15 Nov 2024 | News and features, Newsletters, Russia, United States, Venezuela
Russia is haunted by the ghost of Joseph Stalin. Dozens of monuments to the Soviet leader dot the country; his angular face beams from billboards, bookshop displays and subway station walls; multi-episode shows depict him on national TV.
It seems a strange twist in Russia’s story to rehabilitate a highly repressive leader from the former USSR but it makes sense too. Under Stalin, Russia emerged from World War II victorious and with many countries under its control, which chimes with Vladimir Putin’s insatiable desire to restore Russia as a global superpower.
It’s not just Stalin’s image that haunts Russia today – it’s his tactics. The political abuse of psychiatry that was developed towards the end of Stalin’s rule, for example, is being used once again against the Kremlin’s critics. You can read a piece about this from Russian journalist Alexandra Domenech here. This week we were made aware of another tactic straight out of the Stalin playbook – using everyday people to denounce each other. A growing number of people are ratting on their friends, family, colleagues, or in the most recent case – their doctor. On Tuesday a Russian court sentenced a 68-year-old paediatrician, Nadezhda Buyanova, to five and a half years in jail for allegedly criticising the war (she denies these claims). The monitoring group OVD-Info (also former Index award winners) has recorded 21 such criminal prosecutions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and a further 175 people have faced lower-level administrative cases for “discrediting” the Russian army because of people informing on them. The word “chilling” is overused in the human rights world, but this is really chilling.
So too is what’s happening to dissidents in the countries that Putin supports. In Venezuela under Moscow-allied President Nicolás Maduro there has been an intensification of attacks against the leading opposition figure Maria Corina Machado and those who support her since the July elections. Arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence by the country’s security forces are rife. One such target was 36-year-old opposition activist Jesus Martinez, who died yesterday in custody from a heart problem associated with complications from type II diabetes. Martinez was a member of the Vente Venezuela party run by Machado; Machado has denounced Maduro’s election to a third term as fraudulent. He was arrested without a search warrant and with no reason given, according to Machado. At yesterday’s Magnitsky Awards, which I was privileged to attend, Machado was given the award for outstanding opposition politician. Speaking from captivity, she dedicated her award to Martinez.
Russia’s other ally, Iran, continues its reign of terror too. This week a Kurdish political activist and women’s rights defender, Varisheh Moradi, was sentenced to death. Iran has not yet carried out the death sentence, so there is still a window of time to make noise and we know from our own campaign to free Toomaj Salehi that noise does work. That is if the noise comes internationally. Within Iran itself the regime has less interest and the enormous emotional strain caused by living under that level of repression was laid bare on Wednesday when former VOA Farsi journalist Kianoosh Sanjari jumped to his death after his demands to release four high-profile political prisoners (one being Toomaj Salehi) were not met.
We’re wrapping up with a final friend of Putin – Donald Trump – whose first term can be remembered by him using the very Soviet phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the press. News has just emerged of Trump sending legal letters to The New York Times and the Penguin Random House over their critical coverage of him. Can a leopard change its spots? It seems not.
His re-election last week made many question, with despair, what had happened to the hope that filled the air following the fall of the Soviet Union. This week’s news has done little to stop that despair. Perhaps then Stalin’s ghost doesn’t just haunt those in Russia – it haunts us all.
16 Aug 2024 | Africa, News and features, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a deepening human rights crisis ahead of hosting a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) summit on Saturday when its leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has deployed army tanks in townships and launched a major crackdown against dissenting voices, will assume the bloc’s chairmanship.
The escalating harassment of pro-democracy campaigners, human rights defenders, political activists, student leaders and ordinary residents, some of whom have severely been tortured, came with dire warnings.
There is evidence that the state repression was planned at the highest levels within the country’s corridors of power as speeches by key figures sparked off a chain of frightening events.
On 27 June, while addressing his ruling party’s Central Committee, Mnangagwa said “rogue elements” bent on peddling falsehoods and instigating acts of civil disorder before, during and after important meetings would be dealt with “decisively.”
On 31 July, George Charamba, Mnangagwa’s spokesperson told the state run media there was a foreign hand in efforts to destabilise the country, and ominously warned that locals involved would be taught “a lesson.”
“It would appear they haven’t learnt their lessons,” Charamba said. “They should know that the Government is not just willing but is capable of delivering to them a lesson that is handsomely appropriate,”.
It’s the same message that the presidential spokesperson sent out while serving in the same capacity on behalf of former boss Robert Mugabe who was deposed by Mnangagwa in a coup in November 2017.
Following Mnangagwa’s takeover, there was cautious optimism in some circles that Zimbabwe would turn a corner after 37 years of dictatorship, but Zimbabweans found they were in for more of the same: official corruption, state sponsored violence, widespread poverty, unemployment, economic ruin and general decadence in the country’s cities and towns.
Mnangagwa’s recent threats were followed by horrific repression on the ground enforced by terror. Human rights organisations report 165 people have so far been caught up in the campaign to suppress freedom of expression and assembly.
