Alongside an ever more restrictive environment for local journalists, increasingly, Georgia has been denying entry to Western journalists, all freelancers. This crackdown comes as the ruling conservative Georgian Dream party clamps down on mass protests and political opposition following allegations of fraud in the country’s October 2024 parliamentary elections.     

Media repression had already intensified on the heels of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, since which Georgia has denied entry to at least eight Russian journalists associated with Kremlin-critical outlets, as well as two journalists from other post-Soviet countries with critical or pro-Western views. 

Neal’s denial of entry “was clearly intended to dissuade me from further reporting on the vested interests behind the ruling party’s ongoing abuse of power,” he told CPJ. 

Before leaving Georgia in April, Neal had been the target of a sustained smear campaign by Georgian Dream officials and the pro-government press. His investigation in the British news outlet Byline Times revealed cooperation between a U.K.-registered private equity firm with reported close ties to Georgia’s alleged de facto ruler, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Georgian Dream leaders accused Neal of being part of an international “deep state” anti-Georgia conspiracy. 

“The story clearly hit a nerve,” Neal told CPJ. 

An unprecedented wave

Mamuka Andguladze, chair of the local Media Advocacy Coalition, told CPJ that the recent blocking of Western journalists is “unprecedented” and a “very deliberate policy” by Georgian Dream “to limit critical coverage.” 

CPJ knows of at least five other instances in the past eight months in which Western journalists have been denied entry:

• On October 22, 2024, four days before the elections, border guards at Tbilisi airport blocked the entry of Czech freelance reporter Ray Baseley and held him for 34 hours before placing him on a plane to Poland, Basely wrote on X. He previously had reported on mass protests against Georgian Dream’s introduction of a “foreign agent” law in May 2024 and told the International Press Institute that he believes this was the reason for his denial. The law requires nonprofits and media outlets receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” An even harsher law, passed in April 2025, carries prison terms of up to five years.
• On election day, October 26, 2024, border guards refused entry to Swiss photojournalist Stephan Goss, who had covered protests against the “foreign agent” law. Guards confiscated his phone and held him for 12 hours before placing him on a flight to Dubai. 
• On February 12, 2025, French freelance journalist Clément Girardot was denied entry. Authorities also revoked Girardot’s residence permit after he reported on Georgian Dream’s growing authoritarianism for publications like France’s Le Monde and Belgium’s Le Soir.
• On March 30, 2025, officials denied entry to Jérôme Chobeaux, a freelance photojournalist with the Italian agency NurPhoto. Chobeaux, who had covered the anti-government protests, was held for six hours without access to his phone before boarding a plane to Greece.
• On June 11, 2025, border guards at Kutaisi International Airport refused entry to French documentary photographer Marylise Vigneaux. Vigneaux told CPJ that she believed she most likely had been targeted over a collection of her protest photos exhibited at a photo festival in Tbilisi in May.

CPJ emailed the Georgian Dream party and Georgian border police for comment but did not receive any replies.

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

Alongside an ever more restrictive environment for local journalists, increasingly, Georgia has been denying entry to Western journalists, all freelancers. This crackdown comes as the ruling conservative Georgian Dream party clamps down on mass protests and political opposition following allegations of fraud in the country’s October 2024 parliamentary elections.     

Media repression had already intensified on the heels of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, since which Georgia has denied entry to at least eight Russian journalists associated with Kremlin-critical outlets, as well as two journalists from other post-Soviet countries with critical or pro-Western views. 

Neal’s denial of entry “was clearly intended to dissuade me from further reporting on the vested interests behind the ruling party’s ongoing abuse of power,” he told CPJ. 

Before leaving Georgia in April, Neal had been the target of a sustained smear campaign by Georgian Dream officials and the pro-government press. His investigation in the British news outlet Byline Times revealed cooperation between a U.K.-registered private equity firm with reported close ties to Georgia’s alleged de facto ruler, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Georgian Dream leaders accused Neal of being part of an international “deep state” anti-Georgia conspiracy. 

“The story clearly hit a nerve,” Neal told CPJ. 

An unprecedented wave

Mamuka Andguladze, chair of the local Media Advocacy Coalition, told CPJ that the recent blocking of Western journalists is “unprecedented” and a “very deliberate policy” by Georgian Dream “to limit critical coverage.” 

CPJ knows of at least five other instances in the past eight months in which Western journalists have been denied entry:

• On October 22, 2024, four days before the elections, border guards at Tbilisi airport blocked the entry of Czech freelance reporter Ray Baseley and held him for 34 hours before placing him on a plane to Poland, Basely wrote on X. He previously had reported on mass protests against Georgian Dream’s introduction of a “foreign agent” law in May 2024 and told the International Press Institute that he believes this was the reason for his denial. The law requires nonprofits and media outlets receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” An even harsher law, passed in April 2025, carries prison terms of up to five years.
• On election day, October 26, 2024, border guards refused entry to Swiss photojournalist Stephan Goss, who had covered protests against the “foreign agent” law. Guards confiscated his phone and held him for 12 hours before placing him on a flight to Dubai. 
• On February 12, 2025, French freelance journalist Clément Girardot was denied entry. Authorities also revoked Girardot’s residence permit after he reported on Georgian Dream’s growing authoritarianism for publications like France’s Le Monde and Belgium’s Le Soir.
• On March 30, 2025, officials denied entry to Jérôme Chobeaux, a freelance photojournalist with the Italian agency NurPhoto. Chobeaux, who had covered the anti-government protests, was held for six hours without access to his phone before boarding a plane to Greece.
• On June 11, 2025, border guards at Kutaisi International Airport refused entry to French documentary photographer Marylise Vigneaux. Vigneaux told CPJ that she believed she most likely had been targeted over a collection of her protest photos exhibited at a photo festival in Tbilisi in May.

CPJ emailed the Georgian Dream party and Georgian border police for comment but did not receive any replies.

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

The Chengdu-based human rights activist and Chinese performance artist was released on March 24 after serving a four-year prison sentence in the southwestern province of Sichuan. But his friends say his freedom has been largely illusory, as police have repeatedly summoned him for interrogations and severely restricted his movements and ability to resume work.

Chen has faced repeated persecution for his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, including demands that the government investigate the crackdown and compensate victims. In 2021, he was sentenced to four years in jail on of child molestation which he denied and said were intended to smear his reputation.

Most recently, on the eve of the 36th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests crackdown, the National Security Bureau and local police subjected Chen to a five-hour interrogation, where he was forced to sit on the ‘tiger bench,’ Chen’s friend and colleague Guan told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

‘Tiger bench’ is a form of torture used to restrain and immobilize detainees during questioning. Chen, like many others RFA interviewed for this story, asked to be identified only by a single name for fear of reprisals.

“The police accused him of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble,’” said Guan, referring to a criminal charge frequently used by Chinese authorities to carry out arbitrary detentions against rights activists and dissidents.

The charges were based on Chen’s social media activity, including reposts of tweets by Ming Chu-cheng, an honorary professor of politics at National Taiwan University, and prominent dissidents Pastor Wang Yi, the pastor of a banned Protestant church in Chengdu, and citizen journalist Cai Chu, said Guan.

Despite the lack of a subpoena, the police summoned Chen for questioning, confiscating his mobile phone and Wi-Fi equipment for three days, before returning them on June 3 night after repeated protests, Guan said.

Chen’s livelihood has also been impacted, his friends said. Upon release from prison, Chen found that his nursery business, which he had operated for many years, was emptied of all assets, causing him to lose his source of income, said Yang, another friend of the activist.

The courts have also listed him as a “dishonest debtor,” preventing him from accessing his bank accounts or resuming work, Yang said.

“He now has difficulty even renting a house and can only survive on donations from friends and through loans,” said Fang Liang, another friend of Chen’s.

(Chen Yunfei)

‘Secondary punishment’

During Chen’s most recent imprisonment, his 91-year-old mother was also forcibly and violently removed from her Chengdu rental home by community workers, during which she suffered a head injury that required over a month of hospitalization, Guan said.

During the forced eviction, many of the family’s assets of value disappeared, including $30,000 of pension money that his mother had set aside for her granddaughter’s education abroad, $5,800 in cash, and about 40,000 yuan (or US$5,560) in Chinese currency, Guan said.

When Chen attempted to file a police report after discovering his empty home upon release, authorities refused to issue a receipt or open an investigation, said Yang.

“They don’t allow you to have any evidence to sue them,” said Yang. “The government said it’s not their responsibility, and the police said to contact the community — they just pushed the matter back and forth.”

Despite the ongoing harassment, Chen’s friends say he is preparing to file a civil lawsuit to recover his mother’s lost property and challenge the police’s abuse of power.

Shandong-based legal scholar Lu described Chen’s ongoing troubles as a consequence of a typical “secondary punishment” model that is designed to maintain control over dissidents through non-judicial means.

“Administrative review is inactive, the police deliberately do not issue receipts, and elderly mothers are forced to become homeless,” Lue said “This is not law enforcement, but political coercion.”

Written by Tenzin Pema. Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

BBC Persian journalists in London told The Guardian and CPJ that their families back in Iran have faced threats in recent months, including interrogations, travel bans, asset seizure warnings, and passport confiscations. BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement that the Iranian government’s campaign represented a “significant and increasingly alarming escalation” against the news outlet.

“The Iranian government’s escalating harassment of BBC Persian journalists’ families is a deliberate attempt to silence the press,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Interrogations, passport seizures, and other threats are tools of transnational repression, and a direct assault on press freedom and human dignity.”

Rozita Lotfi, the news editor of BBC Persian, told CPJ that the intimidation began with the 2009 launch of BBC Persian’s TV channel, calling it “a testament to the impact and reach of our independent and impartial journalism.” 

“No journalist should have to pay the personal price we are paying, and no family member should ever be punished because of our work,” Behrang Tajdin, a BBC Persian correspondent, told CPJ.

The developments come weeks after British police charged three Iranian nationals in a counterterrorism investigation involving alleged plots against Iran-linked targets in the U.K., including journalists. 

CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment but did not receive a response.

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

The security directorate in eastern Hadramout Governorate issued the three arrest warrants against Sabri bin Mukhshen, Abduljabar Bajabeer, and Muzahim Bajaber based on an April order by the Specialized Criminal Prosecution, which prosecutes high-level cases, including those against journalists. The order did not specify the alleged offense.

The arrest warrants violate Article 13 of Yemen’s Press and Publications Law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions unless these break the law. 

On May 23, journalists Abdulrahman Al-Humaidi and Najm Al-Din Al-Subari were detained in Marib over Al-Humaidi’s Facebook post that criticized an armed assault on Al-Subari by a militia member affiliated with the state security forces in the western city of Marib. The journalists said in an official complaint to the Media Freedoms Observatory, a local press freedom group, that they were threatened, had their phones confiscated, and were held without legal justification, and that Al-Humaidi was forced to delete the post and sign a pledge not to report on Marib Governorate without prior approval from its security forces. 

“The arrest warrants against journalists Sabri bin Mukhshen, Abduljabar Bajabeer, and Muzahim Bajaber, and the detention and intimidation of Abdulrahman Al-Humaidi and Najm Al-Din Al-Subari, are further evidence of the alarming decline in press freedom in areas controlled by Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “We call on the government to immediately drop the arrest warrants, hold those responsible for the illegal detention accountable, and allow all journalists to report freely.”

Yemen has been mired in civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels ousted the government from the capital Sanaa. In 2015, a Saudi-backed coalition intervened to try and restore the government to power.

Journalists face grave threats in areas controlled by both groups. Violations — ranging from arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance to unfair trials — are carried out with near-total impunity.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Human Rights for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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

In an apparent attempt to intimidate a news crew reporting outside a Kansas City, Missouri, towing company on April 15, 2025, drivers used their tow trucks to surround the crew’s news vehicle. At least one of the drivers has been identified by police and charged with harassment.

According to KCTV, a reporter and photojournalist were covering recent charges of forgery, stealing and harassment filed against the owner of Metro Tow & Transport and his mother. News Director Josh Morgan asked that the journalists remain anonymous while the investigation is ongoing.

According to court records, the news crew had attempted to interview employees of the towing company and spoke with a community member who had retrieved their vehicle from the lot.

The journalists then parked in an empty lot across the street ahead of a live report later in the day and were clearly identifiable as press, wearing KCTV apparel and with a “Media” placard in the front windshield of their vehicle.

After approximately 45 minutes, three tow trucks and a pickup began to block in the news vehicle from the front, left and rear, while a fence blocked them in on the right.

According to the police report, the photojournalist reportedly became nervous after the first truck backed up in front of them and began filming the incident. The reporter, who called 911, told officers she was “afraid of what they might do since there was no escape for them.”

Police reported that both journalists described the interaction as a threat, and believed that the tow company was trying to send them a message.

When officers arrived at the scene, they directed the tow-truck drivers to move their vehicles, and the news crew was able to leave without further incident.

One of the drivers was later identified as James Basham, who was charged on April 17 with two counts of felony harassment.

In a statement to KCTV, Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said: “Today, our office filed criminal charges against a tow truck driver who targeted reporters who were reporting on the very same company we previously charged with forgery, stealing, and harassment. Our press should be able to report on issues in our community without fear and any attempt to intimidate or silence them will not be tolerated.”

Basham was released on a $50,000 bond and is next scheduled to appear June 25.

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

Since February, social media accounts known in Guatemala as “net centers” have targeted Rivera, co-director of the news agency Km. 169, which publishes the independent news websites Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda. The accounts flooded social media platform X with false and defamatory posts accusing the journalist of accepting foreign funding, collaborating with organized crime, and serving as a mouthpiece for the government.

“Authorities must take immediate steps to end these coordinated attacks and protect Nelton Rivera from efforts to silence him through public defamation and legal threats,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “Criminalizing journalists through smear campaigns and anonymous networks is a serious threat to press freedom in Guatemala.”

The campaign escalated in March and April, with dozens of posts reviewed by CPJ spreading manipulated images, threats of prosecution, and calls for Rivera’s arrest. Several posts include images showing Rivera behind bars next to prominent jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora, suggesting he will be imprisoned next.

Net centers, which are troll farms that use anonymous or pseudonymous accounts to spread disinformation and attacks on journalists and others, have been linked to political actors and officials inside the public prosecutor’s office. CPJ and other organizations have documented their involvement in past campaigns that preceded criminal charges against journalists — including those from elPeriódico, the newspaper founded by Zamora.

CPJ reached out to the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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

A lawsuit by several lawyers against Daraj and Megaphone, before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, accused the outlets of “undermining the financial standing of the state” and “receiving suspicious foreign funds with the aim of launching media campaigns that would shake confidence in Lebanon,” among other allegations.

The statement calls on Lebanese authorities to protect independent media outlets and support the country’s economic recovery by ending the weaponization of baseless charges to silence independent media.

Read the full statement here. 

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

LONG ISLAND, New York — Ma Ju was in the kitchen making dinner on Christmas Eve 2023 when he heard a knock. The woman on the doorstep of his two-story suburban Long Island home held a manila envelope in her hand. “Mr. Ju Ma?” she asked. “Yes,” he said.

She told him she was a lawyer from Nassau County, asked for his signature, and handed him the document.

“My eyesight isn’t great,” Ma recalled with a weary chuckle. “I glanced at it briefly and thought, ‘Huh? Who’s suing me?’” He paused, his smile fading. “At the time, I thought it might be a joke.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Marie Tsai RFA Investigative.

LONG ISLAND, New York — Ma Ju was in the kitchen making dinner on Christmas Eve 2023 when he heard a knock. The woman on the doorstep of his two-story suburban Long Island home held a manila envelope in her hand. “Mr. Ju Ma?” she asked. “Yes,” he said.

She told him she was a lawyer from Nassau County, asked for his signature, and handed him the document.

“My eyesight isn’t great,” Ma recalled with a weary chuckle. “I glanced at it briefly and thought, ‘Huh? Who’s suing me?’” He paused, his smile fading. “At the time, I thought it might be a joke.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Marie Tsai RFA Investigative.

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A high-ranking NASA official warned his employees Friday to “use discretion” in public when displaying badges or emblems that identify them as federal workers — part of an effort, the agency says, to protect its employees amid “stories of possible harassment” outside of work.

“We are all very proud to work for the space program,” wrote Dr. James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer. “But in the current environment, with a lot of negative rhetoric coming in our direction, I want you all to please use caution.”

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and his administration and allies have used strong language to disparage federal workers, whom they have been firing en masse. “We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job,” the president said on Feb. 26 during his first Cabinet meeting.

Polk’s warning to employees came two days later, after receiving a report about an employee who was “assaulted” at a Starbucks. “This is probably one of the saddest emails I have had to write of late,” he said in the email, which was obtained by ProPublica.

Polk wrote that Nicola Fox, an associate administrator at NASA, said at a meeting that an employee was confronted at a Starbucks by someone “because she was a federal employee.” The worker was working on her computer and was identified by her badge and a logo, he wrote.

Reached Saturday, Polk said the email was not intended for anyone outside NASA. He said he did not have additional details about the incident and declined to comment on it or on his email to staff, which did not name the employee. Fox declined to comment.

NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said the agency was “hearing stories of possible harassment toward employees, but not assault,” the term used in the email.

“Our managers are hearing information thirdhand and using this as an opportunity to remind our teams to be mindful of their surroundings and to report any incidences to the Office of Protective Services,” she said.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

It was not clear where the incident took place.

The email was circulating among NASA employees, some of whom said they are concerned by the Trump administration’s rhetoric regarding government workers. The president, his advisers and his congressional allies have all sharpened their attacks on federal employees over the past week as the administration undertakes expansive efforts to reduce the size of the federal government

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who Trump named the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has been leading the way.

A week ago, he demanded federal employees respond to an email asking them to list five things they’d accomplished in the previous week — or be fired. “What he’s doing is saying ‘Are you actually working’?” Trump said.

On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said during a committee meeting that “federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.”

And senior Trump officials on Wednesday sent out a memo on reducing the federal workforce that said, “The American people registered their verdict on the bloated, corrupt federal bureaucracy on November 5, 2024, by voting for President Trump and his promises to sweepingly reform the federal government.”

NASA sidestepped expected layoffs in February, but it is still losing personnel due to a buyout plan.

Polk urged his staff to stay vigilant.

“Be aware of your surroundings and keep good situational awareness and operational security,” he wrote. “Use caution when on the phone in public places, and ensure you are aware of those around you.”

If you’re a federal worker and you think you were harassed outside work as a result of your status as a government employee, ProPublica wants to hear from you. Contact our tips number on Signal at ‪917-512-0201‬. Here’s more detail on how to send us information securely.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Heather Vogell.

We discuss the cases of two of Egypt’s most prominent political activists, Hossam Bahgat and Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who have both been persecuted by the Egyptian government for exposing its human rights abuses. Bahgat is facing a new round of harassment from Egyptian security forces, while El-Fattah remains in prison past his expected release. El-Fattah’s mother, the Cairo University professor Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike for nearly four months in the U.K., where both she and her son have dual citizenship, demanding that the British government pressure Egypt for El-Fattah’s freedom. “Her collapse is imminent. She’s probably going to be hospitalized soon,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who recently spoke to Soueif’s family.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were going to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey and sand sampling on Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said in a statement on Saturday.

“During the mission, the BFAR vessels encountered aggressive maneuvers from three Chinese Coast Guard vessels 4106, 5103 and 4202,” PCG said, calling the incident a “blatant disregard” of the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs).

Sandy Cay is a group of cays – or low reefs – two nautical miles (3.7 km) from Philippines-occupied Thitu island, known as Pag-asa island in the Philippines.

Four smaller boats deployed by the China Coast Guard (CCG) also harassed the Philippine bureau’s two inflatable boats, the Philippine Coast Guard said.

“Compounding the situation, a People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) helicopter, identified by tail number 24, hovered at an unsafe altitude above the BFAR RHIBs, creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash,” the Philippine Coast Guard said.

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In a statement, the China Coast Guard said it expelled the Philippine vessels for unlawfully intruding into its waters.

China has “indisputable sovereignty” over the disputed waters and that it will continue to protect its maritime rights and interests, China Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said on Saturday.

Philippine authorities suspended the operation following the incident, the Philippine Coast Guard said.

The Philippine foreign affairs department is expected to file another diplomatic protest against China over the encounter, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said.

Edited by BenarNews Staff.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by BenarNews staff.

During the first week of January 2025, Pakistani security forces detained two Afghan journalists and their families before deporting them to Afghanistan, according to a letter the independent watchdog group, the Pak-Afghan International Forum of Journalists, sent to CPJ on January 16. The letter did not disclose the names of the deported journalists, who are members of the forum.

Separately, Afghan journalists Mujeeb Awrang and Ahmad Mosaviconfirmed to CPJ that on January 3 Pakistani authorities detained them at their homes in the capital, Islamabad, and held them in a vehicle for three hours, despite having presented valid Pakistani visas and Afghan passports. The journalists said they were threatened with imprisonment and deportation before being released without explanation.

“Pakistan’s security agencies must immediately halt the harassment and deportation of Afghan journalists,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “These journalists fled Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s threats to their lives. The Pakistani government must protect them, not mistreat them.”

The Pakistani government has instructed Afghan nationals, including journalists, to relocate from Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi to other cities by January 15, according to a report by the London-based independent media outlet Afghanistan International and a Pakistani journalist, who spoke to CPJ anonymously for fear of reprisal.

Afghan journalists continue to face imprisonment and persecution by the Taliban, with Afghan News Agency reporter Mahdi Ansary, sentenced on January 1 to 18 months in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda.

CPJ did not receive a response to its text asking for comment from Pakistan’s federal information minister, Attaullah Tarar. 

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

It has been five years since the Vietnamese government sent about 3,000 riot police into Dong Tam commune, where they shot dead Le Dinh Kinh and beat around 30 other villagers in a long-running dispute over a plot of land 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hanoi where the military wanted to build an airstrip.

His widow, Du Thi Thanh, witnessed the Jan. 9, 2020, shooting. Police arrested and beat her that day and she said they still harass her as she fights for justice.

“They criticize my family, considering me a reactionary person,” she told Radio Free Asia. “Wherever I go, they still make things difficult for me.”

The family home still bears evidence of the attack, bullet holes caused by police gunfire. No men live there because Thanh’s sons and grandsons were imprisoned and the house has fallen into a state of disrepair.

“We leave everything as it is and cover up the leaks,” Du Thi Thanh said. “How can we fix it now? The house is so dilapidated.”

Police said three officers were killed during the Dong Tam raid. They say the men fell into a well next to the family home and were burned to death by a gang led by Kinh and Thanh’s sons, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc.

The two men were sentenced to death for murder and are being held in a police detention center in Hanoi.

Thanh said her sons have serious physical problems because of police beatings and harsh conditions.

“Chuc is paralyzed on one side of his body, and Cong says he can only lie on his stomach, never on his back, because he was beaten so much and has scabies. Every time I see him, he is covered in blood from head to toe,” she said.

Thanh said police asked her to write that she wanted to “visit a murderer” before issuing a visitor’s permit, but she refused.

“I said no one in my family has killed anyone, if you give me the permit then give it, if you don’t then forget it,” she said.

Four other people were convicted of murder with sentences ranging from 12 to 16 years over the incident. Cong’s son, Le Dinh Doanh, was jailed for life for his part in the killings. Nine others were convicted of “resisting a person on official duty” with sentences ranging from three to six years in prison. Eight were released early for “hard work” and “compliance with prison regulations.”

Missing red book

After police killed Kinh, they confiscated many documents from his home, including the red book certifying ownership of the land his house is built on.

Thanh asked the people’s committee of the commune to help get it back. The police contacted her, saying they would return the red book but later refused.

RFA Vietnamese called the People’s Committee of My Duc district to ask whether they could issue a new red book but no one answered. The phone number listed for the district police did not connect.

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Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who represented the family before being forced into exile in Germany, said Thanh wants to tell the truth, that the police took the red book from her house, but authorities want her to say it was lost, so they can save face.

Police also refused to issue a death certificate for Kinh. Lawyer Dai said in order for the People’s Committee to issue one, the police must confirm the cause of death. They have refused because they still disagree with the family over where Kinh was shot.

Without a death certificate the family have been unable to inherit Kinh’s money and possessions. Kinh’s wife has also been denied a monthly pension of 70% of his monthly salary as a commune official.

Losing face

Dang Dinh Manh, one of many lawyers who defended the 29 people in the Dong Tam case, told RFA the 2020 attack was an act of retaliation for the police losing face three years earlier, when villagers captured 38 riot police officers accusing them of illegally arresting people.

“From a normal land dispute in Dong Tam, the regime turned it into a bloody crackdown that led to the deaths of four people and the death sentence of two people, including an elderly man over 80 years old who was shot in the chest at close range by Lt. Col. Dang Viet Quang, deputy head of the Investigation Police Agency of Hanoi City Police,” he told RFA, speaking from the United States where he fled, fearing arrest.

“The 2020 Dong Tam attack will forever be a story of the crimes committed by the communist regime against its people,” he added, saying responsibility for the attack should be borne by the late Nguyen Phu Trong, then communist party general secretary, and the current general secretary To Lam who was public security minister at the time.

“For the people of Dong Tam and for this nation, the debt of justice stained with the blood of innocent people is still there. The two unjust death sentences still exist. The Dong Tam case has never ended so it can’t be closed .”

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine

Office of the President of Ukraine

Presidential Administration Building

Bankova Street, 11

Kyiv, Ukraine

Sent via email

press@apu.gov.ua

Dear President Zelenskyy,

I am writing from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent non-governmental organization advocating for press freedom worldwide, to request your assistance in ensuring that journalists and media outlets in Ukraine can work freely and without fear of reprisal, and that no one responsible for intimidating journalists goes unpunished.

CPJ acknowledges the immense challenges facing your government in the midst of war and values Ukraine’s commitment to democratic standards and the rule of law. We recognize the need in exceptional circumstances for some limitations on journalistic access to information or areas for security reasons, and note that in the third year after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s media landscape remains vibrant and dynamic.

However, we are increasingly concerned by signals pointing to an unwarranted attempt by the Ukrainian government to control the media and stifle investigative journalism. Over the last year, our research and detailed exchanges with local journalists show a pattern of unwarranted restrictions and other interventions that curtail the operations of a free press and ultimately do a disservice to the democracy that you are aiming to defend.

In October, independent news outlet Ukrainska Pravda (UP) stated that it was experiencing “ongoing and systematic pressure” from your office. UP’s program director, Andrii Bystrov, told CPJ that government officials regularly receive directives from your office not to talk to the outlet on certain matters. On October 10, Ukrainska Pravda specified that Dmytro Lytvyn, the recently appointed communications adviser for your office, banned security forces and officials from communicating with the outlet’s journalists. Lytvyn denied the allegations on October 15. Ukrainska Pravda also alleged that your office is pressuring private companies to pull advertising from the outlet, and Bystrov told us that some advertisers had withdrawn following calls from your office.

In addition to the Ukrainska Pravda incident, CPJ has recorded several other concerning incidents. These include:

• Pressure, intimidation and surveillance: Several Ukrainian investigative journalists have been subjected to surveillance and intimidation by officials in connection with their work. In addition, journalists seeking press accreditation previously told CPJ in 2023 that they had been questioned by the Security Service of Ukraine and pressured to take certain approaches in their reporting.
• Lack of accountability: No one has been held accountable for intimidating investigative journalist Yuriy Nikolov in January. Similarly, no results have been communicated in the investigations related to the surveillance reported in January of investigative outlet Bihus.info or the attempt in April to serve investigative journalist Yevhen Shulhat with a military summons in retaliation for his work.

In addition, CPJ is concerned about a bill currently being debated in the Verkhovna Rada that could increase criminal penalties for publishing information from public databases during martial law, thereby threatening the work of investigative journalists.

In its June 2022 opinion on Ukraine’s European Union membership application, the European Commission stated that “media freedom has also improved significantly in recent years, especially thanks to online media.” Directly pressuring independent media or indirectly letting those who intimidate them operate with impunity would represent a significant step backwards in the realization of Ukraine’s European aspirations.

As someone committed to defending Ukraine’s international standing, who has recognized that “any pressure on journalists is unacceptable,” we request that you take immediate steps to end Ukrainian government officials’ surveillance, harassment, or intimidation of journalists, and ensure that anyone who has acted to weaken freedom of the press in Ukraine is held to account. 

We thank you for your consideration.

Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Committee to Protect Journalists

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

Press freedom is a pillar of American democracy. But political attacks on US-based journalists and news organisations pose an unprecedented threat to their safety and the integrity of information.

Less than 48 hours before election day, Donald Trump, now President-elect for a second term, told a rally of his supporters that he wouldn’t mind if someone shot the journalists in front of him.

“I have this piece of glass here, but all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much,” he said.

• READ MORE: Disarming disinformation, empowering truth

A new survey from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) highlights a disturbing tolerance for political bullying of the press in the land of the First Amendment. The findings show that this is especially true among white, male, Republican voters.

We commissioned this nationally representative survey of 1020 US adults, which was fielded between June 24 and July 5 2024, to assess Americans’ attitudes to the press ahead of the election. We are publishing the results here for the first time.

More than one-quarter (27 percent) of the Americans we polled said they had often seen or heard a journalist being threatened, harassed or abused online. And more than one-third (34 percent) said they thought it was appropriate for senior politicians and government officials to criticise journalists and news organisations.

Tolerance for political targeting of the press appears as polarised as American society. Nearly half (47 percent) of the Republicans surveyed approved of senior politicians critiquing the press, compared to less than one-quarter (22 percent) of Democrats.

Our analysis also revealed divisions according to gender and ethnicity. While 37 percent of white-identifying respondents thought it was appropriate for political leaders to target journalists and news organisations, only 27 percent of people of colour did. There was also a nine-point difference along gender lines, with 39 percent of men approving of this conduct, compared to 30 percent of women.

It appears intolerance towards the press has a face — a predominantly white, male and Republican-voting face.

Press freedom fears
This election campaign, Trump has repeated his blatantly false claim that journalists are “enemies of the people”. He has suggested that reporters who cross him should be jailed, and signalled that he would like to revoke broadcast licences of networks.

Relevant, too, is the enabling environment for viral attacks on journalists created by unregulated social media companies which represent a clear threat to press freedom and the safety of journalists. Previous research produced by ICFJ for Unesco concluded that there was a causal relationship between online violence towards women journalists and physical attacks.

While political actors may be the perpetrators of abuse targeting journalists, social media companies have facilitated their viral spread, heightening the risk to journalists.

We’ve seen a potent example of this in the current campaign, when Haitian Times editor Macollvie J. Neel was “swatted” — meaning police were dispatched to her home after a fraudulent report of a murder at the address — during an episode of severely racist online violence.

The trigger? Her reporting on Trump and JD Vance amplifying false claims that Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbours’ pets.

Trajectory of Trump attacks
Since the 2016 election, Trump has repeatedly discredited independent reporting on his campaign. He has weaponised the term “fake news” and accused the media of “rigging” elections.

“The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect [Hillary Clinton] president,” he said in 2016. With hindsight, such accusations foreshadowed his false claims of election fraud in 2020, and similar preemptive claims in 2024.

His increasingly virulent attacks on journalists and news organisations are amplified by his supporters online and far-right media. Trump has effectively licensed attacks on American journalists through anti-press rhetoric and undermined respect for press freedom.

In 2019, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that more than 11 percent of 5400 tweets posted by Trump between the date of his 2016 candidacy and January 2019 “. . . insulted or criticised journalists and outlets, or condemned and denigrated the news media as a whole”.

After being temporarily deplatformed from Twitter for breaching community standards, Trump launched Truth Social, where he continues to abuse his critics uninterrupted. But he recently rejoined the platform (now X), and held a series of campaign events with X owner and Trump backer Elon Musk.

The failed insurrection on January 6, 2021, rammed home the scale of the escalating threats facing American journalists. During the riots at the Capitol, at least 18 journalists were assaulted and reporting equipment valued at tens of thousands of dollars was destroyed.

This election cycle, Reporters Without Borders logged 108 instances of Trump insulting, attacking or threatening the news media in public speeches or offline remarks over an eight-week period ending on October 24.

Meanwhile, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has recorded 75 assaults on journalists since January 1 this year. That’s a 70 percent increase on the number of assaults captured by their press freedom tracker in 2023.

A recent survey of hundreds of journalists undertaking safety training provided by the International Women’s Media Foundation found that 36 percent of respondents reported being threatened with or experiencing physical violence. One-third reported exposure to digital violence, and 28 percent reported legal threats or action against them.

US journalists involved in ongoing ICFJ research have told us that they have felt particularly at risk covering Trump rallies and reporting on the election from communities hostile towards the press. Some are wearing protective flak jackets to cover domestic politics. Others have removed labels identifying their outlets from their reporting equipment to reduce the risk of being physically attacked.

And yet, our survey reveals a distinct lack of public concern about the First Amendment implications of political leaders threatening, harassing, or abusing journalists. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of Americans surveyed did not regard political attacks on journalists or news organisations as a threat to press freedom. Among them, 38 percent identified as Republicans compared to just 9 percent* as Democrats.

The anti-press playbook
Trump’s anti-press playbook appeals to a global audience of authoritarians. Other political strongmen, from Brazil to Hungary and the Philippines, have adopted similar tactics of deploying disinformation to smear and threaten journalists and news outlets.

Such an approach imperils journalists while undercutting trust in facts and critical independent journalism.

History shows that fascism thrives when journalists cannot safely and freely do the work of holding governments and political leaders to account. As our research findings show, the consequences are a society accepting lies and fiction as facts while turning a blind eye to attacks on the press.

*The people identifying as Democrats in this sub-group are too few to make this a reliable representative estimate.

Note: Nabeelah Shabbir (ICFJ deputy director of research) and Kaylee Williams (ICFJ research associate) also contributed to this article and the research underpinning it. The survey was conducted by Langer Research Associates in English and Spanish. ICFJ researchers co-developed the survey and conducted the analysis.

Dr Julie Posetti, Global Director of Research, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Professor of Journalism, City St George’s, University of London and Waqas Ejaz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Oxford Climate Journalism Network, University of Oxford. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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

The journalists behind an online e-commerce news site were ordered by a federal court on Sept. 25, 2024, to turn over the identities of sources who stopped working with them as a result of a 2019 campaign of harassment and intimidation at the hands of then-eBay employees. An attorney representing the journalists argues there’s nothing to turn over.

