“The German court’s conviction and sentencing to life imprisonment of death squad driver Bai Lowe is an important first step for the family of Deyda Hydara and all those seeking justice and accountability for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by then Gambian president Jahya Jammeh and his murderous ‘junglers’,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator.
“But Jammeh, not only his foot soldiers, must stand trial for his reign of terror. Justice will only prevail when Jammeh is extradited from his exile in Equatorial Guinea and faces charges in Gambia’s special criminal court.”
A German regional court found Lowe guilty of crimes against humanity, murder, and attempted murder for his role as a driver for Jammeh’s so-called junglers under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a country to prosecute crimes against humanity regardless of where they were committed. Lowe was the first person accused of human rights violations during Jammeh’s dictatorship to be tried outside Gambia.
]]>“CPJ is deeply disturbed by the disclosures that attackers used Pegasus spyware to infect the phone of exiled journalist Galina Timchenko, one of the world’s most prominent Russian media figures,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Journalists and their sources are not free and safe if they are spied on, and this attack on Timchenko underscores that governments must implement an immediate moratorium on the development, sale, and use of spyware technologies. The threat is simply too large to ignore.”
Timchenko’s phone was infected by Pegasus, a spyware produced by the Israeli company NSO Group, while she was in Berlin on or around February 10, 2023, according to a Meduza report and a joint-investigation by rights groups Access Now and research organization Citizen Lab. The investigation found that the infection took place shortly after Russia’s Prosecutor General designated Meduza as an “undesirable” organization – a measure that banned the outlet from operating on Russian territory – and likely lasted several days or weeks.
According to the investigation, Apple had warned Timchenko and “other targets” in June that their devices may have been targeted with state-sponsored spyware. Meduza editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov told CPJ via messaging app that Apple’s warning prompted them to request that Access Now check Timchenko’s device.
According to Access Now, this is the first documented case of Pegasus surveillance of a Russian journalist; the investigation reported that the attack could have come from Russia, one of its allies, or an EU state may have been responsible for the attack.
The fact that some European government may have used Pegasus against Timchenko is “beyond our comprehension,’” Kolpakov said in a statement shared with CPJ. “As the developers claim, this software is used to fight terrorism — yet it is systematically used against the opposition and journalists.”
Meduza operates in exile, with most of its staff based in Berlin and the Latvian capital of Riga and covers various topics, including politics, social issues, culture, and the war in Ukraine. CPJ awarded Timchenko its 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.
“We often repeat to ourselves and our employees that Europe gives a feeling of complete security. But it is only a feeling – an illusion of security,” Kolpakov said in the statement.
Meduza journalist Elena Kostyuchenko recently reported that she may have been poisoned in Germany in October 2022.
Kolpakov said he hoped to be able to identify those responsible for the attack and obtain explanations from them as well as from the NSO Group.
NSO Group previously told CPJ that it licenses Pegasus to fight crime and terrorism, stating that it investigates “all credible claims of misuse and take[s] appropriate action,” including shutting down a customer’s access to the software.
A 2022 CPJ special report noted that the development of high-tech “zero-click” spyware like Pegasus– the kind that takes over a phone without a user’s knowledge or interaction – poses an existential crisis for journalism and the future of press freedom around the world. The report included CPJ’s recommendations to protect journalists and their sources from the abuse of the technology and called for an immediate moratorium on exporting this technology to countries with poor human rights records. CPJ has also joined other rights groups in calling for immediate action to stop spyware threatening press freedom.
CPJ emailed NSO Group and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior for comment on the Timchenko findings but did not immediately receive any replies.
On Tuesday, an investigation by the independent news website The Insider stated that both journalists had experienced unexplained health problems since October 2022 and were concerned that they may have been poisoned. Both experienced severe weakness and swelling, as well as other symptoms.
Kostyuchenko was a long-time reporter with the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and started working for the independent outlet Meduza in September 2022. Babloyan was previously a journalist with the now-shuttered broadcaster Ekho Moskvy, and currently works with Zhivoy Gvozd, an outlet launched by former Ekho Moskvy staff.
Both journalists were tested for toxins at Berlin’s Charité hospital. Blood tests taken from Kostyuchenko in late 2022 were inconclusive, according to The Insider. Babloyan’s blood samples were lost, and she never received results of any tests performed on them, The Insider reported. When CPJ called the press service of Charité hospital, the person who answered said they did not speak English and hung up.
German authorities have questioned both journalists in relation to their symptoms. Experts interviewed by The Insider said that Kostyuchenko’s symptoms “cannot be explained by anything other” than poisoning, and that Babloyan’s symptoms were “more likely” caused by poisoning than by any disease.
