Media Archives - Page 6 of 15

Polish Authorities Intimidate Journalists at Belarus Border

Posted on November 17, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

People in Polish Army uniform on Tuesday attacked three photojournalists working in Wiejka, a village near Michalowo, in the Podlaskie region, next to the border with Belarus, a statement put out on Wednesday by the Polish Press Club said.

The three journalists are named as Maciej Nabrdalik, a World Press Photo winner whose photos have appeared in The New York Times, Maciej Moskwa, from the documentary collective Testigo, and Martin Divisek, from the European Pressphoto Agency.

The three said the incident happened after they documented the presence of Polish armed forces around Wiejka – and that they had informed the army before taking any photos. The incident took place outside the state of the emergency zone, which blocks access of journalists to a three-kilometre-wide stretch of land along the border with Belarus.

According to the three, after they had finished their job and got back in the car to leave, people in Polish Army uniform – they never identified themselves, despite requests – blocked their path and dragged them out of the car, using obscenities.

The journalists said they were handcuffed and detained for an hour until the police came. In the meanwhile, the men in army uniforms searched the car as well as the memory cards of the camera, despite the journalists pointing out that this would breach the right to journalistic professional secrecy.

Photos posted by the Polish Press Club clearly show bruises on the wrists of the journalists, where the handcuffs would have been placed.

The incident occurred after, at the weekend, Polish police and border guards in the border area intimidated BIRN’s own team on the ground, made up of this reporter and Dutch-American photojournalist Jaap Arriens.

Early on November 14, a mixed team of both police and border guards (based on their uniforms) pulled over the car the BIRN journalists were travelling in near a checkpoint at Czeremcha, just outside the emergency zone. The uniformed officers demanded the International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers, IMEI, of the two journalists’ phones. The IMEI is a unique identifier for a mobile phone that enables it to be tracked.

When the journalists asked about the legal basis of this demand, the uniformed officers said the journalists were suspected of having stolen the phones. They added that the emergency zone had also expanded to where the journalists were at that moment, which was false: the journalists’ car was outside the emergency zone, before the checkpoint at Czeremcha. The implication was that they could be detained for up to 48 hours and face criminal proceedings initiated for illegally crossing into the zone.

“They lied to us and treated us as criminals, despite us clearly identifying ourselves as journalists,” Jaap Arriens said.

“They intimidated us in order to get the IMEI numbers. We felt that if we refused, we could be detained for up to 48 hours. This kind of behaviour means your rights are thrown right outside the window,” he added.

BIRN has heard of cases of other journalists being intimidated using similar techniques. We will return to the topic in the future.

Women in Balkan Media ‘Must Speak Out’ Against Sexual Harassment

Posted on October 28, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Despite that the majority of journalists in the Western Balkans are women, they still face gender-based discrimination and abuse and often do not feel secure in speaking out due to fears of losing their jobs or reputation and not receiving the necessary support, an online panel discussion organised by BIRN was told on Thursday.

Media organisations in the Balkans should have proper codes and procedures to follow in cases of sexual harassment or other kinds of gender-based discrimination, said BIRN’s project coordinator Sofija Todorovic, who moderated the debate entitled ‘#MeToo in Journalism: When Will Balkan Journalists Speak Up?’

This would “enable that every journalist at the media outlet where she works to be aware of the steps she can follow”, said Todorovic.

Dafina Halili, contributing editor at online magazine Kosovo 2.0, spoke of the difficulty of speaking out in a small country such as Kosovo.

“Women journalists are often harassed in the newsroom in front of journalists who then speak in public and on live TV about sexual harassment [as phenomenon] but do not intervene in cases when their colleagues are being harassed [while they are present,” she said.

Halili said that Kosovo has yet to witness a #MeToo movement, as no public figures have yet spoken out about the harassment they have suffered. But she said that it is positive that young people in Kosovo are organising protests and other events for women rights.

Jelena Jovanovic, a journalist at Montenegrin news outlet Vijesti, said that a patriarchal mindset often stops women from speaking out, particularly in rural areas where even domestic violence is kept hidden.

Jovanovic explains the situation is not much different for women journalists who often are faced with gossip that they achieved where they are by sleeping their way up.

“I took the approach saying ‘yes I did it’ to shut people up and at one point it worked but it did not stop, the gossip moved to other colleagues” Jovanovic explains.

Natalija Miletic, a journalist and fixer who works between Serbia and Germany, explained that despite the #MeToo movement, the situation remains difficult.

She said that in Serbia, despite the fact that some media organisations are overwhelmingly staffed by women, “there is no woman editor-in-chief in the mainstream media”.

