startled by the sound of smashed glass. “I got up, I slipped on the wet surface,” he recalls.

He turned on the lights and a bottle and wick were spread across the floor. It was one of the many acts of violence and intimidation he endured after the 2006 military coup.

Back then, Rika was the manager of news and current affairs at Fiji Television.

• LISTEN TO ABC PACIFIC BEAT: Media freedom under the new Fiji government
• READ MORE: Former Fiji Times editor has no regrets about resisting censorship
• Fiji’s media veterans recount intimidation under FijiFirst government – eye on reforms

No news at 6pm, no news at 10pm
Back then, Rika was the manager of news and current affairs at Fiji Television.

He vividly remembers the time his car was smashed with golf clubs by two unknown men — one he would later identify as a member of the military — and the day he was locked up at a military camp.

“We were monitoring the situation . . .  once the takeover happened, there was a knock at the door and we had some soldiers present themselves,” he said.

“We were told they were there for our protection but our CEO at the time, Ken Clark, said ‘well if you’re here to protect us, then you can stand at the gate’.

“They said, ‘no, we are here to be in the newsroom, and we want to see what goes to air. We also have a list of people you cannot speak to … ministers, detectives’.”

Rika remembered denying their request and publishing a notice on behalf of Fiji TV News that said it would “not broadcast tonight due to censorship”, promising to return to air when they were able to “broadcast the news in a manner which is free and fair”.

“There was no news at six, there was no news at 10, it was a decision made by the newsroom.”

Organisations like Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticised Voreqe Bainimarama, who installed himself as prime minister during the 2006 coup, for his attacks on government critics, the press and the freedom of its citizens.

Fear and intimidation
Rika reported incidents of violence to Fiji police, but he said detectives told him his complaints would not go far.

“There was a series of letters to the editor which I suppose you could say were anti-government. Shortly after … the now-honourable leader of the opposition (Voreqe Bainimarama) called, he swore at me in the Fijian iTaukei language … a short time later I saw a vehicle come into our street,” he said.

“The next time (the attackers) came over the fence, broke a wooden louvre and threw one (explosive) inside the house.”

The ABC contacted Bainimarama’s Fiji First party and Fiji police for comment, but has not received a response.

The following year, Rika left his job to become the editor-in-chief at The Fiji Times, the country’s leading independent newspaper. With the publication relying on the government’s advertising to remain viable, Rika said the government put pressure on the paper’s owners.

“The government took away Fiji Times’ advertising, did all sorts of things in order to bring it into line with its propaganda that Fiji was OK, there was no more corruption.”

Rika said the government also sought to remove the employment rights of News Limited, which owned The Fiji Times.

“The media laws were changed so that you could not have more than 5 percent overseas ownership,” Rika said.

Rika, and his deputy Sophie Foster — now an Australian national — lost their jobs after the Media Act 2011 was passed, banning foreign ownership of Fijian media organisations.

‘A chilling law’
The new law put in place several regulations over journalists’ work, including restrictions on reporting of government activities.

In May last year, Fijian Media Association secretary Stanley Simpson called for a review of the “harsh penalties” that can be imposed by the authority that enforces the act.

Penalties include up to F$100,000 (NZ$75,00) in fines or two years’ imprisonment for news organisations for publishing content that is considered a breach of public or national interest. Simpson said some sections were “too excessive and designed to be vindictive and punish the media rather that encourage better reporting standards and be corrective”.

Media veterans hope the controversial act will be changed, or removed entirely, to protect press freedom.

Retired journalism professor Dr David Robie, now editor of Asia Pacific Report, taught many of the Pacific journalists who head up Fijian newsrooms today, but some of his earlier research focused on the impact of the Media Act.

Dr Robie said from the outset, the legislation was widely condemned by media freedom organisations around the world for being “very punitive and draconian”.

“It is a chilling law, making restrictions to media and making it extremely difficult for journalists to act because … the journalists in Fiji constantly have that shadow hanging over them.”

In the years after Fijian independence in 1970, Dr Robie said Fiji’s “vigorous” media sector “was a shining light in the whole of the Pacific and in developing countries”.

“That was lost … under that particular law and many of the younger journalists have never known what it is to be in a country with a truly free media.”

‘We’re so rich in stories’
Last month, the newly-elected government said work was underway to change media laws.

