Journalists

Acclaimed Journalist Charged With ‘Anti-Semitism’

August 29, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Australia, Genocide, Israel, Journalists, Media, Palestine, Suppression

For retweeting two tweets on X critical of Israel, famed Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis is facing charges of allegedly violating the country’s Racial Discrimination Act. The complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission from Alon Cassuto, the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, highlights just two Kostakidis retweets from January this year, both of which contain a video of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in which he allegedly called for the ethnic cleansing of Israel. One of the retweets is from independent British journalist Richie Medhurst, who was arrested at Heathrow airport and held for nearly 24 hours under the U.K. Terrorism Act this month.

Police Arrest Several Journalists While Cracking Down On DNC Protest

August 21, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Chicago, Israel, Journalists, Palestine, Police, Press Freedom

During the Democratic National Convention, Chicago police aggressively cracked down on a protest outside of the Israeli consulate. Officers carried out a mass arrest that included multiple members of the press, according to several independent reporters that were on the ground. Josh Pacheco, a photojournalist from New York City, and Olya Fedorova, a freelance photojournalist, were singled out by police and arrested and charged with “disorderly conduct.” Police reportedly damaged Pacheco and Fedorova’s camera equipment during their arrests, and they were released from the Area 3 police station in the early morning after being held in police custody for nearly 10 hours.

Richard Medhurst And The Right To Armed Resistance

August 21, 2024 Craig Murray, Consortium News. Educate! Israel, Journalists, Palestine, Press Freedom, Richard Medhurst, United Kingdom (UK)

We were waiting for Richard Medhurst to arrive and join our panel at the Beautiful Days festival, when he was arrested and imprisoned for 23.5 hours last Thursday. Obviously we were all worried sick about him. It is now becoming easier to list the truly dissident U.K. journalists who have not been arrested for terrorism than those who have! This fascist ploy of labeling journalists as terrorists is incredible. Richard’s case is slightly different to that of other journalists including myself, John Laughland, Vanessa Beeley, Johanna Ross, Kit Klarenberg and many more to suffer the same treatment, in that Richard was specifically held under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act — which outlaws support for a proscribed organisation.

UK Police Arrest Journalist Richard Medhurst Under ‘Terrorism Act’

August 20, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. Educate! Israel, Journalists, Political repression, Press Freedom, Richard Medhurst, Terrorism Act, United Kingdom (UK)

Medhurst stated via social media that six police officers were waiting for him as he exited his plane in London on 15 August, adding that he was questioned under the Terrorism Act, Section 12. "I believe I'm the first journalist to be arrested under this provision of the Terrorism Act. I feel that this is a political persecution and hampers my ability to work as a journalist," Medhurst explained. Other British journalists who have reported critically on Israeli, UK, and US foreign policy have also been detained and harassed upon returning to their home country, including The Cradle contributor Kit Klarenberg and Vanessa Beeley, who is well known for her reporting from Syria during the US and Israeli-backed regime change war.

Police Must Respect Journalists’ Rights To Freely Report On DNC Protests

August 19, 2024 Seth Stern and Jimena Pinzon, Chicago Sun-Times. Educate! Chicago, DNC, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Illinois, Journalism, Journalists, Police, Press Freedom

Hundreds of journalists are expected to converge on Chicago to cover the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22 – and they must be allowed to do their jobs unimpeded. The city’s plan to “streamline” mass arrests during the convention, by processing arrestees at a makeshift court at the Area 3 police station at Belmont and Western, does nothing to alleviate the threat mass arrests pose to journalists. The plan, reported by the Sun-Times last week, is supposedly for the arrestees’ convenience: It’ll be easier for them to get home on public transportation that way. But “catch and release” arrests are never convenient for journalists, or their readers.

Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

August 15, 2024 Open Letter, Consortium News. Resist! Antony Blinken, Gaza, Journalists, Palestine, Press Freedom, US State Department

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists. Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today. On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”

Experts Warn Julian Assange Plea Deal Could Set Dangerous Precedent

June 26, 2024 Alexandra Topping, The Guardian. Educate! Journalism, Journalists, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

The next UK government must push the US for reassurance it will not pursue journalists for publishing classified information, human rights organisations and experts have argued after the release of Julian Assange. Experts have warned that the plea deal struck between the WikiLeaks founder and the US authorities – which will see him plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, but avoid serving any additional time in custody – could set a dangerous precedent. Assange, who has battled his extradition to the US since WikiLeaks published more than 250,000 leaked classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010, was facing up to 175 years in prison on 18 counts.