Zhaklin Lekatari, a journalist, sex blogger and human rights activist in Albania, said that a #MeToo movement does not exist in Albania either, and that there are two main issues women in the country face when considering speaking out about their experiences of abuse and sexual harassment – fear and lack of trust.

“We don’t have a gap in the gender representation of editors-in-chief in Albania, but the [media companies’] policies are not feminist,” Lekatari said.

The panellists agreed that the problem will not be solved by having more female editors-in-chief, but by improving management practices and editorial policies.

Lekatari advised young female journalists to seek support and solidarity – “find support, identify, link groups together and organise them”.

Urging women journalists to come forward and speak to BIRN about their stories, even anonymously, Todorevic said: “The right time to speak up is whenever the women [who have been victims of abuse or sexual harassment] are ready to speak up and if they don’t speak sooner it is everybody’s fault.”

Reaffirming Freedom of Information in the Western Balkans after COVID-19

Posted on October 26, 2021January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Montenegro adopted national legislation on the right of access to information while Albania improved the way citizens can track their FOI requests. Over numerous action plans, North Macedonia sought to improve FOI legislation, implementation and raise awareness. Serbia improved the amount and quality of information available on government websites, although attempts to reform the FOI law have hit obstacles in recent years. Croatian civil society noted that legal amendments, guidelines and trainings helped to increase the responsiveness of FOI officers while publishing a database on public authorities that are subject to FOI legislation was useful.

Despite having comparatively strong FOI laws according to the RTI Rating, these countries still face challenges in implementing the right of access to information to its fullest extent. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the challenges in implementing these laws.

Recently, BIRN found that access to information in the region worsened during the pandemic. For example, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia saw notable delays in response times to requests. Serbia even used its state of emergency to extend the time period for responding to access to information requests.

While BIRN journalists submitted 359 FOI requests in 2020, authorities in the region approved only 173 (48%) of them, and partially approved 15 requests with only technical information. Authorities also said they would answer more queries once the state of emergency was lifted. Despite the state of emergency restrictions, Serbian and North Macedonian institutions were most likely to provide full answers to their requests (53% and 47% of requests received full answers respectively) but no requests from BIRN journalists in Albania or Bosnia and Herzegovina received full answers. Administrative silence remains a major issue for the region. Even after repeated follow-ups from journalists, 160 (45%) requests received no answers at all. In fact, 80% of the requests sent to authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not receive an answer.

Notable denials of information occured in North Macedonia such as where political parties did not disclose information about their election campaign costs. Serbian authorities used privacy exemptions to deny access to documents relating to cases against alleged and convicted war criminals. According to BIRN, the restrictive FOI law and the authorities’ reluctance to provide information means journalists in places like Montenegro often use their sources and other connections to get the documents they need.

Western Balkan countries could consider a number of actions to address these issues through their OGP action plans including:

Organizing comprehensive, ongoing and effective training on records management and implementing freedom of information laws.
Proactively publishing all their decisions, records, spending and ﬁnancial budgets free of charge. The data has to be available online, machine readable, and accessible for a broad audience.
Issuing sanctions such as financial fines for officials that reject requests, or who do not respond to requests within legal timeframes without proper justification.
Creating more opportunities for citizens to use published information, develop monitoring systems and provide feedback to citizens.
Where amendments to FOI laws in Western Balkan countries – such as Montenegro and Serbia – are proposed, they should ensure that the scope of publicly available information is made wider, that exceptions to access are narrowed, and that the process of making requests is made easier. They should not complicate access or legalise poor practice.

This year, OGP marks its tenth anniversary and OGP members have been encouraged to co-create ambitious commitments. As most Western Balkan countries will be co-creating their next OGP action plan, this year marks a unique opportunity to turn the needle for enhanced access to information. Whether it be working with civil society to strengthen legislative frameworks, or ensuring the effective implementation of progressive FOI legislation, the Western Balkans can reaffirm their commitment to the essential tools of open government.

Albania Journalist Union ‘Expected’ Public TV Director’s Arrest

Posted on October 12, 2021January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Albania’s Special Court on Monday confirmed the decision by the Special Prosecution Against Organized Crime and Corruption, SPAK, on Friday to arrest the former General Director of Albanian Radio National Television, RTSH, Thoma Gëllçi, for abuse of duty over a tender worth about 708,000 euros.

The head of Albania’s Union of Journalists, Aleksander Cipa, told BIRN that they had earlier denounced abuses and corruption with public funds at the RTSH. “We think that embezzlement and illegal use [of public funds] occurs with public media assets,” he told BIRN.

