World War II saw great destruction. Number of journalists killed in World War II: 69

The number of journalists who died in the Vietnam War, which lasted for years and where bombs were dropped on forests: 63

The number of journalists killed in Israel's attack on Gaza in just two months: 92.

The 44 countries with more press freedom than the United States

So I think many people are not aware about the current state of Julien Assange, the founder of Wikileaks since he‘s not getting a lot of media attention any more and the news cycle has long moved on.

Around 2 years ago the British courts already ruled that hell be extradited into the Usa where he will spend the rest of his life in jail under according to amnesty International: „a real risk of serious human rights violations including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment“. In the Usa he will face charges for his Journalistic practices such as leaking footage of Us soldiers committing war crimes.

Right now he‘s being held in Belmarsh high security prison in the east of London, England. He has been there since two years ago and is currently being held in solitary confinement. While the courts in the Uk already ruled about his extardidment to the Usa two years ago he is right at the moment in the process of making his last appeal. if it fails which it mostly likely will his last chance would be an appeal to the Un human rights comitee. The last appeal in front of the court in the Uk will be held on the 16th and 17th of February.

He is being charged for „being a risk to the national security of the United States of America“ under the 1917 Espionage act which was put in place during the Usa‘s Involvement in the first world war to fight german spy’s in Us Institutions and should have been abolished after the end of it. Instead it stayed in place up until today conveniently giving the Us-Government a reason to jail some of their stongest critics.

You just have to really think about the Implications that this whole case carries with it, if the Us Government can classify every document they don‘t want the public to know about because it would Inform them about their atrocities and crooked doings and everyone leaking them can get charged how can you still talk about a functioning Democracy? Not that I think that any representative democracy especially not the one in the Usa represents the true will of the people. But even taken this aside the rational of a democracy must be that information is somewhat available for voters to base their decision on. The thing is the Us-Government knows and this includes both parties that all of their little war adventures in the middle east and the all civilian casualties, displaced people and other atrocities commited would,even under the most ignorant Americans, raise some eyebrows. THEY FEAR THE TRUTH

And I think all of this is not only typical for the Us but for basically every liberal democracy. Nominally there is a right to free speech for everyone up until the point that you pose a real thread to the Government. And no, the constitution will not defend you because guess what even if there are no convenient laws like the Us espionage act that help to prosecute you, there are all sorts of secret services that don’t give a fuck about the constitution and their only purpose is to do what ever is best for the nation-state they are serving weather that is overthrowing government’s, bribing a court or assasinations doesn’t matter. And if the Usa can keep on silencing its sharpest critics without international condemnation or condemnation by their citizens, other western countries will follow this example and be more confident to prosecute their own critics openly, I do believe this is somewhat of a slippery slope.

There will be some last big demonstrations on the 20th and 21st of February outside of the royal court where the hearings will take place. Demonstrations starting as early as 8:30(GMT) so if you live in the area consider going. And even if you don’t live near london you can still get active, share Information, talk to friends and family, make solidarity graffitis, write an article for a local newspaper or zine, attend solidarity demonstrations or if there are none in your area organize one yourself. Anything really just don‘t look away

Please Reblog and share not only this post but all posts aiming to raise awareness about this topic.

This struggle is not merely about Julien Assange it‘s about press freedom as a whole. And not just in the Us but everywhere, so go and fight for free speech while you still can

Source:

amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/julian-assange-usa-justice/

Logically I knew the U.S. was never going to do anything meaningful about Shireen Abu Akleh's murder despite her being an American citizen–hell, the U.S. didn't even do anything meaningful about Rachel Corrie's murder by the IDF, and she was a white American–but it's still infuriating. I saw footage of protesters calling out Blinken as he spoke about the importance of press freedom–two hours into the speech and he never mentioned Abu Akleh.

It's hard to take western journalists seriously when Wael Al-Dahdouh exists.

This year the Philippines went down four places in the Freedom on the Net 2023 report of the Freedom House. Previously with a score of 65 out of 100, the country’s score went down to 61 after the organization noted how conditions have worsened in the Philippines as outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte used an antiterrorism law to block news sites that had been critical of his administration.

Last June 2022, former National Security Advisor to the National Security Council Hermogenes C. Esperon, Jr. ordered the blocking of Bulatlat and 26 other websites.

