On the eve of the presidential election, that the ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), and the outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, want to maintain at all costs this Sunday, May 10 despite the pandemic, attacks on the media independent intensify
At least 55 media workers in 23 countries have died since March 1 because of the pandemic, according to the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign
Guiyang County People’s Court sentenced journalist Chen Jieren to 15 years’ imprisonment on April 30 after finding him guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” “extortion and blackmail,” “illegal business activity,” and “bribery.”
Ignace Sossou , investigative journalist for the information site Bénin Web TV, will appear before the Cotonou Court of Appeal tomorrow April 28, 2020. Convicted for “harassment by electronic means” in December 2019, he is detained in a prison in the Beninese capital for more than four months. Pursued for having relayed on social networks the words of a prosecutor held during a workshop on disinformation, he nevertheless committed no fault. In a video confronting the magistrate’s statements and the journalist’s tweets, RSF had managed to prove his total innocence and to show that he had taken verbatim the words of the prosecutor, whom he considered, as a journalist, to be ‘They were of public interest
Unhappy with its 177th out of 180 rankings in the World Press Freedom Index, China maintains that foreign journalists are “welcome”. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recalls that the regime is harassing press correspondents and has just expelled 13 of them
Another novelty of 2020: these four countries, ruled by single communist parties, are joined in the “black zone” of the RSF Ranking by a fifth regime which has passed the lead in terms of absolute information control: Singapore. With its Orwellian law supposed to combat “false information”, the city-state loses seven places from one year to the next (158th)
On April 14, the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, was thus summoned by the Quai d’Orsay after having disseminated on the internet page of his mission in France and on the Twitter social network false information implicating the nursing staff and a coalition of French parliamentarians. Washington also had to demand an explanation on March 13 after two senior officials from the Chinese foreign ministry, Zhao Linjian and Hua Chunying , suggested that the virus was from the United States
The signal from Real TV has been cut for a week. While she was preparing to replay the interview with Marc Ravalomanana, the former president and historic rival of the current head of state Andry Rajoelina, the transmitter and the antenna of the private channel were damaged by strangers during the night of April 6 to 7. In a press release, the director of Real TV condemns these acts of sabotage and is astonished that individuals have been able to enter the scene despite the presence of soldiers “supposed to ensure the security of this strategic place.”
A court proceeding set up by the Houthis in Sanaa, the capital, handed down the sentence on 11 April against the four journalists, according to the journalists’ lawyer, Abdel Majeed Farea Sabra; Abdullah al-Mansouri, Tawfiq al-Mansouri’s brother; and Nabil Alosaidi, Yemeni Journalists Syndicate co-chair, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app. The Houthis handed down the sentence after detaining the journalists for nearly five years, according to CPJ reporting
CPJ’s research shows that journalists for Voice of America often put themselves at risk by reporting in highly censored or dangerous countries. For example, they have been harassed and detained in China, charged with treason in Ethiopia, imprisoned in Eritrea and Vietnam, and killed on assignment in Somalia