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Press Freedom

The Global Community Must Demand Justice For Palestinian Journalists

March 2, 2025 Yasmeen Abed, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
In the deadliest year for journalists in recorded history, nearly two-thirds of the total deaths were Palestinians killed by Israel.  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports 85 journalists were killed by Israel in 2024, and 78 in 2023. The group previously reported Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as the “most dangerous situation for journalists” ever recorded. The international community – from newsrooms to academic institutions to government bodies and beyond – must heed the call of Palestinians demanding justice and accountability for Israel’s human rights violations against journalists and for the protection of media workers in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Free Yves Engler

February 25, 2025 Owen Schalk, Canadian Dimension. , , , , , ,
On February 20, long-time Canadian Dimension columnist and contributor Yves Engler was arrested by Montréal police at the behest of pro-Israel media personality Dahlia Kurtz. In today’s Canada, offending Zionist influencers is apparently enough to land you behind bars. Canadians involved in progressive politics, from the left-wing of the NDP and Greens to the Communist Party, read Engler’s work and admire his commitment to social struggle. For decades, he has organized in support of just causes, from helping stop war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at Concordia University in 2002, to tirelessly confronting Canadian politicians about their complicity in the genocide in Gaza, to penning a vast catalogue of work that shatters complacent illusions about Canada’s benevolence and reveals the often cynical, profit-driven, anti-democratic heart of Ottawa’s foreign policy.

Yves Engler: ‘I’m Being Charged For Responding To Anti-Palestinian Hate’

February 24, 2025 Yves Engler, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , , , ,
Tomorrow, the Montreal police will arrest me for posting to social media against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Today, I received a phone call from a Montreal police officer by the last name of Crivello. She asked me to come to a downtown police station where I will be charged for harassment and indecent communication. Crivello said a complaint was submitted against me months ago by a legal firm on behalf of racist media personality Dahlia Kurtz. Crivello said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter. Guilty as charged.

Swiss Official Who Jailed Journalist Ali Abunimah Is Pro-Israel Fanatic

February 13, 2025 Wyatt Reed, The Grayzone. , , , , , , ,
The Swiss official who ordered the arrest of renowned Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah justified doing so on the false and defamatory basis that Abunimah is “an Islamist Jew-hater.” Mario Fehr, the head of Zurich’s Department of Security, made the bogus accusation in a recent comment to the Swiss publication NZZ, which also falsely characterized Abunimah as an “Islamist” and an “extremist.” Swiss authorities detained Abunimah on Jan. 25, after they initially allowed him entry into Switzerland following an hour-long interrogation.

Austrian Police Detain Richard Medhurst; Accuse Him Of Being Hamas

February 8, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , , ,
British independent journalist Richard Medhurst said Thursday he was detained this week by Austrian police and intelligence agents and accused of being a member of Hamas. Medhurst, who lives in Austria and is a fierce critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said police raided his home on Monday, took his devices and interrogated him. “They essentially lured me into a trap,” he said on a video posted on X. The journalist said immigration authorities called him to a meeting where they threatened to revoke his residency because of his reporting on Palestine and Lebanon.

Switzerland Deports Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah

January 29, 2025 The Electronic Intifada. , , , , , ,
The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah was deported by Switzerland on Monday after spending two nights in jail. Abunimah described his experience in a statement he made upon arrival to Istanbul airport late Monday. He said that he was “cut off from communication with the outside world” and “not even permitted to contact my family.” He said that police accused him of “offending against Swiss law” but was not presented with any charges. Abunimah added that he was questioned “by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family.”

Switzerland: Another Journalist Arrested For Wrongthink About Israel

January 26, 2025 Caitlin Johnstone, Consortium News. , , , , , ,
They’ve arrested another pro-Palestinian journalist, this time in Switzerland. The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah has reportedly been detained by Swiss police in Zurich, after having been interrogated for an hour and released the previous day when entering the country. Abunimah, who is Palestinian-American, has played a leading role in exposing and critiquing the apartheid abuses of Israel for many years. In October of last year, Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley saw his home raided by British “counterterrorism” police in response to his social media posts about Israel’s western-backed abuses in the middle east.

Biden’s Legacy: The World Is More Unsafe For Journalists

January 20, 2025 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , ,
President Joe Biden’s administration proclaimed numerous times that “journalism is not a crime” and that the United States government supports “free and independent media around the world.” Biden said the “free press is crumbling” in his farewell address. But the reality is that Biden and his administration helped make the state of the free press more fragile. Over 200 journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli military forces armed by the Biden administration. Other client states, like India and Saudi Arabia, trampled on the human rights of reporters without fearing much criticism.