“We’re going to ensure (journalists) have freedom to broadcast and to impart knowledge and information to members of the public,” Fiji’s new Attorney-General Siromi Turaga said.

“The coalition government is going to provide a different approach, a truly democratic way of dealing with media freedom.” But Dr Robie said he believed the only way forward was to remove the Media Act altogether.

“I’m a bit sceptical about this notion that we can replace it with friendly legislation. That’s sounds like a slippery slope to me,” he said.

“I’d have to say that self-regulation is pretty much the best way to go.”

Reporters Without Borders ranked Fiji at 102 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, falling by 47 places compared to its 2021 rankings.

Samantha Magick was the news director at Fiji radio station FM96, but left after the 2000 coup and returned three years ago to edit Islands Business International, a regional news magazine.

“When I came back, there wasn’t the same robustness of discussion and debate, we (previously) had powerful panel programs and talkback and there wasn’t a lot of that happening,” she said.

“Part of that was a reflection of the legislation and its impact on the way people worked but it was often very difficult to get both sides of a story because of the way newsmakers tried to control their messaging … which I thought was really unfortunate.”

Magick said less restrictive media laws might encourage journalists to push the boundaries, while mid-career reporters would be more creative and more courageous.

“I also hope it will mean more people stay in the profession because we have this enormous problem with people coming, doing a couple of years and then going … for mainly financial reasons.”

She lamented the fact that “resource intensive” investigative journalism had fallen by the wayside but hoped to see “a sort of reinvigoration of the profession in general.”

“We’re so rich in stories … I’d love to see more collaboration across news organisations or among journalists and freelancers,” she said.

Lice Movono is a Fijian reporter for the ABC based in Suva. An earlier audio report from her on the Fiji media is here. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Missouri-based broadcaster KMBC-TV was issued a subpoena on Oct. 26, 2022, seeking all recordings and notes from multiple interviews as part of a lawsuit accusing Kansas Highway Patrol of misconduct.

Five women who are current or former highway patrol employees filed a lawsuit against the agency’s superintendent and assistant superintendent, as well as the State of Kansas, in February 2021. The Kansas City Star reported that the women allege the agency had a hostile work environment, with a culture of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

According to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the subpoena orders KMBC to produce any notes or audio or video recordings of interviews conducted with the plaintiffs, including outtakes and other unaired footage, by Nov. 14.

It is unclear if KMBC, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment, has or intends to comply with the order. No motion to quash the subpoena had been filed with the court as of Dec. 7.

Gaye Tibbets, an attorney representing the state and the highway patrol officers, told the Star in mid-November that they were negotiating with KMBC over the subpoena, but did not elaborate on the content of the disputes.

Tibbets did not respond to requests for further comment.

First Amendment attorney Max Kautsch, who is the president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government, told the Star he was perplexed by the subpoena as it seeks documents that are explicitly protected by the state’s shield law.

“The Legislature passed this law almost 15 years ago for the express purpose of insulating journalists from misguided attempts to bring journalists into court,” Kautsch said.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

On Wednesday, November 16, two police officers arrested Makambu, program director of community broadcaster Radio Communautaire pour le Renouveau du Kwango (RCRK), from his home in Kenge in the country’s northwest, and later took him to the Kenge central prison, according to a report by local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and Ruphay Ndamba, another RCRK director, who spoke to CPJ on the phone. 

According to that report, the officers had a provisional arrest warrant issued by the Peace Court in Kenge in connection with a defamation complaint by parliament member Tharcisse Matadiwamba Kamba Mutu over an August 19 RCRK broadcast about Matadiwamba’s alleged interference in a succession dispute between local customary chiefs.

“Authorities in the DRC should swiftly release journalist Olivier Makambu and cease their legal harassment of him. Authorities should also release journalist Patrick Lola, who has remained behind bars since January 2022,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “The repeated arrests of journalists across the DRC and the maintenance of criminal defamation under Congolese law are alarming indications that the press is not safe under Felix Tshisekedi’s presidency.” 

Ndamba told CPJ that Matadiwamba filed his complaint with the Kenge prosecutor’s office on August 20, the day after the broadcast. He said the prosecutor had summoned Makambu to appear on November 16 for a second hearing related to the complaint, but as the journalist prepared to respond police arrested him and took him to the court hearing, where prosecutors asked him questions for 30 minutes and then transferred him to Kenge’s central prison, where he remained as of Wednesday. Makambu’s next hearing date had not been set, Ndamba said. 