Kostyuchenko and Babloyan have each reported critically on Russian politics and the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The BBC, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster RFE/RL reported on the journalists’ allegations and also noted that Russian authorities are accused of poisoning several Russian dissidents and critics, including those living abroad.
“Reports that Russian journalists Elena Kostyuchenko and Irina Babloyan may have been poisoned in Germany and Georgia are extremely alarming, and must be investigated at once,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “German and Georgian authorities should treat these allegations with the utmost seriousness and do all they can to safeguard the lives of journalists living in exile.”
In an account published by Meduza on Tuesday, and in an interview with Russian blogger Yury Dud published Wednesday, Kostyuchenko said she started feeling unwell on October 18, 2022, after a trip to Munich, where she had applied for a Ukrainian visa to cover the war for Meduza.
Her symptoms first appeared on the return train from Munich to Berlin, where she had moved after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and included severe headaches, weakness, shortness of breath, and nausea. Later, she experienced swelling in her face, fingers, and toes, and her palms and the soles of her feet turned red.
Medical tests run 10 days after her first symptoms showed abnormal amounts of liver enzymes and blood in her urine, The Insider reported.
Separately, Babloyan started to feel sick on October 25, 2022, in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she had moved a few weeks earlier. Her symptoms included severe weakness, dizziness, swelling, and redness on her palms and the soles of her feet, similar to Kostyuchenko’s.
Babloyan, who has since moved to Germany, told CPJ on Wednesday that she was feeling “still not very good, but much better” than when her symptoms first began.
Kostyuchenko reported her symptoms to German authorities, and police officers questioned her for about eight hours in early 2023, she told Dud. Police closed the investigation into Kostyuchenko’s case on May 2, citing a lack of evidence, but authorities said in July that they had reopened the case, Meduza reported.
Babloyan said that German police also questioned her for five hours in July. When officers asked whether there was a chance that someone could have poisoned her in Georgia, “I said yes,” she told CPJ, saying that her journalism would be the only possible explanation for such an attack.
Babloyan recently resubmitted blood samples for further analysis, according to The Insider and an interview the journalist gave with Russian blogger Aleksandr Plushev.
In March 2022, ahead of a reporting trip to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Kostyuchenko was warned by an unnamed colleague that Chechen units of the Russian Federal Guard had been instructed to kill her, according to The Insider and her account in Meduza.
One of Kostyuchenko’s sources in Ukrainian military intelligence told her on the same day that unidentified attackers were “in preparation” to kill a Novaya Gazeta journalist.
Since Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993, at least six of its journalists and contributors have been murdered in connection to their work.
Kostyuchenko recently suspended her work as a staff journalist due to her lingering weakness, she wrote in Meduza.
CPJ called and emailed the Berlin police, and emailed the Georgian Ministry of Interior for comment, but did not receive any replies.
[Editors’ Note: The eleventh paragraph was updated to correct the spelling of Kostyuchenko’s name.]
]]>On March 29, unidentified people painted a message on Janzen’s home in the north-central German city of Braunschweig accusing him of being “anti-German” and left behind a candle with his name and a white-supremacist message written on it, as well as pieces of raw meat, according to news reports and Janzen, who posted photos of the vandalism on Twitter and communicated with CPJ via email.
Janzen, editor and owner of DokuRechts, a website that covers the country’s far-right, told CPJ that he believed the vandalism was a threat in response to his coverage of the recent conviction of a far-right activist, which Janzen reported on his Twitter account, where he frequently shares his reporting and has about 10,000 followers.
Janzen told CPJ that he filed a criminal complaint with the Braunschweig police on the day of the incident and noted that police said in a statement that they were investigating the situation as vandalism, even though his complaint had characterized it as a threat. Police have increased patrols around Janzen’s house, the statement said.
“German authorities should ensure that their investigation into the vandalism of journalist David Janzen’s home takes into account the fact that he is a member of the press being intimidated over his work,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must find those responsible and hold them to account, and ensure that journalists can cover right-wing political movements without fear.”
Janzen told CPJ and wrote on his website that he has faced similar threats in the past, including an incident in 2019 where someone painted his home’s door red and put acid in his mailbox, which caused him respiratory irritation. He has received threats and insults on social media and in written messages since 2019 over his work, and was attacked by right-wing protesters at demonstrations. He wrote that he filed criminal complaints in those cases but the proceedings were either still ongoing or had been dropped without convictions.
“I’m not doing really well as the threats are starting up again now and the authorities are obviously not getting a handle on it,” he told CPJ.