David and Ina Steiner, a married couple who run the Massachusetts-based news site EcommerceBytes, were targeted by seven employees after publishing an article in August 2019 about litigation involving the online retailer. The seven were later convicted and eBay was fined $3 million.

In July 2021, the Steiners filed a federal lawsuit in Boston against eBay, the former executives and the seven co-conspirators, alleging they suffered emotional, psychological and financial harm as a result of the harassment campaign.

As part of discovery in that lawsuit, eBay filed a motion in September 2024 asking that the court compel the Steiners to disclose the identities of “would-be sources” who were fearful of working with the journalists following the harassment.

The Steiners had previously released redacted copies of communications wherein sources asked that their names not be published or advertisers withdrew their business, citing a fear of retaliation from eBay or cyberbullying.

In a filing in opposition to eBay’s motion, an attorney representing the Steiners wrote that the request was moot, as there are no potential sources that they could identify. Attorney Todd Garber added that the motion should still be denied, however, as granting it could have a chilling effect on potential confidential sources.

“Sources came forward on the premise of anonymity for fear of retaliation, a very real fear given the facts of this case,” Garber wrote. “eBay’s motion threatens the free flow of information because if granted it would send fear down any confidential sources’ spine that the disclosure of their identities is very much at risk and promises of confidentiality cannot be upheld.”

During a hearing on Sept. 25, Law360 reported, Garber reiterated that there are no further documents or information to produce in response to the request. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson expressed frustration during the hearing and largely sidestepped arguments over reporter’s privilege.

“It sounds like what you’re saying essentially is ‘we can’t identify any particular person who says they will no longer work with us, but that it stands to reason that such people would exist, and we just don’t know who they are,’” Levenson said.

The judge also asked why that wouldn’t be a correct and full answer to eBay’s request. Garber said it would be and that he would state as much in his response, which Levenson ordered him to provide by the end of the week, Law360 reported.

By granting the motion to compel, however, the judge placed an obligation on the Steiners to provide the identities of such “would-be sources” if they learn of them at any point before the case is resolved.

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

The International Press Institute (IPI) has strongly condemned the Israeli government’s recent decision to revoke the press passes of Al Jazeera journalists, months after the global news outlet was banned in the country.

“The Israeli government’s decision to revoke Al Jazeera press passes highlights a broader and deeply alarming pattern of harassment of journalists and attacks on press freedom in Israel and the region,” IPI interim executive director Scott Griffen said.

The Israeli government announced it will be revoking all press passes previously issued to Al Jazeera journalists.

• READ MORE: Hezbollah blames Israel after Lebanon pager blasts killed at least 9 and wounded 2750 across Lebanon and Syria
• UN General Assembly debates end to Israeli occupation of Palestine
• Beyond Gaza: The terror in the West Bank

Nitzan Chen, director of Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO), announced the decision via X on Thursday, accusing Al Jazeera of spreading “false content” and “incitement against Israelis”.

Use of press office cards in the course of the journalists’ work could in itself “jeopardise state security at this time”, claimed Chen.

The journalists affected by the decision would be given a hearing before their passes are officially revoked.

While the GPO press card is not mandatory, without it a journalist in Israel will not be able to access Parliament, Israeli government ministries, or military infrastructure.

Only Israeli recognised pass
It is also the only card recognised at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

Griffen said the move was indicative of a “systematic effort” by Israeli authorities to “expand its control over media reporting about Israel, including reporting on and from Gaza”.

He added: “We strongly urge Israel to respect freedom of the press and access to information, which are fundamental human rights that all democracies must respect and protect.”

In May, Israel’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera in the country, immediately ordering the closure of its offices and a ban on the company’s broadcasts.

At the time, Al Jazeera described it as a “criminal act” and warned that Israel’s suppression of the free press “stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.

GPO Director Nitzan Chen: “Al Jazeera disseminates false content, which includes incitement against Israelis and Jews and constitutes a threat to IDF soldiers. Use of GPO cards in the course of the journalists’ work could in itself jeopardize state security at this time”.
(2/3)

— Gov’t Press Office (@GPOIsrael) September 12, 2024

Al Jazeera is widely regarded as the most balanced global news network covering the war on Gaza in contrast to many Western news services perceived as biased in favour of Israel.

Media freedom petition rejected
A petition for military authorities to allow foreign journalists to report inside Gaza was rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court in January 2024.

IPI and other media watchdogs have repeatedly called on Israel to allow international media access to Gaza and ensure the safety of journalists.

At least 173 Palestinian journalists are reported to have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza with the latest killing of reporter Abdullah Shakshak, who was shot by an Israeli military quadcopter in Rafah in southern Gaza.

UN General Assembly debates end to Israeli occupation of Palestine.    Video: Al Jazeera

Deadly pager attack
Meanwhile, the deadly en masse explosion of pagers in Lebanon and Syria killing 11 and wounding almost 3000 people that has widely been attributed to Israel raises questions about what the end game may be, amid rising tensions in the region, say analysts.

Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israeli analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the attack was something that Israel had had in the works for several months and risked losing if Hezbollah became suspicious.

This concern may have led the Israeli army to trigger the blasts, but Israel’s strategy overall remains unclear.

“Where is Israel going to go from here? This question still hasn’t been answered,” Zonszein said.

“Without a ceasefire in Gaza, it’s unclear how Israel plans to de-escalate, or if Netanyahu is in fact trying to spark a broader war,” the analyst added, noting that more Israeli troops were now stationed in the West Bank and along the northern border than in the Gaza Strip.

In a historic moment, Palestine, newly promoted to observer status at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), has submitted a draft resolution at the body demanding an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

Building on a recent International Court of Justice ruling, the resolution calls for Israel to withdraw its troops, halt settlement expansion, and return land taken since 1967 within 12 months.

While the US opposes the resolution, it has no veto power in the UNGA, and the body has previously supported Palestinian recognition.

The resolution, which will be voted on by UNGA members today, is not legally binding, but reflects global opinion as leaders gather for high-level UN meetings next week.

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

Bekirov, who is an ethnic Crimean Tatar from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied region of Crimea, was a correspondent for independent Russian news website Grani and reported on Russian authorities’ raids and trials of Crimean Tatars for Crimean Solidarity’s YouTube channel before he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in March 2022.

“The harsh treatment of Remzi Bekirov in prison is indicative of the plight of jailed Crimean Tatar journalists whom Russian authorities punish with lengthy prison terms on fabricated terrorism charges in retaliation for their reporting on human rights abuses in the occupied Crimea,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Russian authorities must immediately release Remzi Bekirov and all other jailed Ukrainian journalists and ensure their safe return to their homeland.”

Bekirov is imprisoned at a penal colony in Russia’s southern Siberia region of Khakassia on charges of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization and “preparing for a violent seizure of power,” according to his lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, who spoke to CPJ, and Crimean Solidarity, a human rights organization that reports on politically motivated cases. The IK-33 colony is located in the region’s capital, Abakan, more than 4,000 km from his home in Ukraine’s Crimea.

Bekirov “receives heightened scrutiny,” including strict monitoring of his correspondence, regular cell searches, and being placed in solitary confinement five times since his transfer to IK-33 in August 2024, Kurbedinov told CPJ, adding that Bekirov was in solitary as of September 13.

CPJ’s email to the press office of Russia’s Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments requesting verification and details about Bekirov’s treatment did not receive a response. CPJ’s call to the Crimean branch of the Russian Ministry of Interior did not go through.

Kurbedinov said Bekirov appeared particularly frightened during their recent meeting, which a prison administrator monitored. Kurbedinov said Bekirov’s detention far from Crimea is harmful and “intentional,” making visits from family and attorneys difficult.

Since Russian authorities cracked down on independent media in Crimea after annexing the peninsula in 2014, many have engaged in “citizen journalism,” particularly focused on human rights issues affecting Crimean Tatars.

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

Numerous incidents of targeted attacks on Hindus have been reported from the neighbouring country in the wake of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5. The video is being circulated in that context.

The video shows several men heckling an older man. They first staple what appears to be cigarette packets to his shirt collar, then force him to drink from a glass and finally pour something from a bottle on him. A commentator then appears in the video and states that the man being heckled is Gautam Pal, a popular teacher of mathematics from Azimpur Girls’ College, who was forced to resign. The video ends abruptly with the commentator claiming Hindu teachers were being targeted.

Vice-president of ISKCON Kolkata Radharaman Das, who shares communal misinformation on a regular basis, amplified the video with the same claim.

Another Hindu teacher in Bangladesh has been insulted by Muslim students he once taught and was forced to resign. Every day, thousands of Hindus in Bangladesh are being pressured to sign resignation letters. Their aim is to remove all 2.5 million Hindus working in Bangladesh.… pic.twitter.com/g4NyjnHfpp

— Radharamn Das राधारमण दास (@RadharamnDas) August 21, 2024

The clip was also shared along with the Hindu-teacher-being-targeted claim by users such as Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt), Baba Banaras (@RealBababanaras), Bloody Media (@bloody_media), Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) and others.

Author and economist Sanjeev Sanyal quote-tweeted Radharaman Das and wrote, “Of course channels like
@dwnews and @BBCWorld think that that this perfectly reasonable behaviour from “students” in Bangladesh. How is this different from Nazi Germany?? Or perhaps this treatment of Hindus is thought justified in the same way that the ancestors of @dwnews journalists treated the Jews.”

Fact Check

We notice the words ‘Chapai Express’ written on the frame of the viral video. Chapai Nawabganj is a district in northwestern Bangladesh under Rajsahi division. We performed a relevant keyword search in Bengali and found several reports on an incident that transpired at the office of Chapai Nawabganj civiv body. These reports carried images which showed the same incident of harassment.

According to a report by bdnews24.com, a group of youths forced a government official at Chapainawabganj municipality to resign after finding two packs of cigarettes in his office drawer on Monday, August 19, 2024. The official was identified as Taufiq Islam, an executive engineer with the civic body. The action against him was spearheaded by Ismail Hossain Sirazi, a local leader of the students’ movement.

Quoting municipal executive officer Mamun Aur Rashid, the bdnews24.com report adds that Islam fell ‘unconscious’ after the incident and was taken him to a hospital. The student activists had also forced two other municipal officials to wirte resignation letters on white papers, the report says.

Another report, by banglatribune.com narrated the same events and added that the executive engineer, Taufiq Islam, had stopped going to office after returning home from hospital.

We also found a video report on the incident by media outlet Swadesh Pratidin, where the man leading the youth, Ismail Hossain Sirazi, claims that civic body officials had voluntarily resigned. Below is a screenshot from the video report which captures the incident.

Hence, it is clear that the incident is being falsely given a communal colour by Indian social media users. It is not a case of an attack on a Hindu in Bangladesh. The video shows a municipal engineer named Taufiq Islam being heckled by student protesters in Chapai Nawabganj of Rajsahi division in Bangladesh.

The post Bangladesh: Harassment of Rajsahi civic official Taufiq Islam falsely shared by Indian RW as attack on Hindus appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Indradeep Bhattacharyya.

Gendered online violence is silencing women journalists in Fiji, says Pacific media scholar Dr Shailendra Singh.

The harmful trend involves unwanted private messages, hateful language and threats to reputation, often from anonymous sources.

The visibility of women journalists has made them frequent targets, while perpetrators can harness popular online platforms to shame or embarrass them in the public eye.

• READ MORE: Other QUT Project reports

Dr Singh has dedicated extensive research to this dangerous phenomenon, including a 2022 study with Geraldine Panapasa and other colleagues from The University of South Pacific and Fiji Women’s Rights Movement.

The research found 83 percent of female Fijian journalists who completed their survey had experienced online harassment.

Significantly, the women journalists reported changes to their journalistic practice because of abuse, such as self-censoring their content or avoiding certain sources or stories.

“The aim is to embarrass female journalists into silence, or punish them for writing a report that someone did not like,” Dr Singh says.

The researchers said the valuable role of the Fourth Estate in protecting the public interest makes harassment of journalists a critical concern.

Eliminating the problem will need further action, as 40 per cent of the women journalists who responded said their employers had no systems in place for dealing with online violence.

Islands Business magazine manager Samantha Magick says her staff can come to her for support, but even so, harassment adds another barrier to attracting and keeping journalists in the industry.

“We’re competing with marketing, or competing with UN agencies that will snap up a great young communications officer after they’ve done a year in a newsroom, and pay them a lot more,” she says.

“The people who stick with the profession are either super passionate about it and willing to sacrifice certain things or are in a position where it can be viable for them.”

Fiji adopted its Online Safety Act in 2018, which bans harmful online communications and appoints the Online Safety Commission to investigate offences.

Fiji TV news editor Felix Chaudhary says journalists often do not report online abuse because of a lack of faith or awareness around reporting procedures.

“You can have the best laws, but if you aren’t able to enforce the law or have reporting mechanisms in place, then the laws are useless because they’re not going to serve their purpose,” he says.

Until these mechanisms are developed, media employers should build a zero-tolerance workplace culture and establish their own protocols to deal with online violence, Chaudhary says.

“You get very clear from the beginning that you will not tolerate any form of harassment – abuse, verbal, written online,” he says. “So it’s very clear from the get-go that kind of behaviour is not accepted.”

There is a growing body of data to suggest women’s online safety is a critical concern across Fiji, with research from the Online Safety Commission revealing that 61.44 per cent of women in Fiji experienced cyberbullying in 2023.

Chaudhary says the online harassment of women journalists reflects ongoing issues for women that stem from the explosion of internet use in Fiji.

“Facebook, Twitter and Instagram gave people open territory to abuse anyone and everyone at will, whenever they wanted to.

“I think there should have been a lot of education on social media etiquette, what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he says.

• Fijians can directly report online violence on social media platforms or lodge a complaint with the Fiji Online Safety Commission: https://osc.com.fj/

Brooklyn Self is a student journalist from the Queensland University of Technology who travelled to Fiji with the support of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Mobility Programme. This article is republished by Asia Pacific Report in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), QUT and The University of the South Pacific.

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

News 18 Hindi published a report about the video claiming that the girl seen in the video was a Hindu. The title of the report read, “यह वीडियो आपको देगा झकझोर… देखिए बांग्लादेश में हिंदू लड़की के साथ क्या हो रहा है… मुस्लिम देशों में अल्पसंख्यक होना क्या गुनाह है?” (Translation: This video will shock you… See what is happening to the Hindu girl in Bangladesh… Is it a crime to be a minority in Muslim countries?) The article was later taken down. Here is an archive to Google Cache.

Right-wing propaganda handle The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) run by Sanjay Dixit tweeted the video with the same claim. The tweet garnered 1.7 million views and 10,000 retweets. (Archive)

Hindu Women in Bangladesh!

They are being Raped and Killed! Hindus are staring at a Genocide in Bangladesh

These images and videos make you feel so helpless! pic.twitter.com/j47Ri5QX2p

— The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) August 7, 2024

Verified user @jpsin1 also tweeted the video with the hashtags #HindusAreNotSafeInBangladesh, #HindusUnderAttack, #SaveHindusinBangladesh and the like. (Archive)

Welcome to new bangladesh#HindusAreNotSafeInBangladesh #HindusUnderAttack #Hindus #SaveHindusinBangladesh #SaveBangladesiHindus #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus#HelpBangladeshiHindus#helpbangladeshisanatani pic.twitter.com/3CZwuu1aV7

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) August 7, 2024

Several other users also tweeted the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4)

Fact Check

Upon reverse image searching key frames from the viral video, we discovered that the footage was uploaded on multiple platforms in July 2024, claiming that the woman seen in the video was from Jagannath University (1, 2). Needless to say, this was much before Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.

We also noticed a bus in the background of the viral video with Jagannath University written in Bangla. We found an image on Google Maps of Jagannath University that confirmed the video was indeed shot at the university. Below is a comparison.

We also found that a Facebook page called JnU Short Stories posted the video on July 26 clarifying that the girl seen in the video was a student of Jagannath University and was not affiliated with any political party. In the video, she was seen protesting against the suicide of JnU student Fairuz Abontika. Abontika reportedly took her life in March this year after allegedly facing harassment from assistant proctor Deen Islam and a student named Amman Siddique. Students of the university staged a demonstration demanding punishment for the two.

We also found that the video was being circulated in Bangladesh in July with a different claim. Bangladeshi fact-checking outlet Rumor Scanner spoke to the woman seen in the video who also confirmed that the video had been shot in March 17, while students were protesting against the authorities of the university following Abontika’s death. “Dramas, silent plays and torch processions were held there. The scene that is being shared is from the preparation for the silent play”, she said in her statement to Rumor Scanner.

Hence, a video from a March 2024 protest, in which a woman is seen tied up with tape over her mouth, is now being circulated with the false claim that she is a Hindu being targeted in Bangladesh.

The post Bangladesh: Woman protesting against varsity student Fairuz Abontika’s ‘harassment’ & death; video falsely viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Fiji journalist Felix Chaudhary recalls how the harassment began: “Initially, I was verbally warned to stop.”

“And not only warned but threatened as well. I think I was a bit ‘gung-ho’ at the time and I kind of took it lightly until the day I was taken to a particular site and beaten up.

“I was told that my mother would identify me at a mortuary. That’s when I knew that this was now serious, and that I couldn’t be so blasé and think that I’m immune.”

• READ MORE: Other QUT Project reports

Pressing risks of Chaudhary’s early career
Felix Chaudhary, now director of news, current affairs and sports at Fiji TV, and former deputy chief-of-staff at The Fiji Times, was detained and threatened several times during the period of government led by former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama from 2007 to 2022.

Commodore Bainimarama, as he was known at the time, executed his military coup in December 2006 against Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and President Josefa IIoilo.

Although some media outlets were perceived as openly supporting the government then, not all relinquished their impartiality, Chaudhary explains.

“Some media organisations decided to follow suit. The one that I worked for, The Fiji Times, committed to remaining an objective and ethical media organisation.

“Everyone who worked there knew that at some point they would face challenges.”

Military impact on sugar industry
During the early days of the coup, Chaudhary was based in Viti Levu’s Western Division in the city of Lautoka, reporting about the impact of the military takeover of the sugar cane industry. It was there that he experienced some of his most severe harassment.

“It was just unfortunate that during the takeover, I was one of the first to face the challenges, simply because I was writing stories about how the sugar cane industry was being affected,” he says.

“I was reporting about how the military takeover was affecting the livelihoods of the people who depend on this industry. There are a lot of people who depend on sugar cane farming, and not necessarily just the farmers.

“I was writing from their perspective.”

A lot of countries, including Australia, in an effort to avoid appearing sympathetic to a government ruling through military dictatorship, turned their backs on Fiji, Chaudhary explains.

“These countries took a stand, and we respect them for that,” he says.

“However, a lot of aid that used to come in started to slow down, and assistance to the sugar industry, from the European Union, didn’t come through.

“The industry was struggling. But the Fijian government tried to maintain that everything was fine as they were in control.

‘Just not sustainable’
“It was just not sustainable. They didn’t have the resources to do it, and people were feeling the impact. This was around 2009. The military had been in power since 2006.”

Chaudhary chose to focus his writing on the difficulties faced by the locals: a view that was in direct contention with the military’s agenda.

He experienced a series of threats, including assurances of death if he continued to report on the takeover. His first encounter with the military saw him seized, driven to an unknown location, and physically assaulted.

Chaudhary soon realised this was not an isolated case and the threats on his life were far from empty.

“Other people, in addition to journalists, were taken into custody for many reasons. Some ended up dead after being beaten up. That’s when I knew that could happen to me,” he says.

“I figured I’d just continue to try and be as safe as possible.”

Chaudhary was later again abducted, threatened, and locked in a cell. No reason was given, no charges were laid, and he was repeatedly told that he might never leave.

Aware of military tactics
Having served in the Fiji military in 1987–1988, Chaudhary was aware of common military tactics, and knew what these personnel were capable of. Former army colleagues had also tried to warn him of the danger he was in.

“When I was taken in by the military, I was visited by two of my former colleagues. They told me if I didn’t stop, something was going to happen,” he says.

“That set the tone. It reminded me that I needed to be more careful.”

On another occasion, military personnel entered The Fiji Times offices and proceeded to forcefully arrest both Chaudhary, and his wife, the newspaper’s current chief-of-staff, Margaret Wise.

“The military entered the newsroom while we were both at work, demanded our phones and attacked [Margaret] physically. I came to her defence, and I was also attacked. These threats were not only to me, but to her as well.”

Chaudhary admires Margaret Wise’s incredible tenacity.

“She’s a very strong woman. Any other person might have wanted to run away from it all, but we both knew we had a responsibility to be the voice for those that didn’t have one,” he says.

Dictatorships have a ‘limited lifespan’
“She also knew that governments come and go, and that dictatorships only have a limited lifespan. On the other hand, media organisations have been here for decades, in our case, a century and a half. We knew we had to get through it.”

The pair supported each other and decided to restrict their social life in an effort to protect not only themselves, but their families as well.

Looking back, Chaudhary acknowledges the danger of that period, and questions whether he would have done the same thing again, if presented with a similar situation.

“I think I might have changed the way that I did things if I had thought about the livelihoods of the people working for The Fiji Times,” he says.

“I didn’t think about that at the time. Some people might say that was a bit reckless, and maybe it was.

“I kept thinking about my family, but then you have to think about the other families as well. Sometimes you have to make a stand for what is right, no matter what the consequences are.

“People think that’s bravery. It’s not really. It’s just doing what is right, and I’m glad I’m here today.

“I have a lot of respect for other people who went through what I went through and are still alive to tell the tale.”

Chaudhary maintains that anyone in a similar situation would do the same.

“What I do know is everybody, regardless of who they are, has the wanting to do what is right. And I think if presented with this sort of situation, people would take a stand,” he says.

Fiji TV dealing with harassment
Although journalists continue to experience incidents of harassment, the form of harassment has changed, with women often receiving the worst of it, Chaudhary explains.

“Harassment now is different. Back then, they had a licence to harass you, and your policies meant nothing, because they had the backing of the military,” he says.

“Nowadays, harassment is different in the sense that there is a lot of male leaders who feel like they have the right to speak to females however they want.”

Chaudhary, through his position at Fiji TV, has used his past experiences to shape the way he deals with cases of harassment, and especially when his female journalists are targeted.

“For us at Fiji TV, it’s about empowering the female journalists to be able to face these situations in a diplomatic way. They don’t take things personally, even if the attack is verbal and personal,” he says.

“Our journalists have to understand that these individuals are acting this way because the questions being asked are difficult ones.

“I’ve tried to make changes in the way they ask their questions. They are told not to lead with the difficult questions. You ask the more positive questions and set them in a good mood, and then move to the more difficult questions.

“The way you frame the questions has a lot to do with it as well.

“When the females ask, especially these sources get personal, they use gender as a way to not answer the question and just deflect it. So, now we have to be a bit more creative in how we ask.”

Things are improving
Nevertheless, Chaudhary maintains that things are improving, citing the professionalism of his female journalists.

“We are able to break a lot of stories, and it’s the female journalists doing it,” he says.

“They are facing this new era with this new government with the hope that things are more open and transparent.

“I’m really blessed to have four women who are very strong. They understand the need to be diplomatic, but they also understand the need to get answers to the questions that need to be asked.

“They are kind of on their own, with a little bit of guidance from me. We worked out how to handle harassment, and how to get the answers. They have kind of done it on their own.”

While asking the tough questions may be a daunting exercise, it is imperative if Fiji is to avoid making the same mistakes, Chaudhary explains.

“I think for me now, it’s just about sharing what happened in the past, and getting them to understand that if we don’t ask the right questions now, we could have a situation similar to that of the last 16 years.

“This could happen if we don’t hold the current government to account, and don’t ask the hard questions now.”

Fiji’s proposal to end sexual harassment
A 2022 research report, ‘Prevalence and Impact of Sexual Harassment on Female Journalists’, revealed that more than 80 per cent of Fijian female journalists have experienced physical, verbal and online sexual harassment during the course of their work.

The report by The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme and Fiji Women’s Rights Movement also proposes numerous solutions that prioritise the safety and wellbeing of female journalists.

Acknowledging the report’s good intentions, Chaudhary argues that it hasn’t created any substantial change due to long-standing Fijian culture and social norms.

“The report was, for many people, an eye opener. For me, it wasn’t,” he says.

“Unfortunately, I work alongside some people who hold the view that because they have been in the industry for some time, they can speak to females however they want.

“There wasn’t necessarily any physical harassment, but in Fiji, we have a lot of spoken sexual innuendo.

“We have a relationship among Fijians and the indigenous community where if I’m from a certain village, or part of the country and you are from another, we are allowed to engage in colourful conversation.

“It’s part of the tradition and culture. It’s just unfortunate that that culture and tradition has also found its way into workplaces, and the media industry. So that was often the excuse given in the newsroom.

Excuse that was used
“Many say, ‘I didn’t mean that. I said it because she’s from this village, and I’m from there, so I’m allowed to.’ The intent may have been deeper than that, but that was the excuse that was used,” he says.

Chaudhary believes that the report should have sparked palpable policy change in newsrooms.

“It should have translated into engagement with different heads of newsrooms to develop policies or regulations within the organisation, aimed at addressing those issues specifically. This would ensure that young women do not enter a workplace where that culture exists.

“So, we have a report, which is great, but it didn’t turn into anything tangible that would benefit organisations.

“This should have been taken on board by government and by the different organisations to develop those policies and systems in order to change the culture because the culture still exists,” he says.

Maxim Bock is a student journalist from the Queensland University of Technology who travelled to Fiji with the support of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Mobility Programme. Published in partnership with QUT.

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

"I am Wang Di, and I reported my supervisor Professor Wang Guiyuan, the former party secretary, vice president and doctoral supervisor of the School of Liberal Arts at Renmin University, for sexually harassing and forcibly molesting me and asking me to have sex with him, using my real name," the woman said in a video that exploded onto social media on July 22, garnering millions of likes and attracting large numbers of supportive comments.

Wang, who held up her ID card to identify herself and also posted audio clips in which her supervisor allegedly tried to kiss her, continued: "I refused, and so he retaliated by threatening not to allow me to graduate."

China has seen a number of high-profile allegations of sexual harassment as part of its #MeToo movement in recent years, but the country’s feminists say the victims don’t always get the response they were hoping for, and can face retaliation from those who have power over them.

Last month, a court in the southern city of Guangzhou handed down a five-year jail term to Sophia Huang for “incitement to subvert state power” after she assisted in the investigation and reporting of a number of high-profile sexual harassment allegations against professors at Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Henan University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

In Wang Di’s case, Renmin University fired Wang Guiyuan on July 23, and police in Beijing's Haidian district said they were investigating, without giving further details. But this response only came after she went public, and after attempts to complain to the school had met with no action.

Similar allegations were made soon afterwards by women at universities in Shaanxi and Shandong.

Depressingly common behavior

Young Chinese women with recent experience of higher education in the country told RFA Mandarin that the news came as no great surprise to them, saying sexually inappropriate behavior from mostly male doctoral supervisors is depressingly common.

"This kind of thing is shocking to people who don't move in these circles, but for us, it is not particularly," a young Chinese master's student who gave only the nickname Tingting for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

"I have heard of [professors] sending harassing text messages to female students, or inviting them out to dinner several times, and promising to help them get published, or asking what they want in return," she said. "It's wrong to manipulate women in this way, and it's certainly not normal."

The situation Wang Di described is a nightmare scenario for many young women navigating higher education in China, according to Tingting, because doctoral and research students are totally dependent on their supervisor for advancement and even for the degree they are studying for.

"Tutors have absolute control over the students under them, including their lives, their studies, and their future," she said. "If your teacher decides they want something from you, you have no way to resist."

She said complaints are often not taken seriously, because faculty typically back each other up, and sometimes retaliate against the person making the complaint.

"If you want to stay in school, you just have to put up with it, because there's nowhere you can go to complain or resolve it," Tingting said.

A university graduate who gave only the nickname Yuyu for fear of reprisals said that while #MeToo incidents aren't unique to China, there are fewer mechanisms for complaint or redress.

She said Wang Di had only taken to social media more than a year after complaining, then waiting in vain for something to happen.

"This woman had already complained a year or even two years beforehand, but didn't get any kind of useful response," Yuyu said. "In the end she had to pay a huge price and expose his behavior, putting a huge amount of pressure on the school and the party to act as soon as possible."

"But [complaining] will ultimately put the victim in a disadvantageous position," she said.

Humiliated by police

The #MeToo movement has been widely known in Chinese universities for nearly a decade now, and young women are more likely to try to protect themselves, Yuyu said.

"But you can't eliminate this problem by relying on young women to protect themselves," she said. "There should be people in schools and education bureaus who are responsible for handling such cases."

"It shouldn't just be on a case-by-case basis."

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A recent graduate who gave only the nickname Xiao Min for fear of reprisals said the fear of stigma and victim-blaming is also a huge deterrent for women wishing to report such cases.

"First of all, Me Too is difficult to talk about, because there may also be some kind of stigmatization, because there is a power relationship between the victim and the perpetrator," Xiao Min said.

"[The perpetrator] can always claim it was mutual, but it's hard to provide clear evidence for that kind of thing and hard to win this kind of case," she said, saying that women are also up against a male-dominated society in China that doesn't view whistleblowers too kindly, and often takes the man's side in such disputes.

Universities aren't the only place where power relationships can put women in difficulty, she said, citing workplaces as another area where sexual harassment is rife in China.

Shi Minglei, wife of recently released rights activist Cheng Yuan, said she was sexually harassed by someone who was helping her campaign for her husband's release.

"This had a huge impact on me, and made me feel utterly desperate," Shi told RFA. "Under the political repression of that regime, you are particularly isolated and helpless, and you need your community to support you."

"I was very vulnerable," she said.

Veteran feminist activist Li Maizi said power imbalances are what drives the kind of sexual harassment reported by Wang Di and Shi Minglei, yet the burden of proof lies entirely with the victim in China.

"A lot of people don't want to go to the police, because if you do, you will be humiliated by them," Li said, adding that while China does have legislation protecting women from sexual harassment, it's rarely followed in practice. 

"The police don't protect victims," she said. "A lot of times, even if you call them, they won't care about it, because [they] are a male-dominated institution that has no motivation to cooperate," she said. 

And there could be other consequences for making such accusations.

"In the worst-case scenario, you could get expelled from your school or get transferred in your job," Li said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

The controversy blew up in May, after the Washington-based nonprofit news outlet NOTUS ran an article detailing alleged sexual harassment within the Uyghur and Hong Kong human rights movements.

That article touched a raw nerve and stirred a heated debate in the activist community. Female accusers said they were being targeted for speaking out, while others came to the defense of the accused and said the allegations were unsubstantiated.

While a number of the accusers in the NOTUS article were anonymous, Esma Gün, a Turkish-Belgian student who had been involved in the Uyghur cause, went on record with allegations of inappropriate advances by Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, or WUC.

In the weeks that followed, she told Radio Free Asia, messages of support for speaking out were tempered by “humiliating” attacks that left her feeling panicked and sickened. 

“I was very stressed after I realized this is not going the way it should be. These guys are not taking responsibility, they are creating more space for people to speculate and to create more and more stories. I think they have a lot to take responsibility for and they didn’t and it all backlashed on the victims of course,” Gün told RFA in a recent interview.

In a May 24 interview with RFA’s Uyghur language service, Isa defended his conduct and said he had no recollection of messaging or meeting Gün. Although he did not directly accuse Gün, he implied that harassment accusations against him and others were part of a Chinese plot. The RFA interview has since been removed.

The NOTUS article outlined allegations of harassment against both Isa and chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Nury Turkel, who has since resigned from his position.  

The most detailed of these accusations was made by Gün, who shared text messages with NOTUS in which Isa said he wished to kiss her and repeatedly asked to meet her. Gün, who was a 22-year-old university student at the time, had been involved in the Uyghur movement as an activist and photographer since 2019, though she did not work with WUC.

The WUC is an international organization of exiled Uyghurs and among the leading advocates against grave persecution of the minority group by China.

In the RFA interview, Isa said Gün had not provided proof of the messages. He also said that the party that would benefit the most from the controversy was China.

“I don't know if there's only an exchange of text messages or not. I think it is unfair for them to call this problem ‘sexual harassment.’ I cannot accept this, let me say this first. Of course, the country that benefited the most from this is China, because as I said before, China has been doing this for 30 years,” he said. 

Following the interview, Gün in early June posted to X a handful of screenshots from LinkedIn and Instagram messaging services. 

“I didn’t want to share screenshots … I didn’t want to humiliate him … I also felt shame even though I was not the one that was supposed to feel the shame,” she told RFA. But because “he went with the Chinese project narrative … I shared the screenshots on Twitter to prove, another time, that I was not a Chinese spy.” 

While the shared screenshots do not include the “kissing” line, Isa tells Gün in a message that she is “always on my mind” and that “I want to talk, I want to hear your voice, my dear.” The messages are in Turkish.

When she replies that she “hesitate[s] to meet with you alone” out of concern for a misunderstanding among her friends, he asks, “Don't you think it's better to keep our meetings private?”  

The screenshots were not independently verified by RFA, but they match the content of what was shared and verified by NOTUS.  

Shortly after the NOTUS report came out, Isa issued an English language statement in which he said he had a “duty to admit serious errors of judgement, for which I apologise without reservation.”

In the RFA Uyghur language interview, however, Isa walked back that apology, saying it was primarily for damage control.  

“After much discussion with each other, in order to prevent any more damage to our reputation, we decided to apologize if the accusation turned out to be true,” he told RFA Uyghur. “We clarified that this is not an admission of guilt or that the accusation is true.”

In response to the criticism of the interview, an RFA spokesperson said in an e-mail that the outlet conducted an editorial review and decided to take it down from all platforms, primarily as Gün was not offered an opportunity to comment before it was published. The spokesperson added that RFA is reviewing its editorial processes.

Isa declined to comment further to RFA when asked about removal of the interview.