“In this context, the arrest of the former General Director of RTSH is a serious event. I do not have accurate and sufficient information about the concrete file that SPAK has on Gëllçi, [however] as our media have shared different optics of judging and serving information in the most unprofessional way,” he continued.

“What is worrying for us has to do with the deliberate obstruction and stagnant state of corruption in the mechanism and management of public media in Albania,” he added.

The suspect tender was conducted in 2018. A SPAK investigation started in February 2020 and lasted about 18 months before ending in October 2021 with an arrest warrant.

The SPAK announcement stated that as well as Gëllçi, three members of the Bid Evaluation Commission of the procurement, with the object of buying equipment for the RTSh Agro channel for up to 86 million euros, without VAT, had been arrested on Friday last week, October 9. RTSH Agro channel is dedicated to culture and agriculture.

Gëllçi was dismissed on May 21 this year after his term ended. He formerly worked for Zeri i Popullit, a newspaper connected to the ruling Socialist Party and has been head of information of governments formed by the SP.

He was mentioned in a report of the OSBE/ODHIR related to the local elections in 2019 in the context of impartiality.

“RTSH’s General Director, Thoma Gëllçi, is a former editor-in-chief of the SP newspaper Zëri i Popullit and served as the Head of the Department of Information in several SP governments. Furthermore, the RTSH remains partially dependent on state funding. Dependence on the state budget and politicization of RTSH management raise concerns about the impartiality of the public broadcaster,” this report said.

Rights Groups Urge Albania to Cancel ‘Media and Info Agency’

Posted on October 11, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Six organisations partnered under the Media Freedom Rapid Response group called on the government of Edi Rama in Albania to abandon plans to create a Media and Information Agency while urging the European Union to include the issue in future talks on membership.

ARTICLE 19, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, International Press Institute, IPI, OBC Transeuropa, OBCT, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU) said an already difficult situation for Albania journalists would likely deteriorate further and government influence on the flow of information would solidity if plans for the agency go forward.

“The undersigned partners of Media Freedom Rapid Response today express serious concern over a new Media and Information Agency (MIA) established by the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Albania and urge the ruling Socialist Party to immediately cancel the establishment to ensure it will not be used to further solidify control over the flow of public information,” the letter reads.

“We also urge the European Union to immediately engage with the Albanian government to raise these concerns as a matter of priority in future accession talks,” it adds.

Plans for the agency were announced on 20 September. According to it, the spokesperson of the government will “will be at the same level as that of a state minister” and will hire and fire spokespersons of all state institutions and will also produce “audiovisual or press information” to be distributed for free and also “observe media and mass communication tools, to take note of the perception and views of the public towards the activities of [government] institutions and the public administration”.

Albanian media dubbed the agency “a ministry of propaganda” and a “ministry of truth”, though the government claims it has borrowed the model from German and Italian governments, which, according to it, have similar structures.

“Our organisations share the concerns expressed by various leading editors-in-chief, civil society groups and media unions in Albania that rather than improve journalists’ access to public information, the establishment of the MIA may result in the exact opposite,” the letter by the rights organisations reads.

“Context is vital here,” it adds. “Journalists in Albania currently work in an extremely difficult climate for accessing information from government sources. The government communicates with journalists via WhatsApp groups instead of using official communication channels. Reporters working for independent media are regularly discriminated against when seeking information or comment from ministers. Journalists viewed as representing ‘opposition’ outlets are denied accreditation or barred from asking questions at press conferences,” it continues.

They also see the agency’s role of “observing mass communication means” as a problem that “sets alarm bells ringing”.

“Following major revelations about the collection of citizen’s data by political parties via state institutions, the notion of tax-payer money being used to fund the monitoring of the press and social media by a government agency sets alarm bells ringing,” the letter reads.

Following the outcry from local rights organisations and journalists, the government has not yet moved to establish the agency and has not appointed a director, although it is widely expected that PM Edi Rama’s current spokesperson, Endri Fuga, will hold the position.

Rama has a poor record in terms of building independent institutions. Last June, he defied explicit requests by the European Commission to not appoint Armela Krasniqi, a close collaborator and former party spokesperson, as chairman of the Audiovisual Media Authority, an agency that should be politically independent.

“In the longer term, this agency ultimately risks being a powerful tool for any government, current or future, to control the flow of public information to the media and to influence what citizens read, hear and watch. The role of journalists is to act as a filter between government and citizens. Limiting their ability to do so by constraining opportunities to question officials and side-lining critical journalists severely limits the ability of the press to do its job and hold power to account,” the letter reads.