In his capacity as the NSA, Esperon “requested” for the blocking of the 27 websites, alleging that they were affiliated to “communist-terrorist” groups, and citing the Anti-Terror Act as justification for the request. The order was left untouched when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. eventually took office in the same month.

Freedom House also pointed out how the Marcos Jr. administration also required all Filipinos to register their SIM cards under their real name, undermining anonymous communication in what remains a dangerous environment for journalists and activists.

“The Philippines’ decline in internet freedom occurred amid an erosion of political and civil rights under former president Duterte, who completed his six-year term in June 2022 and whose war on drugs led to thousands of extrajudicial killings,” said Freedom House.

Seven Southeast Asian media organizations have launched pfmsea.org, a joint platform to monitor press freedom across the region.

The organizations are Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Association of Timor Leste Journalists, Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association, Center for Independent Journalism in Malaysia, Merdeka Media Movement in Malaysia, National Union of Journalists Philippines, and Prachatai in Thailand.

Launched on May 29, 2023, the website shares real-time data on cases of violence against journalists and the media, as well as qualitative reports on the situation of press freedom in six countries, joint press releases, and a mechanism that allows the public to report cases of violence against the media.

Through email, Global Voices interviewed AJI Secretary-General Ika Ningtyas about the new initiative. She shared how regional media groups coordinated in launching the platform.

Most of us have been working together for quite a long time, belonging to regional organizations that unfortunately did not last long enough. But we understand the urgency of the need to build a new one as press freedom is increasingly threatened in most countries in Southeast Asia. Finally, since last year, we had quite intense discussions for a year to rebuild the collaboration with a new approach.

She explained what promoted the groups to launch a platform. She hopes the network will be easy to maintain.

We discussed how to do it simply and at a low cost. Our current strategy is not to establish a permanent organization like before. Instead, this collaboration is more flexible. We chose one organization in turn as the facilitator responsible for facilitating each meeting, managing finances, and other administration. In this first year, AJI was chosen as the collaboration facilitator. Then we discussed about the work program, several ideas emerged, one of which was to create a joint press freedom monitoring platform. We thought it was important to have data available in real-time that shows the safety of journalists and media organizations in Southeast Asia.

Asked about how the monitoring data will be used to promote press freedom, she discussed the campaign strategy of the network.

The promotion of press freedom requires reliable data. Data that is available in real-time can show the real situation, about the mode, perpetrators, types of threats and see how the trend is from year to year, whether it is improving or worsening. From the data, we or each organization can determine what intervention actions should be taken, what the advocacy strategy is, and how to do it. Through this monitoring data, we can campaign together more broadly about the security situation of journalists in Southeast Asia because we found some similar trends used by governments such as the increase in digital attacks, the use of disinformation regulations to target journalists, and others.

In 2022, their groups monitored 185 press freedom violations across the region. This year, they have recorded 73 cases. About 60 percent of the cases this year involved physical attacks targeting the media, while 23 percent were related to digital attacks. About 36.5 percent of the cases were perpetrated by state actors. Some of the major issues they noted include the forced closure of independent media outlets in Cambodia, the enforcement of repressive media laws in Indonesia, and the vilification of journalists in the Philippines.

Finally, Ika Ningtyas identified some of the challenges in developing the monitoring platform.

The initial challenge was how to set a common standard for indicators, working mechanisms, and report formats. Because we found that several organizations that monitor press freedom have different indicators. Then we agreed to use internationally accepted standards, namely according to Sustainable Development Goals number 16.10.1 where the safety of journalists is one of the indicators. By using this SDG's indicator, it will be easier if each organization prepares a shadow report related to the SDG's on the safety aspect of journalists. Secondly, of the six organizations that have joined, only three regularly monitor cases. But our members in Timor Leste, Malaysia and Thailand are not very intense in monitoring, because they don't have special resources. So the challenge is how to provide support especially to organizations that don't have resources and strengthen those that do. Because monitoring is not just inputting data, but a long process such as receiving reports, verifying each case that occurs, writing reports and analyzing them.

The network is planning to expand the coverage of the project by seeking potential partners in Myanmar and Vietnam.

