Posts Tagged ‘journalists’

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13th of February will now be “World Radio Day”

January 9, 2013

Geneva-based NGO “Media and human rights” reports that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has proclaimed the 13th of February “World Radio Day”. It is a moment to pay homage to one of the most important and resilient media. A  time also to remember that local radio journalists are often in the firing line, especially in regions where citizens do not have access, due to lack of infrastructure or resources, to other media like TV or the Internet.

For more information, go to the UNESCO World Radio Day page http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/world-radio-day/why-the-world-radio-day/ and to http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/world-radio-day/safety-of-radio-journalists/radio-in-the-line-of-fire/ for an overview of attacks against radio journalists.

 from: Media and human rights: February 13 World Radio Day.
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Three international Human Rights Groups Urge Gambia to Stop Crackdown on HRDs

January 2, 2013

The Gambian Government must stop immediately intimidation and harassment of HRDs, journalists, lawyers and government critics generally says a joint statement by ARTICLE 19, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Amnesty International. Since the beginning of December, at least nine cases of arbitrary arrest and illegal detention have been documented.

via Human Rights Groups Urge Gambia Govt to Stop Crackdown on Critics.

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End of year reports differ but show sharp increase in journalists killed

December 21, 2012

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) have just released their annual counts of killed journalists. Although their figures differ somewhat: 67 killed for CPJ and 88 for RSF, both organizations show a sharp increase in the number of killings.The main reason is Syrian where journalists are also directly targeted by the governemnt security services or jihadist fighters.

For more information:

CPJ report http://www.cpj.org/reports/2012/12/journalist-deaths-spike-in-2012-due-to-syria-somal.php

RSF report  http://en.rsf.org/2012-journalists-netizens-decimated-19-12-2012,43806.html

via Media and human rights: End of year: a sharp increase in the number of killed journalists.

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Is internet access a human right? Baku again on a tightrope.

November 6, 2012

Radio Netherlands reports today, 6 November, that a three-day UN-sponsored internet talking shop has kicked off in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) brings together 1,500 delegates from around the world to discuss issues such as identity protection online, how content can be controlled and the role of governments in managing the internet. At the same time, Azeri activists and human rights organisations are using  the gathering to draw attention to the lack of freedom in the host country itself. 

Dutch Europarliamentarian Marietje Schaake, who has been awarded the title of ‘Most Wired’ MEP, said at a preparatory event: “An open and free internet is an enormous chance for everyone in the world. “We shouldn’t look at internet freedom in terms of nations, but in terms of values.”

………..


Azeri journalists jailed
Just as they did in May of this year during the Eurovision Song Contest, Azeri activists are seizing on increased international media attention to point out human rights breaches in their home country. In a report issued last week, Human Rights Watch stated that “the government of Azerbaijan has a poor and worsening record on freedom of expression, online and offline”.

Several political activists, human rights defenders and journalists have been jailed, and last week the Azeri parliament adopted amendments increasing fines up to thousands of euros for ‘unsanctioned public gatherings’.  In an open letter to the Azerbaijani government published in British newspaper The Independent, activist Emin Milli says, “you once suggested in a speech that the internet is free in Azerbaijan. I am sure you will repeat this message at this global forum. It is true that people in Azerbaijan are free to use the internet, but it is also a fact that they can be severely punished afterwards for doing so.”

Uncensored internet: a human right? | Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

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Belarus does it again: another two Swedish journalists denied visa

September 24, 2012

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign coordinator Valiantsin Stefanovich reports that two more Swedish journalists, one of which is Erik Gonplatten, were denied access.

via Another two Swedish journalists were not allowed to Belarus – Charter97 :: News from Belarus – Belarusian News – Republic of Belarus – Minsk.

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Human Rights Watch film festival started in New York

June 19, 2012

filmjournal/photos/stylus/1348478-Human_Rights_Festival_Md.jpg

‘Words of Witness’

The 2012 Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) opened on June 14, and runs for two weeks at New York City’s Walter Reade Theater, screening 16 films set in 14 countries. Among the strong slate of documentary features are Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (IFC Films), about the eponymous Chinese dissident and conceptual artist, and Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s Call Me Kuchu, a portrait of Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato, who was murdered in 2011.

Women and girls take center stage in several documentaries, among them David Fine’s Salaam Dunk, a delightful season spent with the first women’s college basketball team in Iraq, and Little Heaven, about a young woman in an Ethiopian orphanage for children with AIDS. In Mai Iskander’s Words of Witness, we meet a female journalist on her first assignment in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Narrative features include Maggie Peren’s Color of the Ocean, a moving story of a German tourist unable to turn away from illegal immigrants she encounters on the beach, and Kim Nguyen’s War Witch (Tribeca Films), which chronicles the life of a female child soldier in the Congo. The latter screened at HRWFF’s opening-night benefit. Susan Youssef’s Habibi, a love story set in Palestine, made its New York premiere the first weekend of the festival.

HRWFF has been showcasing the work of human-rights filmmakers for 23 years, each year awarding one the Nestor Almendros Prize, named for the late filmmaker-cinematographer who was a festival founder. The winning documentary at HRWFF 2012 is Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War, an emotionally charged look at rape in the U.S. military. The United States is also the focus of Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke’s Escape Fire (Roadside Attractions), in which doctors, insurance executives and patients discuss the failures of our healthcare system.

While HRWFF often features advocacy documentaries, this year it screens several documentary films that are distinguished by their investigative approach and objectivity, compelling viewers to assess their shared responsibility for safeguarding human rights. See the full article below by Maria Garcia below for interviews with five of these filmmaker-journalists

Cinema for change: Human Rights Watch Fest sheds light on injustices.