Janzen regularly covers the German far-right on his website, and he also gives expert commentary on the subject to media outlets.
After the publication of this article, the press office of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior emailed a statement to CPJ saying that police were investigating a “politically motivated crime” but provided no further information about the case.
[Editors’ note: This article has been updated in its final paragraph to include the ministry’s response to CPJ.]
]]>To better understand the challenges they face, CPJ interviewed three European journalists who experienced physical violence, lawsuits, and backlash while reporting on these issues. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Bogdana Lazarova, reporter for Bulgaria’s public broadcaster BNT
In June 2022, a group of men threw stones at Lazarova and her crew in a Serbian village near the Bulgarian border as they documented pollution allegedly caused by a mining company. The attack continued even when they identified themselves as journalists and showed their filming permits.
How has the investigation into the attack on you and your crew progressed?
Lazarova: The investigation is still ongoing six months after the attack. We all have testified as victims, but I am not aware of any charges being made yet. The Bulgarian prosecutor’s office has also opened a parallel criminal proceeding for attempted murder. It is crucial that the Serbian prosecutor’s office completes the investigation and that the perpetrators are brought to justice. Otherwise, journalists will be vulnerable to attacks with impunity.
Do you think your case highlights the growing risk of violence faced by journalists reporting on environmental issues?
I have not had similar experiences, but the attack left me feeling fear when I returned to Serbia two days later to continue filming. Although I had the necessary permits, I was still cautious. Luckily, I have not experienced any similar attack, but in one earlier case, when we were filming pollution in Bulgaria with highly toxic pesticides, a local mayor warned people about us and filmed our reporting work with a drone the whole time.
What advice would you give to journalists reporting on environmental issues in potentially dangerous areas?
Journalists should be prepared for the risks they may face in such areas and take measures to ensure their safety. I always inform my TV management of my location and activities while on location, so I have their support in case of an emergency. I also maintain contact with local residents as they have valuable information and are the people whose interests the media is protecting. Environmental pollution and climate disasters can directly impact journalists’ health as well, so journalists must take precautions to protect themselves.
What should media outlets do to protect journalists covering environmental issues?
Media organizations should monitor cases of attacks on journalists, including those covering environmental issues, and work to ensure fair and transparent investigations and court processes. Investigative journalists, who face a high risk of attack, should receive special protection. Media organizations could also advocate for the European Parliament to harmonize legislation to better protect journalists in all European Union member states.
CPJ emailed the Serbian prosecutor’s office in Belgrade and the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office in Sofia for comment on her case but did not receive an immediate reply.
Grégoire Souchay, freelance journalist in France for Reporterre, a privately owned media outlet focused on environmental and ecological issues
In November 2021, Souchay covered a protest led by environmental activists near Rodez, in southern France. In June 2022, authorities filed criminal charges against him and 28 activists, accusing him of conspiring to steal and degrade private property. He denied the charges. If convicted, Souchay could face a maximum seven-year prison sentence and fine of 100,000 euros (US$107,000).
What did you do on November 10, 2021? Why were charges pressed against you?
Souchay: On that day, I was covering a protest by Faucheurs Volontaires, a group of environmental activists, who entered a warehouse belonging to RAGT Semences, a local seed company, in search of genetically modified seeds that are resistant to pesticides. During this act of civil disobedience, more than 60 activists entered the warehouse and destroyed bags of seeds. I was there as a reporter, fulfilling my job to accompany the activists and document their protest, along with other journalists, photographers, and videographers from various media outlets. However, I am the only journalist facing charges, after the company filed a criminal complaint.
Why are the authorities prosecuting you along with the activists? Were you identified as a journalist?
I did enter the warehouse with the activists, as did all the other journalists. However, I was there solely as a reporter and the charges against me are unfounded. I was holding my notebook and a pen, taking photos, and recording interviews with my mobile phone so it could have been clear to anyone that I was there as a reporter. Most of the activists were wearing white uniforms, while the journalists were not. When I left the site, I showed my press card to the security guard when they asked for my ID.
I was shocked when, three months later, police summoned me for questioning based on the company’s criminal complaint. I informed the police that I was a journalist covering the protest. I explained that my article about the protest was published two days after the protest, but the prosecution disregarded my status as a journalist and treats my case with the other activists. With my lawyers, I am now requesting the prosecution to drop the charges and providing evidence of my journalistic status and supporting testimonies from other journalists present at the protest.
What impact does this case have on your work as a journalist?