Some of those punished in Mnangagwa’s latest crusade include 25-year-old Namatai Kwekweza, a human rights activist, and three others Robson Chere, the Secretary-General of Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), Samuel Gwenzi, the director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Monitors Platform and Vusumuzi Moyo,an artist and sound engineer who were forcibly removed from a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport by State agents on 31 July.
They were detained incommunicado for several hours and subjected to torture and later taken to court. The African Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders which monitored the case of Namatai, who last year won the inaugural Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize said “the torture inflicted upon her is beyond comprehension: being hit with open hands, clenched fists, wooden planks, and iron bars.”
Other human rights lawyers said Chere suffered extensive injuries that put him at risk of kidney failure and death. The Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights has since said prison officials blocked his medical practitioner of choice from attending to him on 10 August.
The latest crackdown by Mnangagwa’s regime has not gone unnoticed. On 14 August, the United Nations Human Rights Office said it was concerned by reports of arrests, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and political activists in the lead up to the summit.
There are now diplomatic efforts to push Mnangagwa to stop the persecution. The Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network has been writing to leaders of countries that will attend the SADC summit voicing concerns.
In one letter dispatched to South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, the Southern Defenders chairperson, Professor Adriano Nuvunga detailed the repression. He said one person was charged with “public violence” for participating in an anti-government protest five years ago.
Nuvunga said the latest crackdown began on 16 June targeting 78 members of the Citizens for Coalition Change including the party’s interim leader Jameson Timba who were celebrating the International Day of the African Child at a private residence.
He added that that during the arrests, police used baton sticks and fired teargas at the group, resulting in injuries; including an extensive injury to one member which required surgery.
The activists are still locked up. In an interview with Index, Human Rights Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said charges like acting with disorderly conduct in a public place – for which activists like Namatai were tortured – are minor offences that would normally carry at worst a $200 fine.
He added that most of the alleged crimes fall into the category of what are known as miscellaneous offences, such as spitting on someone. For other offences such as accusations of illegal gatherings, police must just disperse gatherings, not cordon off the area and make dragnet arrests. He went on to say that as police know that the arrests are unlawful, hence come up with flimsy charges such as disorderly conduct, criminal nuisance and participating in an illegal gathering to sanitise them.
The human rights lawyer said the first bastion of defence when police act in such an illegal manner is for prosecutors not to take such matters to court.
“One of the greatest disappointments of our time is that prosecutors now take such matters to court as a matter of routine,” said Muchadehama.
Then there are courts who deny people freedom when the alleged minor offences come before them.
“Most of the judgments that have been handed down, I have respectfully disagreed with such judgments,” added Muchadehama.
In an X Space on Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Crisis and the SADC Summit organised by the Resistance Bureau on Wednesday, a former student leader Nancy Njenje who was constantly harassed by state agents and was once arrested and placed in crowded cells where she caught Covid-19 in 2021, said Zimbabwe’s courts have been captured by the ruling regime.
In one recent case, opposition leader Job Sikhala spent more than 500 days in pre-trial detention while facing trumped up charges of incitement to commit violence, disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice charges, with the courts denying him bail.
Njenge said the unfortunate thing about the crisis unfolding in Zimbabwe is that there is no coordinated effort to fight the status quo.
“Zimbabwe is under an institutional capture, we are not just fighting Zanu-PF to go, we are fighting all the institutions that Zanu-PF has captured. We are fighting the police, we are fighting the courts,” Njenge said.
She said people must not leave their struggles in the hands of the opposition but must use protests to express themselves.
In an interview with Index, Tawanda Muchehiwa, who is now living in the UK after fleeing Zimbabwe where he was abducted by state agents and tortured, said Mnangagwa has not changed his bad habits, despite his pretensions. He said Mnangagwa’s regime was desperately trying to prevent the emergence of fresh ideas and progressive thinking.
Unlike others who are languishing in jail after being tortured, Muchehiwa was lucky to get a scholarship to study at the University of Leicester where he graduated with a Bachelor of Law (LLB) last month.
“I was blessed to have good people around me who offered their kindness and support during this challenging time. Their assistance was invaluable in helping me reorganise my life after the brutal ordeal I had endured, allowing me to focus on my studies and healing,” he said.
As Mnangagwa looks for other people to lock up, he is at the same time preparing to roll out the red carpet for SADC leaders for the Saturday meeting.
Calls for the summit to be moved to another venue have been ignored.
One of the parties in South Africa’s governing alliance, the Democratic Alliance said South Africa, as a leading member of the region, must advocate for the summit to be moved to a location that upholds and respects democratic values.
“By abusing state machinery to violate the rights of Zimbabweans, the unrepentant ZANU-PF regime has demonstrated that it is prepared to go to any lengths to violate the law in order to entrench its authoritarian rule. South Africa, and by extension the SADC, have an obligation to hold the Zimbabwean government to account,” the DA said.
“Allowing the summit to proceed under the current circumstances will not only endorse ZANU-PF’s flagrant abuse of international law, but further undermine the principles upon which SADC was established. “South African opposition leader Musi Maimane went on to describe Mnangagwa as an “evil dictator.”
18 Jul 2024 | Americas, News and features, Venezuela
Venezuelans will cast their vote for the country’s next leader next Sunday, choosing between a president who is dominating the public space but has not answered a reporter’s question since last year, and an opposition candidate who is all but barred from TV and radio and is relying on social media to spread his message.
The election on 28 July sees authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro squaring off against opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who is leading in the polls despite receiving almost no exposure on traditional media.
Instead, Gonzalez and his main backer, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, have relied on Instagram and TikTok videos, as well as WhatsApp viral messages, to galvanise the democratic opposition ahead of the vote.
This week, Caracas is plastered with election banners showing a smiling Maduro projecting confidence for Venezuela’s future, but journalists hoping to travel to Venezuela to interview him are set for a letdown, as the authoritarian leader has not conceded an interview since December and several international media have seen their visa requests denied in recent days.
The country’s Ministry of Communication closed applications to cover the election on 19 April. Everyone entering the country to report without proper accreditation, or outside the dates granted by the ministry, is at risk of being deported.
Maduro’s weekly agenda is top secret for security reasons, which means most reporters who are already in Venezuela are not informed when the candidate is holding a rally and are kept away from the campaign.
Earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders called on Venezuelan authorities to allow local and international journalists to cover the election, especially since the government withdrew an invitation for EU electoral observers in June.
Yet, in the first week of the campaign Maduro has racked up over 1,400 minutes of airtime on Venezuela’s public television station, while none of the other candidates were covered for more than 15 minutes, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.
None of this is new for Venezuela, a country where almost 300 radio stations were shut down by the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) in the last two decades on charges of operating clandestinely, according to the local NGO Espacio Público — it has been reported today that their site has been geoblocked.
Radio stations are particularly censored, critics claim, because in a country with chronic electricity and internet problems, they often represent the only information channel available to the most vulnerable sectors of the country, where government support is stronger.
“When Gonzalez announced his candidature a couple months ago, all international media started interviewing him, but did we? We can’t do that,” a radio journalist in Caracas told Index this week, asking for their identity to remain anonymous for fears of being fired if they denounced censorship in the workplace.
Government censors from CONATEL constantly monitor the airwaves searching for dissident content and send warnings to the radio station’s management if any programme is deemed too leaning against the government, the reporter told Index.
The current tension in the newsroom is reminiscent of another recent episode of political tension, when opposition leader Juan Guaidó mounted a constitutional challenge against Maduro by swearing himself in as interim president.
“Our programme was taken off the air back then when two guests, political analysts, both referred to the government as ‘the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro,’” the reporter told Index.
“I remember it was a Friday, I left the office and went home. The following Sunday I was doing calls to plan the week ahead when our executive producer told me the programme was being cancelled. Management decided to take the show off the air because CONATEL had called in, complaining that nobody corrected the guests. I spent the following four months doing nothing before a new programme came around,” they said.
From that moment, all radio studios in this reporter’s organisation have installed an instruction document next to the main console, advising the programme’s director to correct any guest suggesting Maduro’s government is not legitimate.
In recent years, radio stations have diversified their coverage by allowing reporters to write more freely when posting online, where the government’s censors have a harder time controlling who’s behind problematic content.
This double standard, however, only makes the self-censorship on radio programmes even more evident.
“Online we made a profile of each candidate running in the election, we also did other opposition leaders… But on air? That’s not going to happen,” the reporter said.
Luz Mely Reyes, who co-founded online media Efecto Cocuyo in 2015 after decades working in print, told Index that none of this is new, saying: “Censorship in Venezuela is systemic, it runs deeper than the yoke on radio and TV stations.”
Despite escaping the jurisdiction of CONATEL’s censors, Venezuelans need a VPN to access Efecto Cocuyo’s URL, which is geoblocked by the government. Venezuelan companies are also wary of purchasing adverts on the website, fearful they might incur trouble with the government.
“Sometimes, security becomes a factor too. You end up asking yourself: is it worth it to send one of my reporters to cover this, or that? It’s not like they give you an order, they want to force you to self-censor your coverage,” Reyes told Index.
Still, both traditional and new media are finding new strategies to keep the lights on for free information in Venezuela.
“Silence in radio speaks volumes, sometimes, I just leave blanks in the radio report,” the anonymous radio reporter told Index. “I can’t say that this is an authoritarian regime, but I can give the latest malnutrition figures an organisation has shared, and in the end the audience can make up their mind.”
After a moment of pause, they sighed: “Being a journalist in Venezuela is frustrating: there are no opportunities, the pay is shit, and journalism itself is at risk… but what fuels me is the hope that, one day, things change.”