CPJ called Matadiwamba but his phone rang unanswered. 

On August 25, the provincial government of Kwango province, of which Kenge is the capital, instructed journalists not to report on the succession dispute over concerns that coverage may increase tensions, local news site congoprofond.net reported at the time. Congoprofond.net characterized the government directive as “a thinly veiled way of undermining the fundamental right to expression, in particular the journalist’s right to access sources of information and the public’s right to be informed of what is happening in their environment.” The report did not specify what, if any penalty, the government would impose on journalists who reported on succession disputes. 

CPJ called Jean Marie-Petipeti Tamata, the governor of Kwango province, but his phone also rang unanswered. 

At least one other journalist remains in detention in the DRC. Lola was arrested while covering a demonstration in Mbandanka city in the northeast in January 2022.  

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

FOX13 reporter Jeremy Pierre and a news photographer were robbed at gunpoint half a mile from the station’s studio on Nov. 10, 2022.

Pierre posted on Facebook shortly after 7 a.m. that the crew was robbed at the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Highland Street.

“You know I’ve had my fair share of stories but DAMN!” Pierre wrote. “One of the dudes even showed me the gun in his waistband.”

Pierre did not respond to a request for comment or to confirm the identity of the photojournalist with him. FOX13 declined to comment when reached for comment.

According to the post, the thieves took the crew’s camera, tripod and LiveU equipment used to broadcast footage. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assault of the photographer and equipment theft here.

The Memphis Police Department did not respond to a request for additional information.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

On Friday, August 12, officers with the national police arrested and detained for several hours Dimanche Kamate, editor in chief of the privately owned Radio Muungano broadcaster in the city of Oicha, in North Kivu province, according to media reports and Kamate, who spoke to CPJ over the phone.

Kamate told CPJ that the officers did not present him with an arrest warrant and at the police station, questioned him about an August 7 broadcast that included guests from Véranda Mutsanga, a local social advocacy group. The broadcast discussed a recently leaked United Nations report that alleged Rwandan military support for M23, a rebel group fighting the Congolese government in the eastern part of the country, and demonstrations in the North Kivu province against the U.N. mission in the country, known as MONUSCO, the journalist said.

Véranda Mutsanga has opposed MONUSCO’s presence and the DRC government’s “state of siege,” which implemented military governance in North Kivu and Ituri provinces last year in response to growing armed violence, according to media reports.

“The pattern of arrests and intimidation of Congolese journalists as they work to inform the public about the conflict and social movements in the country must stop. Press freedom cannot develop under these conditions,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “The ‘state of siege’ in DRC’s east is no excuse for efforts to censor and control media coverage of the conflict there.”

According to a report by Journaliste En Danger, a local press freedom group, police arrested Kamate on the orders of Charles Ehuta Omeonga, the military administrator of the North Kivu city of Beni, who believed the broadcast violated the “state of siege” in that part of the country.

Reached over the phone, Ehuta told CPJ: “I arrested him because he thinks he is a super journalist above the law. I spoke with the journalist (Kamate) and gave him some advice on the security situation in Beni territory. During this period of the state of siege, there are standards to be respected even by journalists.”

Ehuta told CPJ that Kamate must work for the Congolese nation and above all not broadcast guests who discuss issues related to the conflict in areas where military had ongoing operations, following the state of siege decree in the North Kivu province that limits freedom of expression.

Kamate told CPJ that during his detention at the Matobo military camp, a military intelligence chief scolded him over the August 7 broadcast and instructed him to stop broadcasting programs featuring members of society while the government continued to fight M23 rebels. Kamate also said that he was later taken in a military jeep to Ehuta’s office and released on arrival with his phones and recording equipment after the intervention of a local civic leader, Richard Kirimba.

Kirimba told CPJ in a phone interview that he had pleaded with the soldiers to release Kamate because the journalist “did not commit a fault.”

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

The attack on Jengo, senior producer and presenter with the privately owned Voice of Peace and Development (VOPAD) Radio 96.5 FM broadcaster, took place on a road in Sierra Leone’s western Waterloo city, according to those sources.