As a journalist reporting on local agriculture and local affairs, my involvement in a criminal proceeding initiated by a major local company has made my work more challenging and strained my relationships with local sources, who might be more hesitant speaking with me because of this case. Furthermore, I am unable to cover legal cases in my region, including my own case and that of environmental activists, due to potential conflict of interest. My newspaper covers my legal fees, but this diverts valuable resources away from actual journalism and investigative reporting. I have had to spend half of my December working time preparing for my defense instead of reporting. This process, even if I am ultimately exonerated, still restricts my journalistic freedoms and activities, and could discourage other journalists from covering environmental issues and activism.
Do you think your case reflects increasing challenges faced by journalists covering the environment?
The criminalization of journalists covering environmental activism is a growing trend in France and Europe, with journalists facing administrative fines, and civil and criminal proceedings. In many cases just like mine, the legal proceeding has nothing to do with what I wrote. I am challenged at the court for simply doing my job, being close to the events, and documenting what happened.
There is also a growing number of SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) cases, with big companies instrumentalizing the justice system against journalists. It’s crucial for the journalistic community and press freedom groups to respond and counter the use of SLAPP cases. If this trend continues, it will discourage journalists from covering environmental issues. With the climate crisis intensifying and political response weak, environmental activism is becoming more militant and confrontational, exposing journalists to increased risks. We must put an end to these practices for the future of press freedom and the public’s right to know.
[Editor’s note: In emails received after publication, Nicolas Rigot-Muller, the public prosecutor in Rodez, told CPJ that the decision to prosecute Souchay “was not an attempt to limit the freedom of the press,” and that investigators only learned he was a reporter after he was summoned for questioning. He said that the case would be dismissed if prosecutors confirmed Souchay’s “journalistic mission.” Fabrice Raynal, communications officer for RAGT Semences, told CPJ that the investigation was initiated by the police, not the company, which was not aware that the journalist was one of the defendants.]
Marco Brás dos Santos, freelance journalist in Germany primarily for Kreuzer Leipzig, a privately owned online magazine
Brás dos Santos was fined 150 euros (US$160) by a German court in December for trespassing. MIBRAG, a German energy company, filed trespassing charges against him, three other journalists, and several activists following a November 2019 climate protest at an opencast mine in Saxony, an eastern German state. The three other journalists paid the fine; Brás dos Santos was the only journalist to dispute the charge in court.
Why did the company bring charges against you?
Brás dos Santos: The company filed a criminal complaint against me for being on their private property while covering a climate protest. They did this even though I was wearing a press vest and easily distinguishable from the protesters in white overalls. The company also went after other journalists and photographers at the scene. It was clear to everyone, including the police and the court, that we were journalists.
Why did the authorities treat your case similarly to the activists?
The police told me from the start that they couldn’t handle my case differently from the activists because of the complaint against me. The judge said the same thing during the hearing, recognizing that my case was different because I’m a journalist, but still saying that the law doesn’t allow for a different treatment. So, the judge gave me the minimum fine possible. I think it’s a SLAPP lawsuit and it’s against the German constitution’s protection of press freedom. It’s not right for journalists to be taken to court and punished for doing their jobs. The authorities should treat journalists differently and not let big companies criminalize reporting. I’ve filed an appeal and I’m not giving up.
How much do you think your case is characteristic of the challenges journalists covering environmental issues are facing?
Lawsuits like the one I faced are becoming more common for journalists covering climate issues. As journalists, it’s our job to be ready for these kinds of situations and give them the attention they deserve. We need to report on these lawsuits, let people know what the EU is doing to fight them, and use legal means to protect ourselves if we face them. We also have to speak out and look for legal solutions, like the ones proposed by the EU.
CPJ emailed the press department of MIBRAG for comment on his case but did not receive an immediate reply.
]]>On Tuesday morning, police officers in the southwestern city of Freiburg searched the newsroom of Radio Dreyeckland and the homes of managing editor Andreas Reimann and editor Fabian Kienert, and seized devices and documents relating to the station’s reporting, according to media reports, a report by the station, and Reimann, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Authorities are investigating the station and its editors over an article published in summer 2022 on the outlet’s website covering legal proceedings against Linksunten.Indymedia, a banned far-left group, according to those sources.
Prosecutors allege that the broadcaster had disseminated the ideology of a banned group by including a link in that article to a publicly available archive affiliated with Linksunten.Indymedia, as well as an image depicting graffiti voicing support for the organization, according to the station’s report and a joint statement by the Freiburg police and the Karlsruhe prosecutor’s office.
Reimann told CPJ that he and Kienert deny any wrongdoing. If charged and convicted, the editors could face up to three years in prison or a fine under the Section 85 of the German criminal code.