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Belarus continues it harassment of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists

June 2, 2012

The Office for a Democratic Belarus came today with the following information:

Academic director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) Aliaksei Pikulik was convicted today (June 1) by court of the Central district of Minks city to 5 days of imprisonment following his arrest on May 31 on the account of “hooliganism”.

Activist of the Govori Pravdu campaign Mikhas Pashkevich received 7 days of administrative arrest following the decision by the court in Svetlahorsk, Homiel region. He was detained on May 31 near the village of Yakimava Slabada after a meeting with local activists and journalists.

On June 1, a number of journalists were also temporarily detained in Minsk and Hrodna. Volha Chajchyc and Tacciana Belashova spent three hours at a police station following their arrest while preparing a reportage on the International day for protection of children. Volha works for the Poland-based Belsat TV, which repeatedly tries to receive ccreditation in Belarus but with no success.

In Hrodna, activist of the non-registered Union of Poles Ihar Bantsar, who was detained during a picket organised in defence of a local Polish school and severely beaten, is awaiting a court hearing. Eight other participants of the action were released and will be put on trial on June 4 for participation in a non-authorised action of protest. Over 100 people took part in the picket despite the refusal of local authorities to allow the demonstration to take place.

Sources: http://www.naviny.by <http://naviny.by> , http://www.svaboda.org <http://svaboda.org> , http://www.baj.by <http://baj.by> , Facebook

———————————————————

Office for a Democratic Belarus
Square de Meeûs 37, 4th floor
1000 Brussels
Phone: +32 (0)2 791 7505
info@democraticbelarus.eu <mailto:info@democraticbelarus.eu>
http://www.democraticbelarus.eu <http://www.democraticbelarus.eu>

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UN experts and Inter-American Commission issue joint call to protect HRDs in Mexico

May 15, 2012

On 14 May 2012 an exceptional group of international experts urged the Government of Mexico to protect better Human Rights Defenders and journalists.  “The killings and threats repeatedly suffered by rights defenders and journalists in Mexico must stop immediately,” urged a group of four experts from the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, calling on the Government to move ahead with the swift promulgation and effective implementation of the ‘Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists’.

Highlighting the immediacy of the threats facing defenders and journalists, the experts also urged the Government to implement existing protection mechanisms as a matter of urgency, in order to avoid further attacks and loss of life and to complement the new provisions when they come into effect.The Bill, which has been approved by both chambers of the Federal Congress, seeks to guarantee and safeguard the life, integrity and security of human rights defenders and journalists by creating a mechanism with the authority to implement measures to protect those at risk, as well as at preventing such risks from arising in the future.

“Human rights defenders in Mexico desperately need the State’s effective protection now,” said Margaret Sekaggya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. “They continue to suffer killings, attacks, harassment, threats, stigmatization and other serious human rights violations.”  “The State has to implement, as a matter of priority, a global protection policy for human rights defenders. The lack of appropriate and effective systems for implementing specialized protection measures are related to the situation of defenselessness in which many human rights defenders find themselves, which has caused the death of many of them in recent years,” stressed Santiago A. Canton, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Rapporteurship of Human Rights Defenders*.

“We have to break the cycle of impunity in Mexico, which is becoming an increasingly violent place for journalists,” said Frank La Rue, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “The recent killing of four press workers in Veracruz underscores the dire need for concrete steps to be taken to guarantee the safety of journalists and put an end to impunity.”

Catalina Botero, Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, stressed that “safeguarding journalists and human rights defenders is not only compatible with the fight against crime, it is an essential element of this struggle. The Mexican authorities should take immediate measures to protect those journalists and human rights defenders that are being threatened, as well as to make definitive advances in the struggle against impunity for the crimes that have been committed against them.”

The four experts commended the Federal Congress for approving the Bill, pointing out that it would provide added impetus and sustainability to existing protection frameworks, while also strengthening these frameworks.The Bill was drafted in consultation with civil society organizations, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico provided technical advice throughout the drafting process.

The human rights experts praised the consultative process which allowed multiple stakeholders to play an important role in the drafting of the Bill, and called for the same participatory approach throughout the implementation process. However, they emphasized the urgency of providing effective protection to those at risk and ensuring that human rights violations against journalists and human rights defenders do not go unpunished.

 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/LACRegion/Pages/MXIndex.aspx 

For more information:
Human rights defenders: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx
Freedom of opinion and expression:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/OpinionIndex.aspx
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/default.asp 

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Radio Victoria in El Salvador under threat from death squad

May 23, 2011

Through Amnesty International, Protection On Line and others, the case of threatened journalists in El Salvador begs for attention.
Pablo Ayala, Manuel Navarte and Marixela Ramos are staff members of Radio Victoria in El Salvador, a community radio station committed to social and human rights reporting. Between 20 April and 4 May they received several messages (by letter and mostly SMS via the internet). Anonymous but indicating that the authors belong to a a “death squad” (“grupo de exterminio”). The message is clear:  “..from Wednesday onwards if you are at the radio station you will regret it. You have made us lose our patience, let’s see what it will take you to stop talking” or ”… stop that news bulletin you are the coordinator of as you also have a daughter” 

On 4 May, Radio Victoria staff held a press conference in the capital San Salvador regarding the threats they had received. A few hours later, at 20:00, Pablo Ayala and Marixela Ramos both received two text message threats: “Today you should have left like we ordered you, if you haven’t done so it is not a problem we will finish our work”.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights deemed the threat to Radio Victoria staff to be so great that it issued Precautionary Measures which required that the authorities ensure their safety. For those with further interest there is Tim’s El Salvador blog (http://luterano.blogspot.com) where you can read more about the work of Radio Victoria. There is also an online petition at Change.org which you can sign. Already in 2009 there were threats against this radio station as shown in the short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIVQVJlxOY

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