Chinese embassy weighs in 

Isa is among the most prominent voices in the exiled Uyghur movement. He fled China in the mid-1990s, and has been designated a “terrorist” by Beijing for his human rights activism. He has been president of the WUC since 2017 – the year when China intensified a campaign of mass incarceration and persecution that several governments have described as genocide. 

In the RFA interview, Isa readily links the NOTUS controversy to ongoing Chinese efforts to undermine the Uyghur rights movement.

“You said at the beginning of this interview that China has been continuing the operation of using all kinds of insults and slurs to slander and defame me,” he said. “We’ve been through this kind of experience a lot before.” 

A review of social media suggests that pro-China trolls and bots have indeed taken advantage of the situation to attack both Isa and the wider Uyghur rights movement. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., weighed into the controversy with a post on X – a social media platform that is banned in China. But there is nothing to suggest any of the women quoted in the NOTUS article are part of a Chinese plot.

“[If people would] just look at the work we’ve done for Uyghurs and have a little sympathy, I think it is not difficult to see through this,” Gün told RFA. “If they put me next to Dolkun and they measure who has power, who has a voice, who can silence things and who can talk loud to manipulate things, I think it's clear who can use things to mislead their people. I am not one of them.”  

On social media, Gün shared a PDF of the advocacy work she’s carried out on behalf of the Uyghur cause. These include several online campaigns highlighting Uyghur forced labor in the fashion industry. 

One series of pictures are satirical ads for world-renowned brands that source cotton and other products from Xinjiang. Gün poses in wearing leather boots, described as “made in concentration camps.” In another image, her black sports top is “made by tortured Uyghur women.”

In a separate Instagram post, Esma has tears of painted blood dripping from her eyes, and red tape across her mouth.

“My name is Esma and I am from the Turks of the Republic of Turkey,” she writes in a caption voicing solidarity toward Uyghurs. “With this, I’d like to spread awareness for the Turks of East Turkestan where they are forced to forget their own identity and where a modern genocide is taking place.”

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Investigative.

Delegates at a Pacific media conference in Fiji two weeks ago heard harrowing stories of female reporters facing threats of violence and harassment.

This raised the question: is enough being done to protect female reporters in the Pacific region?

In 2022, the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, in partnership with the University of the South Pacific Journalism Programme, launched a research report on the “Prevalence and impact of sexual harassment on female journalists: A Fiji case study”.

• READ MORE: Research reveals high prevalence of sexual harassment on female journalists in Fiji
• Prevalence and impact of sexual harassment on female journalists: A Fiji case study
• Other Pacific Media Conference reports
• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Pacific media owners urged to better protect female staff

Of the 42 respondents in the survey, the youngest was 22, and the oldest was 51, with an average age of 33.2 years. The average amount of work experience was 8.3 years.

Most respondents (80.5 percent) worked in print, with the others choosing online and/or broadcasting. Most respondents answered that they were aware of sexual harassment occurring.

The ABC’s Fiji reporter, Lice Monovo is an experienced journalist who has worked for RNZ Pacific and The Guardian.

She said she was not surprised by the findings and such incidents were familiar to her.

“There were things I had encountered, and some close friends had, and they were things I had seen but what I did also feel was shock that it was still happening and shock that it was more widespread.”

After reading the preliminary results of the report, she realised that although women did take steps, including reporting harassment and approaching their employers or asking for help, still not enough was being done to protect female journalists.

“Their concerns and worries, and the things they went through were invalidated, they were told to ‘suck it up’, they were told to put it behind them.”

Movono added that often the burden and responsibility for the harassment were shifted to them, the victims.

“So no, I don’t think enough was done,” she said.

Fiji Women’s Rights Movement’s Laisa Bulatale said many of the women in the research experienced verbal, physical, gestural, and online harassment at work. She said it was not only confined to the workplace.

“A lot of the harassment was also experienced when they went and did assignments or when they had to do interviews with high-ranking officials in government, MPs, even rugby personalities or people in the sports industry,” she said.

She said they were justifiably hesitant to report these problems.

“They [female reporters] feared victim blaming and a lot of shame so a lot of the female journalists that we spoke to in the survey said they carried that with them, and they didn’t feel they knew enough to be able to report the incident.

“And if they did, they were not confident enough that the complaint processes or the referral pathways for them within the organisations they were working in would hear the case or address it.”

Georgina Kekea is an experienced Solomon Islands journalist and editor of Tavali News. She completed a survey of female reporters in the Solomon Islands’ newsroom.

“When I got the responses back, I guess for someone working in the industry, it just validated also what you have been through in your career. What all of us are going through as female journalists,”

Kekea said that there was not much support coming from the superiors in the newsroom.

“Mostly because I think we have males who are leading the team, not understanding issues which women face, and of course, being a Melanesian society, the culture plays a big part, and also obstacles men face when it comes to addressing women’s issues,” Kekea said.

Alex Rheeney is former editor of both PNG’s Post-Courier and the Samoa Observer.

He said he was not surprised by the panel’s discussion.

“Our female colleagues, female reporters, female broadcasters, they go through some very, very huge challenges that those of us who were working in the newsroom as a reporter before didn’t go through simply because of the fact we were male, and it’s unacceptable.”

“Why do we have to have those challenges today?”

He said that newsrooms should develop policies to look after the welfare and safety of female reporters.

“We just have to look at the findings from the survey that was done in Fiji.”

He was positive that the Fijian survey had been done but queried what the follow-up steps should be in terms of putting in place mechanisms to protect female reporters.

“I can only think back to the time when I was the editor of the Post-Courier, I had to drive one of my female reporters to the Boroka police station to get a restraining order against her husband.

“I got personally involved because I knew that it was already affecting her, her children and her family.”

Rheeney said that the media industry needed to do more.

The personal intervention he had undertaken, was a response to an individual problem. However, the industry needed to be able to do more, as harassment and violence against female journalists were in a state of crisis.

“We can’t afford to sit back and just wait for it to happen; we need to be proactive.”

Rheeney believed that the media industry across the Pacific needed to put more measures in place to protect female journalists and staff both in the newsroom and when out on assignment.

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

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

Officers questioned nearly all of those detained about their connections to Shafiur Rahman, a U.K.-based Bangladeshi freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker whose reporting covers how Bangladesh government policies have negatively impacted the Rohingya population, according to Rahman and two of those detained, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. Several of those detained from the APNOR meeting were also shown Rahman’s photo and asked if they knew him.

Authorities also ordered participants to remove the passwords from their mobile phones and laptops, which remained in police custody as of June 25, according to the sources who spoke to CPJ.

Bangladesh hosts over one million Rohingya refugees in camps that human rights organizations say are characterized by poor conditions.

Rahman told CPJ that he was not associated with APNOR. Rahman added that the latest actions posed a threat to his safety and ability to work in Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, where journalists have reported receiving threats from the country’s authorities as well as from those living inside the camps.

“These actions amount to harassment by proxy, as the authorities are using their influence to silence and intimidate me indirectly as well as intimidating [Rohingya] youth who have nothing to do with me,” the journalist said.

Rohingya journalists have told CPJ and other press freedom organizations that Bangladesh authorities have subjected them to surveillance, harassment, and threats in retaliation for their work.

Mohammad Ali Arafat, Bangladesh’s state minister for information and broadcasting, told CPJ that he would look into the matter but did not provide further information by the time of publication. Rashed Hasan, deputy director and public relations officer of National Security Intelligence, did not respond to CPJ’s messages requesting comment.

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

On Sunday, the Central Executive Committee of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church held a ceremony in An Giang to commemorate the religion’s founding by Huynh Phu So, the Tuoi Tre online newspaper reported. It said Nguyen Anh Chuc, deputy head of the government Committee for Religious Affairs, attended along with community leaders.

However, at the Quang Minh Tu temple, about  20 km (12.4 miles) away, only a few followers made it past police surrounding the pagoda for a ceremony.

The pagoda’s abbot, Vo Van Thanh Liem, told Radio Free Asia that Hoa Hao believers who don’t follow the state-approved church have been victimized for nearly four decades with their treatment in recent years  being particularly harsh.

“For the last two years, during the three days of the teacher's holiday [the police] blocked people from coming to the temple,” he said. 

“This time, they also beat people and snatched their phones. The police used rocks to attack, and forced people to sign a pledge not to come again."

He said on June 19, police beat a man who was coming out of the temple leaving him with head injuries.

On June 21 and 22, police arrested two groups of followers, held them for several hours and forced them to sign letters promising not to visit the pagoda again, he said.

While hundreds or even thousands of believers come to the temple to pray on full moon days, only about a dozen people attended Sunday’s ceremony at Quang Minh Tu, the abbot said.

RFA Vietnamese called the  commune police to verify the abbot’s account  but no one answered the telephone.

Vietnam's constitution allows religious freedom but religious groups that do not register with authorities often say they are not free to worship and that in fact the government frequently oppresses them.

‘Just words’

Followers of the Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church also say they have been harassed by police.

The church’s chief secretary, Le Quang Hien, told RFA that 10 days before a ceremony on June 23, police stopped people visiting the church headquarters in Long Giang commune to hang a banner there.

“Vietnam says it respects human rights, freedom of movement, and freedom of religion, but that's just words,” he said.

“In reality, incidents happen to the Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church and other independent religions. There is no freedom of religion in Vietnam except when religions are recognized by the state and members of the Fatherland Front,” which oversees groups aligned with the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Ha Van Duy Ho, head of the Pure Hoa Hoa Buddhist Association of An Giang province, said police waited outside his home and kept tabs on him when he went out because he organizes the group’s religious holidays.

He said the  police allow the group to hang banners that don’t include the word “pure” whereas in other provinces followers can put up banners saying “Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church,” and are allowed to gather to celebrate the group’s founding.

RFA Vietnamese called the director of An Giang provincial police department, the chief of Cho Moi district police, and the security team leader of the district police to verify the information Hien provided, but no one answered the telephone.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

On May 22, the Supreme Court unanimously recognized the judicial harassment of journalists and media outlets, which it defined as occurring when numerous lawsuits on the same issue are filed in different parts of the country, with the intention of embarrassing the defendant or making their defense difficult.

Once a legal action is recognized as a case of judicial harassment compromising freedom of expression, the defendant can request that all of the lawsuits be aggregated into one and judged within the defendant’s city of residence, the court said. It also ruled that journalists and media outlets can only be found liable in civil cases where there is “unequivocal” evidence of malicious intent or serious professional negligence in investigating the facts. 

“By recognizing judicial harassment of journalists and establishing procedures to hinder multiple lawsuits aimed at censoring the media, Brazil’s Supreme Court is taking an important step towards guaranteeing press freedom in the country,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar. “CPJ hopes that this reform will ensure that journalists are able to carry out their work without fear of retaliatory legal action.”

The court ruling was made in response to two separate complaints by local press freedom groups, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), which were filed in 2021.

Taís Gasparian, one of Brazil’s leading legal experts on press freedom, who filed Abraji’s lawsuit which was reviewed by CPJ, said that some journalists and media outlets were facing hundreds of separate lawsuits.

“This barrage of litigation can quickly become financially onerous and time-consuming for the journalists, since they must travel to multiple, and often remote, cities to defend themselves,” she told CPJ.

“The court has recognized the primacy of freedom of expression over other civil rights,” she said, comparing the ruling to the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision to strike down the repressive 1967 Press Law, which imposed harsh penalties for liberal and slander.

Although press freedom has improved since the end of two decades of military dictatorship in 1985, it is not uncommon for judges in Brazil to censor reports or take legal action against journalists. 

Brazil’s most famous case of judicial harassment involved Elvira Lobato, a reporter with the national daily Folha de S. Paulo, who wrote a 2007 article for the outlet saying that a church used a company in a tax haven to channel followers’ fees to more than a dozen church-owned businesses.

In 2008, Lobata won more than 100 defamation suits filed against her and her newspaper, under the 1967 press law, by individual members of the church for offending their faith.

“The court’s decision removes a sword that has hung over journalists and press freedom for many years. Orchestrated and simultaneous lawsuits, filed in remote locations to make the defense more expensive, are unfair to journalists and a threat to democracy,” Lobato told CPJ.

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

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Nearly eight years ago, convinced that she’d been treated unfairly, Jessica Denson sued Donald Trump’s campaign for workplace harassment.

Then she discovered the lengths Trump’s attorneys would go to hit back — and their unwillingness to stop.

Immediately, the campaign filed a counterclaim for $1.5 million. It won a $52,229 judgment, and the campaign froze her bank account and almost forced her into bankruptcy.

She found it humiliating when the campaign lawyers branded her a “judgment debtor” in a subpoena. They monitored her Twitter account, which had 32 followers, and submitted hundreds of pages of printouts to a judge. They even deposed her mother, grilling her about the family’s religious practices.

The judgment was ultimately thrown out by a judge, but her legal fight continues.

The process has been “unbearable,” Denson said, describing the unrelenting pressure she felt from Trump campaign attorneys. “This had become my life. I had no income and had this lien against me. It crippled my ability to work.”

The legal resources deployed to try to crush Denson’s case are not unusual. At least four women of color involved in the 2016 operation have been embroiled in legal fights with the campaign over workplace harassment, discrimination or violations of nondisclosure agreements. They have been subjected to scorched-earth tactics. For years, the Trump campaign has persisted, despite losing consistently, in at least some cases after it was clear that its efforts had damaged the women.

Trump was regularly updated on the women’s cases, according to two people familiar with the matters. In one, he wanted to escalate the dispute by filing a federal defamation lawsuit against the former employee, but his lawyers persuaded him it was best handled through confidential arbitration. Campaign lawyers urged him to settle the ongoing “legacy lawsuits” from 2016 before the 2020 election, but he declined.

Now as Trump engages in another presidential run, a judge’s order in one of those cases may force into public view the new details about staffers who lodged similar accusations. A federal magistrate judge has ordered the campaign to produce by May 31 a list of all discrimination and harassment complaints made during Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential runs, allegations that the campaign initially tried to keep confidential through rigorously enforced NDAs. Last year, a federal judge freed 422 employees of the 2016 campaign from confidentiality agreements in a class-action lawsuit brought by Denson, a major crack in the campaign’s strategy.

As the media has chronicled, Trump is a well-known bully. He has belittled and sought to dominate political rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former allies like Bill Barr, who was his attorney general. Trump and his surrogates have appeared to relish hounding or humiliating women who have verbally crossed him, including media and Hollywood stars and a long list of accusers who have complained over the years about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct. (He has denied all of the allegations.)

But ProPublica found that Trump’s campaign used similar bullying tactics against its own workers. These fights have been waged out of the public eye against women with few resources to stand up against the campaign’s battery of lawyers, paid from a seemingly bottomless trove of campaign money.

The campaign is “still litigating these ridiculous cases that should have been settled” long ago, said campaign finance authority Brett Kappel of Harmon Curran, who has been tracking Trump’s civil and criminal cases. Trump’s strategy is the same one he’s used in other lawsuits: “Drag it out and make it as painful and expensive as possible for the opponent, and maybe they’ll go away,” he said.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a detailed list of questions. Spokesperson Steven Cheung in an emailed statement said one of the cases filed by a former campaign worker was “an absurd and fake story.”

Supporters are giving him money earned with “blood, sweat and tears,” Denson said. “And it is being turned around to terrorize people.”

As is being revealed now in the Stormy Daniels case, Trump’s chaotic 2016 campaign was governed by one overriding public relations strategy: Lock down any whiff of scandal that could be unflattering or compromising to the candidate.

Trump’s campaign used a trio of tools, borrowed largely from the Trump Organization, to ensure that. Allegations were met with swift denials. Employees were bound to silence by onerous NDAs that imposed a lifetime ban on disparaging Trump, his extended family or any of his companies. And the campaign’s lawyers brought in a phalanx of Trump-savvy outside lawyers prepared to crush.

How much the campaign has poured into such efforts is unclear, but it is likely millions, according to spending reports. Trump’s bills for all his many legal challenges — workplace harassment claims aren’t broken out — have topped $100 million.

Trump’s use of donor money to fight lawsuits against the campaign is legal, but experts say he has pushed the limits of laws that forbid using campaign contributions for legal matters that have nothing to do with running for office.

The campaign faced its first-known discrimination complaint in January 2016 when Iowa field organizer Elizabeth Davidson filed a case with a local civil rights agency claiming she had been underpaid because she was a woman. The law student had been fired and accused of violating her NDA by making “disparaging comments” to the press, according to the complaint. Davidson dropped her case without explanation in 2018. She did not return phone calls.

The Trump campaign brought out heavy artillery to try to discredit another female employee who filed a federal lawsuit in February 2019. Alva Johnson, a field operations director from Alabama, alleged pay disparities and a hostile workplace in 2016, but her most explosive allegation was that Trump engaged in “sexually predatory conduct” by kissing her without permission during a Florida campaign event.

To handle her case, the campaign hired attorney Charles Harder, best known for winning a privacy case in 2016 that financially destroyed the gossip website Gawker. Harder’s firm was paid $4.3 million for legal work on a number of campaign cases between 2018 and 2021, according to spending reports. Trump was then in the White House, and spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Johnson’s accusation “absurd.”

Harder produced a video filmed by an unnamed supporter. It showed Trump kissing Johnson near her mouth as he approached her for the first time in a reception line. Harder argued the video showed the kiss was not forced; Johnson’s lawyers argued it proved the kiss was real and unwelcome.

A Trump-appointed judge threw out Johnson’s case in 2019, calling the kissing allegation a political attack, and gave her a chance to refile a complaint focused only on alleged pay disparities. She said recently in an interview she chose not to do so, largely because she was frightened for herself and her family as Trump supporters rallied to the president’s defense.

“I definitely heard about every possible way I could die,” she said. “We lived in a cul-de-sac, and they would just drive around with their Trump flags.”

Harder subpoenaed Johnson’s bank statements, extensive news media contacts and communications with potential employers. At one point, Johnson said, Harder offered to withdraw the complaint if she would apologize to Trump and leave the NDA in place. She refused. At another point, Trump wanted to countersue her for defamation, but his lawyers talked him out of it, according to two people.

In response to questions, Harder said his legal tactics were “100% permissible discovery in an employment case” and her attorneys did not object. “It’s called litigation, and it’s part of the legal process,” he said.

Johnson’s arbitration case dragged on long after Harder’s firm withdrew. The campaign brought in new outside lawyers, but by then, judges in Denson’s New York case had found the NDA invalid and other courts seemed likely to follow. If Johnson won, Trump’s NDA said the losing party must pay legal fees.

In August 2022, the arbitrator found Johnson’s NDA unenforceable and ordered the campaign to pay her lawyers $303,285. She said she personally received no money but “won the ability to speak.”

In a statement, Cheung, the spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 campaign, called Johnson’s account “an absurd and fake story that has previously been debunked and contradicted by multiple, highly credible eyewitness accounts.”

The campaign also relied on Harder in an NDA case it brought against former White House official Omarosa Manigault Newman, a Black former contestant on “The Apprentice” who wrote a 2018 tell-all book describing Trump as a racist. Trump smeared her on Twitter as a “low life.” Harder said he withdrew from the case before its conclusion.

Newman had signed an NDA in 2016 when she joined the campaign, and its lawyers demanded $1.5 million for violating the secrecy agreement. The case plodded along until 2021, when an arbitration judge ruled in Newman’s favor and found Trump’s NDA too vague to enforce. He ordered the campaign to pay $1.3 million to Newman’s lawyers. “The bully has met his match,” Newman declared at the time. She could not be reached for comment.

A discrimination case pending in a Manhattan court, however, might force the culture of Trump’s previous campaigns and their suppression efforts into the light.

Arlene “AJ” Delgado sued the 2016 campaign and three senior officials for discrimination after she became pregnant by her supervisor, Jason Miller, then the campaign’s chief spokesperson.

Trump had called Delgado a rising star when she went on the campaign trail as one of his Hispanic surrogates, and she expected an administration job. But she claimed that when she confronted Miller about her pregnancy, he told her Trump could not afford to have her “waddling around the White House pregnant.” Other senior officials shut her out of work discussions until her transition job ended with Trump’s inauguration, she claimed.

Ten days after Delgado delivered her baby, the Trump campaign filed a $1.5 million-claim against her for NDA violations. Delgado’s main offense, according to the campaign, was a series of angry tweets about Miller and Trump’s decision to promote him to White House communications director. The attorney on the case, Lawrence Rosen, who left LaRocca Hornik Rosen & Greenberg, as it was then known, late last year, and his former partners did not return calls or emails.

Miller did not respond to repeated attempts to seek comment.

The firm, now named LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Kittredge, Carlin & McPartland, leases space in a Trump office building, and it has long been a favored legal vendor for the Trump campaign. It’s been paid at least $2.8 million since 2016 by the Trump campaign and its affiliated PAC, Make America Great Again, according to campaign reports. Rosen was described on the firm’s website as a “bulldog” litigator, and he recently surfaced in testimony from Trump fixer Michael Cohen as a lawyer involved in his effort to silence Daniels, a porn star.

Delgado, a Harvard Law School graduate, claims in the lawsuit filed in December 2019 that the campaign deprived her of a job and hurt her other employment prospects. Squaring off against campaign lawyers, she serves as her own attorney and has raised money for legal expenses, including taking depositions from top former White House officials, through GoFundMe.

Delgado recently accused the campaign of withholding information about its handling of harassment and discrimination cases. A LaRocca partner said in a court filing the campaign has disclosed all of the information it has on women’s complaints.

The judge ordered the campaign to produce a full list of cases by May 31. (It’s unclear whether there are any cases that have not emerged yet into public view.)

The LaRocca firm abruptly withdrew from the case, citing “irreparable differences” with the campaign, after five years pursuing Delgado in court.

As for former 2016 campaign staffer Denson, now an actress currently hosting a podcast, she continues to pursue her personal discrimination and retaliation suit, saying she wants her persistence to inspire others.

The federal judge’s decision in October 2023 to void NDAs for all 2016 employees, vendors and volunteers was a blow to the campaign. The campaign agreed to pay $450,000 to Denson’s lawyers and to no longer pursue employees for NDA violations.

Denson said her problems began when she went to work for the campaign’s data division as a national phone bank administrator, one of a dozen employees who reported to director Camilo Sandoval. She had no experience and believed she and another woman, a model, were hired simply because of their looks.

She claimed that Sandoval, who later worked in several high-ranking Trump administration jobs, made inappropriate comments and assigned end-of-day tasks to make her stay late. In one private meeting, she said, he reclined on a sofa. In a deposition, Sandoval denied many of Denson’s charges. He did not respond to calls or email.

Denson’s work on a Spanish-language project caught the attention of Steve Bannon, then the campaign’s CEO, who moved her to work on Hispanic outreach and raised her pay by $3,000 a month, her complaint said. Sandoval reacted angrily to the transfer and scolded her immediate boss for letting his “sheep wander.” He told her, “I hired you and I can also fire you,” she alleged.

Denson introduced emails Sandoval sent to senior officials describing her as a security risk who should be reported to the police and the Secret Service. He suggested she was stealing documents and may have had a role in mailing Trump’s 1995 personal tax return to a reporter at The New York Times, court records show. She claimed he hacked into her personal laptop while she was traveling. In a deposition, he denied accessing her personal information.

Based on Bannon’s encouraging emails about her performance, Denson thought she would be hired for Trump’s transition. But documents showed the campaign’s human resources director telling others, “Jessica is NOT ever to be hired onto transition, inaugural or brought to DC!” An email from Sandoval to senior official Stephen Miller said, “This bitch is out of control.”

She filed a lawsuit in New York state court in November 2017 claiming emotional distress as a result of “pervasive slander,” discrimination and harassment. A month later, Rosen pounced. On Christmas Eve, Denson got papers demanding that she face arbitration for violating her NDA by filing the suit. The campaign sought $1.5 million in damages.

Denson declined to go to arbitration, arguing that her right to a safe workplace was unrelated to the NDA, and the campaign won the judgment for legal fees by default. Rosen had her bank account frozen and went after $1,200 she had raised through GoFundMe.

“This is how cruel and scorched earth they were,” she said in a recent interview.

Denson said in her deposition that Trump campaign lawyers grilled her aggressively about her whereabouts. “Their obsession with my location was very frightening,” she said. “The fear has lived with me ever since.”

She felt further traumatized when the campaign demanded to see mental health and medical records. She was upset when they suggested to her during her deposition that her emotional damage was not extreme.

Denson’s cases followed a circuitous path, and at first she served as her own lawyer because she had no money to pay attorney fees. She remembered crying inconsolably late one night, fearing her situation was hopeless, then waking up to learn a judge had sided with her and had thrown out the judgment in the campaign’s favor as unfair.

In March 2021, a federal judge declared her individual NDA invalid under New York state contract law and said the campaign had used NDAs repeatedly to “suppress free speech.” Denson and her legal team moved forward to extend her victory to all 2016 staffers.

Legal experts say the class-action victory established a precedent that should deter future campaigns from trying to quash employees’ free-speech rights.

Denson and other women fighting the campaign have been struck by Trump’s repeated assertions in his own cases that his right to speak freely has been violated.

“I came to the campaign as someone who cared deeply about human rights, First Amendment, individual liberty; I thought I was working on a campaign that supported those values,” Denson said. “Then I saw the opposite of what this country stands for, going after perceived critics and trying to destroy them.”

Do you have information about discrimination or workplace issues involving the Trump campaign or its payments to lawyers? Email marilyn.thompson@propublica.org or call 347-325-3348.

Alex Mierjeski and Ken Schwencke contributed research.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Marilyn W. Thompson.

The Intercept columnist Natasha Lennard details how the combination of anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic repression and very few worker protections across the U.S. has created a “very dangerous constellation” for academic laborers that is “overwhelmingly only facing pro-Palestinian speakers, not speakers who are supporting Israel’s genocide.” She calls it “the New McCarthyism” on college campuses. “A lot of media attention has focused on the spectacle of encampments and the very, very brutal police response,” says Lennard. “What you also have going on behind the scenes is the targeting of individuals who work at universities.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The UHRP said in a statement that its board accepted Turkel’s resignation on Friday and appointed former Vice Chair Justinian Rudelson Ben-Adam as his replacement.

The Washington-based group is one of the most prominent organizations advocating for the plight of Uyghurs, who have suffered severe human rights abuses by Chinese authorities.

“UHRP has no tolerance for sexual harassment and is firmly committed to high ethical standards. UHRP is committed to ensuring a welcoming environment for women and all activists in the movement for Uyghur human rights,” the group said in a statement.

A “reputable and experienced law firm” was hired to investigate, the statement added, and UHRP plans to take “a number of additional concrete steps” to address the claims of sexual harassment and “gender-based violence” in the workplace.

“We know as an organization that we can do better,” it said.

A May 10 article said Turkel was accused of harassing women at the 2019 and 2022 editions of Oslo Freedom Forum, and separately of making a “sexual advance” following a work meeting in 2021.

An activist who engaged in a “consensual sexual relationship” with Turkel was also sidelined from the UHRP following a breakup, according to the article, which was published by NOTUS, an outlet of the Allbritton Journalism Institute.

UHRP initially downplayed the claims in the NOTUS article.

According to the article, a UHRP representative told NOTUS that the investigation conducted by the law firm, Isler Dare, led to the conclusion that “there is simply no basis to support allegations that the board member engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct.”

Reached by telephone, Louisa Greve, the director of global advocacy at UHRP, declined to comment on the discrepancy between the group’s initial denials of Turkel’s harassment and its statement on Friday.

Radio Free Asia has also reached out to Turkel for comment.

Turkel is a prominent lawyer and long-time advocate for the Uyghur cause who also served as chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.  He was among six commission members who completed their terms last week on that body, which advises the U.S. administration and Congress.  

Turkel’s successor as chair of the UHRP, Rudelson Ben-Adams, is an anthropologist who has been involved in Uyghur human rights work for four decades. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alex Willemyns for RFA.

The letter, also signed by 10 other groups, including international and regional press freedom organizations, requests that Minister for Internal Affairs Pance Toskovski refrain from publicly commenting on Saliu’s case until “an official investigation has been conducted,” as his prior comments may have put “undue pressure on police investigating the case.”

According to a CPJ report, Saliu was arrested about 27 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of the capital Skopje, shortly after he filmed police breaking up a fight between rival fans at a football match. Police claimed that the journalist attacked them, which Saliu denied. 

Authorities have rejected a complaint filed against the police by Saliu and independent local press freedom groups.

Read the full statement here.

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

Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert.

Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press Freedom Day last Friday, Plinkert said this year’s theme, “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis,” was a call to action.

“So, I understand this year’s World Press Freedom Day as a call to action, and a unique opportunity to highlight the role that Pacific journalists can play leading global conversations on issues that impact us all, like climate and the environment,” she said.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific climate crisis reports
• The EU Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert’s full WPFD2024 speech

“Here in the Pacific, you know better than almost anywhere in the world what climate change looks and feels like and what are the risks that lie ahead.”

Plinkert said reporting stories on climate change were Pacific stories, adding that “with journalists like you sharing these stories with the world, the impact will be amplified.”

“Just imagine how much more powerful the messages for global climate action are when they have real faces and real stories attached to them,” she said.

Reflecting on the theme, Plinkert recognised that there was an “immense personal risk” for journalists reporting the truth.

99 journalists killed
According to Plinkert, 99 journalists and media workers had been killed last year — the highest death toll since 2015.

Hundreds more were imprisoned worldwide, she said, “just for doing their jobs”.

“Women journalists bear a disproportionate burden,” the ambassador said, with more than 70 percent facing online harassment, threats and gender-based violence.

Plinkert called it “a stain on our collective commitment to human rights and equality”.

“We must vehemently condemn all attacks on those who wield the pen as their only weapon in the battle for truth,” she declared.

The European Union, she said, was strengthening its support for media freedom by adopting the so-called “Anti-SLAPP” directive which stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”.

Plinkert said the directive would safeguard journalists from such lawsuits designed to censor reporting on issues of public interest.

Law ‘protecting journalists’
Additionally, the European Parliament had adopted the European Media Freedom Act which, according to Plinkert, would “introduce measures aimed at protecting journalists and media providers from political interference”.

In the Pacific, the EU is funding projects in the Solomon Islands such as the “Building Voices for Accountability”, the ambassador said.

She added that it was “one of many EU-funded projects supporting journalists globally”.

The World Press Freedom event held at USP’s Laucala Campus included a panel discussion by editors and CSO representatives on the theme “Fiji and the Pacific situation”.

The EU ambassador was one of the chief guests at the event, which included Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Secretary-General Henry Puna, and Fiji’s Environment and Climate Change Secretary Dr Sivendra Michael was the keynote speaker.

Plinkert has served as the EU’s Ambassador to Fiji and the Pacific since 2023, replacing Sujiro Seam. Prior to her appointment, Plinkert was the head of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Southeast Asia Division, based in Brussels, Belgium.

Kaneta Naimatau is a third-year student journalist at The University of the South Pacific. Wansolwara News collaborates with Asia Pacific Report.

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

Along with the devastating death toll – now almost 35,000 people, hundreds of aid workers and hundreds of medical staff have been killed in the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza — journalists have also paid a terrible price.

By far the worst of any war.

In Vietnam, 63 journalists were killed in two decades.

• READ MORE: Auckland Palestine rally honours Gaza journalists for freedom award
• Netanyahu government votes to close Al Jazeera channel in Israel
• Other War on Gaza reports

The Second World War was worse, with 67 journalists killed in seven years.

But now in the war on Gaza, we have had 143 journalists killed in seven months.

That’s the death toll according to Al Jazeera and the Gaza Media Office. (Western media freedom monitoring usually cite a lower figure, around the 100 plus mark, but I the higher figure is more accurate).

And these journalists — sometimes their whole families as well – have been deliberately targeted by the Israeli “Offensive” Force – I call it “offensive” rather than what it claims to be, defensive (IDF).

Kill off journalists
Assassination by design. Clearly the Israeli policy has been to kill off the journalists, silence the messengers, whenever they can.

Try to stifle the truth getting out about their war crimes, their crimes against humanity.

But it has failed. Just like the humanity of the people of Gaza has inspired the world, so have the journalists.

Their commitment to truth and justice and to telling the world their horrendous story has been an exemplary tale of bravery and courage in the face of unspeakable horror.

But there has been a glimmer of hope in spite of the gloom. On Friday — on World Press Freedom Day, May 3 — UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, awarded all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza the annual Guillermo Cano Award for media freedom.

This award is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian investigative journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia on 17 December 1986.

Announcing the Gaza award in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in an incredibly emotional ceremony, Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals, declared:

“In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances.

“As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”

Ultimate price
For those of us who watch Al Jazeera every day to keep up with developments in Palestine and around the world — and thank goodness we have had that on Freeview to balance the pathetic New Zealand media coverage — I would like to acknowledge some of their journalists who have paid the ultimate price.

First, I would like to acknowledge the assassination of American-Palestinian Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by Israeli military sniper while reporting on an army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on 11 May 2022.

A year later there was still no justice, and the Paris-based media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders issued a protest, saying:

“The systematic Israeli impunity is outrageous and cannot continue.”

Well it did, right until the war on Gaza began five months later.

But I am citing this here and now because Shireen’s sacrifice has been a personal influence on me, and inspired me to take a closer look into Israel’s history of impunity over the killing of journalists — and just about every other crime. (It has violated 62 United Nations resolutions without consequences).

I have this photo of her on display in my office, thanks to the Palestinian Youth Aotearoa, and she constantly reminds me of the cruelty and lies of the Israeli regime.

Now moving to the present war, last December, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh was wounded in an Israeli strike in which his colleague and Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa was killed, while they were reporting in southern Gaza.

Dahdouh’s wife Amna, son Mahmoud, daughter Sham and grandson Adam were previously killed in an attack in October after an Israeli air raid hit the home they were sheltering in at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Then the veteran journalist’s eldest son, Hamza Dahdouh, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed in January by an Israeli missile attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

News media reports said he was in a vehicle near al-Mawasi, an Israel-designated safe area, with journalist Mustafa Thuraya, who was also killed in the attack.

According to reports from Al Jazeera correspondents, their vehicle was targeted as they were trying to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings.

In February, Mohamed Yaghi, a freelance photojournalist who worked with multiple media outlets, including Al Jazeera, was also killed in an Israeli air strike in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Gaza offices in a multistoreyed building were bombed two years ago, just as many Palestinian media offices have been systematically destroyed by the Israelis in the current war.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has voted unanimously to close Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel.

Vote comes after the Knesset passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered a threat to national security pic.twitter.com/zFDPQdowXG

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 5, 2024

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Al Jazeera as a “terrorist channel”. Why? Because it broadcasts the truth about Israel’s genocidal war and Netanyahu threatened to ban the channel from Israel under a new law to control foreign media.

Today, a month after that threat, Netanyahu has today followed up after his cabinet voted unanimously to order Al Jazeera to close down operations in Israel, which will curb the channel’s reporting on the daily Israeli harassment and raids on the Palestinians of the Occupied West Bank.

And this is the country that proclaims itself to be the “only democracy” in the Middle East.

Many of the surviving Gaza journalists are very young with limited professional experience.
They have had to learn fast, a baptism by fire.

I would like to round off with a quote from one of these young journalists, Hind Khoudary, a 28-year-old reporter for Al Jazeera since day one of the war, who used to sign on her social media reports for the day “I’m still alive”:

“I am a daughter, a sister to eight brothers, and a wife.

“Choosing to stay here is a choice to witness and report on the unbearable reality my city endures. Forced from my home, alongside countless Palestinians, we strive for the basics – clean food and water – without transportation or electricity.

“I am not a superhero; I am shattered from the inside. The loss of relatives, friends, and colleagues weighs heavy on my soul. Israeli forces ravaged my city, reducing homes to rubble. [Thousands of] civilians still lie beneath the remnants.

“My heart is aching, and my spirit is fragile. Since October 7, journalists have been targets; Israel seeks to stifle our voices.

“I miss my family.

“But surrender is not an option. I will continue to report, to breathe life into the stories of my people until my last breath. Please, do not let the world forget Palestine. We are weary, and your voice is our strength.

“Remember our voices, remember our faces.”

This article is adapted from a media freedom speech by Pacific Media Watch convenor Dr David Robie at the Palestine rally today calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war.

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

Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders.

According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were working on stories linked to the environment.

Twenty four were murdered in Latin America and Asia — including the Pacific, which makes these two regions the most dangerous ones for environmental reporters.

• READ MORE: Other environmental journalism reports
• Other RSF reports

From restrictions on access to information and gag suits to physical attacks, the work of environmental journalists and their safety are increasingly threatened.

RSF has denounced the obstacles to the right to information about ecological and climate issues and calls on all countries to recognise the vital nature of the work of environmental journalists, and to guarantee their safety.

Nearly half of the journalists killed in India in the past 10 years — 13 of 28 — were working on environmental stories that often also involved corruption and organised crime, especially the so-called “sand mafia,” which illegally excavates millions of tons of this precious resource for the construction industry.

Amazon deforestation
Journalists covering the challenges of deforestation in the Amazon are also constantly subjected to threats and harassment that prevent them from working freely.

The scale of the problem was highlighted in 2022 by the murder of Dom Phillips, a British reporter specialised in environmental issues.

“Regarding the environmental and climate challenges we face, the freedom to cover these issues is essential,” said RSF’s editorial director Anne Bocandé.

“RSF’s staff battles tirelessly to prevent economic and political interests from obstructing the right to information. Your generosity makes this fight possible.”

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

• RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index will be released on May 3 to provide a reality check on global press freedoms.

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

Fijian bus drivers and bus checkers wake up early in the morning to serve the public so it is disappointing to see school students harassing and bullying them, says the bus operators industry group.

Fiji Bus Operators Association general secretary Rohit Latchan said he was responding to a recent video on social media involving a high school student threatening a bus checker.

Latchan also pleaded with parents and teachers to teach students respect towards everyone, especially bus drivers and checkers.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji bus driver reports

“People should realise that bus drivers and checkers are also humans,” Latchan said.

“They’re providing service to the public, especially to students.

“I am pleading with parents and teachers to respect and appreciate bus drivers and checkers. There is no need for abuse or threats.

“Driving all day is not an easy job. We don’t want our drivers to get hurt.”

Closed fist threat
The video shows the student threatening a bus driver and a bus checker saying, ‘Au sega ni rerevaki kemudrau’ (I am not afraid of you) after he got on board with a closed fist.

Although it is unclear what caused the incident, many found the issue of a young student challenging adults alarming.

Acting Police Commissioner Juki Fong Chew said the matter had been directed to the Central Deputy Police Commissioner for investigations and a team would visit the school tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Selina Kuruleca said all necessary processes had been followed, including informing parents and the Child Protection Services.

“We again request parents to remind their children on the importance of proper behaviour at all times,” Kuruleca said.

“Even though the student was responding to some earlier incident by the driver, he could have reported the incident to the police instead of this swearing and threatening behaviour.

“The student is undergoing counselling at the moment.”

Temalesi Vono is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

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

Around March 25 (the day of the festival this year), several incidents came to the fore, thanks to social media platforms, where people from the Muslim community were targeted by Holi revellers. Some of the incidents allegedly involved intimidation, harassment and rowdyism, leading to FIRs and arrests.

Anticipating communal disturbance on Holi, the administration in Uttar Pradesh took preemptive measures in Shahjahanpur and Bareilly asking mosques to be covered in tarpaulin. “….they (the clerics) have been told that the mosques will be properly covered so that no mischievous element does anything to disturb communal harmony,” said senior superintendent of police (Bareilly) Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan. This goes to show how a sense of premonition and foreboding among non-participating communities ahead of the festival has perhaps become the ‘new normal’.  

Patients Headed to Hospital, Men Going to Funeral — None Spared in Bijnor, UP

In a video that emerged on Sunday, March 24, a group of men can be seen stopping a bike and harassing three travellers – a man and two women, one of whom is wearing a hijab. It can be gauged from the video that the group comprised more than 10 men. They proceed to physically intimidate the trio, drenching them with water and colours despite their protestations. Towards the end of the video, the mob lets the bike pass, but not before breaking into a barrage of religious slogans like ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Jai Sri Ram.’ 

In UP’s Bijnor, a purported video of a family of three on motorcycle being harassed by people playing Holi on the street has surfaced. The family could be seen objecting to people forcefully applying colors and pouring water on them. pic.twitter.com/adjB4EADnH

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) March 24, 2024

The Muslim man seen in the video, identified as Dilshad, was reportedly taking his sister Sophia to a doctor. His mother also had to accompany them since his sister was too unwell to walk properly. The men stopped their vehicle and forcefully smeared them with Holi colours. Dilshad was physically assaulted once he tried to resist the harassment. “Bura na mano, Holi hai (Don’t feel bad, it’s Holi)”, they jeered while doing so. Dilshad alleges that the mob tried to inappropriately touch his mother and sister while raising religious slogans. 

Bijnor Police arrested three people and detained two minors in connection with the incident. As pointed out earlier, the video shows a group of more than 10 people involved in the incident.

In another case from Dhampur, Bijnor, City News journalist Nidhi Sharma was harassed on the street. She alleged that the perpetrators held her collar and poured water on her from glasses they were drinking from. She was further seen accusing policemen standing in the vicinity of not taking cognizance of such cases of harassment that were occurring just a few steps away in broad daylight.

In another live stream from the Dhampur police station on the same day, Nidhi reveals that the perpetrators’ mothers also misbehaved with her, but they later apologised. Sharma’s husband, who was recording, also commented that Muslims who were returning after prayers were also being forcefully smeared with colours. 

As her livestream continued, the couple got into their car and started driving. On their way, they came across a group of around six individuals, some of whom were minors, throwing water at passers-by. As their car stopped, they observed three Muslim men who were clearly asking the perpetrators to stop. However, one of them from the group proceeded to smear one of the Muslim men, who was wearing a white kurta, with colours and poured water over him. The victim, who later identified himself as Mohammad Iqbal, said the three of them were going to attend a funeral. 

Barely two minutes later, Sharma observed two more burqa-clad women being harassed by the same group at the same spot. One of the women had a cannula inserted in her hand and had a high fever. The duo were headed to the hospital. 

Last year, a viral video from Dhampur showed two burqa-clad women being harassed by a group of youths. The men are seen violently throwing water balloons at the women. They did the same with other unsuspecting passers-by as well.

वीडियो बिजनौर के कस्बा धामपुर के भगत सिंह चौराहे की है जहां होली खेलने के दौरान बुर्के में जा रही माँ- बेटी को ज़बरन परेशान किया गया,उनके ऊपर लगातार रंग भरे गुब्बारे फेंके गये तो चप्पल हाथ मे उठा जल्दी निकलने की कोशिश की,भरोसा कर निकली पर अफ़सोस भरोसे का तो ज़माना ही चला गया है! pic.twitter.com/bYZX7CYq69

— Zakir Ali Tyagi (@ZakirAliTyagi) March 9, 2023

Muslim Man’s Rickshaw Torched in Gujarat, 2 Arrested

In Ahmedabad, a mob brutally beat up a Muslim rickshaw driver and set his rickshaw on fire.

The driver, Nawab Vora, is a resident of Nawab Chawl in Ramol. According to the complaint filed by Nawab, he had dropped off passengers near Champaner Society in Usmanpura on Monday afternoon, March 25, when one of the accused touched the hood of his vehicle with his colour-stained hands. The victim had asked them to stop dirtying his rickshaw, which angered the men. They consequently abused Vora and beat him up when he objected to the foul language. Vora pleaded with them not to hit him since he was observing Roza (the Muslim practice of observing a fast during the holy month of Ramadan). This allegedly riled them up more and the accused beat him up again. Upon the advice of some passers-by, Vora left the spot immediately. According to the complaint, as he was leaving, he could see the accused damaging his vehicle. When he returned to the spot after some time, he said that he only found the burnt frame of his rickshaw. 

Two individuals — Vijay Suryavanshi, 26, and Natwar Solanki, 39, — have been arrested in the case. Another accused, Sanjay Vyas, is on the run. Vadaj police booked them for causing hurt, using abusive words, causing damage and abatement.

YouTuber Records Unrestrained Harassment of Women in Mathura

A YouTuber who runs a channel named Ghumakkad Laali filmed her ordeal while visiting Mathura on Holi. At the beginning of the video itself, she can be seen facing her camera and pointing out how she feels unsafe. “They are asking me for my number, saying that their uncles are at home”, she is heard saying as men flock around her camera. “They specifically target women, intentionally spray water on their breasts and hips..When I protested, they asked me if I had come here to die,” she says. The visuals show hordes of men standing along either side of a staircase, throwing water and harassing women as they pass by.

In what remains one of the most harrowing first-person accounts of harassment faced in the midst of a crowd of Holi revellers, writer Meghana Sanka and independent photographer Deepti Asthana had in 2017 recorded the dark sides of the famed ‘Lath Mar Holi’,celebrated in the towns of Barsana and Nandgaon in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. As part of the festival, people try to recreate the legend of the Hindu deities Radha and Krishna, where Radha and her consorts take offence at Krishna’s advances and drive him out with sticks. The ‘festivity’, as witnessed by Meghana Sanka and Deepti Asthana, led to mass harassment of women, which involved making vulgar gestures, lewd comments, and physical harassment. 

This year, in a video purportedly from Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, a woman accompanied by a man is seen harassed by a group of men, in the presence of approximately 80-100 onlookers. The mob threw water at her, and justified their actions saying ‘Holi Hai’. When her male companion protested, he was also harassed. According to a Lallantop report on the incident, the couple had not lodged a formal complaint with the police and a probe was underway.

Mosque Defaced with ‘Jai Sri Ram’ Slogans

In Beed, Maharashtra, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were inscribed using Holi colours and pichkari at the Markaz Masjid. The inscription was found at around 5 pm on the day of Holi, March 25. Police have registered an FIR. SDPO Dheeraj Kumar released a video saying the accused would be arrested soon.

#WATCH | ‘Shri Ram’ slogan was found written on the wall of a mosque in Maharashtra’s Beed on 25th March

SDPO Dheeraj Kumar yesterday said, “A notorious man wrote ‘Shri Ram’ on the wall of Markaz masjid. FIR was lodged in the incident. The accused will be arrested soon.” pic.twitter.com/3y2NHtNWo2

— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2024

Instances like these are no aberration. Last year, a Japanese traveller was molested during Holi celebrations on the streets of Paharganj in New Delhi. Police took cognizance of the issue after a video had gone viral on social media, showing the 22-year-old woman being groped on camera by several men, including minors, under the pretext of applying colours as part of the celebration. In the video, someone also smashes an egg on her head, despite her clear objections and discomfort. 

In a report on March 9, 2023, the Citizens for Justice and Peace documented several similar incidents on Holi, last year. On March 6, 2023, i.e., on the eve of the festival, Right Wing propaganda outlet Sudarshan News  tweeted about a programme that evening titled, “मुल्ले होली मिलन में आएंगे लेकिन रंग नहीं लगाएंगे” (Mullas will come for Holi festivities, but will not allow you to apply colours.) Over a year later, the tweet is still live on the platform.

Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.

The post In UP, Gujarat, Holi revelry triggers rowdyism, intimidation and harassment appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the plight of the leaders of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Markus Haluk and Menase Tabuni. Their unwavering resolve in condemning the situation has faced targeted harassment and discrimination.

The leaders of the ULMWP have become targets of a state campaign aimed at silencing them.

• READ MORE: West Papuan wounds of suffering — diplomatic pressure on Indonesia needed urgently
• Indonesia human rights – 13 soldiers arrested after torture video — Al Jazeera
• Other West Papua reports

Menase Tabuni, serving as the executive council president of the ULMWP, along with Markus Haluk, the executive secretary, have recently taken on the responsibility of leading political discourse directly from within West Papua.

This decision follows the ULMWP’s second high-level summit in Port Vila in August 2023, where the movement reaffirmed its commitment to advocating for the rights and freedoms of the people of West Papua.

On March 23, the ULMWP leadership released a media statement in which Tabuni condemned the abhorrent racist slurs and torture depicted in the video of a fellow Papuan at the hands of Indonesia’s security forces.

Tabuni called for an immediate international investigation to be conducted by the UN Commissioner of the Human Rights Office.

Harassment not protection
However, the response from Indonesian authorities was not one of protection, but rather a chilling escalation of harassment facilitated by the Criminal Code and Information and Electronic Transactions Law, known as UU ITE.

Since UU ITE took effect in November 2016, it has been viewed as the state’s weapon against critics, as shown during the widespread anti-racism protests across West Papua in mid-August of 2019.

The website SemuaBisaKena, dedicated to documenting UU ITE cases, recorded 768 cases in West Papua between 2016 and 2020.

The limited information on laws to protect individuals exercising their freedom of speech, including human rights defenders, political activist leaders, journalists, and civil society representatives, makes the situation worse.

For example, Victor Mambor, a senior journalist and founder of the Jubi news media group, in spite of being praised as a humanitarian and rights activist by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2021, continues to face frequent acts of violence and intimidation for his truth-telling defiance.

Threats and hate speech on his social media accounts are frequent. His Twitter account was hacked and deleted in 2022 after he posted a video showing Indonesian security forces abusing a disabled civilian.

Systematic intimidation
The systematic nature of this intimidation in West Papua cannot be understated.

It is a well-coordinated effort designed to suffocate dissent and silence the voice of resistance.

The barrage of messages and missed calls to both Tabuni and Haluk creates a psychological warfare waged with callous indifference, leaving scars that run deep. It creates an atmosphere of perpetual unease, leaving wondering when the next onslaught will happen.

The inundation of their phones with messages filled with discriminatory slurs in Bahasa serves as crude reminders of the lengths to which state entities will go in abuse of the law.

Translated into English, these insults such as “Hey asshole I stale you” or “You smell like shit” not only denigrate the ULMWP political leaders but also serve as threats, such as “We are not afraid” or “What do you want”, which underscore calculated malice behind the attacks.

This incident highlights a systemic issue, laying bare the fragility of democratic ideals in the face of entrenched power and exposing the hollowness of promises made by those who claim to uphold the rule of law.

Disinformation grandstanding
In the wake of the Indonesian government’s response to the video footage, which may outwardly appear as a willingness to address the issue publicly, there is a stark contrast in the treatment of Papuan political leaders and activists behind closed doors.

While an apology from the Indonesian military commander in Papua through a media conference earlier this week may seem like a step in the right direction, it merely scratches the surface of a deeper issue.

Firstly, the government’s call for firm action against individual soldiers depicted in the video, which has proven to be military personnel, cannot be served as a distraction from addressing broader systemic human rights abuses in West Papua.

A thorough and impartial investigation into all reports of harassment, intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders ensures that all perpetrators are brought to justice, and if convicted, punished with penalties commensurate with the seriousness of the offence.

However, by focusing solely on potential disciplinary measures against a handful of soldiers, the government fails to acknowledge the larger pattern of abuse and oppression prevailing in the region.

Also the statement from the Presidential Staff Office could be viewed as a performative gesture aimed at neutralising international critics rather than instigating genuine reforms.

Without concrete efforts to address the root causes of human rights abuses in West Papua, such statements risk being perceived as empty rhetoric that fails to bring about tangible change for the Papuan people.

Enduring struggle
Historically, West Papua has been marked by a long-standing struggle for independence and self-determination, always met with resistance from Indonesian authorities.

Activists advocating for West Papua’s rights and freedoms become targets of threats and harassment as they challenge entrenched power structures and seek to bring international attention to their cause.

The lack of accountability and impunity enjoyed by the state and its security forces of such acts further emboldens those who seek to silence dissent through intimidation and coercion. Thus, the threats and harassment experienced by the ULMWP leaders and West Papua activists are not only a reflection of the struggle for self-determination but also symptomatic of broader systemic injustices.

In navigating the turbulent waters ahead, let us draw strength from the unwavering resolve of Markus Haluk, Menase Tabuni and many Papuans who refuse to be silenced.

The leaders of the ULMWP and all those who stand alongside them in the fight for justice and freedom serve as a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit.

It is incumbent upon us all to stand in solidarity with those who face intimidation and harassment, to lend our voices to their cause and to shine a light on the darkness that seeks to envelop them.

For in the end, it is only through collective action and unwavering resolve that we can overcome the forces of tyranny and usher in a future where freedom reigns freely.

Ronny Kareni is a Canberra-based Free West Papua activist, musician, trained-diplomat, youth vocational specialist and human rights defender. He graduated in diplomacy studies at the Australian National University. He is committed to and passionate about working with First Nations, Pacific and the nonprofit sector to support social, cultural and legal justice for the most vulnerable target groups. Special report for Asia Pacific Report.

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

Sexual harassment of women journalists continues to be a major problem in Fiji journalism and  “issues of power lie at the heart of this”, new research has revealed.

The study, published in Journalism Practice by researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of the South Pacific, highlights there is a serious need to address the problem which is fundamental to press freedom and quality journalism.

“We find that sexual harassment is concerningly widespread in Fiji and has worrying consequences,” the study said.

• READ MORE: ‘You feel like you don’t have the freedom to do your work’ – Fiji study on sexual harassment of women journalists

“More than 80 percent of our respondents said they were sexually harassed, which is an extremely worryingly high number.”

The researchers conducted a standardised survey of more than 40 former and current women journalists in Fiji, as well as in-depth interviews with 23 of them.

One responded saying: “I had accepted it as the norm . . . lighthearted moments to share laughter given the Fijian style of joking and spoiling each other.

“At times it does get physical. They would not do it jokingly. I would get hugs from the back and when I resisted, he told me to ‘just relax, it’s just a hug’.”

‘Sexual relationship proposal’
Another, speaking about a time she was sent to interview a senior government member, said: “I was taken into his office where the blinds were down and where I sat through an hour of questions about who I was sleeping with, whether I had a boyfriend . . . and it followed with a proposal of a long-term sexual relationship.”

The researchers said that while more than half of the journalistic workforce was made up of women “violence against them is normalised by men”.

They said the findings of the study showed sexual harassment had a range of negative impacts which affects the woman’s personal freedom to work but also the way in which news in produced.

“Women journalist may decide to self-censor their reporting for fear of reprisals, not cover certain topics anymore, or even leave the profession altogether.

“The negative impacts that our respondents experienced clearly have wider repercussions on the ways in which wider society is informed about news and current affairs.”

The research was carried out by Professor Folker Hanusch and Birte Leonhardt of the University of Vienna, and Associate Professor Shailendra Singh and Geraldine Panapasa of the University of the South Pacific.

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

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

Trinh Thi Nhung, wife of Bui Van Thuan, said she was questioned by police in Thanh Hoa province about a Facebook account which used her husband’s photo as her profile picture.

Her husband was arrested at the end of August 2021 for a series of Facebook posts, in which he wrote about the internal fighting of state officials, which he dubbed the “dog fighting ring.”

Thuan is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “propaganda against the State.”

On Feb. 16, the police of the ward where his wife Nhung lives with her young children summoned her to the station without saying why.

On arriving, the police told her they had discovered a Facebook account with an avatar similar to her husband and they suspected she had used that account to write an article “that was not true,” she told RFA on Tuesday.

Nhung said that she told a security officer of Nghi Son Town Police named Hoang Anh she hadn’t used the account.

It was created a few days earlier and contained two fabricated articles containing content that, according to her, “could be handled under Article 331” of the criminal law for “abusing democratic freedoms.”

When the police asked her to give information about her parents and sign a police statement, she refused because she felt she had nothing to do with the fake account.

“I hope that in the future I will not be summoned for reasons that are not convincing enough,” she said. “If this happens again, I will not go.”

She added in the past week, many strangers had been waiting outside her house day and night, following her every time she went out.

RFA Vietnamese called Nghi Son Town Police to verify the information provided by Nhung, but they declined to comment on the phone.

Business supporting Bui Tuan Lam struggles

Bui Tuan Lam, known as “Onion Bae” for making a satirical video imitating a celebrity chef and mocking Vietnam’s public security minister, was arrested on Sept. 7, 2022 on charges of “propaganda against the State.” The following year, he was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months, and is serving his sentence at Xuan Loc Prison.

In order to have money to raise three small children and provide supplies for her husband, his wife Le Thanh Lam, sells foodstuffs including seaweed, dried jackfruit and soy sauce. The labels are printed with the slogan, “Supporting Bui Tuan Lam.”

On Feb. 2, the Da Nang city police and market officials seized goods with a value of about US$80 accusing Ms. Lam of “selling contraband goods without invoices.”

On Feb. 19 officials fined her $50 for the “crime.”

She said she believes she is being victimized because, on the day of her husband’s trial a police officer pointed at her and said, “I will not leave you and your mother alone.”

“I have three small children and support  my husband in prison and I run a small business to scrape together every penny,” she wrote on Facebook.

“The dishes I sell are just snacks, regional specialties of farmers, dishes made by the hands of determined people.

“I make money from honest sweat and effort like any other woman would do for her family, her husband and her children. However, they won't leave me alone.”

The reporter called the Da Nang mayor’s management department to ask about Le Thanh Lam's case, but no one answered the phone.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The statement is an endorsement of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which has been “catastrophic”, according to the WHO, for its healthcare system and killed 200 medical workers.

The opening declaration is: “We affirm the right of TFOM faculty to be openly Zionist and to support the right of Israel to exist and defend itself as a Jewish state and for those faculty to be free of public ostracism, recrimination, exclusion, and discrimination in the TFOM.”

In plain language, the doctors want to promote Israel’s slaughter in Gaza and not be challenged by (disproportionately) racialized and younger students and colleagues.

The statement effectively brands all criticism of Israel as antisemitic. It declares “that accusations against Israel as ‘apartheid’, ‘colonialist’, or ‘white supremacist’ or committing genocide are mendacious and aim to promote the argument that Israel should be dismantled as a Jewish state, making such accusations themselves antisemitic.” Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Al Haq, B’tselem and the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinians have all labeled Israel an apartheid state. Many Zionist pioneers described their aims as “colonial” and hundreds of experts in the field believe Israel is currently committing genocide in Gaza.

While framing themselves as victims, the letter threatens colleagues. “We believe that academic freedom is not absolute. In particular, leaders in academic medicine with power over learners and faculty, who in some cases are the sole leader responsible for thousands of learners and faculty, should not be issuing statements which collide with equity, diversity and inclusion for Jews or which make Jews feel unsafe and unwelcome in the TFOM and which are unrelated or unessential to their core academic role, research, and publishing of results.”

But it’s the many openly racist signatories who have authority over students, as Ghada Sasa’s followers showed on X. The new medical collective Combat Online Harassment concluded, “1 in 5 signatories to the University of Toronto medical school’s proud Zionist letter with active Twitter accounts have posted racist, hateful, or harmful materials!”

This includes Sandy Buchman justifying massacres against Palestinians since Gaza is a “sociopathic society full of murderers”. Another Zionist letter signatory Gideon Hirschfield liked a tweet threatening all Palestinians in Gaza with “immediate and complete destruction” and Dr. Leslie Shulman called for deporting darker skinned teenagers who protested against genocide in Toronto. “Expel. Them. Now. Reason…failure to show evidence of being human.”

Combat Online Harassment, a group of North American healthcare workers, says it was formed in response to “increasing amounts of racist anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic behavior from our colleagues. Simultaneously, we’ve observed an unsettling trend where physicians expressing pro-Palestinian views find themselves unjustly targeted with baseless accusations of antisemitism, resulting in detrimental consequences for their careers. Our work aims to highlight the double standard in the policing of voices; clearly racist and hateful views (ones we post), if coming from Zionists, face little to no repercussions.”

Jewish Zionist doctors have succeeded in punishing anti-genocide voices for making them “feel” uncomfortable. The most high-profile and egregious case is University of Ottawa doctor Yoni Freedhoff who targeted resident Yipeng Ge, leading to his suspension. Over 95,000 people have signed a petition calling for Ge to be reinstated. Toronto Star columnist Shree Paradkar noted, “Several Ontario doctors tell me they are being hauled up for supporting Palestinian rights including for signing a ‘don’t bomb hospitals’ petition. Higher-ups have told them there were complaints and accused them of making Jewish colleagues feel unsafe.”

The Zionist letter highlights the power dynamic in medicine and TFOM. A year ago I wrote about a big Israel lobby and media brouhaha over a ‘report’ on purported antisemitism at TFOM. It concluded: “As Black and Indigenous — and to a lesser extent Latin American, South Asian and Arab — communities struggle for positions within the elite institution, many Jewish and politically Zionist faculty members complain that expressing solidarity with Palestinians discriminates against them. Their pressure led to the appointment of a Special Adviser on Anti-Semitism who published a spurious ‘report’, which outside groups amplified and the dominant media covered widely. This reflects power, not oppression.”

When 555 Jewish doctors openly support Israel’s killing of 17,000 Palestinians this confirms that analysis.

And it makes one wonder what sort of education the ‘caring professions’ at U of T are receiving.

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

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Akela Lacy.

A free speech battle is playing out on college campuses, as students, professors and others advocating for Palestinian rights across the United States are facing racist attacks and retaliation that threaten their safety and livelihoods. These attacks aim to suppress criticism of Israel and U.S. support of its actions in Gaza. This comes as the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution “condemning Hamas and antisemitic student activities on college campuses.” The resolution references a student at New York University’s law school whose job offer was withdrawn after they sent a newsletter to classmates expressing “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.” We’re joined by that student, Ryna Workman, who was also suspended from their position as president of the NYU Law Student Bar Association after publicly expressing support for Palestine, and by Dima Khalidi, the founder and director of Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization dedicated to documenting and supporting people who face retaliation for supporting Palestinian rights. “Folks are now afraid to speak up, in fear that they might become the next me,” says Workman about what Khalidi terms “the Palestine exception to free speech.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The state of civic space in Indonesia has been rated as “obstructed” in the latest CIVICUS Monitor report.

The civic space watchdog said that ongoing concerns include the arrest, harassment and criminalisation of human rights defenders and journalists as well as physical and digital attacks, the use of defamation laws to silence online dissent and excessive use of force by the police during protests, especially in the Papuan region.

In July 2023, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, expressed concerns regarding the human rights situation in the West Papua region in her opening remarks during the 22nd Meeting of the 53rd Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

• READ MORE: West Papuan, Indonesian youth protest over ‘illegal’ 1962 Rome Agreement
• The CIVICUS Monitor report
• Other West Papua reports

She highlighted the harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention of Papuans, which had led to the appropriation of customary land in West Papua.

She encouraged the Indonesian government to ensure humanitarian assistance and engage in “a genuine inclusive dialogue”.

In August 2023, human rights organisations called on Indonesia to make serious commitments as the country sought membership in the UN Human Rights Council for the period 2024 to 2026.

Among the calls were to ratify international human rights instruments, especially the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), to provide details of steps it will take to implement all of the supported recommendations from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and to fully cooperate with the Special Procedures of the Council.

Call to respect free expression
The groups also called on the government to ensure the respect, protection and promotion of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, for clear commitments to ensure a safe and enabling environment for all human rights defenders, to find a sustainable solution for the human rights crisis in Papua and to end impunity.

In recent months, protests by communities have been met with arbitrary arrests and excessive force from the police.

The arbitrary arrests, harassment and criminalisation of Papuan activists continue, while an LGBT conference was cancelled due to harassment and threats.

Human rights defenders continue to face defamation charges, there have been harassment and threats against journalists, while a TikTok communicator was jailed for two years over a pork video.

Ongoing targeting of Papuan activists
Arbitrary arrests, harassment and criminalisation of Papuan activists continue to be documented.

According to the Human Rights Monitor, on 5 July 2023, four armed plainclothes police officers arrested Viktor Makamuke, a 52-year-old activist of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), a pro-independence movement.

He was subsequently detained at the Sorong Selatan District Police Station where officers allegedly coerced and threatened Makamuke to pledge allegiance to the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

A week earlier, Makamuke and his friend had reportedly posted a photo in support of ULMWP full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) — an intergovernmental organisation composed of the four Melanesian states.

Shortly after the arrest, the police published a statement claiming that Makamuke was the commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) — an armed group — in the Bomberai Region.

The Human Rights Monitor reported that members of the Yahukimo District police arbitrarily arrested six activists belonging to the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in the town of Dekai, Yahukimo Regency, on 6 July 2023.

KNPB is a movement promoting the right to self-determination through peaceful action and is one of the most frequently targeted groups in West Papua.

The activists organised and carried out a collective cleaning activity in Dekai. The police repeatedly approached them claiming that the activists needed official permission for their activity.

Six KNPB activists arrested
Subsequently, police officers arrested the six KNPB activists without a warrant or justifying the arrest. All activists were released after being interrogated for an hour.

On 8 August 2023, three students were found guilty of treason and subsequently given a 10-month prison sentence by the Jayapura District Court.

Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere were charged with treason due to their involvement in an event held at the Jayapura University of Science and Technology (USTJ) in November 2022, where they waved the Morning Star flag, a banned symbol of Papuan independence.

Their action was in protest against a planned peace dialogue proposed by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

According to Amnesty International Indonesia, between 2019 and 2022 there have been at least 61 cases involving 111 individuals in Papua who were charged with treason.

At least 37 supporters of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) were arrested in relation to peaceful demonstrations to commemorate the 1962 New York Agreement in the towns Sentani, Jayapura Regency and Dekai, Yahukimo Regency, on 14 and 15 August 2023.

Allegations of police ill-treatment
There were also allegations of ill-treatment by the police.

On 2 September 2023, police officers detained Agus Kossay, Chairman of the West Papua National Coalition (KNPB); Benny Murip, KNPB Secretary in Jayapura; Ruben Wakla, member of the KNPB in the Yahukimo Regency; and Ferry Yelipele.

The four activists were subsequently detained and interrogated at the Jayapura District Police Station in Doyo Baru. Wakla and Yelipele were released on 3rd September 2023 without charge.

Police officers reportedly charged Kossay and Murip under Article 160 and Article 170 of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) for “incitement”.

• The full CIVICUS Monitor report on Indonesia

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

These activities, known as “transnational repression,” show the extent that officials from foreign governments will go in order to shape public views of their policies. Officials from Beijing and other capital cities spy on individuals in the United States and try to crush criticism of their policies through extortion, death threats and even physical assaults, according to the authors of the report.

The report, which examines the “harassment of dissidents and other tactics of transnational repression,” was compiled by researchers from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan investigative unit of the U.S. Congress.

Yet the U.S. does not have laws that specifically criminalize this type of behavior. As a result, law-enforcement officials have relied on a variety of existing statutes, such as those that prohibit money laundering, in order to stop the offenses. FBI officials told the GAO that “gaps in existing law” make it harder to fight against the Chinese government’s attempt at political repression here in the United States.

In one example, as the FBI officials explained to the authors of the report, U.S. statutes used to crack down on this type of repression were written before the internet was created. This makes it harder for prosecutors to bring a case against an individual outside of the United States who works to intimidate U.S. residents.

Analysts say that the use of cyber intimidation and repression is one of the biggest challenges for law enforcement today. “We struggle with this not only in our own country but also with the foreign governments engaging in cyber repression,” said David Fidler, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chelsa Kenney, the director of the GAO’s international affairs and trade team, said that one of the problems for U.S. officials attempting to combat transnational repression is there is no standard definition for what it entails. Local police called to a crime scene may not necessarily consider that the perpetrators are actually living abroad, she said, or “that the crime could have been directed by a foreign government.”

The report recommends that U.S. officials at the Justice Department and other federal agencies take steps “to enhance the common understanding” of transnational repression and to examine “gaps in legislation” needed to address the problem. The authors of the report also encourage the heads of various federal agencies to work closely together to address transnational repression.

'Coercion by proxy'

The subject of transnational repression in its various guises has come under scrutiny in recent years. The activities of authoritarian leaders have expanded, according to experts, in part through new methods of tracking people abroad. The Russian government has attempted to poison its critics, according to the U.S. authorities, and the Chinese government has tried to force dissidents to return home to face punishment.

One example of transnational repression noted by the authors of the report is a tactic used by Chinese officials known as “coercion by proxy.” Specifically, family members of six U.S.-based journalists reporting on human rights abuses in Xinjiang for Radio Free Asia were thrown in prison in 2021.

"There are still over 50 China-based family members of RFA Uyghur staff missing," said Rohit Mahajan, RFA's chief communications officer.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tara McKelvey for RFA.

The rise in social media platforms uploading naked pictures of women and girls has come to the attention of the Censorship Board in Papua New Guinea with Chief Censor Jim Abani warning about the dangers.

In what many have termed as cyber bullying, a picture of women or girls uploaded on social media is then downloaded by other people who use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in creating new content like images and videos of the women or girls involved in sexual activities, including being naked and also involved in pornography.

Chief Censor Abani said his office had received many complaints regarding GAI in creating new content like images and videos of recent reported cases, including uploading of nude images of females on social media.

• READ MORE: AI-generated nude images spread at Spain school, parents outraged
• Other PNG crime reports

He said it was disrespectful and a “disgrace to our mothers and sisters”.

More than 20 girls in Spain reported receiving AI-generated naked images of themselves in a controversy that has been widely reported globally.

Chief Censor Abani said the increase of using new and advanced technology features was alarming for a young and developing country such as PNG.

“We are talking about embracing communication and connective and empowering economy but also the high risks and dangers of wellbeing is my concern, Chief Censor Abani said.

“I call on those sick minded or evil minded people to stop and do something useful and contribute meaningful to nation building.

New Facebook trend
“This is a new trend with Facebook users in the country on social media platforms increasing with unimaginable ways of discriminating and harassment using fake names to post images — particularly of young females — that are not suitable for public consumption or viewing,” he said.

He said he was calling on all relevant agencies to come together, including the Censorship Office, to start implementing some policies and regulations to address these
issues.

Chief Censor Abani said people were unaware of dangers — “particularly our female users of social media platforms”.

These acts were without the individuals’ consent and knowledge using Generative AI applications.

“Technology is good but we must use wisely and being responsible in using such information that is provided,” he said.

He said the Censorship Office would work closely with Department ICT, DATACO and NICTA, police cybercrime unit to use the Cybercrime Code Act to punish perpetrators while waiting for the Censorship Act to finalise a review and amendments.

Marjorie Finkeo is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

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

A Radio New Zealand Pacific journalist has alleged that an Indonesian official attempted to both bribe and intimidate him following an interview at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders’ summit in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila last month.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates, the Media Association Vanuatu (MAV) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, have condemned the attempted bribery and harassment of the journalist and urged the relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident.

On August 23, RNZ Pacific journalist Kelvin Anthony reported that a representative of the Indonesian government, Ardi Nuswantoro, attempted to bribe him outside Port Vila’s Holiday Inn Resort after Anthony conducted an exclusive interview with Indonesia’s Australian ambassador, Dr Siswo Pramono.

• READ MORE: Indonesia responds after claim official attempted to bribe RNZ Pacific journalist
• AJI slams treatment of White House reporter by Indonesian officials at ASEAN Summit
• Other West Papua reports

According to Anthony, Nuswantoro had previously expressed the Indonesian government’s displeasure at RNZ’s coverage of ongoing independence efforts in West Papua, reported the IFJ in a statement.

The journalist had advised him of the outlet’s mandate to produce “balanced and fair” coverage and was invited to the hotel for the interview, where he questioned Dr Pramono on a broad range of pertinent topics, including West Papua.

Following the interview, Anthony was escorted from the hotel by at least three Indonesian officials. After repeatedly inquiring as to how the journalist was going to return to his accommodation, Nuswantoro then offered him a “gift” of an unknown amount of money, which Anthony refused.

Anthony reported that he felt harassed and intimidated in the days following, with Nuswantoro continuing to message, call, and follow him at the conference’s closing reception.

Interview not aired
RNZ chose not to air the interview with Dr Pramno due to the incident.

In response to the claims of bribery and intimidation sent to the Indonesian government by RNZ, Jakarta’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asia Pacific and African Affairs director-general Abdul Kadir Jailani said, “bribery has never been our policy nor approach to journalists . . . we will surely look into it.”

In a September 6 interview, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins reiterated his government’s commitment to press freedom, stating the importance of free and independent media.

Journalists and civil society in West Papua have faced increasing threats, restrictions and violence in recent years. Indonesian media has disproportionately reflected state narratives, with state intervention resulting in the censorship of independent outlets and effective barring of local or international journalists from Indonesian-administered Papua.

In February, renowned Jubi journalist Victor Mambor was subject to a bombing attack outside his Jayapura home.

Pacific Journalism Review: How Indonesian media amplifies the state’s narrative on the Free West Papua movement. #westpapua #indonesia #humanrights https://t.co/J3Rj0Ulhzs pic.twitter.com/9ygIo6KjWN

— Human Rights Monitor (@hurimonitor) September 12, 2023

MAV said: “The Media Association of Vanuatu (MAV) is concerned about an alleged bribery attempt by foreign officials at a Melanesian Spearhead Group regional meeting.

MAV president Lillyrose Welwel denounces such actions and urges MAV members to adhere to the Code of Ethics, as journalism is a public service. She encourages international journalists to contact the association when in the country, as any actions that do not reflect MAV’s values are not acceptable.”

AJI calls for ‘safety guarantee’
AJI said:“AJI Indonesia urges the Indonesian government to investigate the incident with transparency. This action must be followed by providing guarantees to any journalist to work safely in Papua and outside.

“The Indonesian government must also guarantee the protection of human rights in Papua, including for civilians, human rights defenders, and journalists.”

The IFJ said: “Government intervention in independent and critical reporting is highly concerning, and this incident is one in an alarming trend of intimidation against reporting on West Papua.

“The IFJ urges the Indonesian government to thoroughly investigate this incident of alleged bribery and harassment and act to ensure its commitment to press freedom is upheld.”

Pacific Media Watch condemnation
Pacific Media Watch also condemned the incident, saying that it was part of a growing pattern of disturbing pressure on Pacific journalists covering West Papuan affairs.

“West Papua self-determination and human rights violations are highly sensitive issues in both Indonesia and the Pacific. Journalists are bearing the brunt of a concerted diplomatic push by Jakarta in the region to undermine Pacific-wide support for West Papuan rights. It is essential that the Vanuatu authorities investigate this incident robustly and transparently.”

According to a CNN Indonesia report on September 6, Indonesian authorities denied the attempted bribery and harassment allegation.

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

The release of the threat assessment by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) this week is the final piece in a defence and security puzzle that marks a genuine shift towards more open and public discussion of these crucial policy areas.

Together with July’s strategic foreign policy assessment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the national security strategy released last week, it rounds out the picture of New Zealand’s place in a fast-evolving geopolitical landscape.

From increased strategic competition between countries, to declining social trust within them, as well as rapid technological change, the overall message is clear: business as usual is no longer an option.

• READ MORE: NZ’s first national security strategy signals a ‘turning point’ and the end of old certainties
• The ‘number 8 wire’ days for NZ’s defence force are over — new priorities will demand bigger budgets

By releasing the strategy documents in this way, the government and its various agencies clearly hope to win public consent and support — ultimately, the greatest asset any country possesses to defend itself.

NZSIS’s first unclassified threat assessment targets competition, public trust, technology https://t.co/5wetaOL1oA

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) August 10, 2023

Low threat of violent extremism
If there is good news in the SIS assessment, it is that the threat of violent extremism is still considered “low”. That means no change since the threat level was reassessed last year, with a terror attack considered “possible” rather than “probable”.

It is a welcome development since the threat level was lifted to “high” in the
immediate aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack in 2019.

This was lowered to “medium” about a month later — where it sat in September 2021, when another extremist attacked people with a knife in an Auckland mall, seriously
wounding five.

The threat level stayed there during the escalating social tension resulting from the government’s covid response. This saw New Zealand’s first conviction for sabotage and increasing threats to politicians, with the SIS and police intervening in at least one case to mitigate the risk.

After protesters were cleared from the grounds of Parliament in early 2022, it was
still feared an act of extremism by a small minority was likely.

These risks now seem to be receding. And while the threat assessment notes that the online world can provide havens for extremism, the vast majority of those expressing vitriolic rhetoric are deemed unlikely to carry through with violence in the real world.

Changing patterns of extremism
Assessments like this are not a crystal ball; threats can emerge quickly and be near-invisible before they do. But right now, at least publicly, the SIS is not aware of any specific or credible attack planning.

Many extremists still fit well-defined categories. There are the politically motivated, potentially violent, anti-authority conspiracy theorists, of which there is a “small number”.

And there are those motivated by identity (with white supremacist extremism the dominant strand) or faith (such as support for Islamic State, a decreasing and “very small number”).

However, the SIS describes a noticeable increase in individuals who don’t fit within those traditional boundaries, but who hold mixed, unstable or unclear ideologies they may tailor to fit some other violent or extremist impulse.

Espionage and cyber-security risks

There also seems to be a revival of the espionage and spying cultures last seen during the Cold War. There is already the first military case of espionage before the courts, and the SIS is aware of individuals on the margins of government being cultivated and offered financial and other incentives to provide sensitive information.

The SIS says espionage operations by foreign intelligence agencies against New Zealand, both at home and abroad, are persistent, opportunistic and increasingly wide ranging.

While the government remains the main target, corporations, research institutions and state contractors are now all potential sources of sensitive information. Because non-governmental agencies are often not prepared for such threats, they pose a significant security risk.

Cybersecurity remains a particular concern, although the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) recorded 350 incidents in 2021-22, which was a decline from 404 incidents recorded in the previous 12-month period.

On the other hand, a growing proportion of cyber incidents affecting major New Zealand institutions can be linked to state-sponsored actors. Of the 350 reported major incidents, 118 were connected to foreign states (34 percent of the total, up from 28 percent the previous year).

NZSIS’s first unclassified threat assessment targets competition, public trust, technology https://t.co/5wetaOL1oA

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) August 10, 2023

Russia, Iran and China
Although the SIS recorded that only a “small number” of foreign states engaged in deceptive, corruptive or coercive attempts to exert political or social influence, the potential for harm is “significant”.

Some of the most insidious examples concern harassment of ethnic communities within New Zealand who speak out against the actions of a foreign government.

The SIS identifies Russia, Iran and China as the three offenders. Iran was recorded as reporting on Iranian communities and dissident groups in New Zealand. In addition, the assessment says:

Most notable is the continued targeting of New Zealand’s diverse ethnic Chinese communities. We see these activities carried out by groups and individuals linked to the intelligence arm of the People’s Republic of China.

Overall, the threat assessment makes for welcome – if at times unsettling – reading. Having such conversations in the open, rather than in whispers behind closed doors, demystifies aspects of national security.

Most importantly, it gives greater credibility to those state agencies that must increase their transparency in order to build public trust and support for their unique roles within a working democracy.

Dr Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

MPs confront Iran’s Ambassador to New Zealand over protest crackdowns https://t.co/Mtqr5OLetS

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) August 3, 2023

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

The resolution also urged the government to raise the issue of Beijing’s actions in the strategic waterway before the United Nations General Assembly. These allegedly violate a 2016 international arbitration ruling that nullified Beijing’s expansive claims to the potentially mineral-rich sea.

“It is hereby resolved by the Senate of the Philippines to strongly condemn the continued harassment of Filipino fishermen and the incursions in the West Philippine Sea by the Chinese coast guard and militia vessels,” the resolution said, according to a copy obtained by reporters.

The West Philippine Sea is the name that Filipinos use for waters claimed by Manila in the South China Sea.

The resolution urged the Philippine government to take appropriate action “in asserting and securing the country’s sovereign rights over its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf,” in the South China Sea.

The final resolution consolidated two authored separately by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.

“This bipartisan effort tells the Filipino people that when it comes to matters of national sovereignty, we will never be bullied into submission,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“The fight against China’s reckless behavior in the West Philippine Sea does not end here,” she said. 

Hontiveros said she hoped that with the resolution, Manila would take the necessary steps to “consolidate” global support for the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia, to name a few, have hailed the ruling, but Beijing has continued to ignore it. 

On Monday, Ursula von der Leyen, the visiting president of the European Commission, said the European Union backed the “legally binding” ruling.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have territorial claims in the South China Sea. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to these disputes, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

The Senate resolution also urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to bring international attention to continued violations of The Hague ruling.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., though, appears disinterested in involving the U.N.

“Generally speaking, foreign policy is not set by the legislature. Generally speaking, foreign policy is left up to the executive,” he told reporters last week.

“The United Nations entertains governments, not parts of government. They deal with governments.”

Jojo Riñoza and Gerard Carreon in Manila contributed to this report.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By BenarNews Staff.

A global alliance of civil society organisations has protested to Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr in an open letter over the “judicial harassment” of human rights defenders and the designation of five indigenous rights activists as “terrorists“.

CIVICUS, representing some 15,000 members in 75 countries, says the harassment is putting the defenders “at great risk”.

It has also condemned the “draconian” Republic Act No. 11479 — the Anti-Terrorism Act — for its “weaponisation’ against political dissent and human rights work and advocacy in the Philippines.

• READ MORE: President Marcos marks one year with ‘narrative control’
• Other Philippine human rights reports

The CIVICUS open letter said there were “dire implications on the rights to due process and against warrantless arrests, among others”.

The letter called on the Philippine authorities to:

• Immediately end the judicial harassment against 10 human rights defenders by withdrawing the petition in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84;
• Repeal Resolution No. 35 (2022) designating the six human rights defenders as terrorist individuals and unfreeze their property and funds immediately and unconditionally;
• Drop all charges under the ATA against activists in the Southern Tagalog region; and
• Halt all forms of intimidation and attacks on human rights defenders, ensure an enabling environment for human rights defenders and enact a law for their protection.

The full letter states:

President of the Republic of the Philippines
Malacañang Palace Compound
P. Laurel St., San Miguel, Manila
The Philippines.

Dear President Marcos, Jr.,

Philippines: Halt harassment against human rights defenders

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global alliance of civil society organisations (CSOs) and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society worldwide. Founded in 1993, CIVICUS has over 15,000 members in 175 countries.

We are writing to you regarding a number of cases where human rights defenders are facing judicial harassment or have been designated as terrorists, putting them at great risk.

Judicial harassment against previously acquitted human rights defenders
CIVICUS is concerned about renewed judicial harassment against ten human rights defenders that had been previously acquitted for perjury. In March 2023, a petition was filed by prosecutors from the Quezon City Office of the Prosecutor, with General Esperon and current NSA General Eduardo Ano seeking a review of a lower court’s decision against the ten human rights defenders. They include Karapatan National Council members Elisa Tita Lubi, Cristina Palabay, Roneo Clamor, Gabriela Krista Dalena, Dr. Edita Burgos, Jose Mari Callueng and Fr. Wilfredo Ruazol as well as Joan May Salvador and Gertrudes Libang of GABRIELA and Sr Elenita Belardo of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).

The petition also includes the judge that presided over the case Judge Aimee Marie B. Alcera. They alleged that Judge Alcera committed “grave abuse of discretion” in acquitting the defenders. The petition is now pending before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 Presiding Judge Luisito Galvez Cortez, who has asked the respondents to comment on Esperon’s motion this July and has scheduled a hearing on 29 August 2023.

Human rights defenders designated as terrorists
CIVICUS is also concerned that on 7 June 2023, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) signed Resolution No. 41 (2022) designating five indigenous peoples’ leaders and advocates – Sarah Abellon Alikes, Jennifer R. Awingan, Windel Bolinget, Stephen Tauli, and May Casilao – as terrorist individuals. The resolution also freezes their property and funds, including related accounts.

The four indigenous peoples’ human rights defenders – Alikes, Awingan, Bolinget and Tauli — are leaders of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA). May Casilao has been active in Panalipdan! Mindanao (Defend Mindanao), a Mindanao-wide interfaith network of various sectoral organizations and individuals focused on providing education on, and conducting campaigns against, threats to the environment and people of the island, especially the Lumad. Previously, on 7 December 2022, the ATC signed Resolution No. 35 (2022) designating indigenous peoples’ rights defender Ma. Natividad “Doc Naty” Castro, former National Council member of Karapatan and a community-based health worker, as a “terrorist individual.”

The arbitrary and baseless designation of these human rights defenders highlights the concerns of human rights organizations against Republic Act No. 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act, particularly on the weaponization of the draconian law against political dissent and human rights work and advocacy in the Philippines and the dire implications on the rights to due process and against warrantless arrests, among others.

Anti-terrorism law deployed against activists in the Southern Tagalog region
We are also concerned about reports that the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) has been deployed to suppress and persecute human rights defenders in the Southern Tagalog region, which has the most number of human rights defenders and other political activists criminalised by this law. As of July 2023, up to 13 human rights defenders from Southern Tagalog face trumped-up criminal complaints citing violations under the ATA. Among those targeted include Rev. Glofie Baluntong, Hailey Pecayo, Kenneth Rementilla and Jasmin Rubio.

International human rights obligations
The Philippines government has made repeated assurances to other states that it will protect human rights defenders including most recently during its Universal Periodic Review in November 2022. However, the cases above highlight that an ongoing and unchanging pattern of the government targeting human rights defenders.

These actions are also inconsistent with Philippines’ international human rights obligations, including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Philippines ratified in 1986. These include obligations to respect and protect fundamental freedoms which are also guaranteed in the Philippines Constitution. The Philippines government also has an obligation to protect human rights defenders as provided for in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and to prevent any reprisals against them for their activism.

Therefore, we call on the Philippines authorities to:

• Immediately end the judicial harassment against the ten human rights defenders by withdrawing the petition in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84;
• Repeal Resolution No. 35 (2022) designating the six human rights defenders as terrorist individuals and unfreeze their property and funds immediately and unconditionally;Drop all charges under the ATA against activists in the Southern Tagalog region;
• Halt all forms of intimidation and attacks on human rights defenders, ensure an enabling environment for human rights defenders and enact a law for their protection.

We urge your government to look into these concerns as a matter of priority and we hope to hear from you regarding our inquiries as soon as possible.

Regards,

Sincerely,

David Kode
Advocacy & Campaigns Lead
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Cc: Eduardo Año, National Security Adviser and Director General of the National Security Council
Jesus Crispin C. Remulla, Secretary, Department of Justice of the Philippines
Atty. Richard Palpal-latoc, Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines

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

A police officer from the Beijing suburb of Changping pushed his way into the Wang family home on Wednesday, refusing to show ID and demanding to read the couple’s lease agreement, according to a video clip posted by Wang’s wife Li Wenzu on Twitter.

“Comrade Policeman, please would you leave – this is our home,” Li tells the officer, who is identified as Wang Kaiguo in her tweet.

“You can’t just go into people’s residences,” Li tells the officer in a heated discussion. “You didn’t produce any identification.”

“I’m wearing a police uniform, so I can come in here,” he says.

Police were claiming to have received a tip-off that the home had been illegally rented, according to the couple.

‘Stability Maintenance’

The renewed harassment is the latest in a slew of “stability maintenance” actions by Beijing police and other Chinese officials, who have targeted the families of prominent rights attorneys and other activists who were previously jailed in a 2015 crackdown on rights lawyers and public interest law firms.

In a video of an earlier conversation on June 12, Wang calls on a police officer via an entryphone to show some evidence backing up the claim that his family is living in the apartment illegally. He later tweeted a photo of the lease agreement with the landlord.

"Police and corporate security personnel in Shunyi tracked us down to our new residence and reported us to the local police station," Wang said. "They continued to follow us as we were apartment-hunting, and they accused us of 'trespassing.’"

"It's not just us -- a lot of Christian families across the country have been evicted and persecuted," he said. "It's very hard to live a stable life."

Wang's family was forced to leave their last apartment in Beijing's Shunyi district after the authorities cut off their utilities.

"The content of the contract is true, legal, and valid, and should be protected by law," Wang said via Twitter. "I hereby declare that I will not unilaterally terminate this contract within its validity period."

"We moved into this rented accommodation legally, yet police said they had been told that we moved in illegally," Li Wenzu also tweeted on Tuesday.

Can’t leave country

Meanwhile, the family of Li Heping is now banned from leaving China, after their landlord smashed a window at their rented apartment in a bid to get them to leave last month, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Police at Chengdu's international airport prevented the family from boarding a flight to Thailand last week, as Li and his wife Wang Qiaoling are considered to be "a danger to national security," Wang Qiaoling said.

"He told us, 'You aren't allowed to leave the country ... I'm going to read this notice out to you -- Li Heping and Wang Qiaoling aren't allowed to leave the country due to factors endangering national security.’" she said.

And a court in the central city of Changsha recently denied detained rights lawyer Xie Yang a video meeting with his ailing 90-year-old father, who is terminally ill with COVID-19.

"The lawyer asked angrily whether the judges of the Changsha Intermediate People's Court were raised by their parents," the China Rights Lawyers Twitter account said of the June 7 hearing.

Xie's U.S.-based ex-wife Chen Guiqiu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview that her father-in-law Xie Huicheng had been in hospital with a high fever for days at the time of the request.

"Xie Yang is a very filial son, and the old man really wanted to see him before he dies," Chen said. "The court just came up with various excuses to refuse."

Xie is currently being held in the Changsha No. 1 Detention Center, awaiting trial for "incitement to subvert state power," and recently told his visiting attorney that he has been tortured while in detention.

Chen said the court's decision not to allow him to video call his dying father could be a form of retaliation, or a way to silence Xie.

U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said that while there was no good legal reason to deny such a request, the ruling Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate arbiter of its citizens' rights, not the law.

"There was no reason to reject a humanitarian request of this kind," Wu said. "They use [such requests] as a way of controlling suspects [to elicit a 'confession']."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng for RFA Mandarin.

The letter, hosted at MakeSlackSafe.com, points to attacks on abortions and bodily autonomy in the US as a specific threat under which people’s personal messages are being targeted by law enforcement. While Slack says that it only provides user data to law enforcement when it is legally required to do so, in states where abortion is being criminalized, law enforcement can and will use subpoenas to force Slack to hand over the internal messages of abortion funds, abortion providers, and reproductive rights organizations, as well as private individuals who use Slack to message friends, family and coworkers.

The letter also highlights broader attacks on human rights, stating that “in the US and around the world, governments are using data and digital communications to target human rights defenders and people exposing human rights violations, including political nonprofits, activist networks, journalists.” Signers argue that end-to-end encryption is a key feature for ensuring user messages cannot be accessed by Slack, hackers, snooping bosses, or law enforcement.

In addition to offering end-to-end encryption to secure messages, the groups call on Slack to offer tools to stop harassment on the platform, specifically blocking and reporting features, which they note are available on the vast majority of communications tools. With online harassment of workers on the rise (especially since the shift to remote work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic), Slack’s refusal to add a tool to allow people to block other users or report content is unacceptable.

“Slack is falling short in terms of the most basic guardrails for platform safety and privacy, which could have seismic implications for users. End-to-end encryption keeps people safe, and safety must be a built-in feature on all of our platforms. By not addressing this security flaw, Slack is aiding the criminalization of abortions and other expressions of bodily autonomy. As a leader in the online messaging space, Slack has to do more than just run nice PR campaigns claiming to support reproductive rights, they must ensure user safety is inherent in their tech.” Caitlin Seeley George, Campaigns and Managing Director at Fight for the Future.

“Slack has become one of the most popular communications tools of our era. And with that popularity comes responsibility — responsibility that Slack is currently neglecting. Slack must protect its users and catch up with many of its peers by offering common sense safety features, like the option for end-to-end encryption.” Reem Suleiman, U.S. Advocacy Lead at Mozilla

“For years, Slack has said it doesn’t need a block button because it is just a workplace tool and that would cut down on meaningful conversations. I have been advocating for one basic feature, blocking, since 2019, to make Slack safer. Slack isn’t just a workplace tool, it’s used by all different kinds of people, communities, and it’s also used in workplaces. It’s important to emphasize one thing here: harassment happens everywhere. It happens between families, friends, across strangers, and it also happens in the workplace. Blocking is a necessary tool to help mitigate harassment; it’s something users need to create their own safety, especially in the workplace, but in any community. Better security and privacy, privacy tools make people safer. Now is the time to press for what I call: seatbelts of online safety, which are necessary tooling and product features every product, software or infrastructure should have. End to end encryption, blocking, muting, and reporting are those necessary features; we need to think of them as the kinds of safety requirements that airbags and seatbelts provide for cars. We need to shift our thoughts away from thinking of these solely as additional features, but as necessary and required functionality to create and maintain a healthier web. The time is now to remake our web to include this functionality and every product. It’s time for Slack to really commit to safety and user health; these features make that happen.” Caroline Sinders, founder, principal researcher, Convocation Research + Design

“A key component of collective action is communication. We all deserve to know our communications are safe. Workers, consumers, friends, and activists need end-to-end encrypted communications platforms with safety features like blocking, muting, and reporting. I’m hopeful that Slack will take this responsibility seriously and offer these important safety features for users.” Charlotte Slaiman, Competition Policy Director at Public Knowledge

“We are in strong support of mainstreaming encryption and urge messaging platforms to adopt encryption as a way to safeguard people’s human rights. Encryption is not just a matter of privacy, it is a fundamental tool to enhance trust in digital communications. For an organization that yields as much power as Slack does through their popularity and reach, there is a responsibility to keep their users and community safe. We call on Slack to prioritize the adoption of encryption to ensure that messaging apps remain a powerful tool for empowerment, freedom, and the protection of human rights online.” Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director, the Tor Project.

“Ranking Digital Rights’s standards call on companies to protect users’ private communications. While we believe that all chat communications should be encrypted, at the very least, users should have the option to turn on end-to-end encryption. While Slack has some protections in place, these do not extend to end-to-end encryption for messaging. Our 2022 Big Tech Scorecard found that most messaging services, ranging from iMessage to Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Kakao Talk, did provide options for end-to-end encryption. QQ and WeChat, however, both from Chinese company Tencent, failed to do so. Had we ranked Slack, it would have failed, alongside Tencent’s services. We believe Slack can, and should, do much better.” Anna Lee Nabors, Ranking Digital Rights

“In a time when our personal freedoms and rights are under threat, it is crucial to hold Slack accountable. The lack of end-to-end encryption in Slack exposes our private messages to various entities, enabling potential harassment, union-busting, suppression of political activism, and even criminalization of essential choices like abortion. With the rise of repressive laws and increased surveillance, the privacy of our communications has become paramount, especially for marginalized communities. End-to-end encryption ensures the protection and empowerment of individuals, allowing us to navigate a post-Roe US with dignity and autonomy.” Perry Toone, Thexyz

“As a workplace tool that many employees can’t opt out of using, Slack users need control over their exposure to abusive and harassing messages. Because of its real-time delivery and the current inability of the platform’s users to block or mute other users, Slack can be a hothouse for bad behavior. It is in the interests of employers and the platform itself to empower users to control their interactions with illegal or distressing content and the ability to keep their personal conversations private. Mechanisms like muting, blocking, reporting content and encrypted direct messaging should be standard operating procedure on the social Internet,” Tracy Rosenberg, Oakland Privacy

“As an organization that uses Slack to run our campaigns and communicate as a team it is vitally important that the platform be safe and private so that we can do our work to prevent war and violence. Political and human rights activists in the United States and around the globe that use Slack face increasing risks to their freedom and safety because of the use of online surveillance, harassment, and repression, and we expect Slack to take measures to protect them and the important work that they do. We call on Slack to implement end to end encryption and measures to prevent harassment so that its customers can do their work to build more democratic and just communities.” Amy Frame, Director of Data and technology, Win Without War

“At Malloc, we firmly believe in safeguarding the privacy and security of communication for all individuals. That is why we are joining the call to make Slack safe. In an era where personal freedoms and marginalized communities are under threat, it is crucial that we advocate for end-to-end encryption in workplace messaging platforms like Slack. Protecting the privacy of direct messages is not only a matter of personal liberty but also vital to ensure the safety and well-being of employees, activists, and vulnerable communities. We stand united in demanding stronger privacy measures to safeguard confidential conversations and protect the fundamental rights of all individuals.” Maria Terzi, Co-Founder & CEO – Malloc Inc.

In addition to delivering this letter, Fight for the Future has placed sidewalk decals outside Slack’s offices in San Francisco and Denver, has a billboard in the Bay Area, and is running digital ads targeting Slack and calling for end-to-end encryption. The group is also running a broader campaign calling on all messaging platforms to Make DMs Safe by implementing end-to-end encryption by default.

Letter and full list of signers:

Dear Slack,

We are businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals who depend on tools like Slack to connect online. We are activists organizing for change; journalists who communicate with sources and about sensitive stories; nonprofits providing care and support for our communities; companies that need to streamline our processes and share ideas; students, creators, gamers, alumni, artists, athletes, and other communities that use the Internet to connect with people all over the world.

Slack has put the security of our communities in danger by not taking steps to ensure user safety. Safety should be a built-in feature of all technology, so we are calling on you to protect your users by providing the option to enable end-to-end encryption for messages to protect our privacy, and to add blocking, muting and reporting features to help protect users from harassment.

In the US and around the world, governments are using data and digital communications to target human rights defenders and people exposing human rights violations, including political nonprofits, activist networks, journalists. For many of these groups and individuals, Slack is an absolutely vital communication tool, but it could also become the basis of government targeting, repression, censorship.

For years, law enforcement has monitored marginalized groups—including BIPOC, immigrants, social justice activists, and sex workers—through their online communications and through other forms of surveillance. Personal communications immediately became a target for criminalizing abortion seekers and providers after the reversal of Roe v Wade. Security experts and human rights organizations have sounded the alarm about this abuse and point to default end-to-end encrypted messaging as a first and best step companies can take to protect targeted communities. End-to-end encryption is crucial for protecting people from anti-human rights attacks on their bodily autonomy and personhood.

Despite critiques from journalists and privacy experts, Slack has not publicized any plans to offer end-to-end encryption. Instead you’re choosing to prioritize profit over users’ privacy and safety.

In addition to unencrypted Slack messages, the absence of functionality to address harassment over Slack puts users at risk. Whether for work, volunteering, or other social communities, many cannot opt out of using Slack. With workplace and online bullying and harassment on the rise, disproportionately impacting marginalized people who might not have other resources or feel comfortable reporting harassment to HR departments or other moderators, Slack must take responsibility to ensure everyone is equipped with resources to defend themselves.

The vast majority of communication tools give users the ability to mute, block, and report people. Adding these features is a simple, commonsense way to offer more protection from harassment on Slack.

Right now, Slack is falling short in terms of the most basic guardrails for platform safety and privacy. At this political moment, this can mean life or death for some people online. We call on Slack to go beyond statements and put into action its commitment to human rights by implementing basic safety and privacy design features immediately.

Signed,

Abortion Access Front
Access Now
Accountable Tech
Aspiration
Associação Portuguesa para a Promoção da Segurança da Informação
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Catholics for Choice
Center for Digital Resilience
Chayn
Climate Mobilization Project
ClimateAction.tech
Convocation Research + Design
Dangerous Speech Project
Den Frie Vilje ApS
Derechos Digitales
Digital Defense Fund
DNS Africa Media and Communications
Electronic Frontier Finland – Effi ry
Endora
Equity Forward
European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL)
Fight for the Future
Forward Together & Forward Together Action
Free Press
GLAAD
Glitch
Gotham City Drupal
I Need An A.com
If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
IFEX
Jane’s Due Process
JCA-NET(Japan)
Kairos
KRYSS Network
Lawyering Project
LAYLO
Majal.org
Malloc Inc
Media Alliance
MediaJustice
Medical Students for Choice
Mozilla
MPower Change
Myntex Inc.
National Abortion Federation
National Institute for Reproductive Health
National Network of Abortion Funds
New Eden welfare promotion foundation
New/Mode
NTEN
Oakland Privacy
Open Data Charter
OpenMedia
OPTF Ltd
Our Justice
Patient Forward
Pixels for Humans
Point of VIew
Privacy & Access Council of Canada
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
ProboxVE
ProgressNow New Mexico
Public Knowledge
Quiet
Ranking Digital Rights
Reproaction
Reproductive Health Access Project
Rinascimento Green
RootsAction Education Fund
RosKomSvoboda
Salmonberry Tribal Associates
Seeding Sovereignty
Sex Workers Project @ The Urban Justice Center
SHERo Mississippi
State Innovation Exchange (SiX)
Superbloom Design (previously Simply Secure)
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
The Tor Project
The Womxn Project
Thexyz
Ubunteam
UltraViolet
United We Dream
USOW
Utah Abortion Fund
VoteProChoice
We Testify
Win Without War
Women’s March
Woodhull Freedom Foundation
World Wide Web Foundation
X-Lab
Ymoz

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Allegations of sexual harassment have emerged in the case of a senior United Nations manager at the Fiji multi-county office who has been put on “administrative leave” after complaints of “unsatisfactory behaviour”.

On Thursday, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office to Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu confirmed to RNZ Pacific that Sanaka Samarasinha had been temporarily stood down to facilitate investigations.

The UN office said the complaints against Samarasinha were “being taken very seriously” but did not provide further details.

• READ MORE: Other UN in Pacific reports

RNZ Pacific understands the complaints against Samarasinha allege sexual harassment and one complainant has also alleged Samarasinha asked them to delete all electronic communications they had with him, claiming it undermineD the investigations process.

It is understood that one of the complaints against Samarasinha is that in February, at a formal diplomatic function held at the New Zealand High Commission in Suva, he made sexual advances against the complainant while in a drunken state.

RNZ Pacific also understands that Samarasinha’s electronic devices have been confiscated and he has been asked to leave the country.

RNZ put the allegations to Samarasinha who said he was deeply disturbed by the extremely serious and damaging allegations.

“While I am very keen to respond more fully, UN rules prohibit me from doing so as a staff member. Therefore, please reach out to the UN office,” he said.

Meanwhile, Samarasinha’s term as the resident coordinator has been confirmed to end this year.

The UN office said his replacement has already been selected and expected to be presented to the Fijian government, which is hosting the UN multi-country office.

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.

Allegations of sexual harassment have emerged in the case of a senior United Nations manager at the Fiji multi-county office who has been put on “administrative leave” after complaints of “unsatisfactory behaviour”.

On Thursday, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office to Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu confirmed to RNZ Pacific that Sanaka Samarasinha had been temporarily stood down to facilitate investigations.

The UN office said the complaints against Samarasinha were “being taken very seriously” but did not provide further details.

• READ MORE: Other UN in Pacific reports

RNZ Pacific understands the complaints against Samarasinha allege sexual harassment and one complainant has also alleged Samarasinha asked them to delete all electronic communications they had with him, claiming it undermineD the investigations process.

It is understood that one of the complaints against Samarasinha is that in February, at a formal diplomatic function held at the New Zealand High Commission in Suva, he made sexual advances against the complainant while in a drunken state.

RNZ Pacific also understands that Samarasinha’s electronic devices have been confiscated and he has been asked to leave the country.

RNZ put the allegations to Samarasinha who said he was deeply disturbed by the extremely serious and damaging allegations.

“While I am very keen to respond more fully, UN rules prohibit me from doing so as a staff member. Therefore, please reach out to the UN office,” he said.

Meanwhile, Samarasinha’s term as the resident coordinator has been confirmed to end this year.

The UN office said his replacement has already been selected and expected to be presented to the Fijian government, which is hosting the UN multi-country office.

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.

Allegations of sexual harassment have emerged in the case of a senior United Nations manager at the Fiji multi-county office who has been put on “administrative leave” after complaints of “unsatisfactory behaviour”.

On Thursday, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office to Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu confirmed to RNZ Pacific that Sanaka Samarasinha had been temporarily stood down to facilitate investigations.

The UN office said the complaints against Samarasinha were “being taken very seriously” but did not provide further details.

• READ MORE: Other UN in Pacific reports

RNZ Pacific understands the complaints against Samarasinha allege sexual harassment and one complainant has also alleged Samarasinha asked them to delete all electronic communications they had with him, claiming it undermineD the investigations process.

It is understood that one of the complaints against Samarasinha is that in February, at a formal diplomatic function held at the New Zealand High Commission in Suva, he made sexual advances against the complainant while in a drunken state.

RNZ Pacific also understands that Samarasinha’s electronic devices have been confiscated and he has been asked to leave the country.

RNZ put the allegations to Samarasinha who said he was deeply disturbed by the extremely serious and damaging allegations.

“While I am very keen to respond more fully, UN rules prohibit me from doing so as a staff member. Therefore, please reach out to the UN office,” he said.

Meanwhile, Samarasinha’s term as the resident coordinator has been confirmed to end this year.

The UN office said his replacement has already been selected and expected to be presented to the Fijian government, which is hosting the UN multi-country office.

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.

The statement calls on the Bangladesh government to immediately suspend the use of the draconian Digital Security Act pending its repeal or amendment in line with international human rights law. The DSA has repeatedly been used against journalists in retaliation for their work on topics including governmental policies, corruption, and illicit business practices.

The statement notes the March arrest of Shamsuzzaman Shams, a correspondent for the newspaper Prothom Alo, under the DSA and the subsequent DSA investigations opened into Shams, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, executive editor Sajjad Sharif, an unnamed camera operator, and other unidentified people in connection to Shams’ reporting on price hikes. Shams has since been released on bail.

The statement expresses concern regarding the weaponization of other laws against journalists and the media, noting the ongoing investigation of Prothom Alo special correspondent Rozina Islam under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and the penal code in apparent retaliation for her reporting on alleged government corruption and irregularities in the public health sector at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full statement here.

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

On Wednesday, March 15, the outlet suspended its operations indefinitely, according to media reports and the outlet’s owner, David Boio, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Boio told CPJ that the decision to shutter Camunda News, which covered current affairs on its website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel, came after months of government harassment.

“Angolan authorities must commit to the development of a free and independent media and refrain from harassing online outlets like Camunda News,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Instead of censorship through intimidation and archaic licensing requirements, the government should encourage a plurality of media to fulfill the public’s right to access information.”

In October 2022, officials with the police National Criminal Investigation Service, the SIC, questioned Boio about Nelson Demba, an activist and co-host of the weekly current affairs show 360˚ aired on Camunda News’ YouTube and Facebook channels, Boio told CPJ.

Demba is facing charges including incitement to rebellion and outrage against the president, and is presently in hiding, according to reports, which said he believes the charges against him are retaliation for his political activity.

Boio told CPJ that SIC officers had also summoned Camunda News senior reporter llídio Manuel and two other staff members in October. He declined to name those staffers for fear of their safety.

Subsequently, in February 2023, SIC officers called Boio to summon him for questioning as a potential state witness in Demba’s case, according to Boio and those news reports. In that phone call, an investigator warned Boio that an arrest warrant would be issued if he failed to appear and instructed him to bring company documents related to Camunda News.

During three hours of questioning on March 7, Boio told CPJ that he was only asked one question about Demba and that most of the questions were related to Camunda News, its legal status and funding, and his personal life.

Shortly after that questioning, Boio suspended Camunda News’ current affairs video content. On Wednesday, he suspended the entire platform, he said.

“The harassment and intimidation are getting to a point where it could lead to more serious problems, and we know how the system in Angola can be complicated and make up serious accusations, so I need to consider my safety as well as that of all others working at Camunda,” Boio told CPJ.

Manuel, the senior reporter summoned in October, told CPJ that he was unable to hire a lawyer in time and did not attend the questioning, and had not received another summons. He said no details of the case had been disclosed to him.

Boio told CPJ that in May 2020 an SIC investigator had arrived at Camunda News’ offices and asked about its ownership, and the following day the broadcaster received a notification from the Ministry of Telecommunications Technologies and Media requesting the documentation to prove the outlet was operating legally.

“We wrote back to the Ministry explaining that we couldn’t find the legal framework for online content such as what we produced,” Boio told CPJ.

“If we had a license, we would probably be treated the same way the TV channels that got cancelled did, but because there is no legal framework they use SIC to intimidate us,” Boio said. Authorities suspended three TV broadcasters in 2021.

Benja Satula, a lawyer representing Camunda News, told CPJ via messaging app that there is no legal framework covering online content platforms, so there could be no illegal activity warranting a criminal investigation.

SIC spokesperson Manuel Alaiwa responded to CPJ’s requests for comment by phone and messaging app saying that he would call later. He had not responded by the time of publication.

When CPJ called Ministry of Telecommunications Technologies and Media spokesperson João Demba for comment, he said the ministry could not comment because it was awaiting information from the SIC.

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

Both journalists have been summoned to the country’s High Court in the capital city of Lomé for a trial beginning on Wednesday, March 8, according to news reports, court documents reviewed by CPJ, and the journalists’ lawyer Elom Kpade, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Authorities allege that Ayité, publication director of the privately owned L’Alternative newspaper, insulted public authorities in the outlet’s reporting, and that Kouwonou, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, assisted in that alleged offense.

The court documents cite sections of Togo’s penal code relating to criminal insult, punishable with up to two years in prison and a fine of 1 million West African francs (US$1,619); distributing false news, which carries up to two years and a fine of 2 million francs (US$3,238); and authoring false news, which carries up to three years and a fine of 3 million francs (US$4,858).

“Togolese authorities should immediately cease their legal harassment of journalists Ferdinand Ayité and Isidore Kouwonou and allow them to work freely,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Journalistic commentary on issues of public interest should never be criminalized, and the summonses issued to these journalists should be scrapped at once.”

The case stems from an online broadcast by L’Alternative in late 2021, which Ayité and journalist Joel Egah discussed corruption allegations involving two government ministers and accusations that they had manipulated the public, according to those news reports. Egah died from a heart attack in March 2022.

In December 2021, police arrested Ayité and Egah over that broadcast; Kouwonou was also summoned by police that month.

The court documents allege that both Ayité and Kouwonou published and distributed “false news” on social media that was liable to “disrupt public peace.”

Section 172 of Togo’s press code says that offenses involving journalists should be handled by the communication regulator, but Section 156 says that journalists who “used social networks as a means of communication” to commit such offenses are instead “punished in accordance with the common law provisions.”

CPJ called prosecutor Mawama Talaka for comment, but no one answered.

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

Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan, MP
Minister of Home Affairs
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
minister@mha.gov.bd

Mr. Zahid Maleque, MP
Minister of Health and Family Welfare
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
minister@mohfw.gov.bd

Dear Ministers Khan and Maleque,

We, the undersigned press freedom and human rights groups, write to seek your leadership in ensuring an immediate end to the harassment of Bangladeshi journalist and human rights defender Rozina Islam. Islam faces an ongoing investigation under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and the penal code in apparent retaliation for merely exercising her right to freedom of expression through her reporting on alleged government corruption and irregularities in the public health sector at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. If formally charged and convicted under the Official Secrets Act, Islam faces up to 14 years in prison, or a death sentence. Islam was arbitrarily detained for seven days in May 2020, when a health ministry official filed the complaint accusing the journalist of taking photos of official documents in the ministry’s secretariat, leading to the ongoing investigation.

Since her release on bail, Islam has been routinely summoned for court appearances, many of which have been unduly delayed and rescheduled in violation of her right to a fair trial as guaranteed under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bangladesh is a state party. In August 2021, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit asked banks to provide transaction details of any accounts held by Islam, in an apparent move to further intimidate the journalist.

Islam continues to face unlawful restrictions on her right to freedom of movement in violation of Article 12 of the ICCPR. She was granted bail on the condition that she surrender her passport, imposing an effective travel ban despite the fact that there is no provision for conditional bail in the Code of Criminal Procedure. In January 2022, a Dhaka court temporarily permitted the return of her passport for six months. Since then, however, Islam has been obliged to request her passport from the court whenever she plans to travel abroad.

After 14 months of investigation, the detective branch of the Dhaka police submitted its final report to court in July 2022, and called for the case against Islam to be dropped due to lack of evidence. Seven months later, in January 2023, the health ministry official filed a naraji (no-confidence) petition against the detective branch’s report, in response to which the court directed the Police Bureau of Investigation to further investigate Islam. We are deeply disturbed by a government official’s use of a naraji petition to prolong the investigation of a journalist under a national security law, particularly given that police have failed to produce a charge sheet or present any concrete evidence indicating that she has committed a crime.

Islam’s work, for which she received the United States Department of State’s Anti-Corruption Champions Award in 2022, is a public service, not a crime, and should be protected under Sections 4 and 5 of the Disclosure of Public Interest Information (Protection) Act.

We urge the authorities to fully respect and protect the human rights of journalist and human rights defender Rozina Islam, including her right to a fair trial, and to immediately cease all forms of judicial harassment against her, facilitating the return of her passport from judicial custody, and ensuring that she is not subjected to further retaliation for her work.

Signed:

Amnesty International

Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network

Capital Punishment Justice Project

Coalition For Women In Journalism

Committee to Protect Journalists

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Free Media Movement

Front Line Defenders

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

International Federation of Journalists

International Women’s Media Foundation

Overseas Press Club of America

Pakistan Press Foundation

PEN America

PEN Bangladesh

PEN International

Reporters Without Borders

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

South Asian Journalists Association

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

CC: Mr. Anisul Haq
Minister of Law, Justice, and Parliament
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
secretary@lawjusticediv.gov.bd

CC: Mr. A.K. Abdul Momen, MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
fm@mofa.gov.bd

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

Developed in collaboration with TrustLaw—the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono service—this guide covers the legal rights journalists have in India. It provides guidance to equip journalists with a working understanding of the remedies and protection measures that are available under Indian law.

The guide and overview are also available in Hindi.

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

Despite earlier calls to Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă and other government officials, authorities have failed to investigate the harassment of Șercan, the letter states. Starting in January 2022, Șercan received threatening emails and social media messages, and several intimate photos of her were shared online after she published an article alleging that Ciucă had plagiarized his doctoral dissertation.

The organizations renewed their call on authorities to prioritize the investigation and dedicate sufficient resources to it, and address an ongoing smear campaign aimed at discrediting Șercan’s journalism.

The full text of the letter can be read here.

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

SPECIAL REPORT: By Phil Thornton

In the two years since Myanmar’s military seized power from the country’s elected lawmakers it has waged a war of terror against its citizens — members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, artists, poets, actors, politicians, health workers, student leaders, public servants, workers, and journalists.

The military-appointed State Administration Council amended laws to punish anyone critical of its illegal coup or the military. International standards of freedoms — speech, expression, assembly, and association were “criminalised”.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), reported as of 30 January 2023, the military killed 2901 people and arrested another 17,492 (of which 282 were children), with 13,719 people still in detention.

One hundred and forty three people have been sentenced to death and four have been executed since the military’s coup on 1 February 2021. Of those arrested, 176 were journalists and as many as 62 are still in jail or police detention.

The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Myanmar as the world’s second-highest jailers of journalists. Fear of attacks, harassment, intimidation, censorship, detainment, and threats of assassination for their reporting has driven journalists and media workers underground or to try to reach safety in neighbouring countries.

Journalist Ye Htun Oo has been arrested, tortured, received death threats, and is now forced to seek safety outside of Myanmar. Ye Htun spoke to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) of his torture, jailing and why he felt he had no choice, but to leave Myanmar for the insecurity of a journalist in exile.

They came for me in the morning
“I started as a journalist in 2007 but quit after two years because of the difficulty of working under the military. I continued to work, writing stories and poetry. In 2009 I restarted work as a freelance video and documentary maker.”

Ye Htu said making money from journalism in Myanmar had never been easy.

“I was lucky if I made 300,000 kyat a month (about NZ$460) — it was a lot of work, writing, editing, interviewing and filming.”

Ye Htun’s hands, fingers and thin frame twist and turn as he takes time to return to the darkness of the early morning when woken by police and military knocking on his front door.

“It was 2 am, the morning of 9 October 2021. We were all asleep. The knocking on the door was firm but gentle. I opened the door. Men from the police and the military’s special media investigation unit stood there — no uniforms. They’d come to arrest me.”

Ye Htun links the visit of the police and army to his friend’s arrest the day before.

“He had my number on his phone and when questioned told them I was a journalist. I hadn’t written anything for a while. The only reason they arrested me was because I was identified as a journalist — it was enough for them. The military unit has a list of journalists who they want to control, arrest, jail or contain.”

Ye Htun explains how easy it is for journalists to be arrested.

“When they arrest people…if they find a reference to a journalist or a phone number it’s enough to put you on their list.”

After the coup, Ye Htun continued to report.

“I was not being paid, moving around, staying in different places, following the protests. I was taking photos. I took a photo of citizens arresting police and it was published. This causes problems for the people in the photo. It also caused some people to regard me and journalists as informers — we were now in a hard place, not knowing what or who we could photograph. I decided to stop reporting and made the decision to move home. That’s when they came and arrested me.”

In the early morning before sunrise, the police and military removed Ye Htun from his home and family and took him to a detention cell inside a military barracks.

“They took all my equipment — computer, cameras, phone, and hard disks. The men who arrested and took me to the barracks left and others took over. Their tone changed. I was accused of being a PDF (People’s Defence Force militia).

“Ye Htun describes how the ‘politeness’ of his captors soon evaporated, and the danger soon became a brutal reality. They started to beat me with kicks, fists, sticks and rubber batons. They just kept beating me, no questions. I was put in foot chains — ankle braces.”

The beating of Ye Htun would continue for 25 days and the uncertainty and hurt still shows in his eyes, as he drags up the details he’s now determined to share.

“I was interrogated by an army captain who ordered me to show all my articles — there was little to show. They made me kneel on small stones and beat me on the body — never the head as they said, ‘they needed it intact for me to answer their questions’”.

Ye Htun explained it wasn’t just his assigned interrogators who beat or tortured him.

“Drunk soldiers came regularly to spit, insult or threaten me with their guns or knives.”

Scared, feared for his life
Ye Htun is quick to acknowledge he was scared and feared for his life.

“I was terrified. No one knew where I was. I knew my family would be worried. Everyone knows of people being arrested and then their dead, broken bodies, missing vital organs, being returned to grieving families.”

After 25 days of torture, Ye Htun was transferred to a police jail.

“They accused me of sending messages they had ‘faked’ and placed on my phone. I was sentenced to two years jail on 3rd November — I had no lawyer, no representative.”

Ye Htun spoke to political prisoners during his time in jail and concluded many were behind bars on false charges.

“Most political prisoners are there because of fake accusations. There’s no proper rule of law — the military has turned the whole country into a prison.”

Ye Htun served over a year and five months of his sentence and was one of six journalists released in an amnesty from Pyay Jail on 4 January 2023.

Not finished torturing
Any respite Ye Htun or his family received from his release was short-lived, as it became apparent the military was not yet finished torturing him. He was forced to sign a declaration that if he was rearrested he would be expected to serve his existing sentence plus any new ones, and he received death threats.

Soon after his release, the threats to his family were made.

“I was messaged on Facebook and on other social media apps. The messages said, ‘don’t go out alone…keep your family and wife away from us…’ their treats continued every two or three days.”

Ye Htun and his family have good cause to be concerned about the threats made against them. Several pro-military militias have openly declared on social media their intention against those opposed to the military’s control of the country.

A pro-military militia, Thwe Thauk Apwe (Blood Brothers), specialise in violent killings designed to terrorise.

Frontier Magazine reported in May 2022 that Thwe Thauk Apwe had murdered 14 members of the National League of Democracy political party in two weeks. The militia uses social media to boast of its gruesome killings and to threaten its targets — those opposed to military rule — PDF units, members of political parties, CDM members, independent media outlets and journalists.

Ye Htun said fears for his wife and children’s safety forced him to leave Myanmar.

“I couldn’t keep putting them at risk because I’m a journalist. I will continue to work, but I know I can’t do it in Myanmar until this military regime is removed.”

Air strikes target civilians – where’s the UN?
Award-winning documentary maker and artist, Sai Kyaw Khaing, dismayed at the lack of coverage by international and regional media on the impacts of Myanmar’s military aerial strikes on civilian targets, decided to make the arduous trip to the country’s northwest to find out.

In the two years since the military regime took illegal control of the country’s political infrastructure, Myanmar is now engaged in a brutal, countrywide civil war.

Civilian and political opposition to the military coup saw the formation of People Defence Force units under the banner of the National Unity Government established in April 2021 by members of Parliament elected at the 2020 elections and outlawed by the military after its coup.

Thousands of young people took up arms and joined PDF units, trained by Ethnic Armed Organisations, to defend villages and civilians and fight the military regime. The regime vastly outnumbered and outmuscled the PDFs and EAOs with its military hardware — tanks, heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and fighter jets.

Sai Kyaw contacted a number of international media outlets with his plans to travel deep inside the conflict zone to document how displaced people were coping with the airstrikes and burning of their villages and crops.

Sai Kyaw said it was telling that he has yet to receive a single response of interest from any of the media he approached.

“What’s happening in Myanmar is being ignored, unlike the conflict in Ukraine. Most of the international media, if they do report on Myanmar, want an ‘expert’ to front their stories, even better if it’s one of their own, a Westerner.”

Deadly strike impact
Sai Kyaw explains why what is happening on the ground needs to be explained — the impacts of the deadly airstrikes on the lives of unarmed villagers.

“My objective is to talk to local people. How can they plant or harvest their crops during the intense fighting? How can they educate their kids or get medical help?

“Thousands of houses, schools, hospitals, churches, temples, and mosques have been targeted and destroyed — how are the people managing to live?”

Sai Kyaw put up his own money to finance his trip to a neighbouring country where he then made contact with people prepared to help him get to northwestern Myanmar, which was under intense attacks from the military regime.

“It took four days by motorbike on unlit mountain dirt tracks that turned to deep mud when it rained. We also had to avoid numerous military checkpoints, military informers, and spies.”

Sai Kyaw said that after reaching his destination, meeting with villagers, and witnessing their response to the constant artillery and aerial bombardments, their resilience astounded him.

“These people rely on each other, when they’re bombed from their homes, people who still have a house rally around and offer shelter. They don’t have weapons to fight back, but they organise checkpoints managed by men and women.”

Sai Kyaw said being unable to predict when an airstrike would happen took its toll on villagers.

Clinics, schools bombed
“You don’t know when they’re going to attack — day or night — clinics, schools, places of worship — are bombed. These are not military targets — they don’t care who they kill.”

Sai Kyaw witnessed an aerial bombing and has the before and after film footage that shows the destruction. Rows of neat houses, complete with walls intact before the air strike are left after the attack with holes a car could drive through.

“The unpredictable and indiscriminate attacks mean villagers are unable to harvest their crops or plant next season’s rice paddies.”

Sai Kyaw is concerned that the lack of aid getting to the people in need of shelter, clothing, food, and medicine will cause a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

“There’s no sign of international aid getting to the people. If there’s a genuine desire to help the people, international aid groups can do it by making contact with local community groups. It seems some of these big international aid donors are reluctant to move from their city bases in case they upset the military’s SAC [State Administration Council].”

At the time of writing Sai Kyaw Khaing has yet to receive a reply from any of the international media he contacted.

It’s the economy stupid
A veteran Myanmar journalist, Kyaw Kyaw*, covered a wide range of stories for more than 15 years, including business, investment, and trade. He told IFJ he was concerned the ban on independent media, arrests of journalists, gags and access restrictions on sources meant many important stories went unreported.

“The military banning of independent media is a serious threat to our freedom of speech. The military-controlled state media can’t be relied on. It’s well documented, it’s mainly no news or fake news overseen by the military’s Department of Propaganda.”

Kyaw lists the stories that he explains are in critical need of being reported — the cost of consumer goods, the collapse of the local currency, impact on wages, lack of education and health care, brain drain as people flee the country, crops destroyed and unharvested and impact on next year’s yield.

Kyaw is quick to add details to his list.

“People can’t leave the country fast enough. There are more sellers than buyers of cars and houses. Crime is on the rise as workers’ real wages fall below the poverty line. Garment workers earned 4800 kyat, the minimum daily rate before the military’s coup. The kyat was around 1200 to the US dollar — about four dollars. Two years after the coup the kyat is around 2800 — workers’ daily wage has dropped to half, about US$2 a day.”

Kyaw Kyaw’s critique is compelling as he explains the cost of everyday consumer goods and the impact on households.

“Before the coup in 2021, rice cost a household, 32,000 kyat for around 45kg. It is now selling at 65,000 kyat and rising. Cooking oil sold at 3,000 kyat for 1.6kg now sells for over double, 8,000kyat.

“It’s the same with fish, chicken, fuel, and medicine – family planning implants have almost doubled in cost from 25,000 kyat to now selling at 45,000 kyat.”

Humanitarian crisis potential
Kyaw is dismayed that the media outside the country are not covering stories that have a huge impact on people’s daily struggle to feed and care for their families and have the real potential for a massive humanitarian crisis in the near future.

“The focus is on the revolution, tallies of dead soldiers, politics — all important, but journalists and local and international media need to report on the hidden costs of the military’s coup. Local media outlets need to find solutions to better cover these issues.”

Kyaw stresses international governments and institutions — ASEAN, UK, US, China, and India — need to stop talking and take real steps to remove and curb the military’s destruction of the country.

“In two years, they displaced over a million people, destroyed thousands of houses and religious buildings, attacked schools and hospitals — killing students and civilians — what is the UNSC waiting for?”

An independent think tank, the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, and the UN agency for refugees confirm Kyaws Kyaw’s claims.The Institute for Strategy and Policy reports “at least 28,419 homes and buildings were torched or destroyed…in the aftermath of the coup between 1 February 2021, and 15 July 2022.”

The UN agency responsible for refugees, the UNHCR, estimates the number of displaced people in Myanmar is a staggering 1,574,400. Since the military coup and up to January 23, the number was 1,244,000 people displaced.

While the world’s media and governments focus their attention and military aid on Ukraine, Myanmar’s people continue to ask why their plight continues to be ignored.

Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in Southeast Asia. This article was first published by the IFJ Asia-Pacific blog and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

*Name has been changed as requested for security concerns.

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

The encounter at sea occurred on Jan. 9 when the crew of KEN-KEN fishing boat reported that a Chinese ship with bow number 5204 and a smaller boat drove them away from waters near Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal), according to the Philippine Coast Guard. 

“Ayungin Shoal is part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines. The Philippines is entitled to exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the area, without any intervention from another country,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Tuesday. 

“Filipino fishermen are free to exercise their rights and take whatever they are due under Philippine and international law, particularly the 1982 UNCLOS and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” it said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Philippine foreign office said it was waiting for the local law enforcement agencies’ official reports on the alleged incident.

“The reports will serve as a basis for diplomatic action on the incident,” the department said.

“The department vigilantly monitors any developments in the West Philippine Sea, especially following the discussions between President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the former’s state visit to China,” it said, using the Filipino name for areas within its EEZ in the South China Sea. 

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to RFA-affiliate BenarNews requests for comment. 

The shoal, about 174 nautical miles from Puerto Princesa, a port city in the western Philippines’ Palawan province, is one of the nine areas occupied by Filipino forces in the disputed waters. The Philippines maintains a small contingent of Marines housed aboard the BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated World War-II era ship that was deliberately run aground in the 1990s. 

Marcos said that his state visit to China in early January had already yielded a positive outcome through the two nations using an agreed-to hotline to focus on sea tensions.

“So we have immediately used that thing, that mechanism that I talked about where I said we can immediately contact the Chinese government, and hopefully our counterparts on the other side can bring it to President Xi’s attention – this problem – and we have done that,” Marcos told a select group of broadcasters Monday, according to transcripts released Tuesday. 

“But it does not preclude us from continuing to make protests and continuing to send note verbales concerning this,” he said, referring to diplomatic notes without elaborating. 

The Marcos administration has insisted repeatedly that issues in the South China Sea do not define relations with China. On Tuesday, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco joined Huang Xilian, the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, in greeting one of the first plane loads of Chinese tourists to arrive in Manila in three years.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Artemio Abu confirmed that the Filipino fishermen “were being shadowed” and that the Philippine side responded by intensifying its assets near Ayungin. 

He said his agency had sent “raw footage” of the incident to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“We give confidence to our Filipino fishermen that they are taken care of and protected. We assure our Filipino fishermen that they are protected and secured through our constant presence,” Abu said in a television interview.

The commandant said coast guard leaders would raise concerns with their counterparts from China during “high-level talks,” but he did not disclose the date. 

“We really need to coordinate well with the national leadership. It has to be communicated down to the frontlines,” Abu said. 

The incident was the first alleged case of Chinese harassment of a Philippine fishing boat reported in 2023. Last year, the Philippines carried out at least 10 resupply missions to the Sierra Madre without any incidents, apart from reports of the Chinese Coast Guard issuing verbal challenges. 

In March 2014, a boat carrying supplies and Filipino journalists to Ayungin evaded a Chinese Coast Guard blockade during a two-hour standoff. 

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Aie Balagtas See for BenarNews.

On December 30, exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar revealed that he had been added to the so-called terrorist “gray list,” a database published by the Turkish Interior Ministry that identifies alleged terrorists and offers rewards for their capture, according to news reports.

Dündar’s name and photograph appear on the gray list’s webpage, which offers a reward of 500,000 lira (US$26,697) to anyone who can aid in his arrest. Dündar received CPJ’s 2016 International Press Freedom Award in recognition of his work amid government repression.

CPJ has identified at least 14 other members of the press included on the Interior Ministry’s gray list.

“Turkish authorities should refrain from treating exiled journalists like terrorists, and should not include them on wanted lists, which are blatant attempts to intimidate journalists from doing their jobs,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said. “Authorities should immediately remove the names of all journalists on such lists, and stop treating members of the press like criminals.”

The gray list webpage also includes 14 other Turkish journalists living in exile: Bülent Keneş, Abdullah Bozkurt, Ahmet Dönmez, Cevheri Güven, Tarık Toros, Adem Yavuz Arslan, Said Sefa, Arzu Yıldız, Levent Kenez, Hasan Cücük, Sevgi Akarçeşme, Erhan Başyurt, Bülent Korucu, and Hamit Bilici.

The webpage says those journalists are wanted for their alleged ties to the exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and “parallel state structure,” and of masterminding a July 15, 2016, failed military coup.

Dündar, who reported on alleged weapon smuggling from Turkey to Syria in 2014, was convicted of aiding Gülen’s organization in 2020. If returned to Turkey, he faces nearly 30 years in prison.

CPJ emailed the Interior Ministry of Turkey for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

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

Four Latin American presidents condemned the ouster and imprisonment of leftist Peruvian President Pedro Castillo on Tuesday, a move that preceded a national emergency declaration by the country's new government amid a deadly crackdown against what critics are calling a U.S.-backed "legislative coup."

"The oligarchic rulers of Peru could never accept that a rural schoolteacher and peasant leader could be brought into office by millions of poor, Black, and Indigenous people."

In a joint statement, the leftist leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico—respectively, Alberto Fernández, Luis Arce, Gustavo Petro, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador—expressed their "deep concern over the recent events that resulted in the removal and detention of José Pedro Castillo Terrones, president of the Republic of Peru."

"It is not news to the world that President Castillo Terrones, from the day of his election, was the victim of anti-democratic harassment," the presidents said. "Our governments call on all the actors involved... to prioritize the will of the citizens that was pronounced at the polls." 

"We exhort those in our [national] institutions to refrain from reversing the popular will expressed through free suffrage," the statement added. "We request that the authorities fully respect the human rights of President Pedro Castillo and that he be guaranteed judicial protection."

Progressive Chilean President Gabriel Boric, on the other hand, called an attempt by Castillo to dissolve Peru's Congress a "rupture of the constitutional order," while leftist Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Castillo's removal was "constitutional."

On Wednesday, Luis Otárola Peñaranda, the newly appointed Peruvian defense minister, announced a 30-day national emergency, a move he said means "the suspension of the rights of assembly, inviolability of the home, freedom of movement, and personal freedom and security" in the Andean nation of 33.3 million inhabitants.

The emergency declaration came as protesters blocked the Pan-American Highway south of the capital Lima, as well as the airport in Cusco, a major tourist hub, resulting in canceled flights.

Demonstrators also tried to reach the Congress building in Lima, according to The Washington Post, which reported that seven people, all of them teenagers, have been killed by state security forces, mostly in impoverished rural regions that strongly support Castillo.

Demonstrators are angry at the December 7 ouster and arrest of Castillo—a democratically elected former rural teacher and union organizer—by the country's right-wing-controlled Congress. On Tuesday, Peruvian Supreme Court Judge César San Martín Castro rejected an appeal seeking Castillo's release from prison.

Infuriated by Castillo's promise of deep social reforms and a new constitution, Peru's oligarchs and the National Society of Industries, the country's leading business group, long sought his removal.

"The oligarchic rulers of Peru could never accept that a rural schoolteacher and peasant leader could be brought into office by millions of poor, Black, and Indigenous people who saw their hope for a better future in Castillo," Manolo De Los Santos, co-executive director of the People's Forum, explained in People's Dispatch.

Castillo was ousted from office, arrested, and charged with rebellion and conspiracy after he moved to dissolve Congress in a bid to preempt a legislative motion to dismiss him for "permanent moral incapacity."

In addition to attempting to dissolve Congress, Castillo also announced the start of an "exceptional emergency government" in which he would rule by decree until a Constituent Assembly was assembled within nine months. The president also intended to impose a 10:00 pm curfew. None of these policies were implemented.

Vice President Dina Boluarte was installed as the new president on December 7. Peru's sixth president in five years, Boluarte on Tuesday proposed to hold elections in April 2024.

The day after Boluarte took over, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols tweeted that "the U.S. welcomes President Boluarte and looks forward to working with her administration to achieve a more democratic, prosperous, and secure region."

Nichols—who has also pushed for U.S. military intervention in Haiti—added that "we applaud Peruvians as they unite in support of their democracy."

The United States has a long history of supporting autocrats and intervention in the region, including during "Operation Condor," a coordinated effort by right-wing military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and, later, Peru and Ecuador. The campaign against perceived leftist threats was characterized by kidnappings, torture, disappearances, and murder, and claimed an estimated 60,000 lives, according to human rights groups.

Leftists around the world have condemned Castillo's ouster and what the U.S. peace group CodePink called the new government's "violent campaign of terror against protesters."

"We echo the demands of Peru's popular movements and support their right to resist, defend their democracy, and demand justice for the victims of this violence," the group said in a statement. "We demand that the U.S. not interfere as Peruvians fight to stabilize their democracy."

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

People’s Alliance candidate Lynda Tabuya claims her 16-year-old daughter was “harassed” by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) officers last week.

Tabuya made this allegation in a video posted on social media.

“This is my daughter coming back from school and they asked her where I was,” she said.

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“And she said she didn’t know and then they said to her, ‘tell your mother that FICAC is looking for her’.”

She said this step taken by FICAC was unacceptable.

“You come to my home and harass my child, my 16-year-old who was just coming back from school, just did her exam.

“It’s just very shameful.”

Made daughter panic
Tabuya said this made her daughter panic and worry about what would happen to her mother.

“You know, they could have asked her, is there an adult in the home, can we see someone?

“But no, they came and my family was at home and they rang the doorbell like 10 times, 15 times in a row with my children inside.

“What are you doing FICAC. If you wanted to find me, you know where to find me, you have means to find me, but don’t harass my children.”

• Questions sent to FICAC by The Fiji Times on the claims made by Tabuya remained unanswered.

Rakesh Kumar is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

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

Their claims came just ahead of Wednesday’s U.S. Human Rights Dialogue in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. One of the issues that will be raised is the right to religious freedom.

Y Nguyet Bkrong, one of the followers of Vietnam’s biggest Protestant church, said that around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday around 20 believers gathered at his house to pray. After 10 minutes, plain clothes police arrived and told them to stop the ceremony. They also ordered everyone who was not registered as a resident of the house to leave.

“When I performed Christian religious rites … 15 people from the commune and city police as well as the People's Committee of Hoa Thang Commune, came. They didn’t allow us to practice religious activities,” said church follower Y Coi.

“They said that whatever [religion] the State has not yet recognized will not be allowed to practice. The Evangelical Church of Christ has no legal entity, so if we continue, they are likely to take tougher measures.”

Before the followers left, he said the police made two copies of a statement and gave one copy to him.

“30 minutes after everyone left, officials came back and asked me to give them back the document,” he said.

“They threatened that if I didn't return it, they would get orders from their superiors to search my house. I was alone at the time, so I had to obey their request.”

Ceremonies in Buon Ma Thuot city also stopped

A similar incident happened on the same morning at the home church of Evangelical Church of Christ follower Y Lui Bya in Buon Ma Thuot city, the capital of Dak Lak province. More than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed police burst into the house, preventing worshipers from performing religious rites.