Call For Action By Journalists Against Gag Rules After Key Legal Win

June 19, 2024 Society of Professional Journalists. Resist! Censorship, Gag Rules, Journalism, Journalists, Legal System

The Society of Professional Journalists is issuing a call to action for journalists to fight government restrictions on employee speech rights following what is believed to be the first time a journalist has won a legal settlement against gag rules on workers in public agencies. The settlement came in a suit brought by investigative reporter Brittany Hailer against the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh for its rules prohibiting employees from speaking to the press or posting information on social media. After rounds of negotiations with Hailer’s attorneys, the county agreed in April that its employees and contractors “have constitutional rights to speak on matters of public concern when acting as private citizens and not purporting to represent the view of the [Allegheny County Bureau of Corrections].”

Kansas Newspaper That Faced Illegal Police Raid Backs Reporter’s Shield Law

June 2, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Congress, Journalists, Media, PRESS Act, Press Freedom

A newspaper in Kansas that was targeted in an illegal police raid endorsed legislation in the United States Senate that would establish a national reporter’s shield law. Eric Meyer, associate dean of the College of Media at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and publisher of the Marion County Record, declared, “As last summer’s raid on the Marion County Record proved, freedom of expression faces unprecedented challenges from unscrupulous people willing to weaponize the justice system to bully and retaliate against those attempting to report truth.” “Existing remedies might be fine for huge media organizations, but community journalists and people like the students I used to teach at the University of Illinois shouldn’t have their rights be dependent on whether they can afford to hire massive legal teams.”

Israel Shuts Down Al Jazeera Operations In The Country

May 7, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Al Jazeera, Benjamin Netanyahu, CODEPINK, Genocide, Israel, Journalists, Palestine, Press Freedom, Rafah, Repression

Two days after the world commemorated Press Freedom day, Israel ordered the Al Jazeera media network to be shut down, calling it a “threat to national security” on Sunday, May 5. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations almost a month after the Israeli parliament had passed legislation which had given the government the right to shut down any foreign media channel in the country in the name of protecting national security. Israel had earlier accused Al Jazeera of colluding with Hamas and had also claimed it participated in the October 7 attacks.

White House Correspondents’ Dinner; Biden Uses Back Door To Evade Protests

April 28, 2024 Palestine Chronicle. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, Genocide Joe, Israel, Joe Biden, Journalists, Media, Palestine

Pro-Palestine demonstrators protested the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, denouncing the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza and media coverage of the conflict that has killed tens of thousands, the Anadolu news agency reported. According to Al-Jazeera, Biden avoided the large crowd of protesters at the front entrance of the hotel, and entered through the back entrance, where he was greeted by a smaller number of protesters demanding a ceasefire . Organized by the US-based activist group CodePink, the protest took place outside the Washington Hilton, where the dinner was being held.

Appeal From Gaza Journalists: Boycott White House Correspondents’ Dinner

April 19, 2024 Open Letter, Mondoweiss. Resist! International Solidarity, Israel, Journalists, Palestine, White House

In the past six months alone, the Israeli military has executed over 125 Palestinian journalists in Gaza — 10 percent of Gaza’s community of journalists. The year 2023 marked the bloodiest year for journalists worldwide in over a decade, with over 75 percent of killed journalists targeted by Israel’s attacks on Gaza. As Palestinian journalists, we urgently appeal to you, our colleagues globally, with a demand for immediate and unwavering action against the Biden administration’s ongoing complicity in the systematic slaughter and persecution of journalists in Gaza.

Biden Administration Equivocates On Federal Shield Law For Journalists

April 7, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Biden administration, Journalism, Journalists, Press Freedom

The White House has refused to say whether President Joe Biden supports a federal shield law for journalists that would protect them from having to reveal their confidential sources. In January, the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act, or the PRESS Act, passed in the United States House of Representatives. The legislation would “prohibit the federal government from compelling journalists and providers of telecommunications services to provide information identifying a source or any other record obtained or created by journalists in the course of their work,” according to a House Judiciary Committee report.

Sixteen Months On Strike At The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

February 21, 2024 Finley Williams, Labor Notes. Resist! Journalists, Pittsburgh, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

Bob Batz, Jr., thought it would end quickly. “It's kind of cute now, that we thought getting into last December [2022] and January was a long time,” Batz said. “Little did we know. [We said] ‘Oh, it’s Christmas and we're still on strike. We can't believe it.’” Batz is one of 31 Newspaper Guild workers striking the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, owned by the family company Block Communications, Inc. Journalists at the Post-Gazette have been on strike since October 2022—making this strike the longest of the digital age—along with four other units: mailers, advertising workers, and Teamster truck drivers and pressmen.

Corporate Media Is An Arm Of Power; We Must Build An Alternative

February 20, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Information, Journalists, Media, Media Democracy

In his new book, ¨Journalists and Their Shadows,¨ Patrick Lawrence describes his experience over decades as an editor and foreign correspondent of watching the media rise and fall in its ability to serve as a force to hold power accountable. Lawrence writes about the shadows, or authentic selves, that most journalists currently sacrifice in order to maintain employment in mainstream media outlets and the detrimental impact this has on public discourse. He also describes the antidote - an independent alternative media - and the current obstacles to creating a much-needed vibrant democratized media system.

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