June 2022 - BIRD

Turkish Journalists Urge Govt to Drop Disinformation Law

Posted on June 21, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Thousands of protesters from journalists’ unions and NGOs gathered in Istanbul and other cities across the country on Tuesday to call on the government to drop the disinformation law which is due to be passed by the Turkish parliament soon.

“It is called the ‘Press Law’, but it has been prepared without being asked for by professional media organisations. There is no article in it to protect journalists or protect the news,” the journalists’ organisations including the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, the Turkish Journalists’ Association and the Press Council said in a statement.

“On the contrary, prison sentences, closures, censorship and heavy controls over internet media are coming,” the statement added.

The legislation was presented to Turkey’s parliament on May 27, aiming to increase government control over the internet, media and social media.

“We are describing this law as the heaviest censorship law in the history of Turkey which will completely destroy the freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” the media organisations said.

“A journalist who does not disclose his news source under the name of ‘fighting disinformation’ will be given a prison sentence. Prosecutors and judges will decide which news is ‘false’ and which news is ‘true’ in line with the vague regulation,” they warned.

The law was prepared by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP and its far-right partner, the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP.

The law, which is expected to pass soon, for the first time defines the crime of “spreading misinformation on purpose”.

It envisages punishment for anyone who “publicly disseminates false information regarding internal and external security, public order and the general welfare of the country, in a way that breaches the public peace, simply for the purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the population”.

According to the proposed law, people who spread misinformation can be jailed for one to three years. If a court decides that a person spread misinformation as part of an illegal organisation, the jail sentence will be increased by 50 per cent.

Journalists can also be charged under the new law if they use anonymous sources to hide the identity of a person who is spreading misinformation.

Albanian Journalists Gagged Over Organised Crime Case Leaks

Posted on June 16, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Newsrooms in Albania received a gagging order on Thursday to stop publishing information about a major criminal case involving several organised crime groups, after the testimonies of two collaborators of justice that helped prosecutors issue some 32 arrest orders last month were leaked.

Prosecutors Doloreza Musabelliu, Altin Dumani and Behar Dibra underlined “the importance of the statements given by those two citizens and the fact that we are in the preliminary intensive investigation phase, and many investigative acts are being carried out,” as the reason for the gagging order.

“The statements of these citizens have proven value and are extremely important for the investigation. Due to this importance, and the need to have these statements covered by secrecy, it is necessary to order the protection of secrecy up to the conclusion of the preliminary investigations,” the prosecutors said.

Over the last few weeks, Albanian media have published dozens of news items about the statements of the two collaborators concerning several criminals suspected of murders and other crimes.

Albania’s penal code foresees jail sentences of up to three years for the publication of secret information by third parties, such as journalists. It also foresees jail sentences of up to six years when such secret information relates to protected witnesses.

This is not the first time that prosecutors in Albania issued gagging orders to the media. In 2019, after leaks exposed electoral crime and corruption, prosecutors issued a similar order.

But this was ignored by the media and was largely seen as an attempt to hide official failures to investigate political crimes.

Albania’s authorities organized a mass operation against organized crime on 19 May, following the statements of the collaborators. However, the most notorious bosses of the underworld weren’t found or seized, and remain on the run.

Bulgarian TV Crew Attacked in Serbia Working on Pollution Story

Posted on June 16, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A TV crew of the “Traces Remain” investigative show of Bulgarian National Television, BNT, were attacked on Tuesday, June 14, on a road in front of the Podvirovi mine near Bosilegrad in southeast Serbia, Safejournalists organization reported on Wednesday.

The journalists came to Serbia to do a story about environmental pollution in the border area in the municipality of Bosilegrad.

Safejournalists said in a press release that when the journalists and activists approached the mine, about 50 meters from the entrance a minibus blocked their way, so they had to continue on foot.

“At that moment, six or seven people, including the director of the mine, attacked the crew, first by throwing rocks at them and then by punching,” it said.

Miodrag Vukajlovic, the mine director from Bosil metal company, was identified as one of the attackers, along with his chief of security, BNT said.

BNT reported that the Consul General of Bulgaria in Nis, Dimitar Canev, came to the site and, with his help, a report was submitted to the police in Bosilegrad.

The TV crew included journalist Bogdana Lazarova, cameramen Dimitar Slavov and Nikolai Andreev and technician Robert Vecov. Green activists from Sofia Dimitar Kumanov and Valentin Janev, Branko Mitov and Dimitar Dimitrov from Bosilegrad were also present.

Internet Freedoms in Turkey Continue to Deteriorate: Report

Posted on June 10, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA said in a report published on Friday that internet freedoms continued to decline in 2021 due to increasing censorship and surveillance.

The Free Web Turkey 2021 Annual Report funded by the Netherlands shows that at least 11,050 URLs were blocked in Turkey in 2021.

“While 1,593 of the blocked URLs contained news articles, a total of 49 news websites were banned during the monitoring period, some even more than once,” the report said.

“The project’s findings bring to light that 53 per cent of blocked news articles pertain to information directly related to Turkish President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his family, and to mayors or officials of the AKP,” the report added.

According to Mumtaz Murat Kok, project and communications coordinator at the MLSA, the situation is not getting any better in 2022.

“The results of this report, which covers a period of only one year and reveals the dimensions of digital censorship in Turkey, becomes much more frightening when considered together with the ‘disinformation bill’ submitted to parliament very recently,” Kok told BIRN.