Jengo was getting a ride to the VOPAD office with a hired motorbike rider when they came across the soldiers’ jeep, which was blocking the road, he said. After pleading with the soldiers to make way without any response, the motorbike rider carrying Jengo said the soldiers were displaying a recklessness generally associated with motorcyclists, Jengo told CPJ, adding that he responded that recklessness is not a trait unique to bike riders.

After Jengo’s remark, four soldiers got out of the jeep, he said, adding that one of them rushed at him and slapped him in the face, saying, “Who are you telling that he is reckless and lawless…useless journalist!”

Jengo said he tried to convince the soldiers that his comments were not directed at them, but the three other soldiers joined in beating him. They also slapped the other bike rider twice before he escaped, said Jengo.

Jengo attempted to stop the attack by repeating that he was a journalist, he said, but the soldiers continued to beat him. One said, “Because you work for VOPAD radio? We have dealt with people who are more important than you are…bastards that keep sitting in radio stations and talking about people,” according to Jengo.

One soldier cut Jengo with a sharp object near his left eye, he said. After about 12 minutes of beating, the soldiers dragged the journalist into the back of their jeep and kept hitting him as they drove to a nearby gas station, according to Jengo. After the fuel attendant told them that the station was out of fuel, the soldiers brought Jengo back to where they had picked him up and continued to hit him, the journalist told CPJ.

After they asked Jengo to leave the vehicle, the soldiers pushed him to the ground when he tried to leave, he said. Then they pulled him up and punched him a few more times, laughing, before eventually returning to their vehicle and driving away without him.

The soldiers tore Jengo’s shirt, which had a VOPAD Radio logo on the front, took his identification card, three phones, and recording devices he had with him for reporting purposes, as well as a silver bracelet and chain and about $370 in U.S. dollars and $1.6 million leones ($US115). Jengo said that as of August 10, he had not received any of the items back.

Jengo said in addition to the cut on his face, he developed pains all over his body as a result of the incident. Local press freedom group Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) published a photo of Jengo’s injuries on Facebook.

After the attack, Jengo stopped a motorbike rider for help, but the rider refused to help after seeing the blood on his face, he said. When a second commercial motorbike came along the road, Jengo said that after he begged for a ride, the driver took him free of charge to the Waterloo police station to report the incident.

A day after Jengo reported the incident, military officers, including one of his attackers, visited VOPAD’s office and apologized, he said. The Waterloo police station was very cooperative, according to Jengo, telling him that they were willing to proceed with a court case against the soldiers if he wanted to file a case, which he had not done as of August 10.

Contacted by CPJ via messaging app, Abu Bakarr Sideeq Bah, the Sierra Leone Defense Ministry’s director of defense public relations and information, said that the department was relaying updates on the case to SLAJ, the local press freedom group.

On July 8, SLAJ posted a statement on Twitter by Bah’s department saying the military had identified Jengo’s alleged attackers and was investigating. SLAJ’s president, Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, who spoke by phone with CPJ, said that he received assurance from Bah and other military representatives in a July 8 meeting, which the association posted about on Facebook, that the military was investigating to ensure such incidents wouldn’t happen again.

A spokesperson for the Sierra Leone police, Brima Kamara, told CPJ in early August that the investigation was ongoing, but that he did not know of any findings.

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

A 7News photojournalist was assaulted after filming a fight while on assignment in Miami Beach, Florida, on June 15, 2022.

The outlet reported that the photojournalist — who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons — was out reporting when he saw two men throwing punches at each other.

“[It] looked like they were going to get into and, like, have a fight,” the journalist told 7News. “My kind of news antenna went up. I was like, what’s going on, and then I was just trying to be aware.”

The photojournalist began filming, but when the men realized that they had been recorded they ran across the street and confronted him, the outlet reported.

“They got me in the back of the head right here,” the photojournalist said. He told the outlet that he was repeatedly punched in the head and face. One of the men grabbed his phone from him, but he said he was able to get it back.

When asked if he had told the men he was simply doing his job, the photojournalist told 7News that he hadn’t had time to think about it, as things happened too fast.

The journalist was able to flag down a police officer and filed a report before seeking medical treatment. He told the outlet that he was fine but was still shaken.