“German authorities must immediately stop harassing Andreas Reimann and Fabian Kienert of Radio Dreyeckland, drop any investigation into their work, and return all documents and equipment seized from the journalists,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Furthermore, authorities should investigate how German police committed such shocking actions and provide a public explanation for this harassment, which has no place in Germany or any EU member state.”
The search was conducted under a warrant issued by the public prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Karlsruhe, and approved by a Karlsruhe court, according to the joint statement.
Reimann told CPJ that police searched his and Kienert’s homes at about 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17, and confiscated documents, a desktop computer, laptops, and phones, as well as multiple digital storage devices that held information relating to the journalists’ private lives and Radio Dreyeckland’s work and finances.
During the apartment searches, officers questioned both journalists about the authorship of that 2022 article and the broadcaster’s editorial process, Reimann said. Police then searched the station’s offices and requested access to its computer system; at that point, Kienert told them that he had authored that article, and police stopped their search, Reimann told CPJ.
Reimann said that he and Kienert filed a complaint against the investigation, calling for police to immediately return all items seized from their homes and to stop examining the journalists’ documents. He said that the search was a “shocking and serious attack on the protection of journalistic sources and press freedom.”
CPJ emailed the prosecutor’s office in Karsruhe the Frieberg police for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.
]]>On the evening of September 2, Moritz Gathmann, a reporter for monthly print magazine Cicero, and his female camera operator and photographer, who requested anonymity for security reasons, were insulted and attacked by attendees while they covered a public political discussion at a restaurant in Neukirch/Lausitz, a town in eastern Saxony state, according to a report by daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, a Facebook post by Gathmann, and Gathmann, who communicated with CPJ via email.
“German authorities should take the attack on Cicero magazine reporter Moritz Gathmann and his cameraperson seriously, find the perpetrators, and ensure that they are held responsible for this violent act,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Journalists who cover issues of public interest must be able to work without fear of assault.”
During the discussion–about the effects of the energy price increases and purported anti-Semitic conspiracy theories–a man that Gathmann estimated to be between 20 and 25 years old asked the photographer to delete a photo she took of him, according to those sources. Despite immediately complying, the man physically pushed the photographer toward the door and began shouting insults and obscenities but stopped when Gathmann intervened.
Gathmann said he believed the man to be part of the neo-Nazi supporters in attendance, based on their tattoos and shirts with neo-Nazi slogans and insignias. This group later attempted to prevent him and his photographer from returning to the restaurant after the event took a break, shoving Gathmann back from the door and only allowing him to reenter after an organizer intervened.
Gathmann said the group continued to watch him and his photographer; as such, they felt threatened and asked one of the organizers to accompany them to their car. The organizer agreed, but once they left, two unidentified men who covered their faces with scarves appeared and started shouting profanity, according to those reports.
The journalists got into their rental car, and the men tried to open the car’s door, hit the windows, and smashed a side mirror. Neither journalist was injured, but Gathmann rapidly drove away, hitting the door of another vehicle parked on the street.
CPJ emailed questions to the press department of the State Criminal Police Office in Saxony but did not receive a reply. The office took the investigation over from local police on September 6, according to the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Editors’ Note: The last paragraph of this alert was updated to correct the name of the police office.
]]>Matar, who has lived in Germany in exile since 2012, testified against Raslan in April last year about his treatment in the prison where Raslan was the head of investigations. Matar told Human Rights Watch that Raslan hit him in custody after asking about a photo that Matar took of him.
Matar, a reporter for the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, was arrested in 2011, one of dozens of journalists detained in the months after the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad began.
The Syrian Civil War extracted a staggering toll on Syrian media. At least 139 journalists have been killed in incidents related to their journalism since 2011, making Syria the deadliest country for journalists worldwide over the past decade. That figure includes 23 murders and at least six deaths in the Syrian government’s custody. At least nine more journalists are still missing, feared dead.
CPJ talked to Matar about the verdict, his participation in the first torture trial of a member of the Assad regime, and the impact of the trial on Syrian journalists’ broader quest for justice. CPJ cannot independently confirm the details of Matar’s treatment in custody, but his description of his and others’ torture is in line with documentation by human rights groups. CPJ emailed the Syrian interior ministry and the Syrian mission to the United Nations for comment but received no replies.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Back when you testified in April you told Human Rights Watch that it was one of the hardest things you have ever done. How did you move forward after that experience?