Journalists Thrown Out Of Antony Blinken’s Final Briefing

January 17, 2025 Eloise Goldsmith, Common Dreams. , , ,
Two journalists were removed from Secretary of State Antony Blinken's final news conference on Thursday after interrupting Blinken's remarks to heckle him about the United States' policy toward Gaza, a day after a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel was announced. One of the reporters, independent journalist Sam Husseini, was physically carried out of the briefing room by security. Less than two minutes into Blinken's remarks, as he was thanking the reporters in the attendance for "asking tough questions," Max Blumenthal, the editor in chief of The Grayzone—an independent news—addressed Blinken, saying loudly in reference to the cease-fire deal:"300 reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs.

Judge Orders CPS To Come Clean On Deleted Assange Documents

January 11, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , ,
Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi has been waging a legal battle for seven years against the Crown Prosecution Service to discover the truth about a CPS claim that it deleted a number of documents Maurizi has sought in a Freedom of Information request about the case of Julian Assange.   Now a judge on the London First-tier Tribunal has ruled that the CPS must explain to Maurizi what it knows about when, why and how the documents were allegedly destroyed. The Jan. 2 ruling was first reported by Maurizi’s newspaper il Fatto Quotidiano on Friday.

Asheville Blade Journalists Sue Over Illegal Arrests

January 7, 2025 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , ,
A news co-op in North Carolina and two journalists convicted of trespassing offenses filed a federal lawsuit alleging that their constitutional rights were violated by Asheville Police Department officers. In December 2021, residents in the Asheville community gathered at Aston Park for five evenings to urge the City of Asheville to leave people without any shelter alone in the park after it closed at 10 p.m. They took a stand on Christmas, refusing to disperse. Police responded by sweeping the encampment and arresting six people. Two of the people arrested were reporters for the Asheville Blade—Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit.

Journalist Could Face Prison For Refusing To Give Passwords To Police

January 3, 2025 Stefania Maurizi, Il Fatto Quotidiano. , , , ,
It is an unprecedented case. And it risks triggering an unprecedented threat to journalism. The UK police have repeatedly tried to obtain the passwords to the phones of the British independent journalist, Richard Medhurst, the first reporter arrested in London under Section 12: his analyses and comments on Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza – which Amnesty International has characterised as genocide – have been interpreted by the police as support for organisations banned from the UK, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The son of two UN peacekeepers, Medhurst was arrested last August at London’s Heathrow Airport

Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is A Grim Sign For Press Freedom

December 10, 2024 Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , ,
Donald Trump is just weeks away from returning to the White House, and when he gets there, it is all but assured that he will attack press freedom (FAIR.org, 11/14/24; NBC, 12/4/24). But the will and desire to clamp down on free speech and expression isn’t just a Trumpian phenomenon. A US District Court of Appeals panel, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok because of its alleged Chinese government control (AP, 12/6/24). All corners of government, joined by members of both major parties, concur that national security concerns should allow the government to scrap First Amendment principles.

Leaks Expose Secret British Military Cell Plotting To ‘Keep Ukraine Fighting’

November 19, 2024 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , , , , , , , ,
Emails and internal documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal details of a cabal of British military and intelligence veterans which plotted to escalate and prolong the Ukraine proxy war “at all costs.” Convened under the direction of the British Ministry of Defense in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the cell referred to itself as Project Alchemy. As British leadership sabotaged peace talks between Kiev and Moscow, the cell put forward an array of plans “to keep Ukraine fighting” by imposing “strategic dilemmas, costs and frictions upon Russia.”

Keeping Your Data Safe When Reporting From The Field

November 5, 2024 Davis Erin Anderson, Freedom of the Press. , , , , ,
It’s not uncommon for police to seize cellphones and other equipment from journalists who are covering protests. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented at least 49 cases of equipment searches and seizures targeting journalists covering protests, and many of those have happened in the last year. One case that I want to highlight is the case of Dilan Gohill. He is a student journalist at Stanford for The Stanford Daily, and he was arrested last June while he was covering a student protest on campus. It was a pro-Palestinian protest in which protesters broke into a campus building and barricaded themselves inside, and Dilan, in his capacity as a reporter, was with them to report on what was happening.
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