Albania Govt’s Planned Information Agency Accused of ‘Propaganda’ Role

Posted on September 20, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Albanian government has come under criticism from the opposition and rights groups after it decided on Saturday to establish a new Agency for Media and Information that will centralise the government’s media messaging, sparking allegations that Prime Minister Edi Rama’s administration is seeking to evade media scrutiny.

The agency will be led by the government’s spokesperson, whose position will be “at the same level as that of a state minister”. It will control the hiring and firing of press officers in all central government institutions, including ministries.

It role will also be to “observe media and mass communication tools, to take note of the perception and views of the public towards the activities of [government] institutions and the public administration”, the government decision said.

“As part of the Agency, in any ministry of central government institution, structures will be created or employees will be appointed for information and media communication, appointed by the Agency to represent the respective institutions in their public and media communications, or to carry out any duty ordered by the director of the Agency,” it added.

Agron Gjekmarkaj, an opposition Democratic Party MP, called the move “an imitation of Goebbelsian tools”, a reference to Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

“This Agency for Information is another instrument of propaganda, control and blackmail,” Gjekmarkaj wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

Aleksander Cipa, head of Albanian Media Union, a rights NGO in Tirana, said the decision was a move that aim to “centralise public information”.

“Such practices create a serious problem regarding propaganda and pre-prepared information,” Cipa said.

The government claims the agency is based on “successful similar models in Italy and Germany”.

Socialist Party Prime Minister Rama has already been criticised by domestic and international rights organisations for closing doors to the media by not holding press conferences, creating pre-prepared ‘news’ reports and by livestreaming his political activities using his own crews of camera operatotrs.

Other institutions have moved in the same direction, by employing media crews and distributing ‘news’ reports to private television stations that are pre-prepared for broadcast, as well as publishing them on social media.

Kosovo Urged to Start Countering Russian Media Disinformation

Posted on September 7, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A report published on Tuesday by the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, KIPRED, about the potential for Russian media disinformation to undermine Kosovo’s statehood urges the authorities to address UN member states with an appropriate strategy to counter it.

The executive director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, Lulzim Peci, told a press conference that the authorities are doing nothing to counter what he called the “Russian diplomatic war against Kosovo”.

“The reactions of Kosovo’s institutions have come without a proper policy on how to act towards Russia and the same institutions have not built any narrative about the Russian state,” Peci said.

The report, entitled ‘Kosovo Observatory: Russian Diplomatic War and Media Disinformation’, analysed statements, press conferences, articles and other documents from Russia that were published from June 1 to August 15 this year.

Peci said the report calculated that “out of 500 news articles that directly or indirectly related to Kosovo, 96 or 19.2 per cent of them contained misinformation”.

According to the report, the largest number of articles containing misinformation were published by Sputnik Serbia (71 items), followed by TASS (nine), Russia Today (four), UNZ (four), Sputnik International (three), Russian Insider (two), The Duran (two) and Newsfront (one).

The report concludes that Russia is trying to undermine Kosovo’s statehood and Western engagement in Kosovo and the region, and to change the narratives about war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, thus undermining the foundations of international justice.

Russian media articles have also accused Kosovo of oppressing local Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church, and of disrespecting an agreement to establishing an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities.

The report warns that a critical moment has come at the end of a moratorium agreed in Washington for Kosovo not to actively seek membership of international organisations and for Serbia not to campaign against Kosovo’s recognition.

“This moment can be used by Russia to work together with Serbia to implement an aggressive campaign for the derecognition of Kosovo,” the report says.

Polish State of Emergency at Belarus Border Alarms Journalists

Posted on September 3, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

At the request of the government, Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday declared a state of emergency on the Belarus border for 30 days which limits the access of unauthorised people to a three-kilometre-wide stretch of land along the border in two eastern counties.

The unprecedented decision in Poland’s post-communist history, “was taken in connection to a particular threat to the security of citizens and public order, related to the current situation on the state border of Poland with Belarus,” the official statement from the President’s office says.

Since early August, over 3,000 attempts to cross the border with Poland were made by migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, according to Polish border guards.

Most experts and governments say the autocratic leader of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is deliberately fomenting a crisis in retaliation to the EU imposing sanctions on his regime for the rigged presidential election in 2020 and subsequent violent crackdown on critics and demonstrators.

The state of emergency means “a ban on staying in designated places, facilities and areas at specific times” and includes a ban on gatherings.

The provisions also might mean activists that have been present in the border areas offering food and first aid to migrants and documenting pushbacks by the Polish authorities could be denied access.

Two further provisions may limit the right of journalists to investigate the situation at the border. The decree includes “a prohibition of recording by technical means the appearance or other features of specific places, objects or areas”.

