To mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, members of Index on Censorship’s youth board have prepared a video statement outlining a particular case of impunity.
With over 800 journalists and media workers murdered around the world over the past decade, IFEX co-ordinates the global #NoImpunity campaign that aims to bring attention and action to the shocking conviction rate for attacks on media workers. Only one in ten of these crimes ends in punishment.
Today is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. Since 2006, 827 journalists have been killed for their reporting. Nine out of 10 of these cases go unpunished.
Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform verified a number of reports of impunity since it began monitoring threats to press freedom across Europe in May 2014. Here are just five reports from three countries of concern: Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
“Impunity empowers those who orchestrate crimes and leaves victims feeling vulnerable and abandoned,” said Hannah Machlin, Index’s project officer for MMF. “What we are witnessing is a vicious cycle of unresolved crimes against journalists.”
Most recently, MMF reported that Sergey Dorovskoy, who the Lyublinski district court in Moscow recognised as orchestrating the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Igor Domnikov, received a 200,000 rubles (€2,860) fine but no jail time because the statute of limitations had passed. This small punishment was in compensation for “moral damages” to Domnikov’s wife.
From 1998-2000, Igor Domnikov headed Novaya Gazeta’s special projects department which ran investigations. He had published a series of articles about Dorovskoy’s alleged criminal activities and corruption.
On 19 February 2014, Vyacheslav Veremiy, a Ukrainian journalist for the newspaper, Vesti, died from injuries he sustained from a gunshot and a brutal beating. Veremiy was targeted while covering the anti-government Euromaidan protests in the country’s capital Kyiv. The two-year-old case has produced suspects but no prosecutions. The investigation remains open.
In Belarus, officials did not file a criminal case in the assault of TUT.by journalist Pavel Dabravolski, who said he was beaten on 25 January 2016 by police while filming another incident at a court facility. The officers involved testified that Dabravolski did not present a press card when requested and grabbed at them while shouting insults. Additionally, police claimed that Dabravolski was interfering with their duties.
Dabravolski captured the incident on his mobile phone, though the recording was not considered as part of the three-month investigation into the incident. According to the journalist, he was thrown to the ground and kicked by police. He was fined for charges of contempt of court and disobeying legal demands.
Index on Censorship calls for more to be done to ensure justice is served for crimes against journalists.
On 11 September, the people of Belarus elected the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives.
Speaking about the media environment surrounding the elections, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, said: “It is regrettable that Belarus did not take into account real changes towards equal media access, verifiable turnout, honest vote count, and a pluralistic parliament. These changes have been recommended for many years by the OSCE, and my own reports.”
As in previous elections, independent journalists were denied access to information about the work of electoral commissions. On 10 August, during a district election commission meeting in the town of Barysau, the deputy chairman refused to answer a question about the candidates for the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament posed by editor-in-chief of local independent newspaper Borisovskiye novosti, Anatol Bukas. A complaint filed by Bukas to the Central Election Commission was dismissed.
On election day, a correspondent for the independent newspaper Nasha Niva was forbidden to take photos at the polling station where the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenka, was supposed to vote. Security guards in civilian clothes said the journalist had not been accredited.
Opposition candidates faced arbitrary bans and censorship in publishing their “election programmes”, which lay out their platforms. Under Belarusian law, state-run media outlets should give an equal opportunity to all candidates to publish their programmes, but editors of state-run media refused to publish some which contained criticism of the authorities. The candidates referenced the election law, but have not been told of any specific violations in the texts. Complaints by the MP candidates have not been responded to by officials.
State-run newspaper Vecherniy Minsk refused to publish an election programme by opposition activist and Belsat TV’s anchorman Yury Khashchavatski. Vecherniy Minsk’s editor-in-chief Syarhei Protas wrote that the election programme “cannot be published because it does not comply with the requirements of Articles 47 and 75 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus”.
These articles state that “a candidate’s program must not contain propaganda for war, incitement to violent change of the constitutional order or violation of territorial integrity of the Republic of Belarus, to social, national, religious and racial hatred”.
