Tag: media unions

Turkish Journalists Targeted by Prosecutions, Fines, Jail Terms: Report

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

A report published on Monday by Turkish independent media website Bianet said that in 2021, the Turkish government mobilised supposedly self-regulating and impartial institutions to “bring journalists and media outlets that are critical, investigative and inquiring to their knees”.

The BIA Media Monitor 2021 Report said that 35 journalists in Turkey were sentenced to a total of 92 years in prison in 2021.

Charges included “insulting the President”, “membership of an [illegal or terrorist] organisation”, “obtaining and disclosing confidential documents” or “espionage” under the Turkish Penal Code, or “propagandising for a terrorist organisation” under the country’s Anti-Terror Law.

Eight journalists in 2021, and 70 journalists in past five years, have been convicted of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The report noted that Turkey has been the “world’s worst jailer of journalists” for years, and the government relied even more strongly on “judicial control” of the media in 2021.

State institutions for monitoring and regulating the media continued yo target independent journalists and media houses “in a mediascape where 90 per cent of national media outlets are controlled by the government”, the report said.

It noted that newspapers including Evrensel, Sözcü, Cumhuriyet, Korkusuz, BirGun, Karar, Milli Gazete, Yenicag and Yeni Asya were barred from carrying advertisements for public institutions in 2021, depriving them of revenue.

It also said that the Radio and Television Supreme Council, RTUK imposed fines on media outlets that aired critical or inquiring broadcasts such as Fox TV, Halk TV, Tele1 and KRT. In total, broadcasters were fined 31,630,000 Turkish lira – more than two million euros – in 2021.

According to the report, 56 journalists were physically attacked and 41 journalists were detained by police, mostly during their coverage of public events such as protests.

Government censorship, particularly of online media, also continued in 2021.

A total of 975 online news articles were censored in 2021, and 5,976 articles have been censored in the past five years, according to the data collected for the report.

Thirty-six journalists won cases against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights, receiving more than 114,000 euros in compensation in 2021.

Turkey ranked 153th out of 180 countries in 2021 in the latest press freedom index issued watchdog organisation Reporters Without Borders.

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

Posted on 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.

Croatian Journalists Union Deplores ‘Intimidating’ Rise in Lawsuits

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

At least 924 lawsuits against the media and journalists are active in Croatia, in which plaintiffs are demanding almost 78.5 million kunas in total, or some 10 million euros, which marks an increase in the number of lawsuits compared to last year, when the number was 905, the latest annual survey done by the Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND, reveals.

Hrvoje Zovko, HND president, said on Friday that such numbers “show that the judicial persecution of the media and journalists in Croatia is still ongoing and that there is no end in sight”.

He added “It is important to note that the actual number [of lawsuits] is higher because we received this data from only 23 media. We want to clearly warn the domestic and international public that lawsuits are the most common means of intimidating journalists and the media to give up serious investigative stories.”

He said that what was also particularly worrying is that top state officials, “local sheriffs”, and even judges are filing lawsuits.

HND reported that of the total number of 924 lawsuits, 892 are civil lawsuits for alleged violations of honour and reputation, conducted against publishers, editors and journalists for publishing texts and articles. The other 32 are criminal lawsuits.

The Hanza media group, to which the popular daily Jutarnji list belongs, reported 479 active court proceedings to the HND. Right behind is the Styria group, which publishes Vecernji list, with 203 lawsuits.

“Many of these proceedings involve SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation lawsuits, aimed at censoring, intimidating and silencing critics by burdening them with court proceedings – a serious and dangerous mechanism that threatens media freedom,” HND said in a press release.

This is the third time that HND has carried out such research. Concerned about the number of lawsuits against the media, it asks local media outlets to inform them of the situation in their newsrooms.

According to the first HND’s poll, in February 2019, which drew responses from 19 outlets, there were 1,163 active court cases in Croatia. Warning about the dangers of this practice, in March that year reporters and media outlets staged a protest in Zagreb.

Last year’s data showed 905 such cases.

As BIRN reported, many governments in the region, in trying to control the pandemic narrative, adopted draconian tools, muzzling media, arresting critics and bombarding social media giants with requests to take down posts and shut down accounts.

In its November 2020 COVID and Free Speech report, the Council of Europe rights body cautioned that restrictions introduced during the pandemic could give rise to an increase in civil lawsuits, particularly defamation cases.

New Croatian Copyright Law ‘Reduces Journalists’ Rights’: Unions

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

After new legislation on copyright and related rights issues passed first its reading in the Croatian parliament, journalists’ associations are warning that it will not adequately protect the rights of journalists and that it gives greater rights to publishers.

Valentina Wiesner, president of the Society for the Protection of Journalists’ Copyright, DZNAP, said that the problematic part of the law concerns the relationship between authors of copyrighted work and employers.

She explained that under the proposed new law, if copyrighted work is created while the author is employed by a company, copyright will be transferred in full to the company, and will remain with the company after the author ceases working for it.

“This is really not a practice that exists anywhere in European law,” Wiesner told BIRN.

Last week, the Croatian Journalists’ Union, the Croatian Journalists’ Association and DZNAP sent an open letter to the government, parliament and Culture and Media Ministry with their own proposals for amending copyright legislation.

The law currently in force says that five years after the date of completion of work created while the author was working for a company, the copyright belongs to the author.

Under the proposed new law, as it has been interpreted by journalists’ organisations, the employer retains the copyright forever.

The journalists’ organisations want the employer only to have the option to assign the right to use an author’s work while an employment contract in force. After the termination of the contract, the employer and the author should make a new contract which will determine the amount of compensation for each future use of copyrighted works, the journalists’ organisations argue.

Wiesner also said that it is a problem is that copyrighted work done by journalists is not specifically listed as a category in the proposed legislation.

In June 2019, the EU adopted Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive – which says it provides “a high level of protection for rights holders” – giving member states two years to enact new national laws reflecting its provisions. That is why many European countries, including Croatia, have to change their current legislation.

The European Federation of Journalists last month warned its members to closely monitor the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive in order to avoid the “Croatian scenario” and the possible denial of income to journalists through the introduction of new legislation.

Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek told parliament in February while presenting the law that it would ensure that journalists and publishers are paid for the content they produced.

Maja Sever, the president of the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists told BIRN that there is room for changing the proposed law and that her union is trying to work with the ministry.

“It is clear to us that the conditions in which we all work have changed… but our job is to deal with the protection of the copyrights of individuals,” Sever said.

Turkish Government is Tightening Media Censorship, Report Says

Posted on by Ivana Jeremic

A new report, “Media Monitoring Report”, published by the Journalists’ Association of Turkey on November 12, says censorship of the media has increased and that online media platforms are becoming more targeted.

The report said that 83 journalists are currently being held in prisons and that 245 journalists are being tried by the courts.

It said censorship has increased rapidly, especially of online media platforms, since parliament adopted a new law on digital rights in July last year, and added that pressures and penalties on the media had intensified in the last few months.

“Media content will be easily removed under the new law, which became effective from October 1,” the report said.

It added that “AKP and MHP representatives who they have the majority on the Supreme Board of Radio and Television, RTUK, use the existing regulations as an arbitrary punishment tool [on independent media].”

[The Justice and Development Party, AKP, and the MHP, the Nationalist Movement Party, form the ruling coalition in Turkey.]

According to the report, the RTUK, the state agency for monitoring, regulating and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts, issued 90 penalties on independent media, including stopping broadcasting and administrative fines, between July and September this year alone.

“Digital media platforms are starting to be reached [by the state] as much as the mainstream media. As a matter of fact, it was seen that a single journalist’s column is shared on social media platforms more than a mainstream newspaper’s total circulation in a three-month period,” the report wrote.

The report underlined that workers on online media institutions face many other difficulties.

“Internet journalists are classified in the office workers sector, not in the journalism sector. In other words, they are not recognised as journalists by the government,” the report noted, adding that because of this, journalists on online media are not entitled to official press cards.

“As a result, internet journalist cannot follow the news at state institutions or face the risk of arrest when they follow street protests,” it warned.

It also observed that many journalists face financial hardship as a result of the pandemic while the level of union membership among Turkish journalist is still very low, at only 7.88 per cent.

“Following the end of government’s ban on firing employees during the pandemic, it is presumed that the number of the unemployed journalists will increase,” the report said and added that many journalists are forced to take unpaid leave.

North Macedonia Accused of Dodging Media Scrutiny in Crisis

Posted on by BIRD

After drawing flak from journalistic and media associations for employing an unsuitable register of online media to select which outlets should get permits to work during curfews and ask questions at press conferences, the Information Society Ministry says it had rectified any omissions.

This ministry, which is in charge of issuing these online permits, says media outlets are now being checked directly through the country’s central registry of firms, not through a register of online media created for a different purpose by the country’s oldest and biggest media union.

Amid complaints from the Association of Journalists of Macedonia, ZNM, that the ministry had more or less hijacked its register and misused its purpose, the ministry told BIRN that its only intention had been to prevent the spread of “fake news” in the health crisis.

