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Turkey has been noted as “the biggest jailer of journalists in the world,” most recently by the International Federation of Journalists (March 12). Most every human rights, civil rights and press freedom advocate speaks that refrain in unison. Not one to accept these insults graciously Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled the country from the Istanbul Convention, effectively leaving human rights advocate Council of Europe. The Turkish Penal Code (Article 299) ascribes prison terms for those charged with insulting the president.
“We are journalists,” said daily Antalya Körfez managing editor Engin Korkmaz to Gazete Duvar (January 15). “We should be able to make some fun of politicians. There is no rule that says we will be always serious. We can criticize by making fun of them.” His trial for insulting the president continues.
Threats in this post-truth world easily travel across borders. Public broadcaster France Info anchor and author Claire Koc filed a criminal complaint last week after receiving threats from French supporters of President Erdogan, some “especially gruesome,” she told Le Figaro (March 24). She recently published a well-reviewed autobiography - Clair, Le Prénom de la Honte (Claire, the Name of Shame) - detailing her assimilation in France with Turkish immigrant parents. It drew the ire of Turkish ultranationalists.
Where violence against media workers is openly condoned by a country’s leaders those with a grievance, real or imagined, feel empowered to act out their worst instincts. A radio listener offended by something said by Rahmet FM (Mercy FM) program host Hazım Özsu went to his house in early March and shot him in the throat. The assailant turned himself in a week after the murder saying to the police he “didn’t like” what Mr. Özsu said about the coronavirus, reported Daily Sabah (March 17). (See more about media in Turkey here)
It was the ninth attack on a media worker in Turkey this year. “The common feature of all these events is that they are not condemned by the government, not conducting effective investigations, or the attackers are released with very low penalties,” said a statement from Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) (March 16). (See more about press/media freedom here)
An Istanbul court on Friday (March 26) sentenced two former police intelligence officials and two interior ministry officers to life in prison for “premeditated murder,” accused of failing to act on a plot to kill Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos chief editor Hrant Dink in 2007. The court said, according to NTV (March 26), the murder plot was “in line with the objectives of the FETO,” the official acronym for an alleged organization of Muslin cleric Fethullah Gulen, long blamed by President Erdogan for a plot against him. Two other persons involved in the murder were previously convicted.
Public broadcasters have run into a torrent from politicians in recent years. Sometimes there is a squall about news; politicians find critical coverage painful. Funding and anything about money hails down; politicians dislike anybody spending their rightful tribute. Then, too, culture drives the storm; politicians of a certain bent jump into populist framing. Of course, the politicians benefit from all this, until they don’t.
When Tim Davie was elevated last year to director general of UK public broadcaster BBC the right-wing, increasingly populist Conservative Party finally got a person on the inside. Diatribes against the BBC over the years mostly went nowhere or, at least, not very far. Mr. Davie presented earlier this month (March 18) a proposal to significantly reduce BBC radio and TV production in London to “deliver for the whole of the UK.” His predecessor Tony Hall, similarly, spoke of his “ambition” to relocate most of BBC corporate staff out of London by 2027. (See more about the BBC here)
The BBC Across the UK plan is intended to “move the creative and journalistic center of the BBC away from London to a much more distributed model that moves not just people, but power and decision-making to the UK’s nations and regions.” BBC London facilities might be sold off. Disparaging London is a post-Brexit dogwhistle to the Conservative Party faithful. Multicultural Londoners vote otherwise. Several London-based media concerns have pulled up stakes for more comfortable sites in Amsterdam and Munich.
Some may hear a faint echo in all this. After winning general elections in 2015 the nativist, populist Danish People’s Party (DF) and a coalition of similarly-minded parties trained sights on public broadcaster DR. Funding was cut, services shelved. The DF pushed to relocate a significant part of DR away from Copenhagen. None of this, save the ditched household license fee, was particularly popular with voters who roundly dismissed the populists in 2019.
Polish people are notably expressive. It comes quite naturally. A mundane discussion among colleagues can last hours, filled with flowery verse, sometimes loud, usually concluding with a nice dinner to top off a memorable occasion. Poles, as a matter of fact, love to argue and, occasionally, hurl an insult. All of this is taken quite seriously.
In early March the Warsaw District Court acquitted Wojciech Sadurski of criminal slander and defamation against state broadcaster TVP. He had referred to TVP as “Goebbelsian media,” conjuring up the notorious propaganda-adept Third Reich Nazi, after independent Mayor of Gdansk Pawel Adamowicz was murdered at a charity event on stage in 2019. The assassin grabbing a microphone to rant about the Civic Platform party before being taken away. Mayor Adamowicz had been subjected to considerably derision from pro-Law and Justice (PiS) party TVP commentators.