“The police said that the State does not recognize or allow our sect,” he said.

“Believers asked them why the state did not recognize our sect if there is a freedom of religion.

"Then they threatened to demolish the house that was worshiping God. They wanted to beat my son-in-law. They threatened us, telling us to sign a statement but we refused.”

RFA called the Buon Ma Thuot City Police at the phone number posted on the Dak Lak Provincial Police Portal. The officer on duty hung up after being questioned about the incident and nobody answered when we called back.

Constant surveillance

Y Nguyet Bkrong, Y Coi and Y Lui Bya all said they were kept under constant surveillance last month.

Y Lui said he has been watched by the police since Oct. 13.

“I am still under surveillance now. They always follow wherever I go. When I go to the fields, they also follow.”

Y Coi told RFA that from Oct. 13 to 17, he was watched and was followed by police wherever he went. From Oct. 27 to 29, he said the police set up night surveillance in front of his house:

“The Communist government of Vietnam carries out strict surveillance. I don't know why they were on guard, not letting me go anywhere. I have pictures as evidence that the provincial police and the city police monitored me,” he said.

He said that while giving an interview to RFA on Monday evening, more than a dozen policemen were in front of his house.

“Whenever there is a U.S. delegation to Vietnam, the first thing they do is go to each house … so sometimes I feel stressed and unsafe.”

Protestants in Central Highlands accused of trying to establish their own State

The Vietnamese government has repeatedly accused the Protestant Church in the Central Highlands of being a reactionary organization, taking advantage of religion to oppose the State.

In January, the People's Police newspaper website published an article accusing them of gathering dignitaries and ethnic minority believers in the Central Highlands and also in the U.S. to "gather force, fight for religious freedom, democracy and human rights. To proceed to establish their own religion and an ethnic minority State in the Central Highlands.”

The churchgoers RFA interviewed all denied the accusations.

“My religious activities at home are not meant to oppose or overthrow them in any way,” said Y Nguyet Bkrong.

“Here it is just religious belief, worshiping without the supervision of the Government, being free to worship God, not as they say, taking advantage of religion to oppose them.”

Y Coi served eight years in prison for “conducting anti-state propaganda” as a result of his religious activities. He said that since being released from prison, he has been constantly harassed and his family have been unable to run a stable business.

“They summon me again and again, threatening everything,” he said.

“They say we are against the people's government, against the Party and the State. But the fact is that we are not against the State. I want to rebuild the church, the church should be separate and independent.”

The 26th U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue on Nov. 2 will be led by the U.S. Senior Bureau Official for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Erin Barclay and Vietnamese Assistant Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet. America’s Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain will also attend.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The ban is the latest on at least 20 media groups – news agencies, publishing houses and printing presses – since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and began a crackdown on press freedom in Myanmar.

The Irrrawaddy, founded in 1993, is known for its breaking news coverage and investigative pieces that shed light on government abuses in both Burmese and English. Its editorials were critical of the military rule, and it had ceased operations in Myanmar after the February 2021 coup, moving production and editorial staff outside the country. 

Because of that, the practical impact of the ban on The Irrawaddy was limited, although Ye Ni, the executive editor of The Irrawaddy’s Burmese language section, called the ban yet another example of “the many tragedies affecting Myanmar since the military coup,” in an interview with RFA’s Burmese service.

In a statement carried by pro-junta news outlets on Saturday, the military regime’s Ministry of Information said the outlet is now prohibited from publishing on any media platform in Myanmar, online or otherwise. But the news agency vowed to continue to publish online.

The junta also said it had charged the news agency’s former director, Thaung Win, arrested on Sept. 29, with violating the Publishing and Distribution Act by reporting news that “negatively affected national security, rule of law and public peace.”

“Thaung Win is facing troubles because he lent his name to his journalist friends, but he has nothing to do with”  the editorial decisions of the Irrawaddy, Ye Ni said.

'Relentlessly prosecuted'

Since taking power, the junta has moved aggressively to shut down media outlets. It has also detained more than 140 journalists, 60 of whom remain in prison and four of whom have died in custody.

A Myanmar-based journalist, who declined to be named citing fear of reprisal, told RFA on Monday that reporters are facing unprecedented challenges in the country since the coup.

“While you can say that the ban has no effect on its exiled journalists or the organization itself, those who are still in the country working for them are being relentlessly prosecuted and are likely to endure more severe punishments,” the journalist said.

“The arrests are still going on. Local journalists aren’t being released as often as in the coup's early days. They are all being indicted and sentenced to severe punishments.”

One month after the coup, authorities abolished local outlets Mizzima, the Democratic Voice of Burma, 7 Days, Myanmar Now, and Khit Thit. 

In total, the military regime has banned 14 news agencies, four publishing houses and two printing presses in the last 20 months since the coup. 

They include the Myitkyina Journal, 74 Media, Tachileik News Agency, Delta News Agency, Zeya Times News Agency, Kamayut News Channel, Kantarawaddy Times, and Mon News Agency.

The Irrawaddy’s management told RFA that the order came as no surprise, following a series of unannounced lawsuits, raids, arrests and other moves targeting the outlet since the coup.

In March 2021, the regime brought a lawsuit against the Irrawaddy for “disregarding” the military in its reporting on anti-coup protests, making it the first news outlet to be sued by the junta. Authorities raided the Irrawaddy’s office in Yangon twice later that year.

In August, a special court inside Mandalay’s Obo Prison sentenced former Irrawaddy photojournalist Zaw Zaw to three years in prison for “incitement,” while another staff member was temporarily detained earlier this year and the home of one of the outlet’s editors was recently raided.

Thaung Win, a member of the 88 Generation student activist group, applied for a publishing license for The Irrawaddy following a pledge by former President Thein Sein to implement democratic reforms through his quasi-civilian government, which ruled Myanmar from 2011 to 2016. 

The Burmese journalists who founded the outlet in exile relocated to Myanmar in 2012 and began operations there after the publishing license was granted.

The status of Thaung Win remains unclear, a source close to his family said Monday.

Saturday’s announcement followed a vow by the junta only two weeks earlier to take action against the Irrawaddy and BBC Burmese for airing what it called “fake news” about the military.

Targeting the media 'out of embarrassment'

Soe Ya, the chief editor of the Delta News Agency, which shut down its operations in Myanmar following a crackdown by the junta last year, told RFA that the military regime is targeting all of the country’s independent news outlets.

“It seemed that the military thought early on that the media would be on their side once they were in power after the coup. But quite contrary to their expectation, civil disobedience movements broke out and the media covered the truth, so the junta began to speak out against it just as much as its political enemy the [shadow National Unity Government] NUG,” he said.

Soe Ya noted that even former journalists are being arrested and punished, and said the people of Myanmar have lost their right to the truth, as the media can’t even report the news out of fear of persecution.

“They accuse us of being ‘subversive media outlets aiming to destroy the country.’ I think they target the media even more out of embarrassment, since they haven’t been able to run the country as they had hoped.” 

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

On October 14, Myanmar’s junta announced on state television that it would take legal action against The Irrawaddy for reporting that military forces opened fire on Buddhist pilgrims during an October 12 firefight with anti-junta insurgents in eastern Mon State, according to news reports and The Irrawaddy’s editor-in-chief Aung Zaw, who communicated with CPJ by email and messaging app.

In the broadcast, the junta called The Irrawaddy “blatant liars” and said it would be suing the outlet under the Electronic Transactions Law, News Media Law, and the state defamation law, according to those reports. Aung Zaw said the junta has not formally contacted The Irrawaddy about the charges.

The BBC’s Burmese Service, which continues to operate a bureau inside Myanmar, was also mentioned in the junta’s legal threat, reports said.

The military regime banned The Irrawaddy and several other independent news outlets after staging a democracy-suspending coup on February 1, 2021, according to news reports and CPJ reporting. The Irrawaddy has defied the ban and continues to publish daily news online.

“The Myanmar military’s crude and constant harassment of The Irrawaddy is an abomination and must stop immediately,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “The Irrawaddy epitomizes the type of independent news reporting Myanmar’s junta is bidding to outlaw, but its growing abuse of arbitrary laws to target and jail journalists is ultimately a sign of its illegitimacy and weakness.”

The junta’s October 14 announcement was the latest in a series of actions it has taken to harass and intimidate The Irrawaddy and its staff.

On September 29, at around midnight, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials searched the home of a senior editor of The Irrawaddy in Yangon and interrogated his parents and siblings about his whereabouts, Aung Zaw told CPJ.

On the same night, police officers also visited the house of The Irrawaddy’s former director Thaung Win, who was taken to an interrogation center and is currently being detained at an unknown location, Aung Zaw said.

In April 2022, former Irrawaddy photojournalist Zaw Zaw was arrested and detained at Mandalay’s Obo Prison, Aung Zaw said. He was formally charged in June under Article 505(a) of the penal code, an anti-state provision that bans “incitement” and “false news” that has been used widely by the regime to detain, convict, and sentence journalists, the Irrawaddy reported.  

Police and soldiers raided The Irrawaddy’s office in downtown Yangon twice in late 2021, even though it had ceased news operations there since being banned, Aung Zaw said.

In March 2021, the junta charged The Irrawaddy under the penal code’s Article 505(a) for “disregarding” the armed forces in its reporting on anti-coup protests, the Irrawaddy reported, and Aung Zaw confirmed to CPJ.

The police opened a case against The Irrawaddy as a whole rather than individual reporters, making it the first news outlet to be sued by the regime after the coup, according to the report and Aung Zaw, who was the recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2014.

CPJ emails to Myanmar’s Ministry of Information and BBC Burmese did not receive a reply.

Myanmar was the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in 2021, according to CPJ’s December 1 prison census. Several journalists have been jailed for incitement, an anti-state charge that Myanmar’s military regime has used broadly to stifle independent news reporting since the coup in 2021.

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

“The bomb threat against journalist Negar Mortazavi was a crude attempt at censorship. Unfortunately, this event is just one example of the onslaught of threats and harassment that Mortazavi and other Iranian journalists face for simply doing their jobs–and these threats must stop,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S. and Canada program coordinator. “U.S. authorities should investigate the recent threats against Mortazavi and ensure that all journalists working in the country, regardless of their nationality or the origin of the threats, can do their jobs without fear of retaliation.”

The panel discussion, titled “Taking it to the Streets: The Power of Iranian Women Now,” was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on the university’s campus to discuss the context of the ongoing protests in Iran, according to those reports.

Ahead of the event, the institute received phone calls and emails that falsely accused Mortazavi of having connections to the Iranian government, and on Tuesday, the event was moved online, the reports stated.

Protests in Iran began in mid-September following the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law. Authorities have arrested at least 41 journalists in Iran in relation to their coverage of the demonstrations, as CPJ has documented.

Human rights groups have reported that women journalists from the Iranian diaspora have frequently been targeted in online harassment campaigns.

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

The Philippines Court of Appeals has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. over their cyber libel case.

In a 16-page decision dated October 10, the court’s fourth division denied the appeal.

Associate Justices Roberto Quiroz, Ramon Bato Jr., and Germano Francisco Legaspi signed the ruling. They were the same justices who signed the court decision, which earlier affirmed the conviction of Ressa and Santos.

• READ MORE: Cybercrime, criminal libel and the media: From ‘e-martial law’ to the Magna Carta in the Philippines — David Robie and Del Abcede
• Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa appeals to Supreme Court
• Other Maria Ressa and Rappler reports

According to the court, the arguments raised by Ressa and Santos were already resolved.

“A careful and meticulous review of the motion for reconsideration reveals that the matters raised by the accused-appellants had already been exhaustively resolved and discussed in the assailed Decision,” the court said.

The court also claimed Ressa’s and Santos’ conviction is not meant to curtail freedom of speech.

“In conclusion, it [is] worthy and relevant to point out that the conviction of the accused-appellants for the crime of cyberlibel punishable under the Cybercrime Law is not geared towards the curtailment of the freedom of speech, or to produce an unseemingly chilling effect on the users of cyberspace that would possibly hinder free speech.”

‘Safeguard’ for free speech
On the contrary, the court said, the purpose of the law is to “safeguard the right of free speech, and to curb, if not totally prevent, the reckless and unlawful use of the computer systems as a means of committing the traditional criminal offences…”

In a statement, Nobel Peace laureate Ressa said she was “disappointed” but not surprised by the ruling.

Rappler’s video report on YouTube.

“The ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation against me and Rappler continues, and the Philippines legal system is not doing enough to stop it. I am disappointed by today’s ruling but sadly not surprised,” Ressa said.

“This is a reminder of the importance of independent journalism holding power to account. Despite these sustained attacks from all sides, we continue to focus on what we do best — journalism.”

Santos, in a separate statement, said he still believed that the rule of law would prevail.

“The [Appeal Court’s] decision to deny our motion is not surprising, but it’s disheartening nevertheless. As we elevate our case to the SC, our fight against intimidation and suppression of freedom continues. We still believe that the rule of law will prevail.”

Theodore “Ted” Te, Rappler’s lawyer and former Supreme Court spokesperson, said they would now ask the Supreme Court to review and reverse Ressa’s conviction.

“The CA decision denying the MFR [motion for reconsideration] is disappointing. It ignored basic principles of constitutional and criminal law as well as the evidence presented. Maria and Rey will elevate these issues to the SC and we will ask the SC to review the decision and to reverse the decision,” Te said in a statement.

The decision
The Appeal Court also explained its findings on the arguments based on:

• Applications of the provisions of cyber libel under the cybercrime law
• Subject article should have been classified as qualifiedly privileged” in relation to Wilfredo Keng as a public figure

On the validity of the cybercrime law, the court cited a ruling which, according to them, decided the constitutionality of the law.

“We find it unnecessary to dwell on the issue raised by accused-appellants since the Supreme Court, in Jose Jesus M. Disini, Jr., et al., v. The Secretary of Justice, et al. (Disini Case), 5 had already ruled on its validity and constitutionality, with finality.”

The court also reiterated that the story in question was republished. The court said the argument that ex-post facto was applied on the theory that the correction of one letter is too unsubstantial and cannot be considered a republication is “unavailing.”

“As settled, the determination of republication is not hinged on whether the corrections made therein were substantial or not, as what matters is that the very exact libelous article was again published on a later date,” the appeals court said.

On the increase of penalty, the CA said the argument that Wilberto Tolentino v. People has no doctrinal value and cannot be used as a binding precedent as it was “an unsigned resolution, is misplaced.”

That case said the “prescriptive period for the crime of cyber libel is 15 years.”

Traditional, online publications
The appeals court also highlighted the difference between traditional and online publications: “As it is, in the instance of libel through traditional publication, the libelous article is only released and circulated once – which is on the day when it was published.”

Such was not the case for an online publication, the court said, where “the commission of such offence is continuous since such article remains therein in perpetuity unless taken down from all online platforms where it was published…”

On the argument about Keng, the CA said it was insufficient to consider him a public figure: “As previously settled, the claim that Wilfredo Keng is a renowned businessman, who was connected to several companies, is insufficient to classify him as a public figure.”

The term “public figure” in relation to libel refers more to a celebrity, it said, citing the Ciriaco “Boy” Guingguing v. Honorable Court of Appeals decision. The decision said a public figure is “anyone who has arrived at a position where public attention is focused upon him as a person.”

It also cited the Supreme Court decision on Alfonso Yuchengco v. The Manila Chronicle Publishing Corporation, et al., which resolved the argument whether a businessman can be considered a public figure. The court said that being a known businessman did not make Keng a public figure who had attained a position that gave the public “legitimate interest in his affairs and character.”

There was no proof, too, that “he voluntarily thrusted himself to the forefront of the particular public controversies that were raised in the defamatory article,” the CA added.

In 2020, Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 46 convicted Ressa and Santos over cyber libel charges filed by Keng. The case tested the 8-year-old Philippine cybercrime law.

The Manila court interpreted the cyber libel law as having a 12-year proscription period, as opposed to only a year. The lower court also decided that republication was a separate offence.

Aside from affirming the Manila court’s ruling, the CA also imposed a longer prison sentence on Ressa and Santos, originally set for six months and one day as minimum to six years as maximum.

The appeals court added eight months and 20 days to the maximum imprisonment penalty.

Jairo Bolledo is a Rappler journalist. Republished with permission.

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

On October 5, unidentified individuals sent a severed pig’s head to Orda’s editorial offices in the southern city of Almaty, with a torn photo of Bazhkenova in its mouth, according to news reports and Bazhkenova, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

The incident is the latest in a series of threats, online harassment, and cyberattacks against Bazhkenova, her family, and Orda, following the outlet’s publication of an investigation into alleged lobbying practices by a company reportedly connected to Kazakhstan’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Bazhkenova told CPJ she believes these incidents are connected to this and other investigations into Nazarbayev-linked organizations.

CPJ emailed representatives of Nazarbayev for comment via an address provided on his official website but did not immediately receive any reply.

“The shocking and repulsive campaign of threats and harassment against Gulnara Bazhkenova and her outlet Orda are something no journalist ought to face for simply doing their work,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Kazakh authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate all incidents of harassment of Bazhkenova and her staff, hold the culprits accountable, and ensure that journalists can operate free from such odious forms of pressure.”

Orda’s July 13 investigation suggested that a London-based company allegedly controlled by Nazarbayev had employed a British lord to lobby on behalf of the former president’s U.K. business interests. A week later, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks began against the outlet’s website, forcing it offline for three weeks, Bazhkenova said.

While Orda has strengthened its cybersecurity, Bazhkenova said DDoS and other forms of cyberattacks have continued “incessantly” since July, with perpetrators constantly seeking “weak spots,” causing the site to go offline for short periods.

Bazhkenova said they do not believe the cyberattacks came from Kazakh authorities, who normally simply block websites, and that such attacks require considerable resources—experts have told her they cost up to $15,000 per day to carry out.

Alongside the website cyberattacks, she said, unidentified users have flooded Orda’s Telegram chat with indecent images and insults directed at Bazhkenova and Orda staff, orchestrated mass complaints that caused the outlet’s Instagram accounts to close, and posted Bazhkenova’s photo and number and the number of Orda’s editorial office in social media ads proposing sexual services, causing them to receive large numbers of unsolicited calls, among other forms of online harassment.

In recent weeks, the online insults have been replaced by threats against Bazhkenova and her seven-year-old son, the journalist said. Photoshopped, pornographic images featuring Bazhkenova and her son have been sent to the outlet’s Telegram chat, accompanied by the address of her son’s school and threats to kidnap him, she said.

On October 4, the day before the pig’s head delivery, threats against Bazhkenova and her son were graffitied in large letters on a square overlooked by Orda’s office windows, according to Bazhkenova and a post by the journalist. Bazhkenova said she filed a complaint with police following this incident and police are investigating both incidents together.

CPJ emailed Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment but did not receive a reply. Information Minister Darkhan Qydyrali, whose ministry oversees the media, condemned the pressure on Orda on Facebook and offered the outlet legal support.

In October 2021, independent news website HOLA News was apparently blocked by Kazakh authorities for 10 days following reporting on Pandora Papers leaks concerning Nazarbayev’s wealth. Bazhkenova said Orda also was blocked for one day during that time over its coverage of the same story.

At the start of Kazakhstan’s mass anti-government protests in January 2022, Orda was one of two outlets blocked before authorities enacted a nationwide internet shutdown.

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

Online abuse and digital threats to journalists have been steadily increasing, as has political violence across the United States. “The 2020 election season was an inflection point that led to a step-change in acceptance of violence as a political tool,” according to Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a comprehensive database of press freedom violations in the United States. The organization has tracked the rise of anti-press rhetoric and violence in recent years, including at least 30 assaults of journalists in 2022 through October 3.

Although most assignments might not involve risk, covering rallies, protests, and campaign  events could potentially be hazardous for journalists. Some vote-counting centers and polling places are potential hotspots, with self-appointed poll observers and even armed protesters a disruption concern. Election workers themselves have been targets of violence and intimidation.  

Editor’s Checklist

For journalists, having a simple conversation with your editor can increase risk awareness and enhance your safety. The following checklist enables editors to best prepare journalists and other media workers as they cover election hotspots or risky assignments.

When selecting your reporting team, consider:

• How experienced are the journalists?
• Have they covered stories with elevated tension or emotions that can lead to violence?
• Do they have a history of good decision-making under pressure?
• If they are inexperienced, what support mechanisms can you put in place to increase their safety? For example, could a more senior journalist cover the desk and provide guidance if needed?
• Is your team mentally prepared to be confronted by aggressive individuals?
• On higher-risk stories, can you assign two journalists, so no one works alone?
• Bear in mind that exposing the identity of the journalist may increase their risk of harm, and plan accordingly. In some cases, a journalist’s identity may also help to keep them safe.
• Do they have local knowledge about the area they will be working in?

As part of your risk assessment, discuss:

• Establishing a check-in procedure.
• What footage or other material will be needed to complete the assignment. There is no point lingering at a risky crowd event gathering material that will not be used.
• Conducting a dynamic risk assessment and consider using CPJ’s risk assessment template.
• The potential for online attacks as a result of reporting on the election. Review CPJ’s editor’s checklist on protecting staff and freelancers against online abuse.
• What indicators to look for that would trigger a withdrawal of the team.
• Recording the emergency contacts and details of all staff being sent on the assignment.

Guidance for journalists in the field

Awareness:

• Maintain a low profile and gauge the mood of crowds toward the media before entering any situation. Always use discretion when reporting or filming, especially around people who are armed or aggressive.
• Plan for regular check-ins with your editor or newsroom point of contact. If working as a freelancer, consider having a check-in procedure with a fellow journalist, family, or friend.
• Take the time to plan an exit strategy in case the situation turns violent. Identify where you can take cover if you are able to escape, or until help arrives.
• If you are working alone or after dark, be extra vigilant, as the risk potential increases.
• Avoid individuals who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.   
• If possible, try to build a rapport with individuals before interviewing them. 
• When conducting an interview, consider your situation. Are you surrounded by others who may take an interest in your reporting? It is often individuals on the periphery who start causing trouble, rather than interviewees.
• When you are on the phone or filing copy or footage, ensure that you are in a protected space where you can see threats coming.
• In general, be prepared to be verbally abused, intimidated, or even spat at. Remain calm and do not allow yourself to be provoked. 
• Consider your choice of clothes. Avoid wearing flammable materials, such as nylon, or anything that is loose-fitting and can be grabbed. Avoid newsroom logos and political slogans, as well as military fatigues and black-colored outfits, which are often worn by far-left anti-fascist (antifa) groups.
• If an incident occurs, take notes on what happens and notify the relevant authorities. 
• Continuously observe the mood and demeanor of the authorities. Visual cues such as police in riot gear, shield walls, or thrown projectiles are potential indicators that aggression can be expected. Pull back to a safe location when such “red flags” are evident.
• In general, be prepared to leave the situation if you feel the level of risk escalating or that appealing to the authorities would be to no avail.
• If you leave, retreat to a safe location before reporting into your newsroom or point of contact. 

Dealing with aggression:

• Read people’s body language, and use your own body language, to pacify a situation.
• Maintain eye contact with an aggressor, use open hand gestures, and talk in a calming manner.
• Keep an extended arm’s length from the threat. If someone grabs you, break away firmly without aggression. If cornered and in danger, shout.
• If the situation escalates, keep a hand free to protect your head and move with short, deliberate steps to avoid falling. If part of a team, stick together and link arms.
• Be aware of the situation and your own safety. While there are times when documenting aggression can be newsworthy, taking pictures of aggressive individuals can escalate a situation.

Digital safety: Protecting your devices and their content

It is important to maintain best practices around securing your devices and the content contained within them. If you are detained while covering the election, your devices may be taken and searched, which could have serious consequences for both you and your sources. The following steps can help protect you and your sources:

General best practices:

• Lock your laptop and phone with a PIN or password. This will better protect the content on your devices if they are taken from you.
• Be aware that the authorities may be able to access your phone even if it is secured with a code. Using biometrics can be helpful if you need quick access to your phone, but journalists should be mindful that it can also give others, such as the authorities, easier access to your device. Know your rights with respect to what the authorities can and cannot do with your devices and the content stored on them.
• Update your operating system when prompted to help protect devices against the latest malware, including spyware.
• Turn on encryption for your devices if it is not already enabled by default.
• Do not leave devices unattended in public, including when charging, to avoid them being stolen or tampered with.
• Avoid using USB sticks that may be handed out at election events. These could contain malware that could infect your devices.
• Be aware that any phone conversation or SMS message sent via a cell phone provider can be intercepted, and the content obtained. To avoid this, use end-to-end encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp or Signal. Learn more about how to use these apps securely in CPJ’s guide to encrypted communications.
• Be aware that contacts on your phone may be stored in more than one location, including in apps on the phone and in a cloud account linked to the phone, such as Google Drive or iCloud. Take time to review your contacts and remove anyone who could be at risk if your devices are taken and searched.
• When reporting at the event, have a process for safeguarding material that you have already collected. That way, if you are detained, the authorities will only have access to your most recent content, not all of your materials
• Write down on paper or your arm the contact details of key people, such as your editor or a trusted colleague, in case you are detained and your devices are taken. You may also consider writing down the number of a legal contact. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) has a legal hotline for journalists reporting in the United States.
• Consider setting up your devices to wipe remotely. This will delete all content on your phone or laptop once activated, but only if it is connected to either WiFi or mobile data. You will need to set up remote wipe in advance, and you should give a trusted person access to the password so they can erase your content in case you are detained.
• Be aware that live streaming from an event gives away your location.
• Ideally, journalists should avoid carrying their personal phones to cover an election rally or protest. If you work for a news outlet with budget to cover a work phone, you should request one.

Digital safety: Protecting your personal data online and safeguarding against online harassment

Journalists covering the U.S midterm elections could be subjected to online abuse and the unwanted publication of their personal data online. Media workers are facing an increasingly hostile online environment.

To minimize the risk:

• Be aware that there is often an uptick in online abuse during election periods. This could include targeted smear campaigns against a journalist or their media outlet.
• If you can, speak with your newsroom or editor about any concerns you have about potential online abuse. Check if the outlet has an online abuse policy or support system for journalists who are targeted online. Editors can review CPJ’s pre-assignment checklist for projecting journalists against online abuse.
• Different stories carry different online risks. Speak with your editor about possible threats and how to mitigate them, including any preventative measures you can take. Be aware that you are most at risk of an online attack after publishing a story.
• Review your online profile for images and information that could be manipulated or used as a way to discredit you. Journalists should take steps to remove any information that they feel could be used against them.
• Check to see if your address or other personal data, such as your date of birth or telephone number, is available online. You should take steps to remove that information yourself or request for it to be removed, where possible. See CPJ’s guide to removing personal data from the internet for more information.
• Sign up to have your personal information removed from data broker sites, using services such as DeleteMe, which is owned by the company Abine. Be aware that these services remove data from the most common data broker sites, so your personal information will likely continue to exist on the internet in some form. Consider signing up family members if you consider yourself at high risk of being targeted. Be mindful that it can take up to a month to have your data removed.
• During the election period, monitor your social media accounts for increased levels of harassment or abusive commentary.
• Protect your accounts by creating long, unique passwords for each account. Turn on two-factor authentication for all your accounts, and ideally use an app, rather than your phone number, to receive the code. See CPJ’s Digital Safety Kit to learn more about account security.
• Review the privacy settings on all of your social media accounts. Read more about what data is best kept private in CPJ’s guide to removing personal data from the internet. Social media accounts can also reveal your location, so disable location tracking if you feel it puts you at risk.
• Turn off geo-location for posts on all accounts. If you are going to post photos showing your exact location, consider waiting until after you have left the area.
• Where possible, create professional accounts for social media.

During an online attack:

• Consider making all of your social media accounts private, and ask family members to do the same. In many cases, journalists can be doxed or targeted with content posted by friends or family members.
• Inform your family, employees, and friends that you are being harassed online. Adversaries will often contact family members and your workplace and send them information or images in an attempt to damage your reputation.
• Speak with your newsroom to see what support is available to you. If you are a freelancer, or your newsroom does not have a policy in place, you can find resources at the Coalition Against Online Violence’s Online Harassment Resource Hub.
• Try not to engage with those who are harassing you online, as this can make the situation worse. If you are targeted by an orchestrated smear campaign, it may be helpful to write a statement outlining the situation and pinning it to the top of your social media accounts. Media outlets can also write statements of support as a way to counteract a targeted campaign.
• Be vigilant for any hacking attempts on your accounts and ensure that you have locked down your privacy settings, set up two-factor authentication, and create long, unique passwords for each account.
• Review your social media accounts for comments that may indicate that an online threat may escalate into a physical attack. This could include people posting your address online and calling on others to attack you or increased harassment from a particular individual. Ask a trusted person to help you review your mentions or monitor your account to protect your mental health or if you are unable to monitor it yourself.
• Document any abuse that you feel is threatening. Take screenshots of the comments, including the social media handle of the person who is threatening you. This information may be useful if there is a police inquiry.
• You may want to block or mute those who are harassing you online. You should also report any abusive content to social media companies or email providers and keep a record of your contact with these companies.
• Be aware of the possibility of fraud if private information about you has been publicized. Consider contacting your employer, bank, or utility companies to let them know if you have been doxed.
• You may want to consider going offline for a period of time until the harassment has died down.

For more information and suggestions for keeping yourself safe online, consult CPJ’s Resources for protecting against online abuse.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is a member of the Coalition Against Online Violence, a collection of global organizations working to find better solutions for women journalists facing online abuse, harassment and other forms of digital attack.

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

Upon assuming the Philippines presidency on 30 June 2022, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr — the only son and namesake of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos — delivered an inaugural address that did not mention press freedom.

Press freedom also went unmentioned when he delivered his first State of the Nation Address before the joint Senate and House of Representatives on 25 July 2022.

His silence on the issue was notable given that the former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who stepped down on 4 October 2022 due to health reasons, had stressed that press freedom would be guaranteed under the Marcos Jr administration and that the administration would “work closely” with news media.

• READ MORE: Other Philippine media freedom reports

But as he pledged to protect press freedom on the campaign trail, certain journalists were pushed for getting too physically close to Marcos Jr.

It also remains to be seen whether his representatives will continue to evade critical questions during press briefings or if Marcos Jr will be more accommodating of interview requests. The normalisation of these practices would be a death knell for press freedom in the Philippines.

Media restrictions and abuse under Marcos Jr evoke memories of the Philippine media’s dark history under former Philippines president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law from 1972–86.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility identifies five similarities between the Marcos regime in the 1970s and the current Marcos Jr administration.

Distribution of propaganda
These are the distribution of propaganda through government agencies and social media, the ABS–CBN shutdown, attacks and threats against journalists, crony press and media selectivity and propaganda films.

There are chilling similarities between the two administrations despite Marcos Jr’s promise that he would not declare martial law.

For the current administration, “working closely” with journalists means putting them in touch with pro-Marcos Jr vloggers, content creators and influencers. Cruz-Angeles is prioritising the accreditation of pro-regime reporters to cover official functions.

But her claim that accreditation is open to those of all political beliefs rings untrue as pro-Marcos Jr vloggers recently established a new group (upon the suggestion of Cruz-Angeles herself) to help gain government accreditation.

Celebrity vlogger Toni Gonzaga was granted a one-on-one interview with Marcos Jr at the Malacañang Palace in September 2022, showing how the administration accommodates those who ask soft questions. That reminds many Filipinos of Marcos Jr’s non-participation in most presidential debates and interviews during the campaign, opting to accommodate events organised by his supporters.

During the 2022 election campaign, there were times when his handlers did not invite critical journalists, asking those invited to submit questions in advance to control the flow of press briefings.

By accrediting pro-administration, hyper-partisan non-journalists, the Marcos Jr administration gives them legitimacy as “truth seekers” even if there is evidence they proliferate disinformation. It is also a strategy to discredit critical journalists for peddling “fake news”.

Critical journalists harassed
Critical journalists and media organisations are harassed and intimidated under the Marcos Jr administration, just as they were under the 2016–2020 Duterte administration. Disinformation remains rampant even after the 2022 elections.

Red-tagging — the blacklisting of journalists and media outlets critical of the government — has continued.

Shortly after Marcos Jr assumed the presidency, the Court of Appeals upheld the “cyber libel” convictions of Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa and former Rappler writer Reynaldo Santos Jr.

While these convictions appeared to carry over the selective harassment and intimidation of the vengeful Duterte administration, the chilling effect on the media is real. Those targeted become grim reminders of what can happen if journalists and news media organisations incur the ire of the powers that be.

The date 21 September 2022 marked the 50 years since martial law was imposed. Marcos Jr repeatedly claims martial law was necessary to tackle communist and separatist threats, dismissing accusations that his father was a dictator.

Even the funding for the planned memorial for Martial Law victims was cut by 75 percent in the 2023 National Expenditure Programme.

Marcos Jr intends to rewrite history textbooks to include his family’s version of the truth. By silencing his critics, he can further engage in historical denialism. This is important not just to erase his father’s dictator image but to escape his family’s legal problems like the unpaid estate tax and his mother’s conviction for seven counts of graft.

Media repression ‘normalised’
Media repression continues to be normalised under the Marcos Jr regime. One of his allies in the House of Representatives blocked the return of ABS–CBN, whose franchise bid was denied in 2020. Rappler and its editorial staff, including Ressa, continue to face legal problems as well as the threat of closure.

The National Telecommunications Commission blocked 27 websites accused of having communist links in June 2022. It took a court order for the online publication Bulatlat Multimedia to be unblocked, while journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio remains in detention on questionable charges after being red-tagged and subjected to death threats.

The murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid on 3 October 2022 — the second journalist to be killed under the new administration — also reflects the dire state of press freedom in the Philippines.

That Marcos Jr did not mention press freedom in his inaugural speech and first State of the Nation Address reflects his disregard for critical journalism.

Although it is still early days, his efforts to whitewash the dictatorship’s dark past and continue his predecessor’s media repression indicate that his pre-election promise of a “free press” is long abandoned.

Danilo Arana Arao is associate professor at the Department of Journalism, the University of the Philippines Diliman, special lecturer at the Department of Journalism, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Santa Mesa, associate editor at Bulatlat Multimedia and editor at Media Asia. This article was first published in East Asia Forum.

