#Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

[panicinthestudio]

Further reading:

HKFP: Hong Kong foreign press club to seek legal advice, contact gov’t before commenting on issues of press freedom, May 30, 2023

[endimpunityday]

Circumventing “Zones of Silence”: Protecting Press Freedom in the Sahel.

Session V: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists 2024

3:00 - 4:00 pm

- Mr. Ayeda Robert Kotchani, Regional Representative a.i, ONU Droits de l'Homme - Afrique de l'Ouest; Office for West Africa

- Ms. Patience Zanelie Chiradza (TBC), Director, Governance and Conflict Prevention Directorate, AU PAPS

-Ms. Rania Machlab, Head of Delegation and Representative to the African Union, International Committee of the Red Cross

- Mr. Sadibou Marong, Head of Africa Office and Director General’s Representative. Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders / RSF (RSF)

[marktaylor-canfield]

97 Journalists Killed In Gaza - MTC REPORT

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Olivia Reingold

Published: Apr 15, 2024

CHICAGO — About 300 anti-war activists crowded into the basement of the Teamsters Union’s headquarters on Saturday to hear organizers from all over the country describe their plans to disrupt the Democratic National Convention this August. Joe Biden’s backing of Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attack has turned these left-wing radicals against their own party.

“It’s really inspiring to see that people are just as enthusiastic, and maybe even more enthusiastic, to march on the DNC as they are to march on the RNC,” says Omar Florez, a Milwaukee-based activist. “We can thank Genocide Joe and our movement for that.”  

But then a man stumbles to the podium, wiping sweat from his forehead. He grabs the microphone to announce that the Islamic regime of Iran has launched missiles and drones heading straight toward Israel.

“They believe that they will be in Palestinian—I don’t call it Israeli—airspace between two and four a.m., which means about two to four hours from now,” he says. “In addition, there are reports of drones having been fired on Israel from Yemen and Iraq.”

The crowd, all wearing black N95s, erupts into applause. Someone in the back lowers their mask to send a celebratory whistle soaring throughout the room.  

The man at the podium, Hatem Abudayyeh, heads the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, “a purported community group which, on information and belief, is an affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror organization based in Gaza,” according to a lawsuit over the alleged relations between U.S. advocacy groups and Hamas. 

“This is when this country and the world needs us because the United States is going to, quote unquote, defend the criminal Israeli state,” says Abudayyeh, whose home was raided by the FBI in 2010 as part of an investigation “concerning the material support of terrorism.” 

“We have to assume that the United States is going to try to retaliate against Iran.”

After the boos and calls of “shame” subside, Abudayyeh says it is “incumbent” upon Americans to “stop the United States from expanding this war and hitting Iran.”

“We’ve got to be the strong, powerful anti-war movement that we are,” he says, placing the microphone down and exiting the stage. 

The crowd immediately began chanting, “Hands off Iran.”

A woman in a hot pink gas mask, wielding a matching neon cane and dressed in a “Protect Trans Kids” t-shirt, throws her fist in the air. Nearby, a service poodle is taking a nap under the chair of his owner, who is wearing a leather harness over his t-shirt. Then the group that has joined here from cities across America—Seattle, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles—cheers and claps in celebration. 

Joe Iosbaker, an organizer with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which called October 7 a “good turn of events” in its press release about the terrorist attacks, tells me he supports Iran. His organization has since released a statement backing Iran, where citizens gathered to shout “Death to America” during their nation’s strike against Israel Saturday night.

“We demand hands off Iran,” the statement says. “The people have power, and we will exercise it in the streets.” 

Earlier that day, before news of the attack broke, at a “breakout session” on “the anti-war movement,” Shabbir Rizvi, an organizer with Anti-War Committee Chicago, taught participants how to chant “death to Israel” and “death to America” in Farsi. 

“Marg bar Israel,” he chanted, leading a group of about 80 attendees along with him. A man draped in a Soviet flag bearing a gold hammer and sickle clapped his hands. 

A man in a full black denim outfit shouted out behind his N95—“Can we get a ‘marg bar America’?”

“We can get a ‘marg bar America,’ ” Rizvi replied. 

Then Rizvi raised his hand in the air, leading the crowd like a conductor.

“Marg bar America,” they cheered. 

On my way out of the event, I ask a woman smoking a cigarette to fill me in on the latest news regarding Iran’s lobbing of missiles and drones, which were later intercepted with help from forces from France, the U.S., and the UK. Iran said its strike was retaliation for Israel’s hit on the Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month, which destroyed the consulate building next to the embassy and killed two of Tehran’s top commanders, and that the matter is “concluded”—unless Israel hits back.