Professor Sadurski is a constitutional law scholar at the University of Warsaw and University of Sydney (Australia). He has never been shy about his view of the PiS. And the PiS has often returned the sentiment with various lawsuits. In this case, TVP brought both civil and criminal lawsuits. The Warsaw District Court threw out the lawsuits once but TVP president Jacek Kurski insisted they be reinstated. The civil proceeding remains. The PiS and its appointees are notorious users of SLAPP lawsuits meant to intimidate. (See more about media in Poland here)
The same court is now about to hear another notable defamation case, this against author and screenwriter Jakub Zulczyk. In a social media post he referred to Polish president Andrzei Duda as a “moron,” noted Radio Zet (March 23). Charges against Mr. Zulczyk are based on the arcane lèse-majesté law that criminalizes insulting the president. Ire was raised as President Duda refused to acknowledge the election of US President Joe Biden, only that his “election campaign was successful.”
Mr. Zulczyk wrote the 2014 novel Blinded by the Lights which became an HBO hit series. Poland has nine different insult and defamation laws, said a 2017 OSCE report, noted the BBC (March 23), the most of the 57 countries studied.
It has become a parody: institutional condemnation of social media giant Facebook. Not a week goes by, seemingly, that an group, organization, company, collective or, even, government complains about something Facebook did or did not do. For a company that based its branding on “friends” this must be painful, except for the “billions and billions,” to paraphrase Carl Sagan, it makes from advertising.
International press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), fed up with threats against media, has filed a claim with the Paris (France) public prosecutors office, reported Reuters (March 23). The lawsuit seeks compensation from Facebook France and Facebook Ireland under the French commercial code, citing deceptive commercial practices. “RSF’s lawsuit demonstrates that (Facebook) allows disinformation and hate speech to flourish,” said a statement, “contrary to the claims made in its terms of service and through its ads.” Coronavirus misinformation on the platform, “including vaccine conspiracy theories,” was included in the filing. (See more about disinformation here)
“Facebook claims to offer reliable information: this is false,” said RSF director general Christophe Deloire to public radio France Info (March 23). “This platform has a special responsibility. A decision in France could have an impact throughout the world.” (See more about social media here)
Also this week activist network Avaaz blasted Facebook for letting 10 billion views of misinformation related to the recent US elections pass unhindered. Many of the dodgy pages originated from US-based hate groups and militias, more so than the usual foreign sources. The group faults Facebook for “creating the conditions that swept America down the dark path from election to insurrection.” Responding for Facebook, spokesperson Andy Stone said the Avaaz report was “flawed,” quoted by Mother Jones (March 23). (See more about elections and media here)
Later this week Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and others of the big tech executive brotherhood will sit before a US Congressional committee looking into social media and misinformation. Facebook got back into the Australian government’s good graces by promising to pay-off News Corp, principally owned by the Murdoch family, but not until briefly cutting off all Australian newspapers.
Hate speech is widely condemned in the civilized world, and rightly so. Broadcasting, generally, is the only media platform where rules restricting this behavior are robust. On plenty of other platforms - newspapers and online - hate speech has free-reign. Purveyors of hate have lusted long to bring their fear-mongering to radio and television, typically under the guise of freedom of expression. That argument is wholly invalid, meant to deceive.
French media regulator CSA imposed a €200,000 fine on television broadcaster CNews last week for ignoring its “legal obligations and the terms of its licence by giving to a platform to hate speech and encouraging discrimination,” reported AFP (March 18). CNews is an all-news channel operated by Canal+, owned by Groupe Balloré. It has been on-the-air just over twenty years with a distinctly right-wing bent. Media watcher Sleeping Giants France, quoted by Telerama (October 20, 2020), bestowed “the Fox News of France” on the channel. (See more about media in France here)
The incident attracting the CSA’s ire was an outburst on a CNews talkshow last September by far-right xenophobe Eric Zemmour, a regular contributor to the show. He delivered a rant about migrants: “They are thieves, they are killers, they are rapists, that’s all they are. We need to send them back.” The show’s host, Christine Kelly, made no pushback to the tirade, noted the CSA. Mme Kelly is a former CSA board member. (See more about hate speech here)
“Even though these remarks were made within the framework of a debate, in itself legitimate, they were likely to incite hatred towards unaccompanied foreign minors, and conveyed many stereotypes, particularly infamous towards them, likely to encourage discriminatory behavior,” said the CSA statement. The regulator was further annoyed control over the talkshow “had not been ensured.” The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a related investigation into M Zemmour for "incitement to racial hatred" and "racist public insults.” Canal+ indicated it would appeal the CSA decision.
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