It further envisages “limiting access to public information on activities carried out in the area covered by the state of emergency”.

All the BIRN’s coverage of the border situation, for example, has been done from locations within three kilometres of the border with Belarus.

According to the Polish Prime Minister, around 700 migrants have now been apprehended and taken to refugee centres while others “have been prevented” from entering Poland.

Human rights lawyers and opposition parliamentarians, among others, say Poland has been conducting pushbacks throughout August, a claim supported by numerous migrant statements, including those interviewed by BIRN.

NGOs and lawyers on the ground had started documenting individual cases of pushbacks, which are illegal under international law.

The decree, which is already in force, can still be challenged by the Polish parliament.

Turkish Govt Increasing Internet, Social Media Censorship: Report

Posted on August 17, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A new report published by the Freedom of Expression Association in Turkey on Monday says that the Turkish government under Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increased its censorship over the years on internet and social media.

The report, entitled ‘Disabled Web 2020: Fahrenheit 5651, The Corrosive Effect of Censorship’, says that more than 467,000 websites have been banned in Turkey since 2006, with 58,809 website bans in 2020.

Since 2006, the Turkish authorities have also banned access to 150,000 URLs, 7,500 Twitter accounts, 12,000 YouTube videos, 8,000 Facebook posts and 6,800 Instagram posts, according to the report.

In 2020 alone, 15,832 news articles were ordered to be removed from media webpages, the majority of them critical of Erdogan’s government.

“The Turkish state’s complex internet censorship mechanism continues to be more active than ever before,” the report says.

The Freedom of Expression Association accuses the government of using measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to increase censorship.

The report says that 764 different state institutions – ministries, directorates and the presidency and its branches, as well as courts – have banned access to webpages for various reasons.

However, according to the data collected by the Freedom of Expression Association, a relatively small proportion of the websites and URLs have been banned by the courts – around 35,000 since 2006.

The report also highlights that a how a digital rights law adopted in 2020 has had a serious impact on social media.

According to the data that the Freedom of Expression Association obtained from the Interior Ministry, a total of 75,292 social media accounts were investigated in 2020 and legal action was taken against 32,000 of them.

The report also says that sanctions on the internet are “no longer limited to only access-blocking practices, there has been a significant increase in the number of news and content removed with the content removal sanction, and censorship has begun to be implemented more effectively”.

“The corrosive and destructive effect of censorship and control mechanisms will continue in the years to come,” the report concludes.

Twitter Labels Numerous Media Accounts in Serbia ‘State Affiliated’

Posted on August 16, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Twitter has started to label accounts belonging to various pro-government media in Serbia as state-affiliated media.

Among those it deems affiliated with Serbia’s government are the dailies Srpski Telegraf, Kurir, Informer, Politika, and three free-to-air channels – Happy, Prva TV and B92, RTV Pink’s online portal, as well as the news agency Tanjug.

The label appears on the profile page of the Twitter account and on the Tweets sent by and shared from these accounts. Labels contain information about the country the account is affiliated with and whether it is operated by a government representative or is a state-affiliated media entity.

These labels include a small icon of a flag to signal the account’s status as a government account and a podium for state-affiliated media. In the case of state-affiliated media entities, Twitter will not recommend or amplify accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people.

As noted in Twitter’s rules and regulations, Twitter defines state-affiliated media as “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

None of the media affected has yet reacted publicly to the new rule.

Although the media in question are widely perceived as pro-government due to their highly positive reporting on the government and sharp criticism of the opposition, it is not clear what steps Twitter took to determine whether they fit the criteria. BIRN has asked Twitter about the methodology it used but has not received a reply by the time of publication.

The “Serbia state-affiliated media” label is visible on the pro-government media Twitter page. Photo: Screenshot/Twitter.com

Twitter announced it will start labelling state-affiliated accounts in August 2020, and a number of accounts linked to governments across the world have been labelled since then. However, Serbia is the first country in the Balkan region to be added to this list.

Serbia’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, RTS, and Radio Television of Vojvodina, RTV, are among those whose accounts are also labelled state-affiliated.

Twitter said it draws a distinction between state-affiliated broadcasters and those working more independently like the BBC.

“State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy,” it said.

Currently, besides Serbia, labels appear on relevant Twitter accounts from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, Twitter deleted 8,558 accounts engaged in “inauthentic coordinated activity” – some 43 million tweets criticising the Serbian opposition, independent media and individuals critical of president Aleksandar Vucic and his Progressive Party rule.

BIRN analysis showed that before it was removed, a network of accounts in the service of Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party found its way into the pages of pro-government tabloids, such as Informer and Kurir, disguised as the “voice of the people”.

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