I started having migraines on the day of the trial. It was a disturbing experience. And I lived with it for a while after. It brought me back to every detail that happened 10 years ago. It was like walking into prison once again. After having almost daily nightmares about my jail experience and dreaming about attempts to escape my jail, I had to face my own jailer. It was tiring. I remembered a lot of small details to connect with my emotional memory. I had to ask the judge for a break after a few hours.
But after the experience, I had other feelings about what happened. Both my jailer and I were in exile. I tried to avoid looking at him during the trial. I wanted to avoid disrespecting him. I didn’t want him to feel humiliated as a prisoner. And I decided I would not attend the session where the verdict would be handed down. I didn’t want to be celebrating or be present for the anger and noise after the verdict was announced. I know now it was the right thing to do — to be at home and feel it alone. It was best for me personally.
Do you feel that justice has been served?
Yes, it was partial justice — an individual case of justice. In my dreams, I wish I had met Raslan again in Syria, that justice could happen inside our country. But I was beaten and tortured by many inside jail, not just Raslan, and in different detention centers. I saw children and elderly people being tortured everywhere I was held. That is all proof that the country is far from justice.
It is good to know that it won’t be safe in Europe or outside Syria for those who used to publicly express with pride their human rights atrocities. In reality, the message it sends is clear that even after 10 years, there can be justice. Even partially.
What is the significance of the verdict for Syrian journalists?
As a journalist, the verdict represents some accountability for me personally, to know that those who jailed and interrogated me over and over in custody over every word I wrote are facing consequences. I never thought — and I’m sure my jailers never thought — they would face any accountability. I sometimes had lost hope or confidence that my work as a journalist mattered. The verdict changed my view. I believe documentation of what happens, writing about it, mattered, even 10 years later.
What do you think of the U.S. trials on behalf of foreign correspondents killed in Syria? In 2019, a U.S. federal court ordered Syria to pay $302.5 million to the family of Marie Colvin, and Islamic State suspects are now on trial in Virginia for the murder of James Foley.
Justice in violations against foreign journalists is important for Syrian journalists. It is great to see the government of Colvin and Foley fight for them and for their families, and to see other foreign journalists freed from capture, to have any justice, even if it is symbolic. It adds pressure on the criminal Syrian regime to abate its targeting of journalists overall.
Of course, the families of Colvin and Foley are lucky to even have information about what happened to them. It is something none of the tens of thousands of families in Syria and Iraq have while the anti-Islamic State military coalition keeps them in the dark. Unfortunately, many of the journalists who fought the Islamic State with their cameras and pens are disregarded and met with neglect today.
Are you still a practicing journalist?
I am working on an online archive, the ISIS Prison Museum. It should launch in a few months. It is part of my personal attempt as a journalist to find my brother Mohamed Nour, a photographer who was abducted by the Islamic State inside Syria in 2013. I am also working with many journalists inside Syria who are trying to find three other journalists: Osama Al-Hasan, Abdullah Al-Hussein, and Ahmed Matar, who were taken captive by the Islamic State. We are providing 3D maps of 30 former Islamic State prisons, gathering hundreds of testimonies of victims who were held there, and tens of thousands of documents left behind by the militias after their defeat.
[Editor’s note: CPJ is unable to independently confirm that Al-Hasan, Al-Hussein, and Ahmed Matar were abducted by the Islamic State; more than 100 journalists have been kidnapped in Syria since 2011 according to CPJ research.]
How are journalists in exile able to continue covering Syria?
Many Syrian journalists in exile, including myself, have been met with so much apathy about the work we do documenting the atrocities in Syria. While in Syria we would take plenty of risks – face jail or die to collect and share information that people in the West would see on their cell phones on their way to work and then do nothing about. It was disappointing and depressing for a while.
But we hope that the work we do, including the website archive I am working on, will provide crucial information for people inside and outside Syria, including the thousands of families who had their loved ones kidnapped or disappeared by the Islamic State. We also hope it will help raise the voice of local journalists, so that they know that their sacrifices were not in vain.
]]>Social media regulation is significant for journalists who use platforms for work, especially when the legislative focus is on information or speech. In 2021, U.S. nonprofit Freedom House found that at least 24 countries were seeking to govern how platforms regulate content. States like the UK, which set out to prevent platforms from censoring journalistic posts in the draft safety bill, face thorny questions about whose posts merit protection and how regulations should be enforced.
Many journalists are themselves demanding that governments regulate social media to help solve issues that affect the press, like online abuse, disinformation, or falling advertising revenue, but there could be other unforeseen consequences. Lawmakers in the United States, the U.K., India, Pakistan, and Mauritius are among those discouraging platforms from offering encrypted messaging, which helps journalists communicate safely. Legislation mandating that platforms share data with police would be bad news in countries that jail journalists for social media posts. Some social media laws, like Turkey’s, affect news websites and search engines as well. Others have implications for news websites with comments sections.