A candidate’s programme must also not encourage or call up to obstruction, cancellation, or postponement of elections and there should be no insults or slandering against Belarusian officials or other candidates. However, the editor of Vecherniy Minsk did not indicate which statements of Khashchavatski were supposedly illegal.
A candidate from the United Civil Party Mikalay Ulasevich found himself in the same situation when local state-run newspaper Astravetskaya Prauda in Astravets, in Hrodna region, refused to publishhis election programme referring to the same grounds. Moreover Hrodna regional state television did not broadcast Ulasevich’s speech. In his address to electors, which was recorded but not aired at the scheduled time, Ulasevich opposed the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus and spoke about a corruption problem in the country. Mikalay Ulasevich is behind the public initiative Astravets Nuclear Power Plant Is A Crime. According to Belarusian law, all candidates have a right to broadcast election speeches on state-run TV during the election campaign.
Giving an assessment of media freedom during the last parliamentary election Andrei Bastunets, Chairperson of BAJ, said: “We explain some easing of pressure on journalists during the elections with the desire of the Belarusian authorities to obtain a positive assessment of the election campaign by the international structures. It follows on the need to seek credits in the conditions of economic crisis and does not expel resumption of the previous practice of persecution of journalists after the elections.”
Index on Censorship strongly condemns the recent wave of arrests and forced closures of media outlets in Turkey.
Over the last three days, Turkish authorities have utilised their powers under the state of emergency to shut down 15 pro-Kurdish media outlets and detain 13 journalists.
“The Turkish government’s latest attempt to silence journalists is confirming the ongoing crackdown on media freedom and throws light on the deteriorating environment for free speech in the country. Media outlets covering the Kurdish minority have been repeatedly targeted and these decrees indicate the authorities have no plans to let up the pressure,” Index’s senior advocacy officer, Melody Patry, said.
On 29 October the Turkish government adopted cabinet decrees No. 675 and 676 which ordered the shutdown of 10 pro-Kurdish newspapers, two news agencies and three magazines. The newspapers include: Özgür Gündem, Azadiya Welat, Batman Çağdaş, Cizre Postası, Güney Express, İdil Haber, Kızıltepe’nin Sesi, Prestij Haber, Urfanatik and Yüksekova Haber; The two pro-Kurdish news agencies were Dicle News Agency (DİHA) and Jin News Agency; and the three magazines shut down were Tiroji, Özgürlük Dünyası and Evrensel Kültür.
On 31 October 2016, 13 editors and journalists for independent newspaper Cumhuriyet were detained on terror charges in Istanbul. Those detained include Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, board executive and columnist Güray Öz, former editor-in-chief of the newspaper Aydın Engin, columnist Hikmet Çetinkaya, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper’s book supplement Turhan Günay, its publications advisor Kadri Gürsel – who is also the head of the International Press Institute’s Turkey office – and accountant Bülent Yener. Cumhuriyet Foundation’s board members Eser Sevinç, Hakan Kara, Musa Kart, Bülent Utku, Mustafa Kemal Güngör, Önder Çelik were also taken into custody.
Detention warrants were also issued for Cumhuriyet Foundation vice president Akın Atalay and board member Nebil Özgentürk, who are both currently out of the country.
Charges against the Cumhuriyet executives include publishing reports that legitimised the coup and management irregularities.
“News of journalists being arrested in Turkey have come in on a nearly daily basis since the start of the state of emergency,” said Hannah Machlin, Index’s project officer for Mapping Media Freedom. “The detentions of Cumhuriyet’s media workers constitute a blatant violation of press freedom that pushes Turkey further away from democratic values.”
Cumhuriyet has continually been harassed by the authorities. The now former editor-in-chief, Can Dundar survived a murder attempt last year and is facing a five-year prison term for “leaking state documents”. Dundar was forced to leave the country following the failed coup and his wife is currently under a travel ban.
With this most recent crackdown, the Platform for Independent Journalism P24 reports that a total of 168 media outlets have been shut down, 99 journalists have been imprisoned and over 2,500 media professionals have lost their jobs since the start of the state of emergency.
