Folks love calling Israel a liberal democracy, but here they are claiming news is a 'threat to national security'. When informing people of what you say and do is a threat, you're doing something wrong. They did this two days after #WorldPressFreedomDay.
On #WorldPressFreedomDay 2024, the 🇺🇸 has dropped to 55th on RSF’a index. https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states
📰📉”After a sharp increase in 2020, #PressFreedom violations have fallen significantly in the United States, but major structural barriers to press freedom persist in this country, once considered a model for freedom of expression.”
New photo-shoot on World Press Freedom Day ... National Press Club president Emily Wilkins talks with advocates for journalists held hostage: Austin Tice, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva.
Here, Wilkins talks with Stephen Capus, president of RFE/RL, employer of Alsu Kurmasheva.
So in news that will come as no surprise to any Australian journalists, Australia has dropped 12 places on the World Press Freedom Index to 39th place, because, “Press freedom is not constitutionally guaranteed in this island-continent of 26 million people, but a hyperconcentration of the media combined with growing pressure from the authorities endanger public interest journalism.” https://rsf.org/en/index#journalism#WorldPressFreedomDay
'De intimidatie heeft gewerkt. Voetbalmedia bakken meer dan ooit zoete broodjes met machtsmensen als Wouter Vandenhaute van Anderlecht in plaats van kritisch over hen te berichten.'
Na het gewonnen proces tegen voetbalclub #Anderlecht en voor de #DagVanDePersvrijheid sprak Apache met Humo-journalist Jan Hauspie.
On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we stand together to defend the fundamental right to press freedom and media independence – and to honour those who have sacrificed their lives to bring us the truth.
But we don't just pay lip service to this ideal. With the European Media Freedom Act, the #DSA and the fight against SLAPPs, we're committed to protecting media professionals.
Let's promote a society where the free flow of information is valued and defended.
Worrisome press freedoms issues in Canada. #oil and #gas industry, the Alberta government. Below is from today's newsletter from @thenarwhal
May 3, 2023. United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith recently told #CTV News she believes everyone’s rights under the Canadian Constitution need to be protected.
“They are dearly important to me and all Albertans,” Smith told the news outlet in a statement. “I am impressed with any political leader that stood up for the core Charter rights of freedom of speech, expression, religion, assembly and association these last several years. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.”
But my recent experience dealing with the #Alberta#government tells a different story — an experience that points to glaring shortfalls in free speech in Canada as we mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
In March, I started filing a series of requests for records from four different Alberta ministries. Thanks to reporting by my colleagues Carl Meyer and Drew Anderson in December, I knew officials had been meeting in secretive committees with oil and gas lobbyists to cook up new government policies and decisions.
These are decisions affecting public health, public safety, the environment and the economy. They have larger national and international implications, but are immediately important in Alberta, where voters are about to head to the polls for a general election, with only a few pieces of the full picture.
I used a provincial transparency law — the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act — to request the records. I’ve been using laws such as this one for nearly two decades as an important tool for my reporting.
But I wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
In recent weeks, the four ministries systematically refused to accept 26 separate requests for meeting records with lobbyists over the past two years.
As my requests came in, internal correspondence shows how officials from a central Alberta office sprung into action. But instead of figuring out how to release information, they actually organized a meeting to discuss how to refuse my requests for records.
This effort to stifle my reporting is just the latest example of how journalists in Canada are increasingly facing obstacles to doing their jobs.
As some of you know, The Narwhal has asked the courts to review whether the RCMP and the federal government infringed on press freedom in November 2021, when officers arrested photojournalist Amber Bracken and kept her in jail for several days.
The Narwhal’s award-winning staff are also among those struggling to cope with rising hostility and online harassment, particularly of women journalists. Our Ontario bureau chief, Denise Balkissoon, has also documented how a troubling lack of transparency in her province about changes to protected areas and the Greenbelt region is “a violation of democracy that will affect Ontarians for generations to come.”
The first part of Canada’s Constitution — the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — guarantees “#freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”
To me, this means we must all be empowered with the information that allows us to exercise those #rights and #freedoms.
In healthy #democracies, this would mean elected representatives introduce and support laws that ensure information about their government is also free. And so freedom of information laws become an extension of free speech — one that applies to all members of the public, regardless of their identity.
At The Narwhal, we take these rights seriously. We consider it part of our responsibility as journalists to ensure you are empowered and informed about matters that could affect your health and safety, as well as the environment and economy.
We aren’t intimidated by those who are opposed to free speech and a free #press — and we haven’t played our last card in this battle to shine a light on secrecy.
Thanks for reading and supporting The #Narwhal as we fight for press freedom.
On this #WorldPressFreedomDay I'd like to give a shoutout to all the news outlets and journalists who made the sensible decision to help further the fediverse and help make the internet more open and free.
On this World Press Freedom Day, let's remember the importance of protecting freedom of expression and thought worldwide.
This year the UNESCO encourages everyone to publish that "Everything is alright."
Because if everything is alright in the news, then something is wrong with journalism. And when journalism is compromised, we cannot protect human rights.
Sverige 🇸🇪 does not deserve such a high ranking because simply stating objective facts can be considered “gross defamation” punishable with imprisonment and fines.
Representing National Writers Union #NWU and International Federation of Journalists at #WorldPressFreedomDay#wpfd2023 in UN General Assembly chamber in NYC today. Pleased to have gotten a chance to raise cases of journalists #Mumia Abu-Jamal and Julian #Assange criminalized by the US government. Sustained applause from the floor for my question.