Rebecca Vincent

Human rights activist Rebecca Vincent was born in 1983. Vincent is the Director of International Campaigns at Reporters Without Borders, an organization that defends and promotes freedom of the press throughout the world. She is a former diplomat who has organized several high-profile international human rights campaigns. Much of Vincent's previous work has focused on Azerbaijan. She was expelled from Azerbaijan for her human rights work, but continued championing reform in the country from abroad. In addition to her work at Reporters Without Borders, Vincent is also on the committee for the Magnitsky Human Rights Awards.

South Africa voted to close Israel’s embassy and cut diplomatic ties. 👍

This is great!

See that the world is changing. The voices of all will be heard.

2023 World Press Freedom Index and the country with the closest score outside Europe.

Highest: 🇳🇴Norway 95.2 • Lowest: 🇹🇷Turkey 34

by Maps_interlude

If a Qassam soldier said these words, the world would revolt. MURDERER 🇮🇱ISRAELI SOLDIER BRAWS ON KILLING BABIES AND CHILDREN😡 "We are looking for a baby, but there are no babies left. I killed a 12-year-old girl, but we are looking for a baby."

how long yall letting this kabuki theatre you call freedom & democracy go on?

“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring without fear or favour. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.”

-Nelson Mandela

Hrant Dink was murdered 17 years ago today.

His killer still walks free as if the murder never happened.

Fucking bullshit.

Feel free to reblog.

Turkey is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Both foreign and domestic journalists are regularly imprisoned or killed.

And this is encouraged by the Turkish political establishment and their cronies.

Comment: An update on the issues in a context where the US and Australia are now officially in diplomatic conflict over this matter.

Prem Thakkur

14 August 2023

The United States is considering a plea deal that would allow WikiLeaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange to return to Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.

U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy told the Morning Herald that there could be a “resolution” to Assange’s now-four-year detention in Britain. Assange, an Australian citizen, has been held in a London prison since 2019 while combating U.S. extradition efforts. He faces 18 criminal charges in the U.S., 17 of which allege violations of the Espionage Act.

Kennedy’s comments come weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rebuffed Australia’s calls to end the prosecution against Assange. After a July meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane, Blinken said the whistleblower was “charged with very serious criminal conduct” for his role in publishing classified American government materials. The files Assange shared in 2010 included footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed 18 civilians — including journalists — and hundreds of thousands of field reports from the Iraq War.

“There is a way to resolve it,” Kennedy said on Assange’s detention, adding that a plea deal would be “up to the Justice Department.” The Department of Justice declined to comment. The State Department did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.

“The administration appears to be searching for an off-ramp ahead of [the Australian prime minister’s] first state visit to DC in October,” Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, told The Intercept. “If one isn’t found we could see a repeat of a very public rebuff delivered by Tony Blinken to the Australian Foreign Minister two weeks ago in Brisbane.”

Dan Rothwell, an international law expert at Australian National University, told the Morning Herald that he believes a likely outcome would involve American authorities downgrading the charges against Assange in exchange for a guilty plea, while taking into account the four years he has already spent in prison.

In May, Kennedy met with a cross-party delegation of parliamentary supporters of Assange. “The U.S. and Australia have a very important and close relationship, and it’s time to demonstrate that,” Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said at the time.

Assange’s case has raised major press freedom concerns around the globe.“The United States is applying extra-territorial reach by charging Assange, who is not a US citizen and did not commit alleged crimes in the US, under its Espionage Act,” a group of former Australian attorneys general wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week. “We believe that this sets a very dangerous precedent and has the potential to put at risk anyone, anywhere in the world, who publishes information that the US unilaterally deems to be classified for security reasons.”

As part of WikiLeaks’ release of documents, Assange coordinated with outlets like Spain’s El País, France’s Le Monde, the U.K.’s The Guardian, and the New York Times to release classified cables revealing the inner-workings of bargaining, diplomacy, and threat-making around the world. 

Assange has faced legal pressure since his mass documents leak in 2010; he sought asylum in Ecuador in 2012 and lost it before being imprisoned in London. In June, the Morning Herald reported that the FBI was seeking new information about Assange, disturbing the sense of optimism in Australia that had come from Kennedy’s meeting with lawmakers.

The ambassador’s latest comments have renewed hope from Assange’s family for a solution to the 13-year-long limbo he has faced.

“This is a sign that they don’t want this playing out in American courts, particularly during an election cycle,” Shipton told Sky News on Monday, “so the U.S. administration is really looking for an off-ramp here for what is an extremely, extremely controversial press freedom prosecution.”