“We cover it all the time, you just never think you’re gonna be part of the story,” the photojournalist said.

According to 7News, Miami Beach Police are investigating the incident as a simple battery case.

Neither the outlet nor the police department responded to requests for additional information.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

An unidentified individual aimed what appeared to be a firearm at FOX 32 reporter Joanie Lum and an unidentified photographer during their live report in Chicago, Illinois, on May 25, 2022.

The outlet reported that the news crew was doing a live report about gun violence in the city at the corner of Clark and Hubbard Streets at around 7 a.m. when an individual walked behind Lum pointing what looks to be a handgun at the camera as he went past. In footage of the incident, the individual appears to mime firing two shots at the camera.

Lum does not appear to notice the individual, continuing her report on Chicago’s reaction to the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with the words, “our own gun violence here in Chicago.”

Neither journalist was injured, according to the outlet.

Police are attempting to identify the man, whom they are referring to as a “person of interest” and who is accused of aggravated assault with a firearm, according to FOX 32.

Neither Lum, FOX 32 nor FOX News’ national office responded to requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

An unidentified individual aimed what appeared to be a firearm at FOX 32 reporter Joanie Lum and an unidentified photographer during their live report in Chicago, Illinois, on May 25, 2022.

The outlet reported that the news crew was doing a live report about gun violence in the city at the corner of Clark and Hubbard Streets at around 7 a.m. when an individual walked behind Lum pointing what looks to be a handgun at the camera as he went past. In footage of the incident, the individual appears to mime firing two shots at the camera.

Lum does not appear to notice the individual, continuing her report on Chicago’s reaction to the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with the words, “our own gun violence here in Chicago.”

Neither journalist was injured, according to the outlet.

Police are attempting to identify the individual, whom they are referring to as a “person of interest” and who is accused of aggravated assault with a firearm, according to FOX 32.

Neither Lum, FOX 32 nor FOX News’ national office responded to requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The PKK, a militant group and political party active in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey, and other countries.

The Kurdistan 24 crew—correspondent Diyar Jamal, cameraman Karwan Yara, and driver Soran Hakim—was attacked in front of the province’s forensic medicine department in Sulaymaniyah those sources said. The crew was covering the delivery of the body of the murder victim, Zaki Chalabi, by his friends and relatives.

On May 17, two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle had fired at a restaurant Chalabi owned in the Bakhtiyari neighborhood of Sulaymaniyah, hitting him, Iraqi-Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported. Chalabi was reported dead the next day after undergoing two surgeries.

Esta media, a news website affiliated with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which governs Sulaymaniyah province, reported on its Facebook page that the journalists were severely beaten by PKK supporters.

Jamal told CPJ via phone that “there were about 20 to 30 supporters” of the PKK, and that they “tried to force us to report that Turkey was involved in the killing of the restaurant owner, even though the investigation hasn’t yet been concluded. So we refused to do so.”

“They abused and chanted slogans against us, they accused us of working in favor of MIT,” which is Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, Jamal said, adding, “Right away, they attacked and beat us badly. Our clothes were all torn.”

The three journalists ran off in different directions, leaving their equipment behind, except the camera, Jamal said, adding, “They looted the voice receiver and the car keys, our mic was later found destroyed, our cameraman could run with his camera.”

Jamal said the security forces and other journalists intervened. “The security forces fired bullets into the air to disperse the assailants and rescued us,” he said.

Hakim told CPJ that, “despite of security forces’ attempt to protect me, they took me three times and beat me very badly. Even when I ran to take a taxi, they get me out of the taxi and beat me again.” His body is “full of bruises and cuts,” he said.

Yara told CPJ that he escaped via taxi, without sustaining any series injuries. “Many people gathered around us and assaulted us,” he said. “I hugged my camera and live streaming device and ran to the security forces and asked for protection.”

In a joint press conference on May 18, Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy and the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, condemned the attack. The two regional press freedom groups stressed that “no one should interfere in the journalists’ work or tell them how to report the event while conducting their media coverage.”

In a statement issued following the attack, Kurdistan 24 described the attack as “an infringement on the freedom of the press.”

“We would like to make it clear to everyone that Kurdistan 24 has always professionally covered events, and it will never stop its professional work in telling the truth through its media coverage,” said the broadcaster, which is supportive of Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

CPJ reached out to Sarkawt Ahmed, the spokesperson of Sulaymaniyah police, via phone and left a message, but did not receive an immediate response.

