Index on Censorship: journalists now under 'unprecedented' attack
Index on Censorship: journalists now under
'unprecedented' attack
Study finds growing hostility toward media around the
world has lead to rise in assaults on individuals as well as press freedom
By Jane Martinson Monday 28 November 2016 02.00 EST
Journalists are facing an “unprecedented” wave of attacks
around the world with increased hostility to the media leading to assaults on
individuals as well as press freedom, according to a new report.
A series of crackdowns on media workers and news outlets
in Europe as well as elsewhere has confirmed 2016 as one of the most dangerous
times to be a journalist, according to the latest figures compiled by Index on
Censorship.
The study found 406 verified reports of violence, threats
or violations throughout European Union member states and neighbouring
countries including Russia, Turkey and Ukraine in the three months to the end
of September.
Melody Patry, senior advocacy officer at Index, said the
year so far had been striking for the increase in reports as well as range of
attacks, from threats to media freedom to attacks leading to death. “The
attacks are unprecedented in both scope and scale.”
With a marked increase in attacks in Europe, long
considered a bastion of press freedom, the latest research does not reflect
increased violence in Asia or the US, which has seen an increase in assaults
and abuse during a highly charged US election during which reporters were put
in pens by President-elect Donald Trump.
“Hostility to the media is increasing globally,” said
Patry. “When the credibility and legitimacy of media outlets starts to be
questioned it can easily spread and the sentiment easily becomes one of
distrust.”
As well as four murders, the Index report verified 54
incidents of physical assault, 107 arrests, 150 detentions and 112 reports of
intimidation, which includes psychological abuse, sexual harassment, trolling
or cyberbullying and defamation. The work of journalists was censored or
altered 29 times and media professionals were blocked from covering a story in
89 cases.
Those campaigning to protect journalists suggest that the
most extreme forms of violence have proliferated because of a feeling of
impunity. Dunja Mijatović, an expert on media law and regulation and
representative for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe,
said: “With nine out of every 10 murders of journalists never solved, the
vicious cycle of impunity still prevails. It has to be broken.”
Two journalists were killed in Ukraine: Pavel Sheremet, a
journalist working for the online investigative newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda,
was killed in a car explosion, and Alexander Shchetinin, founder of news agency
Novy Region, was shot in the head in his apartment in Kiev. In Russia, Andrey
Nazarenko, a cameraman for state TV channel Russia-1, was found dead in his
apartment in Moscow with two bullet wounds.
In Turkey, soldiers shot and killed Mustafa Cambaz, a
photographer, during the coup attempt on Turkey’s democratically elected
government in July. Following the failed coup, Turkish authorities forced more
than 2,500 journalists out of their jobs, arrested and prosecuted 98 under
trumped-up criminal charges, detained 133 and seized or shut down 133 media
outlets, according to Index.
The report’s 19% rise in the number of verified incidents
in the third quarter compared with the previous three months is likely to
represent an underreporting of the extent of the problem. Several attacks were
reported under one case and there was also underreporting in some of the worst
countries.
Patry said journalists in countries known as beacons of
press freedom, such as the UK and France, feel “guilty” reporting threats.
“There’s a real sense that it’s part of the job, that they should accept it and
anyway it’s not as bad as it is in Azerbaijan.”
Among anti-press freedom laws introduced recently are the
Investigatory Powers Act in the UK, or so-called snooper’s charter, which
legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security
services and allows the authorities to in effective identify journalists’
anonymous sources.
In France, the National Assembly passed an amendment
where journalists would be subject to up to seven years’ imprisonment for
protecting sources.
Just over a week after his election a group of 18 major
journalism associations published an open letter to Trump, asking that the new
administration take steps to protect freedom of the press in the United States.
Index now wants to extend its mapping exercise to the US.
Recent attacks range from the death of David Gilkey, a
photojournalist with National Public Radio, alongside his Afghan translator,
Zabihullah Tamanna, in an ambush in Afghanistan in June, to the attack on Kyle
Ludowitz, a photojournalist who was left with a fractured cheekbone after being
attacked at an anti-Trump protest in California.
The Mapping Media Freedom project – run by the European
Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders
and part funded by the European commission – has recorded more than 2,400
incidents threatening media freedom from its launch in May 2014. Launched amid
concern over rising attacks on the media, Patry said this year has proved that
it is “needed more than ever”.
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