However, some pro-opposition online media outlets still accuse the authorities of discrimination and “silent” censorship, saying they are put in an unequal position compared to others at virtual press conferences.

Use of media register drew flak

The dispute started in late March, when the ministry issued a statement saying that only those outlets listed on the ZNM’s register of professional online media, Promedia, would be eligible to apply for permits to work during the daily curfews.

The same rule applied to outlets wanting to ask questions at government press conferences, which were already being held without the physical presence of journalists, who were only able to ask direct questions through a video conference call, or submit them online to the government press service and wait for them to be read out by the spokesperson and answered by ministers.

The ZNM and the Council of Ethics in Media, SEMM, a self-regulatory journalistic body, accused the government of using the register to select favoured online media.

The ZNM’s executive director, Dragan Sekulovski, told BIRN that the purpose of Promedia had been misused.  The register of some 120 online media outlets “was intended to promote self-regulation and professional standards, help citizens distinguish professional online outlets from propagandists and fake news sites and incentivise businesses to advertise in professional outlets”, Sekulovski explained to BIRN.

“The OSCE, the US embassy and the European Union praised us for our efforts to put some order in the online media sphere. It was not fair of the state to interfere [with it] and use the [health] crisis as an excuse,” he said.

He noted that the register was never intended to be an all-encompassing media source. Media participate in it voluntarily; those who wish to be listed on it first apply and are then their basic professional and ethical standards are checked.

While Promedia lists 120 listed outlets, the state’s central business registry lists more than 400 online media outlets.

The Promedia registry notably does not include many pro-opposition outlets that formerly defended the ex-government of Nikola Gruevski, which fell in mid-2017, and continue to promote the standpoints of his now opposition VMRO DPMNE party.

Most of these are now grouped in the country’s other journalistic union, the Macedonian Association of Journalists, MAN, which was formed during Gruevski’s time in office and has also accused the current Social Democrat-led government of using double standards.

Ministry says it had no ill intent

Journalist, members of North Macedonia’s government and guests in the government press room. Archive photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

After prolonged silence in the face of this criticism, the State Secretary at the Information Society Ministry, Adem Avziu, told BIRN on Friday that its intention had not been to discriminate against any particular online media but only to “prevent the spread of fake news and panic in this extraordinary situation.

“We all know we have many unregistered portals that are spreading all kinds of false info amid this crisis, so our intent was to prevent this,” Avziu said.

He claimed that any mistakes made earlier had now been fixed. “Control measures have now been significantly boosted. All media now apply and fill in forms on one address, at uslugi.gov.mk, and permits are issued after their data has been checked through the database of the central business registry,” he said.

Opposition outlets still cry foul

The enduring divisions between media in North Macedonia are a legacy of Gruevski’s authoritarian government’s decade-plus in office.

On one side are media that gravitate towards the ZNM, and are trying to restore professional standards and strengthen self-regulation in the media sphere. Some of them are now outlets that defend the Social Democrats-led government.

On the other side are Gruevski’s former megaphones, who received large sums in the form of government advertisements while he was in power and who formed the parallel journalists’ association MAN, which at the time was seeking to overshadow the ZNM. Most of these media have continued to support the VMRO DPMNE party in opposition and attack anyone that the party deems an enemy.

These media were asked to sign the journalistic code of ethics and join the media register created by the ZNM but have not done so.

Kurir is among the most prominent of such online outlets, and managed to survive Gruevski’s downfall in 2017, largely thanks to its recent takeover by Hungarian firms linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s PR machinery, and the subsequent inflow of Hungarian advertisement money.

In 2018, the company Adinamic Media, owned by a Hungarian national called Agnes Adamik, acquired ownership of the Kurir and Republika website and a share of the ownership of the Netpress website.

But despite the ministry’s insistence that it has now fixed the problem with the permits, the editor-in-chief of Kurir, Ljupco Cvetanovski, said that his outlet still feels discriminated against.

Cvetanovski told BIRN that the current form of censorship was “maybe not so evident and public as was first intended with the registry [of online media], but we still feel some form of censorship”.

While conceding that his site no longer encountered any problems with getting permits to work during the curfews, he said the way press conferences are being held did not allow them to ask direct questions through video link, like some other media, while questions submitted electronically often never get answered.

“We submit several questions daily [to the government press service] but only one of our questions has ever been read out at press conferences and answered,” Cvetanovski claimed.

He added that in this way the government was elegantly dodging “tough” questions – or at least giving itself more time to prepare suitable answers in advance.

Continue reading “North Macedonia Accused of Dodging Media Scrutiny in Crisis”

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