At worst, authoritarians can jump on the regulatory bandwagon to stifle reporting. In 2020, a report by Danish think tank Justitia found 25 countries had drawn inspiration from Germany’s 2017 Network Enforcement Act to “provide cover and legitimacy for digital censorship.” Such laws leave social media companies with a difficult decision: comply, or leave the country.
CPJ’s Alicia Ceccanese spoke with Kian Vesteinsson, a research analyst for technology and democracy at Freedom House, and Jacob Mchangama, executive director of Justitia, about their respective research.
Each told CPJ how social media regulations can incentivize platforms to remove more news:
Governments are “outsourcing the policing of online content that [they] don’t like to the platforms themselves,” essentially requiring technology companies “to do the dirty work for them,” according to Mchangama.
In 2018 David Kaye, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, noted broadly-worded and restrictive laws on topics like extremism, blasphemy, defamation, and false news being used to require companies to suppress legitimate discussions on social media.
Germany requires platforms to remove “manifestly unlawful content” within 24 hours, or up to seven days if the legality is unclear, and other countries have followed their example without adopting the same rule of law protections, according to Mchangama.
“Typically [it takes a court] more than a year to process a single case of hate speech,” he said. “Some of these states then demand that social media companies make roughly the same legal assessment in 24 hours.”
Under pressure, platforms take down more content, according to Vesteinsson. “Companies overcorrect,” he said.
Tight deadlines incentivize companies to use solutions like artificial intelligence to automatically screen posts for something that might be illegal, according to the Washington D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology. But recent analysis of leaked internal Facebook documents indicate such filters have been ineffective, especially in certain languages – as have poorly-trained human moderators, according to The Associated Press and international journalism non-profit Rest of World.
Best practices protect intermediaries like social media companies from legal action over someone else’s content, which “safeguards [companies] to moderate and remove content on their platforms and shields them from legal liability for the activities of their users,” Vesteinsson told CPJ. Liability makes them less likely to push back against censorship and surveillance demands, he said.
Mchangama agreed. Laws that erode liability protections provide an “obvious incentive for platforms to say, “Better safe than sorry” when governments make requests, he said.
Localization laws mandate that social media companies host staff – often local nationals – and data in country under the eye of local authorities. Representatives risk being hauled into court if the company doesn’t comply with the government’s rules, according to a recent analysis by Rest of World.
“Companies [will] think twice about whether they want to challenge these governments [and] risk the freedom and safety of their employees on the ground,” Mchangama said.
Threats like these have become increasingly familiar for reporters in Europe and the United States, where the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a CPJ partner, has recorded threats and assaults against reporters in cities including Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.
Journalists in Europe told CPJ that some protesters target members of the press, who they see as representing the same forces they are rallying against. While most of the reporters vowed to continue their coverage of demonstrations against lockdowns, masks, and COVID vaccines, some also voiced concern that reporters—especially those without institutional support, like freelancers—may not be able to continue much longer.
A new quality of anger
For Antonella Alba, a reporter with Italian public broadcaster Rai News 24, an August encounter with a violent group of protesters in Rome was a watershed moment.
“In my 20 years of reporting, I have covered student movements and workers’ protests but never have I been confronted with such an immediate violence to the very simple questions I asked about who [demonstrators] are and why they are protesting,” she told CPJ via phone.
When Alba asked a group of people why they had gathered to protest the government’s vaccine mandate, they responded by calling her a “terrorist journalist,” a term often used by extreme-right groups, and a woman shoved her while attempting to grab her cellphone, bruising her arm, as seen in video Alba posted to Twitter. (Alba said that police have identified the alleged attacker and a criminal investigation is underway.)
Protesters believe that journalists — especially those working for public broadcasters — represent “the government’s propaganda” on anti-COVID-19 measures, Alba said, adding that she thought that was why they vented their anger about public health measures at members of the press.
Similarly, in August 2020, Anne Höhn, a reporter for German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle, found herself amid a hostile crowd at an anti-lockdown protest in Berlin.
“People just suddenly became very physical, they were trying to touch me, push me, it was scary,” she told CPJ in a video call. “It was a new quality of anger: I was targeted not because I did something, but simply because I was a journalist.”
Höhn told CPJ that the protesters resented the media’s perceived role as gatekeepers allegedly controlling information, and also did not want to be the subject of critical coverage. She said some of the protesters took out their phones and filmed her as she was filming them.