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

In a first-of-its-kind analysis, the nonprofit legal organization EarthRights International on Monday published research showing how the fossil fuel industry has targeted more than 150 climate campaigners and community leaders in recent years with lawsuits aimed at silencing protests, as well as other forms of "judicial harassment."

"We cannot let the oil, gas, and mining industries weaponize the legal system to silence their critics."

The group identified 152 cases in which fossil fuel companies used judicial intimidation tactics to stop critics from organizing against oil, gas, and coal extraction, including 93 strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) and 49 "abusive subpoenas" directed at individuals and groups.

"The fossil fuel industry has responded to growing public concern about climate change by retaliating against those who challenge its practices," said Kirk Herbertson, senior policy adviser for EarthRights and the author of the report. "We cannot let the oil, gas, and mining industries weaponize the legal system to silence their critics."

According to EarthRights, the report—titled The Fossil Fuel Industry's Use of SLAPPs and Judicial Harassment in the United States—is the first to quantify the lengths fossil fuel companies go to within the judicial system to silence their critics, such as four anti-fracking activists in Colorado and a reporter who filmed their protests in 2018, numerous groups and people who demonstrated against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and a grassroots group that spoke out about public health concerns regarding a coal ash landfill in Alabama.

Oil company Energy Transfer Partners filed the lawsuits against Greenpeace, Earth First Movement, and several individuals who supported the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its campaign to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, and openly admitted the cases were meant to intimidate the protesters and others who would speak out against fossil fuel projects. The company sought $900 million in damages and invoked the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

As the report says, Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren told a North Dakota news anchor: "Could we get some monetary damages out of this thing, and probably will we? Yeah, sure. Is that my primary objective? Absolutely not. It's to send a message—you can't do this, this is unlawful, and it's not going to be tolerated in the United States."

For years, said Greenpeace USA on Monday, Big Oil has tried to "shut us up, shut us down, and strip away our First Amendment right to free speech" using SLAPPs.

In addition to dozens of SLAPP cases, the report details "abusive subpoenas," a legal tactic used frequently by oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, among others. Although many of the subpoenas sought by fossil fuel giants were dismissed by courts, they can still have "a chilling effect" and discourage campaigners from communicating about their work.

"In 2012, Chevron tried to obtain the private communications of dozens of activists, lawyers, and scientists in retaliation for criticism of its environmental pollution in the Amazon region," the EarthRights International reports says.

The group released its analysis two days before Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was set to lead a congressional hearing on "the legal assault on environmental activists and the First Amendment." A Greenpeace representative is scheduled to testify.

EarthRights included in its analysis a number of recommendations for legislatures, media organizations, courts, and other stakeholders to stop powerful corporations from weaponizing the judicial system against people and groups who exercise their First Amendment rights. The group recommendations included that:

• The U.S. Congress and state lawmakers adopt strong anti-SLAPP laws, building on the progress made in 32 states, where laws of varying scope and quality have been passed;
• Lawyers who take on their powerful clients' SLAPP cases be sanctioned by courts and disciplined by bar associations, which ostensibly prohibit "lawyers from bringing frivolous lawsuits where there is no basis in law or fact"; and
• The federal government take steps to ensure that law enforcement and security agencies are not perpetuating "myths that treat environmental activists and social justice leaders as terrorists," making them more vulnerable to violence and retaliation than campaigners focused on other issues.

"In the coming decades, debates over the future of energy will continue as climate change affects more communities across the United States," said EarthRights. "People must be able to add their voice, without fear of retaliation, to the public debates that will determine the future direction of our country and our planet."

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

Māori, Pasifika, Asian, as well as disabled and bisexual employees, are disproportionately affected by bullying and harassment in workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to new research out today.

More than a third of respondents to a Human Rights Commission survey say they have experienced some form of harassment at work in the past five years.

In the report, Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand, 39 percent of people said they had been racially harassed at work.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of … bullying’
• New research shows high prevalence of workplace bullying and harassment

Also, 30 percent reported being sexually harassed and 20 percent bullied.

Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian workers, as well as disabled workers, and bisexual workers were disproportionately affected.

The nationwide study found that 24 percent of those who reported being mistreated, raised a formal complaint.

Researchers said the 2500 workers involved in the survey in May and June provided a representative picture of the population.

‘Disappointed’ in the harassment
Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo told RNZ Morning Report she was disappointed to see a “high prevalence” of racial harassment in the workplace.

She said the study looked at different industries.

“Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of high prevalence of racial harassment, sexual harassment and bullying.

“In healthcare, you’ve got huge power dynamic. So the majority of people who perpetrate these behaviours occupy a more senior role to the victim. In those really hierarchical occupations, there’s a high risk of abuse of power.”

More young people reported being harassed in the hospitality and accommodation industry.

“It depends on the industry. It’s insane in terms for men [in] construction, manufacturing, communications … for women [it is] the health sector, and the public sector generally,” Sumeo said.

“This is real and it’s a shared suffering,” and it was important for people facing these circumstances to know that they were not exaggerating, she said.

‘No definition’ in laws
“We don’t have a definition of bullying in our laws at the moment and it’s really important that we have that. So myself, the Human Rights Commission, the unions and others are calling on government to ratify our ILO 190, which gives us the ability to identify and then we can allocate resources.”

She also called on the government to look at compensation laws “in terms of recognition and compensation and support to go to people who are suffering bullying and sexual harassment and racial harassment”.

Read the Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand report.

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.

Auckland University of Technology has unreservedly apologised to a former academic turned Australian MP for its botched handling of her complaint regarding sexual harassment by a former staff member.

Dr Marisa Paterson was director of Australian National University’s Centre for Gambling Research in 2020 when she publicly accused internationally-respected gambling expert Max Abbott of stalking and harassing her.

He stepped down as dean of the School of Health and Environmental Sciences​ after the story was aired by the news organisation Stuff. He later resigned as a professor.

• READ MORE: Dr Marisa Paterson, who previously revealed she was sexually harassed, reaches settlement with New Zealand university
• The 2021 Davenport report into harassment and sexual harassment at AUT

In a joint statement with the university issued through the Office of the Human Rights Proceedings today, Dr Paterson, now a Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, said she made the complaint because she wanted the harmful behaviour to stop and for the situation to be investigated.

“My desperation in lodging a formal complaint was extreme — my career was everything to me and I knew that making a complaint would have significant implications. The independent report that was commissioned by AUT and this apology, are public recognition that I did not experience the appropriate or adequate response to the harm I experienced.”

Dr Paterson said in addition to the sexual harassment, she suffered “long-term distress and implications” from having to fight an institution for an adequate response.

“But today, what I went through is being publicly recognised. And my voice today is being heard — most importantly by AUT. It is accounted for and it is being recognised as an equal through this joint statement. My statement today is not one of forgiveness. This is a public step in leadership.

“This can never happen again.”

‘Poor investigation’
Chancellor Rob Campbell said AUT offered its unreserved apology to Dr Paterson for its poor investigation into her complaint and lack of communication through the process.

“We would also like to recognise your courage in coming forward, and to thank you for providing the opportunity for AUT to learn from this and initiate a process of culture change which we are confident will improve the experience of people learning and working in the university,” he said.

“We hope that our actions will be viewed as reflecting a survivor-centred approach and positive shift in institutional culture.

“We trust that this genuine apology will support you in your pathway forward.”

He said the university was already working to respond the 36 recommendations in the independent review, including the development of a stand-alone sexual harassment policy, a new three tier complaints process, and training for all managers.

The Office of the Human Rights Proceedings said the apology and joint statement was a positive outcome for both sides.

‘Absolute tenacity’
Director Michael Timmons said it reflected “Dr Paterson’s absolute tenacity and her strength in accessing justice for what happened to her”.

“But it also shows AUT has acknowledged what has happend to her and is publicly holding themselves to account.”

He conceded the outcome had been a long time coming.

In an interview with the ABC in Australia, Dr Paterson said: “I am feeling vindicated. I feel that today there has been some justice served. This has been many years in the making for me, and I think that this is a big day for human rights and for women.”

Dr Paterson first laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in November 2021 but it was not resolved.

Mid-way through this year, she contacted the Office of the Human Rights Proceedings, which is responsible for providing publicly-funded representation to complainants taking legal action under the Human Rights Act.

Timmons said the settlement has avoided the need for further legal proceedings.

“This case is really important because it says to big institutions, particularly tertiary institutions, that they have firm obligations under the Human Rights Act for the actions of their staff.”

Max Abbott’s name was not mentioned in the apology or statement as the case only concerned AUT’s actions, he said.

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.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

This story was produced in partnership with WBUR. WBUR’s investigations team is uncovering stories of abuse, fraud and wrongdoing across Boston, Massachusetts and New England. Get their latest reports in your inbox.

When the mayor of Revere, a working-class city north of Boston, began looking for a new police chief in 2017, he wanted a leader to clean up what he described as the “toxic culture” within the department.

Mayor Brian Arrigo brought in a consultant to help pick the city’s top cop, who oversees more than 100 officers and civilian employees. The consultant, a former police chief in another Boston suburb, tested four candidates — all internal — for attributes such as decisiveness, initiative, leadership and communication skills. None of the candidates scored high enough to persuade the consultant that they would do the job well.

“No city should settle for a Police Chief who cannot deliver an ‘Excellent’ performance when competing for the Police Chief’s position,” he reported to the mayor.

Nevertheless, Arrigo chose one of those four candidates for a three-year interim chief role and appointed another, then-Lt. David Callahan, as chief in 2020. An investigation by WBUR and ProPublica found Callahan not only fell short on the assessment but was also steeped in the toxic culture the mayor deplored.

In 2017, the same year that Arrigo started searching for a chief, Callahan was accused of bullying and sexually harassing a patrolman and “creating an atmosphere of fear.” In the fallout, the 40-year-old patrolman has been on paid leave for more than a year and is seeking an “injured on duty” retirement status, which would cost the city at least $750,000 before the typical retirement age of 55. Callahan disputes those allegations. He did acknowledge in an interview with WBUR and ProPublica that, before becoming chief, he sent a sexually explicit image to another officer.

“It was a mistake,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened. And I owned up to it and it’ll never happen again.”

Callahan’s selection from an underwhelming pool of candidates illustrates the predicament of Revere and other municipalities that are constrained by regulations from hiring outsiders for the key position of police chief.

“If you restrict the search process to somebody who is already inside the department, you’re making it a lot more difficult for any sort of substantive change to take place,” said Carl Takei, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU focused on police practices.

In a wide-ranging 90-minute conversation in a conference room at Revere police headquarters, Callahan defended his record. He said that he is revising the department’s policies so it can obtain state accreditation, and that he is trying to make it more diverse and welcoming. “It’s not like the kind of good old boys’ network anymore,” he said.

He added that he’s willing to take unpopular steps when necessary, citing an investigation a decade ago of a Revere colleague in a public corruption case, for which he received a commendation from the FBI. “I’ve gone against the grain, and I’ve taken a lot of heat for it,” he said.

In a separate interview with WBUR, Arrigo said he would give Callahan an “A” for his performance as chief. While some critics say Callahan has applied discipline unevenly, Arrigo said the chief has stood up to the department’s culture as if he were an outsider rather than a veteran of three decades on Revere’s force. Still, the mayor emphasized that his options were limited by a decades-old requirement that the chief of police in Revere be chosen from within the department.

In fact, after Arrigo received the candidates’ assessment scores in 2017, the mayor urged the City Council to amend the hiring rule so he could look outside the Police Department. “The fact of the matter is we are currently constraining ourselves to a limited pool of candidates when selecting someone for one of the most important jobs in the city of Revere,” he told the council. His goal, he said, was to choose from the best candidates anywhere “in the name of public safety.” The council didn’t budge.

Restrictions on hiring police chiefs from outside department ranks are common in Massachusetts. In Waltham, which has an ordinance similar to Revere’s, two chiefs who were promoted internally became embroiled in scandal. More than 60 other Massachusetts municipalities abide by state Civil Service Commission rules for how to appoint a chief. This means that the chief is selected from within the department, based on the highest scores on the civil service exam, unless the city specifically requests a statewide search, which hardly ever happens. According to Massachusetts officials, there have been 32 civil service appointments for police chiefs within the last five years. All have been internal promotions, and none of the municipalities considered outside candidates.

The colonel who heads the Massachusetts State Police also had to be hired from within its ranks until 2020. The legislature dropped the requirement in the wake of a sweeping overtime pay scam in which more than 45 troopers were implicated and at least eight pleaded guilty.

Police departments in at least two other states face similar constraints. New Jersey law prevents most municipalities from looking outside their departments for chiefs, and California authorities linked internal hiring mandates in one city to alleged civil rights abuses by police.

Police unions and local elected officials often support hiring from within. It’s seen as a way to reward veterans of the force for their service and to keep political allies close. Having a chief who grew up in the area and knows the community may also be an advantage.

Callahan pointed to these homegrown benefits when asked about internal hiring mandates for police chiefs. He said while it depends on what an individual department needs, it can be difficult to bring in someone from the outside.

“There’s a lot of animosity because you’re going to have people in the department that are upset that they weren’t chosen for the position,” he said. “They’re not necessarily going to cooperate with the new person who’s hired, and there’s going to be some friction.”

But with police departments facing demands for reform nationwide, some experts say one way to address problems such as toxic cultures, racial discrimination, poor training or use of excessive force is to bring in an outsider.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said internal hiring mandates are outdated and can be counterproductive for troubled departments.

“To simply limit your department and say, ‘We’re not going to look at anyone outside,’ I don’t think that’s good management, period,” Wexler said.

For more than four decades, the Revere Police Department has struggled with corruption and ineffective leadership by chiefs hired from within. A Revere lieutenant was promoted to chief in 1980 after attaining the highest score on the civil service exam. He had purchased a stolen copy of the test from an exam theft ring and was sentenced to four years in prison in 1987.

In that era, Revere typically chose the internal candidate for chief of police who scored highest on the state civil service exam. That changed in 2001, when then-Mayor Thomas Ambrosino wanted the freedom to hire someone regardless of exam results and to have more control over the terms and length of the appointment.

“My recollection is that I was anxious to remove the police chief position in Revere from civil service because I didn’t think that was the most effective way of choosing a police chief,” Ambrosino, who is now city manager in Chelsea, said in an interview.

First, he needed the support of the City Council. They reached a compromise. The council agreed to take the chief’s position out of civil service, and the state approved the move. From now on, the chief would be chosen from within the ranks of the Police Department and no civil service exam was required.

Ambrosino recalled that the council wanted to please the police unions by making sure that the chief continued to be hired from inside. Ambrosino said he considered it the cost of getting the deal done. But he now says the ordinance hamstrings the mayor’s ability to choose the best candidate for the job.

“As a chief executive, you want to have maximum flexibility. You would want to have the ability to go outside the department if you felt you didn’t have a really strong qualified candidate within the department,” he said. “So for that reason, it’s, in my opinion, not a great policy.”

More recent mayors have sought the power to choose someone from outside the department, but they couldn’t persuade the City Council. In 2012, under pressure from then-Mayor Dan Rizzo, the chief resigned and stayed on as a captain, according to the Revere Journal. Rizzo said the Police Department lacked leadership and clear direction, and he wanted the option to pick an outside candidate.

Two consultants to the city would later express similar concerns. In 2015, the year that Arrigo was elected mayor, the Collins Center consulting group said in a draft report that the department’s culture was “very militaristic” and the “lack of unity between the command staff members is most alarming.” Deploring the “fair amount of distrust” among Revere police at all levels, the consultant concluded the city’s internal hiring requirement for its police chief “limits the ability of the department to get the best candidate for the job.”

The other consultant, Ryan Strategies Group, evaluated Callahan and the other three internal candidates in 2017 for police chief. Headed by a former Arlington, Massachusetts, police chief, it administered a series of exercises and tests over multiple days. Each candidate role-played a counseling session with a disgruntled subordinate, led a mock community meeting and completed a written take-home essay.

No candidate scored in either of the two highest ranges, “excellent” and “very good.” The highest of the four scored a low “good,” and the others were “satisfactory,” according to Ryan group’s report. Callahan was one of the top two scorers, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss individual results. Callahan said that he didn’t know his score or receive any feedback on his performance. He, like the other three candidates, said that the testing was fair and thorough.

The Ryan group did not review personnel records. Besides Callahan’s issues, the city had settled a sexual harassment complaint in 2008 against 13 defendants, including one of the other candidates, Steven Ford. He did not admit any wrongdoing. Another candidate, James Guido, whom Arrigo named as interim chief in 2017, would be sued in 2019, along with the Revere police department, by a female officer who accused him of unfair discipline and retaliation because of her gender. In a deposition, Guido disputed the allegations. The case is pending.

During a heated 2017 meeting with the council, Arrigo said that both the Collins report and the candidates’ scores on the Ryan group’s assessment showed why the city needed to look outside the department for the next police chief. “We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our city, to have an expanded pool of candidates,” he said.

Ryan Strategies Group also performed an organizational review of the department at Arrigo’s request. It revealed concerns about morale. It also found the department was shirking best practices by not conducting regular audits of property and evidence, and had failed to report to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office that an audit found discrepancies in drugs and guns.

The Ryan group’s report strongly opposed a requirement to hire an internal candidate as chief. “There are times when the culture of a community and/or Department become so politicized or polarized that it is necessary to be able to consider a candidate who is not overly involved with local politics or enmeshed in long standing conflicts,” it said.

The council sent Arrigo’s request to change the ordinance to its public safety committee, where it was never brought to a vote. Revere City Councilor Patrick Keefe, who opposed the mayor’s proposal at the time, said that he’s confident in Callahan’s leadership, but he would be open to expanding the pool of candidates for chief in the future.

“I would probably prefer to have the chief of police be an internal candidate, but if you don’t have the best candidate, sometimes you have to think of other options,” he said.

WBUR reached out to multiple city councilors to ask their opinion on the ordinance. Only Keefe responded.

At Callahan’s swearing-in ceremony in July 2020 on the steps of City Hall, the new chief told a crowd thinned by the pandemic that he would honor the same values he’d practiced for almost 30 years at the department. “Since my first day, I have always treated everyone fairly and with the respect they were due,” he said. “I’m committed to serving the community this way, and I will instill these values in the men and women that will be following my lead in the Revere Police Department in the future.”

His appointment capped a steady rise through the ranks. After joining the department in 1991, the Revere native became a lieutenant in 2003. He served as the commander of the Drug Control Unit and was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Unit. In 2012, the FBI recognized Callahan for his “exceptional assistance” in the bureau’s investigation into a public corruption case involving a Revere police officer. As a lieutenant, he was among the highest paid Revere employees. In 2019, he made $213,500, including $72,700 for working details or overtime. Callahan has a five-year contract as chief, and his current salary is $192,000.

But Callahan’s behavior hasn’t always been exemplary. This past May, Callahan testified at an arbitration hearing in City Hall over his role in the firing of an officer. Under cross-examination by union attorney Patrick Bryant, and again in an interview with WBUR and ProPublica, Callahan admitted that, while he was a lieutenant, he texted a sexually explicit image to a patrolman. The patrolman passed the image, which depicted the Virgin Mary superimposed on a vagina, to others in the department, according to screenshots seen by WBUR and ProPublica. According to notes of the testimony taken by Bryant’s law clerk, Callahan said he was never disciplined for his actions.

The most serious allegation against Callahan emerged in March 2017, when Revere police officer Marc Birritteri filed a formal complaint to then-police Chief Joseph Cafarelli. It outlined “harassment and bullying concerns that I have had with Lt. David Callahan over the past several years,” according to documents obtained by WBUR and ProPublica.

“I feel like I have become a target of Lt. Callahan’s disrespectful torment and jokes that have had a negative impact on my job and personal life,” Birritteri wrote. “I have actually had to seek therapy on more than one occasion which is still ongoing due to this continuing harassment in the work place.”

In his complaint, Birritteri alleged that Callahan repeatedly called him a “rapist” in front of fellow employees, apparently alluding to a sexual assault allegation against him. Birritteri wrote that a three-month investigation determined that he had not committed any wrongdoing, and he was never disciplined.

Callahan also told Birritteri that he needed “to drop a load in another whore so she can take the rest of your paycheck,” according to Birritteri’s complaint. The comment referred to a child custody dispute that Birritteri was going through at the time, the complaint stated.

At least three officers told WBUR they witnessed Callahan’s taunting of Birritteri and described it as relentless, including Revere Police Patrol Officers Association President Joseph Duca and two others who declined to be named for fear of retaliation.

Callahan disputed these allegations. He said no one told him about the complaint for 11 months after it was filed. “I never knew there was a problem,” he said.

A review of Revere police records shows that Birritteri’s complaints were never investigated by internal affairs, and Callahan was not disciplined. Department policy prohibits “harassing conduct” that “creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

In a letter sent to Arrigo on April 12, 2017, then-chief Cafarelli informed the mayor that he had been made aware of an “ongoing pattern of psychological abuse directed at Officer Birritteri at the hand of Lieutenant Callahan.” The verbal abuse, Cafarelli wrote, was “occasionally sexual in nature in the presence of other officers.” Describing Callahan as a “domineering supervisor who leads by creating an atmosphere of fear,” Cafarelli recommended that the mayor place Callahan on administrative leave pending a full investigation by an outside body. The recommendation wasn’t followed.

Two months later, Birritteri reported to the department that the bullying was continuing. “I am being further harassed and intimidated by employees and supervisors,” he stated. He was referring to friends of Callahan’s in the department, according to two officers, who declined to be identified for fear of retribution.

That October, the city reached a settlement with Birritteri, acknowledging that he presented “credible complaints of harassment” while on duty. The city paid for his legal fees and insurance co-pays for mental health therapy, and it reinstated 38 sick days.

In 2018, when he was no longer chief, Cafarelli sued the city and the mayor. He alleged that Arrigo failed to restore him to his former position as lieutenant because Cafarelli had advocated for Birritteri and had recommended putting Callahan on leave, according to court documents. Cafarelli said in the lawsuit that Arrigo and Callahan were “very good friends” and that the mayor had already decided to name Callahan as police chief. The city and the mayor responded in court documents that Cafarelli had not given timely notice of his intent to return to his old rank. This past April, a superior court judge dismissed the retaliation claim but allowed a breach of contract claim to go forward. Cafarelli said he now works as a private contractor for the U.S. government.

Arrigo acknowledged that the city substantiated Birritteri’s complaints and said that he had spoken with Callahan about the allegations. Still, the mayor said the harassment did not give him pause when he appointed Callahan as chief.

Birritteri continued to receive counseling, according to his correspondence with the city. In 2021, he and the mayor reached another agreement that would pay him $65,000. The patrolman promised not to disparage the city, the mayor or Police Department. The mayor also agreed to not fight Birritteri’s request with the city Retirement Board for a special type of retirement for officers injured on duty. That claim is pending. If granted, he would likely collect pay of more than $50,000 a year, or almost three-fourths of his highest salary.

Allegations about Birritteri’s own conduct as a police officer have also cost the city. In 2012, he was sued by a man who said he was assaulted at a parade and alleged that Birritteri failed to intervene. The city settled the case for $15,000, according to the city solicitor, and all claims were dismissed. And in a September 2021 lawsuit, a woman alleged that Birritteri violated her civil rights by wrongfully arresting her and unlawfully searching her car. A $36,000 settlement was reached in April, according to the solicitor. Duca, in his capacity as union president, said that Birritteri denies wrongdoing.

Like many internally hired police chiefs, Callahan is a political ally of the mayor’s. Callahan has donated close to $5,000 to Arrigo’s campaigns over the last six years and has knocked on doors on Arrigo’s behalf. He said he was “very active” in supporting Arrigo’s election because he agreed with the mayor’s vision for the city. Both Callahan and Arrigo said that his political support for the mayor had nothing to do with his hiring as chief. Arrigo interviewed the top two candidates, according to people familiar with the process. The mayor said he also sought feedback from other police officers and community members.

As chief, Callahan has feuded vehemently with the patrolman’s union — for example, over his decision to restore a shift schedule that the union criticized for contributing to burnout. Callahan, who has the shift rotations posted on the wall of his spacious office, said the schedule he has implemented is better for public safety. Duca is so dismayed with Callahan that he’s now open to hiring an outsider as chief. Duca said the police force would benefit from looking elsewhere for future chiefs instead of having to “choose from the best of the worst” candidates.

Arrigo said he has seen Callahan “hold the department to a higher standard than prior chiefs.” The mayor cited the firing of a patrolman, Rick Griffin, the son of a retired sergeant. The mayor determined that Griffin, while in his probationary period, was allegedly untruthful when questioned by the police’s internal affairs department, according to court documents. Griffin was asked about an evening in which he argued with his girlfriend and then was in a car accident, according to Griffin and Duca. Griffin denied the allegations and said he was not formally interviewed before he was let go. He filed a complaint in superior court against the Civil Service Commission, the city and the mayor, alleging that his termination was politically motivated, because his family backed an opponent of Arrigo’s, and that he was denied due process. The case against the city and the mayor is pending, while the complaint against the Civil Service Commission is on appeal.

Also fired was another patrolman, Youness Elalam, who had sexual contact with a custodian in a private room at the police station while off duty, according to a state police investigation. Elalam and the custodian told investigators that, while she was uncomfortable with having sex at work, they were in a consensual relationship, documents show. Elalam told WBUR that he was treated harsher than other officers facing discipline because he is Muslim and Moroccan. Elalam’s firing was the subject of the arbitration hearing that Callahan testified at in May.

During that hearing, Callahan said that, as a lieutenant, he had become aware of allegations that another senior officer had sex with a 911 dispatcher throughout the police station and in department vehicles while on duty. Callahan acknowledged at the hearing that he had an obligation to investigate the information he received but didn’t do it thoroughly, according to notes of the testimony. The senior officer, who denied the allegations, wasn’t reprimanded.

“If you’re friendly with the chief and supportive of his interests, you again have your own kind of private internal affairs process,” said Bryant, the union attorney representing Elalam.

Callahan declined to comment on the case, saying it’s still pending. According to Elalam, a tentative settlement was reached last month, in which the city will pay him $25,000 and reinstate him on the force. He will be placed on unpaid administrative leave and will be allowed to resign in good standing, with favorable letters of recommendation from the chief and the mayor.

“It’s a huge win and relief. I fought so hard so I could continue to be a police officer,” he said. “I don’t have to deal with Revere anymore, and I can move on to another chapter of my life doing the job I love.”

In 1999, two years before Revere adopted its ordinance requiring police chiefs be hired from within, Waltham instituted a similar policy. Promoted under the new rule, Edward Drew became chief in 2000 after 26 years in the Waltham department. In 2008, Drew paid a $1,000 fine to the State Ethics Commission for interfering with the hiring process to help his daughter gain a position on the force. Drew, who waived his right to contest the commission’s findings, did not respond to emails or phone messages.

While Drew was being criticized for favoritism, Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy tried to broaden the selection process to external candidates. The measure was tabled by the City Council and hasn’t been brought up again. McCarthy, who has been mayor since 2004, did not respond to requests for comment.

After Drew retired from Waltham’s force, he was replaced by Thomas LaCroix, who resigned after being found guilty in 2013 on two counts of assaulting his wife. LaCroix died the following year.

Waltham City Councilor Kathleen McMenimen said she voted in favor of the internal hiring mandate in 1999 after hearing several potential candidates for chief voice their support during a council meeting. McMenimen, still a councilor, said she remains supportive of the ordinance, despite the tarnished chiefs, because she believes internal candidates are the most knowledgeable about the city.

“They understand their rank and file, they understand their superior police officers, they understand the city, its neighborhoods and its population, and its demographics,” she said. “And they understand the laws that they are required to adhere to.”

Scandals involving chiefs hired from within have also cropped up in New Jersey. As a result of a century-old state law and Civil Service Commission rules, most smaller New Jersey municipalities must hire chiefs internally.

In Caldwell, a few miles northwest of Newark, Chief James Bongiorno, who joined the force in 1996, was accused of creating a hostile work environment and violating the civil rights of two female officers.The town settled the cases in 2019 for a total of $240,000. Two years later, the town reached a $375,000 settlement with a former lieutenant who alleged Bongiorno created a hostile work environment. Bongiorno did not acknowledge wrongdoing either time. He remains at the helm of the department.

South of Trenton, in Bordentown, then-police Chief Frank Nucera allegedly assaulted a Black teenager while the young man was handcuffed. Nucera, who then retired after 34 years on the force, was convicted in 2019 of lying to the FBI in connection with the investigation. Federal hate crime charges were dropped after two juries failed to reach a verdict.

Police unions in New Jersey have pushed to keep the internal hiring requirements.

“Many times police unions are in support of not bringing an outsider because even though they’re not the chief, everybody below has this hope that they might be chief,” said Brian Higgins, retired chief of the Bergen County police and a lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

In 2021, the Atlantic City Police Department’s largest union sued the state, which is in charge of staffing decisions for the department, when officials signaled a move to expand the search for chief to external candidates. Union President Jules Schwenger said that a new chief will soon be named. “He is from our department and very qualified for the position,” Schwenger said, adding the lawsuit is “on standby.”

Bakersfield, California, reached a settlement in 2021 with the state’s Department of Justice, which had been investigating alleged civil rights abuses by city police officers. As part of that settlement, and to avoid further litigation with the state DOJ, the city will have a ballot referendum on whether to remove a requirement to select the police chief from within the department. This November, voters will have the final say on how the chief is hired.

Arrigo, Revere’s mayor, is up for reelection next year. He said that he would still like to see the ordinance amended to allow the hiring of an outsider as chief, but he doesn’t expect it to happen soon. “That may be for the next mayor,” he said.

Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica contributed research. Yasmin Amer of WBUR contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Shannon Dooling and Christine Willmsen, WBUR.

“A recent rash of incidents of harassment and intimidation shows press freedom is under assault in Indonesia,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “President Joko Widodo’s government is obligated to protect and uphold media freedoms. Justice must be served or these types of press freedom-threatening actions and behaviors will continue.”

On July 7, a football fan at Maguwoharjo Stadium in the city of Yogyakarta groped the chest of a female journalist with the local news website Liputan6.com, according to press reports and a statement released by AJI Indonesia, a local press freedom group.

The journalist, whose name was not disclosed, reported the assault to a guard at the stadium, who brought the fan to the facility’s media center, where stadium officials, the fan, and the journalist met for more than two hours, according to that statement.

The man initially denied the sexual assault, but later admitted it, stating that he was under the influence of alcohol; he then agreed to sign an apology statement to the journalist, according to the AJI report.

The journalist and her relatives later received intimidating messages from the perpetrator and others through direct messages on social media, according to that AJI statement, which said the journalist feels unsafe and anxious, especially when covering other matches or reporting in a crowd.

CPJ emailed Liptuan6.com’s editor requesting comment but did not immediately receive a response.

In a separate incident on July 9, in the eastern province of Maluku, an aide for provincial Governor Murad Ismail grabbed Molluca TV reporter Sofyan Muhammadiyah’s phone while he covered student demonstrations against the governor, according to an AJI statement on the incident and local news reports.

The aide, identified in that statement as I Ketut Ardana, deleted video footage that Muhammadiyah had recorded of Ismail threatening student protesters, according to that statement.

CPJ’s calls to the Maluku governor’s office for comment on the incident went unanswered. Molluca TV did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Ardana.

Also, on July 14, near the residence of the National Police Internal Affairs Division’s Chief Inspector General Ferdy Sambo, in Jakarta, three unidentified men dressed in black harassed one journalist working with CNN Indonesia and another with the local news website 20Detik while they covered the aftermath of a July 8 lethal shooting of a police officer, according to CNN Indonesia, other news reports, and a statement by AJI.

The men forcibly searched the journalists’ bags and seized their cellphones, deleted footage of an interview they had conducted, and ordered the journalists not to report near Sambo’s residence, according to those sources. Those reports did not identify the journalists by name. CNN Indonesia and 20Detik did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.

On July 15, the head of the National Police Public Relations Division, Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo, apologized for the incident and said officers involved would be dealt with firmly, according to local reports. CPJ’s emailed request to National Police headquarters for comment on the incident did not receive an immediate reply.

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

This week, at least four members of the press are scheduled to appear in court because of their work, and another was recently charged but no court date was set. If convicted, they face heavy fines and prison terms, according to news reports and reports by the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a local advocacy and trade group.

“This new round of trials shows how Belarusian authorities are constantly resorting to ludicrous pretexts to silence independent reporting in the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should immediately release all imprisoned journalists, drop the charges against them, and ensure that members of the media can work freely and without fear of reprisal.”

Journalists who face upcoming court hearings include:

Yury Hantsarevich, a correspondent for the independent news website Intex-Press, is facing charges of “facilitating extremist activities” and is due to appear in a court in the southwestern city of Brest on Wednesday, according to BAJ.

Hantsarevich was detained in May after he reported on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia. If convicted, he faces up to six years in prison under the Belarusian criminal code.

Aleh Hruzdzilovich, a freelance journalist and former correspondent for the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster RFE/RL’s Belarusian service Radio Svaboda, is facing three civil suits over allegedly blocking traffic at protests he covered in 2020, according to Radio Svaboda.

If convicted, he faces a total fine of up to 56,000 Belarusian rubles (US$21,820); the three separate trials will be held in Minsk, the capital, beginning on July 15, July 22, and July 25, according to that report.

Hruzdzilovich is already serving an 18-month prison sentence after he was convicted on May 3 of participating in those protests, as CPJ documented at the time.

Katsiaryna Andreyeva, a correspondent with the Poland-based independent broadcaster Belsat TV, is due in court in the southeastern city of Homel on Wednesday to face treason charges, according to a Facebook post by her husband, Ihar Ilyash. Her trial started on July 4 but was suspended on July 6, Ilyash wrote.

If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in jail under the criminal code.

Andreyeva was detained in November 2020 while livestreaming protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s continued rule, and is already serving a two-year prison sentence for organizing an illegal protest, as CPJ has documented.

Iryna Slaunikava, also a Belsat TV correspondent, is due in court in Homel on Thursday to face charges of “organizing or participating in gross violations of public order” and “creating an extremist group,” according to media reports. She has been detained since October 2021.