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The Myanmar military junta that rules the land has every intention of further restricting news coverage. News outlets have been shuttered, local reporters rounded up. Efforts have now extended to foreign nationals working for foreign news outlets.
This past week Robert Bociaga, a Polish citizen on assignment for German news agency DPA, was arrested by security forces in Taunggyi, reported Deutsche Welle (March 12). The Polish Foreign Ministry and the German consulate in Myanmar, also known as Burma, confirmed the report. Local reports suggest Mr. Bociaga was beaten and injured. He is a photojournalist who has also contributed to CNN.
"It would be extremely worrying to see how freedom of the press is once again ignored by the Burmese authorities," said the European Alliance of News Agencies in a statement. "Journalism must be free from any pressure, anywhere in the world, to the extent that the news it provides helps shape fairer societies." Roughly 40 media workers have been arrested since the February 1 coup, noted the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP) in Myanmar. Japanese freelancer Yuki Kitazumi was detained in February in a police sweep at a demonstration in Yangon, believed the first foreign reporter arrested in Myanmar, noted news agency Nikkei (February 26). He was released after a few hours. (See more about press/media freedom here)
Operating licenses for five local Yangon news organizations - Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Khit Thit Media, Myanmar Now and 7Day News - were revoked by authorities, reported AP (March 9). “These media companies are no longer allowed to broadcast or write or give information by using any kind of media platform or using any media technology,” said a junta statement broadcast on army broadcaster MRTV. All have been reporting on protests, even live streaming.
The Myanmar junta filed a lawsuit against highly regarded Thailand-based online news outlet The Irrawaddy, said the publisher (March 12), charging “disregard” for the military. “We are not surprised at the lawsuit,” wrote editor U Ye Ni. “We expected that our turn will come sooner or later after they banned five media outlets. We don’t believe justice can be done within the legal framework as there is no judicial independence under the military authorities.”
Three young women were shot dead and a two more injured this past week in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in two separate incidents. They worked as announcers for Enikass Radio and Television, reported Tolo TV (March 3). The murders were another stark reminder that the world is not safe for women, certainly not safe for women working in the media. Monday was International Women’s Day, the murders preceded.
The jihadi militia Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility, reported Deutsche Welle (March 4). They were killed, said the IS statement, "for working for one of the media outlets loyal to the breakaway Afghan government.” They were walking home from work. One suspect was arrested, confessing membership in Islamic Taliban. Murderous militants abound in Afghanistan. They are obsessed with women working, particularly in the media.
“We told our female employees to stay home and to not come to work,” said Enikass Radio and Television director Zalmay Latifi to the Guardian (March 9). “We will provide them with equipment to carry out their duties at home. We can’t hire new women until the situation improves. We want to, of course, but this is about saving lives, it’s about security. It’s a tough choice.” The broadcaster currently employs 10 women and 120 men. Independent news portal Afghanistan Times reported (March 7) that Mr. Latifi discharged all women employees. (See more about press/media freedom here)
In December Enikass reporter Malala Maiwand and her driver were murdered, IS claiming responsibility. Five years earlier Ms Maiwand’s mother, also a journalist, was murdered. The UN Mission to Afghanistan reported (February 15) 33 media workers killed in Afghanistan between January 1st 2018 and end of January this year.
Visuals, of course, have impact. Much of the international news coverage from Belarus centered on large public demonstrations, held weekly, over election results, widely disputed, giving the dictator a landslide victory over a young woman opposition candidate. International consternation rose and the dictator remained unswayed. In time, the TV crews moved on.
News coverage within Belarus, brutally limited, has been a bit different. Local news, of course, succeeds on local impact. There, the focus has been on the brutal actions of the security services and police. People are still being pulled off streets and out of shops, taken to undisclosed locations. Some have been brutalized. Some have died.
News portal TUT.BY reporter Katsiaryna Barysevich has been on the police beat in Minsk, the Belarus capital. After Raman Bandarenka died in police custody after attending a demonstration last November, Ms Barysevich was suspicious and began sleuthing. The security services said Mr. Bandarenka was under the influence and needed to be subdued. Ms Barysevich uncovered a medical examiner with evidence to the contrary. Mr. Bandarenka had suffered “a cerebral edema” - beaten to death. This Ms Barysevich reported and was promptly arrested. (See more about media in Belarus here)
There was a trial, much like others in Belarus, and Ms Barysevich was found guilty of “violating medical confidentiality with grave consequences.” She was fined and sentenced to six months confinement in a prison camp, much like others in the former Soviet sphere. “We consider the verdict as politically motivated,” said the Belarusian Association of Journalists in a statement (March 2), “aiming to intimidate all media workers so they stop doing their job of reporting on socially important events in the country, which in fact means a ban on the profession.”
Far from Belarus, Des Moines (Iowa) Register reporter Andrea Sahouri is on trial this week for covering a Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstration last May. She was arrested for “failure to disperse and interfering with official acts,” noted NPR (March 8), despite identifying herself as working press. This is the first trial in the US of a reporter on assignment in three years. (See more about news media here)
Prosecutors have been reluctant to drop charges against Ms Sahouri, who is a public safety reporter for the acclaimed newspaper. Others detained on the same charges were released. "That this trial is happening at all is a violation of free press rights and a miscarriage of justice,” wrote the Des Moines Register editorial board (February 24).
A man was detained police officials last week for photographing a police building. In this post-modern age, it could be suspicious on the surface. Indeed, “priority buildings” - like police stations - are protected from “intrusion,” which includes photography.
The man was detained for a couple of hours and released on bail. It turns out he announced himself as a reporter for Hungarian television channel HirTV. Zoltan Bugnyár presented some sort of press credential and said he was reporting on a knife attack that took place earlier that afternoon. All of this occurred in Vetlanda, southern Sweden.
Hungarian media - even the more responsible - took on the story with a grievance. It appears Mr. Bugnyár swiftly reached out to everybody in Budapest once his cellphone. which was used to photograph the police station, was returned. He has, seemingly, lived in Uppsala for several years. (See more about media in Hungary here) Swedish media, as is their habit with such incidents, had better things to do.
That knife attack, still under investigation, injured seven people in the city center, said AFP (March 5). The perpetrator, incapacitated by police, was identified as an Afghan national and remanded to custody prior to formal charges. He is familiar to local police for “petty crimes.” By the next day, the local prosecutor had ruled out terrorism, which had been suggested by certain media outlets.
That brings us to HirTV, the oldest privately-owned all-news television channel in Hungary. It has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the right-wing xenophobic Fidesz party of prime minister Viktor Orban. Since being acquired in 2019 by the pro-Fidesz KESMA media cooperative it has returned to its roots. Perhaps, a story very loosely linked to refugees - even 1,600 km away - was too good to pass up.
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