“It was to show that if you cover us, we will cover the way you cover us,” she said.
Demonstrators have even broken into news organizations, as happened in Slovenia in September 2021.
“They shouted complaints about our coverage and wanted to occupy our studios and broadcast their views,” Manica Janežič Ambrožič, editor-in-chief of information programming at the public broadcaster RTVS, told CPJ via phone. She said protesters may feel that journalists are not doing their jobs properly, because they do not see their anti-vaccine views reflected in media. She added that the demonstrators had a generalized anti-establishment anger, which was then directed at the media.
“Journalists have become scapegoats for everything people are not satisfied with during this crisis,” she said.
A long-term trend accelerated by the pandemic
Martin Hoffmann, vice-chair of the Leipzig-based European Institute for Journalism and Communication Research, a research institute, told CPJ in a phone interview that such anti-journalist anger is connected to political changes in Europe following the refugee and migration crisis in 2015.
Hoffmann co-authored a March 2020 study on anti-press actions in Germany, which noted that terms like “lying press” (Lügenpresse) and violence against journalists have “become a dangerous normal in everyday journalistic work since 2015” and “the public hatred of the press is now part of the ideological inventory among right-wing and radical [movements].”
Hoffmann said that the pandemic has accelerated this trend.
“Journalists can expect attacks anytime, anywhere, even when they record a simple vox-pop in a Christmas market,” he said, noting that the Querdenker protest movement—German for “lateral thinkers”—initially began as a mix of people with different ideologies united by their opposition to the government’s pandemic policies, but had since become predominantly a right-wing movement.
Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protesters “want to control the narrative about their movement and journalists who highlight their connections to the extreme right, neo-Nazi groups are simply uncomfortable,” Austrian freelance journalist Michael Bonvalot told CPJ via phone.
Demonstrators at a September anti-vaccine rally in Vienna harassed Bonvalot, shouting that they knew where he lived. One of them threw a beer can at him, Bonvalot said. He added that that attack “was nothing special, not even the worst,” and that he had already been harassed several times, and also received death threats.
Bonvalot said many of the Vienna protesters knew him from his previous coverage, where he highlighted demonstrators’ connections to the extreme right. “They hate to be named, and what they hate most are pictures, revealing personal ties to neo-Nazi groups. Reporters taking photos and videos are in special danger,” he said.
“This is becoming unbearable”
Ambrožič, who interacted several times with protesters who gathered at RTVS’ headquarters leading up to their attack on the office, said she did not see how members of the press could cater to the demonstrators’ demands without sacrificing their journalistic integrity.
“How can I give airtime to people who deny the virus and whose views go against basic scientific facts?” she asked.
Hoffman agreed, telling CPJ that “journalists should not give voice to those who deny the virus or the efficiency of the vaccine or who go against basic facts, but they would have to continue to cover opinions critical of the handling of the pandemic.”
Reporters in Europe told CPJ that authorities were slow to act on the threats, and that police protective measures were often insufficient. Ambrožič said that RTVS had informed police several times about protesters’ harassment of journalists outside the headquarters, but authorities did not intervene.
Bonvalot told CPJ that the Vienna police had announced plans to have dedicated officers at demonstrations to respond to threats against journalists, but he was skeptical that journalists would be able to find those specific officers at the moment of need.
CPJ emailed the police in Ljubljana and Vienna for comment but did not receive any responses.
“Journalists must be way more careful than ever before I can remember,” Bonvalot said. He told CPJ that he would continue covering demonstrations, but now was always accompanied by four to six people who volunteer to help him if necessary.
He added that he always wears a helmet, padded protective vest, and goggles while covering protests where he may be physically harassed, and also has a special case for his camera. While those measures allow him to report more safely, they are expensive, especially for freelancers who are purchasing those goods with their own money.
Bonvalot says he’s willing to pay for additional equipment to keep covering the protests, but “it can come to a point where it is not possible to report on these events, because it is simply not safe enough,” he told CPJ.
Even with institutional support, covering such demonstrations can prove difficult. Höhn told CPJ that going to protests with bodyguards adds its own complications, because journalists cannot mingle freely with crowds and talk to people as easily.
Hoffmann added, “If these threats remain on the current scale, more and more journalists, especially freelancers, will think twice before they would expose themselves to physical danger, or risk their equipment.”
“Being a journalist has always meant a certain level of risk,” Ambrožič said, “but the level of anxiety and stress due to the threats have increased enormously and it is becoming unbearable. It is a very harsh world for journalists, right now.”
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