The new disinformation bill currently waiting to be considered by parliament makes ‘disinformation’ a crime that can lead to a jail term and paves the way for an even more repressive and coercive media environment, he said.

“As the report reveals, there is the intent to strengthen censorship practices that currently aim to protect a certain group and further violate the public’s right to receive information. In a country where there is almost absolute uniformity in media ownership, social media – on which many journalists rely on to report and many citizens rely on for news – is also being stifled,” Kok said.

The report also recommends that awareness of censorship and surveillance should be increased and social media platforms should bear the responsibility of being ‘media’.

According to a report published by Google covering data from the first six months of 2021, Turkey requested the removal of a total of 4,776 items. The majority of the requests were made on the grounds of ‘defamation’.

Google removed 1,686 of these items for legal reasons and 219 for company policy reasons.

“Considering the censorship practices that the government aims to increase, and that social media companies have so far submitted to the demands of the government without resistance, I think the next report [by the MLSA for 2022] will not be a more pleasant report,” Kok said.

Montenegrin Journalist to Be Retried Again for Drug Trafficking

Posted on June 10, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Montenegrin Supreme Court said on Thursday that prominent investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic, who was convicted of drug trafficking in a case that has sparked criticism from the EU, should be retried for a second time.

“The decision has been made and at the beginning of next week, [the case] will be returned to the lower court,” the Supreme Court told daily newspaper Vijesti.

In the second-instance verdict in the case in October 2020, Montenegrin Higher Court found Martinovic guilty of mediation in drug trafficking and sentenced to a year in prison.

Martinovic said he will continue to try to prove his innocence.

“Unfortunately, in Montenegro, it is not up to the prosecutor to prove guilt, but up to journalists to prove their innocence. This retrial could be good for media freedom and I will continue to fight,” Martinovic told BIRN.

He was arrested in October 2015 alongside 17 others from Montenegro in a joint police operation conducted with Croatian police. He spent almost a year-and-a-half in custody before being released in January 2017 ahead of the trial.

He was convicted in the first-instance ruling in January 2019 of drug trafficking and membership of a criminal organisation but the Appeals Court overturned the verdict and ordered the first retrial.

The journalist always insisted he had made contacts with alleged drug traffickers only as part of his legitimate reporting work.

Martinovic made contacts with two of the 17 suspects arrested in 2015: Dusko Martinovic – no relation to the journalist – and Namik Selmanovic.

Dusko Martinovic, the main suspect in the case, was also a convicted member of a gang of jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers. Operating in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, they are believed to have stolen hundreds of millions of euros’ worth of jewellery. Journalist Martinovic worked with Dusko Martinovic on a series of TV shows about the robbers produced by Vice media group.

He worked alongside Selmanovic when a French production company, CAPA Presse, hired them to contribute to research on a documentary about weapons smuggling.

Dusko Martinovic was sentenced to six years and three months in prison in January 2019. Selmanovic has turned state’s evidence.

The European Commission’s report last year about Montenegro’s progress towards membership warned that the conviction of the journalist raises concerns about reporters’ ability to perform their duties professionally and without fear of legal repercussions in the country.

EU Urged to Withdraw Child Abuse Law amid Privacy Concerns

Posted on June 9, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with 72 NGOs and professional bodies, on Wednesday sent an open letter to the European Commission demanding it withdraw proposed child abuse legislation and replace it with a provision that secures privacy, security and free expression for all.

The European Commission published on May 11 new draft legislation, called the CSA Regulation, that aims to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. Under the proposal, private message services (like WhatsApp and Signal), web-based emails, social media platforms, app stores, image hosting providers and others would be liable for obligations to scan, filter and/or block content – including encrypted messages.

“When you fundamentally undermine how the internet works, you make it less safe for everyone. If passed, this law will turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security, and free expression. This includes the very children that the legislation aims to protect,” the 73 civil society and professional groups wrote in the open letter to the EU Commission.

The CSA Regulation would cause severe harm in a wide variety of ways, the groups argued.

The new regulation would force private technology companies to put communications and materials that citizens share under surveillance, which would have a direct impact on respect for the privacy of every citizen, while also leading to a restriction of freedom of expression in digital communications, these groups argued.

“The provisions of the proposed legislation for the restriction and suppression of child exploitation material on the internet, while dealing with such an important issue, fail to safeguard the protection of all of us in the digital space and put the privacy of our communications in immediate danger,” Homo Digitalis, a Greek digital rights NGO that co-signed the open letter, told BIRN.

Journalists and human rights activists would see their communications monitored under the new law, which the EFJ argues “could jeopardise the fundamental protection of journalistic sources.”

“This will put in immediate danger not only the continuation of their important work, but even their personal safety, in cases of authoritarian regimes. We are already seeing important facts coming to light that show that journalists are being monitored illegally, even in Greece. Imagine the direct impact that the imposition of this legislation will have on the entire journalistic field, on human rights lawyers, etc. It will give the tools to authoritarian governments to put – legally now – any control over the internet,” said Homo Digitalis.

In Greece, in November last year, the Greek journalist and BIRN contributor Stavros Malihoudis, as well as human rights activists found themselves the targets of surveillance by the country’s National Intelligence Service. Recently, the Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis, a financial editor for CNN Greece and a regular contributor to local and international outlets including the Financial Times and CNBC, found that his mobile phone had been surveilled by Predator spyware.

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