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

A new Russian law banning even the use of the word war to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was dramatically broken on Monday by an employee of the state broadcaster, who burst onto the set of a live television news broadcast holding a sign that denounced the attack as she shouted: “Stop the war!” and “No war!”

Video of the protest, which lasted about 10 seconds before producers abruptly cut away from the studio to a taped report, was captured and shared on social networks by Russian journalists and opposition activists.

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This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Robert Mackey.

On February 25, Korquoi, the superintendent of the northern Nimba county, grabbed Doloquee by the neck and slapped him across the head during a live broadcast the journalist was hosting for the privately owned newspaper Front Page Africa, according to Doloquee, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a report by his employer.

After hitting him, Korquoi seized two of Doloquee’s phones and demanded that the journalist enter his vehicle, but Doloquee refused and left the scene, he said. Doloquee told CPJ that he had an ache in his jaw from the attack and had received pain medication at a local hospital.

CPJ called and texted Korquoi for comment but did not receive any replies.

“Liberian authorities should hold politician Nelson Korquoi accountable for his blatant attack on journalist Franklin Doloquee,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Impunity for attacks on journalists and the seizure of their devices suggests a disregard for press freedom and journalists’ safety that must be reversed.”

The incident occurred after Doloquee approached Korquoi for comment while doing a live broadcast on Facebook as part of Front Page Africa’s coverage of hygiene conditions in the Nimba town of Ganta, as seen in that broadcast.

In that video, Doloquee can be heard introducing himself as a journalist, and Korquoi is seen approaching the camera and initiating a scuffle; the video cuts out for several minutes, but the phone continued broadcasting audio and briefly captured a few seconds of video within Korquoi’s vehicle.

Doloquee filed a complaint at the regional police station in Ganta shortly after the attack, he told CPJ. He said that police followed up with Korquoi that day and returned one of his phones, but told him that he must commit to not pressing charges over the attack before Korquoi would surrender the other phone.

In a phone interview, Ganta Police Commander Arthie Dennis denied that Korquoi had withheld the second phone in exchange for not pressing charges. He said Korquoi only took one phone from the journalist, and that Doloquee had signed a commitment not to press charges in exchange for that phone being returned.

Doloquee disputed that characterization of the events, and stood by the initial description he gave to CPJ.

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

On February 25, Korquoi, the superintendent of the northern Nimba county, grabbed Doloquee by the neck and slapped him across the head during a live broadcast the journalist was hosting for the privately owned newspaper Front Page Africa, according to Doloquee, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a report by his employer.

After hitting him, Korquoi seized two of Doloquee’s phones and demanded that the journalist enter his vehicle, but Doloquee refused and left the scene, he said. Doloquee told CPJ that he had an ache in his jaw from the attack and had received pain medication at a local hospital.

CPJ called and texted Korquoi for comment but did not receive any replies.

“Liberian authorities should hold politician Nelson Korquoi accountable for his blatant attack on journalist Franklin Doloquee,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Impunity for attacks on journalists and the seizure of their devices suggests a disregard for press freedom and journalists’ safety that must be reversed.”

The incident occurred after Doloquee approached Korquoi for comment while doing a live broadcast on Facebook as part of Front Page Africa’s coverage of hygiene conditions in the Nimba town of Ganta, as seen in that broadcast.

In that video, Doloquee can be heard introducing himself as a journalist, and Korquoi is seen approaching the camera and initiating a scuffle; the video cuts out for several minutes, but the phone continued broadcasting audio and briefly captured a few seconds of video within Korquoi’s vehicle.

Doloquee filed a complaint at the regional police station in Ganta shortly after the attack, he told CPJ. He said that police followed up with Korquoi that day and returned one of his phones, but told him that he must commit to not pressing charges over the attack before Korquoi would surrender the other phone.

In a phone interview, Ganta Police Commander Arthie Dennis denied that Korquoi had withheld the second phone in exchange for not pressing charges. He said Korquoi only took one phone from the journalist, and that Doloquee had signed a commitment not to press charges in exchange for that phone being returned.

Doloquee disputed that characterization of the events, and stood by the initial description he gave to CPJ.

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