Intimidating Reporters Yields Results For Autocrats

Michael Hedges March 4, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

The sun rarely sets on a part of the world where reporters and editors escape threats and intimidation. And rarely a day passes when another transgression is reported. Authoritarian dictators, crime bosses and wannabes in both ranks take some pride, it seems, in putting news media under their thumbs. It never ends.

The chief editor of Belarusian news portal Tut.by, Marina Zolotova, received a stiff fine by a Minsk district court, reported Belarusian news portal reform.by (March 4). Prosecutors had sought a five-year jail term in addition to a larger fine for “unauthorized” access to state news agency BelTA. Tut.by employees, said prosecutors, gained access to BelTA by sharing usernames and passwords, reportedly belonging to Lithuanian newspaper Respublika, and Ms Zolotova knew about it. BelTA, reported France 24 (February 25), had demanded a services contract with Tut.by though Ms Zolotova but she refused.

Defence attorneys offered, among other arguments, that BelTA’s password system was not secure. Witnesses for the defence testified of being “required” to make statements against Ms Zolotova. Several TUT.by reporters accused of accessing the BelTA site were released without charge. Three BelaPAN editors and Deutsche Welle correspondent Paulyuk Bykouski were also detained, reported belsat.eu (March 4).

Belarus is so far down is the Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) Press Freedom Index rankings (155th of 180 countries) it often gets lost in the mire between DR Congo and Rwanda. President Aleksandar Lukashenka has only shown increased resolve in blunting critical news coverage. “The conviction and fining of Marina Zolotova,” wrote OSCE media freedom representative Harlem Désir, “may exert a chilling effect on independent in Belarus.”

Croatian media workers demonstrated in Zagreb this past weekend. Amidst demands for relief from government pressures they asked for the flurry of lawsuits to end, reported Balkan Insight (March 2). There are currently, said the report, more than a thousand lawsuits against media workers and organizations for “mental anguish” and “tarnished reputation.”

Thirty of the lawsuits emanated from state broadcaster HRT, several against its own reporters. In February several human rights and press freedom advocate NGOs staged a boycott of HRT; no interviews for two weeks. An HRT spokesperson, quoted by Balkan Insight (February 19), said the lawsuits were brought “because they have untruthfully claimed that there is censorship within HRT.”

"The government is ignoring the problem because they believe ignoring the problem is the solution,” said Croatian Journalists Association (HND) president Hrvoje Zovko at the rally, quoted by Deutsche Welle (March 3). The lawsuits, he said, are meant to “intimidate critical journalism.” Noting the protest rally, Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic cited the country’s positive results in recent press freedom indices.

Threatening and intimidating critical news reporting is, in fact, a daily occurrence. It begins with calling news outlets and reporters “enemies of the people” and extends to acts of violence. Lawsuits against individuals and organizations in a variety of jurisdictions are common. Malta investigation reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was served several lawsuits by the disgruntled, which failed to curtail her watchful eye. Eventually, a car bomb gave them relief from the written word.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Belarus

• Hot Topics - Media in Croatia

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom