These media are under constant threat

They include Uthayan in Sri Lanka, Express TV in Pakistan, Radio Shabelle in Somalia, Dosh in Russia and Radio Progreso in Honduras. They and many others are repeatedly threatened and attacked by media freedom’s enemies. In addition to their constant struggle to provide their fellow citizens with coverage of local developments, corruption cases or human rights violations, the journalists employed by these news outlets must also fight for their physical safety and the freedom to work in an independent manner. The predators of press freedom who threaten them have two things in common – a refusal to accept criticism and a readiness to use violence against their media critics. Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia – government failures and militia terror In Pakistan and Nigeria, armed groups that terrorize the entire population repeatedly target journalists in both their propaganda and their armed actions. In Turkey, the newspaper Agos continues to pay a price for its commitment to human rights. In 2014, Pakistan’s Express Media group was the target of ten physical attacks, some with heavy weapons, and six of its employees were killed. Attacks on its journalists are often claimed by the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which does not hide the fact that it is trying to prevent coverage that reflects badly on its image. Express News TV journalists Raza Rumi and Jamshed Baghwan managed to escape murder attempt targeting them in early 2014, but Yaqoob Shehzad, Khalid Khan, Ashraf Yusuf and Waqas Aziz did not. They were gunned down in broad daylight by individuals who were never identified or caught. In the reign of terror imposed by the Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, the media are exposed to the threat of suicide bombings and their journalists become the targets of reprisals if Boko Haram does not like their reporting or suspects them of working for the security forces. Channels TV’s correspondent in the northern city of Kano was killed in January 2012 while trying to interview the victims of a series of Boko Haram attacks in Kano. Nigeria Television Authority reporter Zakariya Isa was gunned down in 2011. Bomb attacks on several newspapers, including ThisDay, The Moment and The Daily Sun, in Abuja and Kaduna also bore Boko Haram’s hallmarks. Agos, a Istanbul-based bilingual weekly that defends the rights of Armenians and other minorities in Turkey despite the murder of its founder and editor Hrant Dink in 2007, is the constant target of threats and smear campaigns by a range of ultra-nationalist and fundamentalist groups. Its website is also the target of cyber-attacks. A tireless advocate of democracy and national reconciliation, Dink was convicted of “insulting Turkish identity” shortly before his murder. Agos cannot count on the police, who did nothing do protect Dink although they had information that his murder was being planned. Predator states – critics hounded, constant reprisals For many media, the main threat comes from state authorities, who often use intermediaries in civilian dress to harass or attack them. This is the case with Uthayan, a daily based in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, which was the only Tamil-language newspaper to keep going throughout the 1983-2009 civil war between the Tamil Tiger separatists and the regular army. It has never stopped covering controversial subjects despite being the target of acts of violence carried out with police and military complicity. What with abduction of its journalists, death threats, attacks on its offices, forced closure, destruction of equipment and smear campaigns, there is little that Uthayan has not endured and it continues to pay high price for its frequent revelations about illegal activity by the government and armed forces. In Somalia, the authorities have succeeded where the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab failed, eliminating a major source of independent and outspoken local news coverage by closing Radio Shabelle on 15 August 2014 and jailing its editor, Mohamed Bashir Hashi, one of the country’s best known journalists. Harassment of the station’s journalists is not letting up. Although recently released, Shabelle Media Network owner Abdiimalik Yusuf Mohamud and Radio Shabelle editor-in-chief Ahmed Abdi Hassan are still charged with incitement to commit crimes and break the law and could be detained again at any time and tortured by the National Intelligence and Security Agency. In Honduras, Radio Progreso pays dearly for criticizing the 2009 military coup. The station’s director, Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno, says that 15 of his employees have received death threats, forcing the station to adopt security measures. The police threatened Isaac Leonardo Guevara Amaya, Radio Progreso’s correspondent in the northern city of Tela on 18 February 2013. Despite repeated requests from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government continues to refuse to take measures to protect Radio Progreso’s employees, one of whom, Carlos Mejía Orellana, was murdered at his home on 11 April 2014 after several death threats. Instead of addressing Radio Progreso’s urgent security needs, the authorities continue to gag its journalists and one of them, Albertina Manueles Pérez, has been the subject of judicial proceedings since June 2014 for an alleged act of sedition against internal security. Dosh must take risks to be only independent magazine covering political and social developments throughout the Russian Caucasus, a region prey to abuses by the security forces, an Islamist insurrection and widespread corruption. Since creating Dosh in 2003, Chechen journalists Israpil Shovkhalov and Abdulkhazhi Duduyev have been the targets of anonymous threats and constant surveillance. Members of their families have also been threatened and physically attacked. Dosh’s courageous local reporters are also under threat and one of them, Timur Kuashev, was murdered in Nalchik, the capital of the autonomous Kabardino-Balkar Republic, on 1 August 2014. When interviewed by Dosh’s reporters, many people refuse to give their name for fear of reprisals. Urgent need for security In November 2014, Reporters Without Borders urged the international community to appoint a special adviser to the UN secretary-general to ensure effective implementation of a new General Assembly resolution on the safety of journalists. Building on a resolution adopted in December 2013, the new resolution reaffirmed the concept of journalism as an activity that includes not only professional reporters but also “private individuals” and “a range of organizations.” It also reaffirmed the obligation to protect journalists in both wartime and peacetime, condemned the increase in attacks on journalists worldwide, and urged governments to do more to combat impunity for acts of violence against journalists. A total of 66 journalists were killed in 2014, bringing the overall number of journalists killed in connection with their work in the past decade to 720.