“Iran is part of the resistance,” said the woman, who flew in that morning from New Orleans, where she’s been part of an effort to disrupt Israel-bound shipments in her hometown. “Yemen and Iran and Hezbollah, who are also a militant group in Lebanon, and the Syrian government are all parts of the arc of resistance.” 

A smile creeps across her face as she tells me: “They’re part of the arc of resistance because the enemies are Israel and the USA.” 

==

Remember Mahsa Amini? These insane fuckers don't. They've sided with the brutal Islamic Republic of Iran.

They hate our liberal, secular countries and they want to destroy them. They keep telling us who they are. Do you believe them yet?

Revoke citizenship and deport. I wasn't kidding before and I'm still not kidding now.

[silicacid]

Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abudaqa killed in Israeli attack in Gaza

Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Samer Abudaqa has been killed and his colleague Wael Dahdouh was wounded in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Cameraman Abudaqa and correspondent Dahdouh were reporting at Farhana school in Khan Younis when they were hit by an Israeli strike on Friday.

Rescue teams were unable to immediately reach Abudaqa and others at the site due to Israeli bombardment.

“Rescuers just managed to retrieve the cameraman Samer Abudaqa’s body,” a spokesperson for the media network said.

Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm, and managed to reach Nasser hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

Witnesses said earlier there was heavy shelling in the area around the school.

Wael Dahdouh says the network’s crew was accompanying civil defence rescuers on a mission to evacuate a family after its home was bombed.

“We captured the devastating destruction and reached places that had not been reached by any camera lens since the Israeli ground operation started,” Dahdouh said from his hospital bed.

As the Al Jazeera journalists were heading back on foot because the areas were not accessible by car, Dahdouh said “something big” happened that knocked him to the ground.

After the explosion, Dahdouh said he pressed on his wounds and walked out of the area to get help, but by the time he reached an ambulance, medics said they could not return to the site of the attack because it was too dangerous.

Subsequent efforts to coordinate a safe passage to send rescuers for Abudaqa were delayed, Dahdouh said, adding that one ambulance that tried to reach the cameraman came under fire.

Many Palestinians from the central and northern parts of Gaza have sought shelter in Khan Younis since the war began in October. Many have now been pushed further south towards the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah after Israel intensified its military operations in Khan Younis.

The attack comes amid violent clashes between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army in locations across Gaza. Residents reported fighting in Shujayea, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah, and Beit Hanoon in north Gaza, east of Maghazi in central Gaza and in the centre and northern fringes of Khan Younis, according to the Reuters news service.

The Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the attack and extended its condolences to Abudaqa’s family in Gaza and Belgium.

“The Network holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families,” a statement read.

“In today’s bombing in Khan Younis, Israeli drones fired missiles at a school where civilians sought refuge, resulting in indiscriminate casualties,” the network said.

“Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over 5 hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment,” the statement added.

In late October, Wael Dahdouh lost four of his family members in an Israeli air raid.

His family had been seeking refuge in Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza when their home was bombed by Israeli forces, killing his wife, Um Hamza, his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, his seven-year-old daughter, Sham, and his grandson, Adam, who died in hospital hours later.

Calls for accountability

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “deeply saddened” and called for an independent investigation into the attack.

The press freedom group says the conflict in Gaza is the deadliest for journalists it has ever recorded.

“We’re outraged by the high price, I would say the extreme price, that Palestinian journalists are paying,” the CPJ’s Carlos Martinez de la Serna told Al Jazeera, adding that there was a “clear prevailing sense of impunity.”

“We need international, independent investigations to assess all these killings and those responsible need to be accountable,” said de la Serna. “It’s essential to remember that journalists under international humanitarian law are civilians, and the obligation on all parties involved in the war is to protect them, and what we’re seeing, is that journalists are being killed.”

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said it was “shocked” at the attack.

“We condemn the attack and reiterate our demand that journalists’ lives must be safeguarded,” it said in a post on X.

An IFJ report published last week found that 72 percent of journalists who died on the job this year were killed in the Gaza war.

‘A professional, strong team’

The two journalists have worked together with Al Jazeera Arabic since before the war.

“[Samer] and Wael make up a very professional, strong team on the ground, documenting everything and bringing all the facts and live pictures of what the Palestinian people have been going through,” Hani Mahmoud said.

“But particularly with this war, given its intensity in scale and magnitude and the sheer amount of destruction, they have been at the forefront of covering every little detail that one might have forgotten about,” he added.

[ausetkmt]

Newsweek: Ron DeSantis Accused of Being 'Pro-Slavery' Due to New Florida Curriculum

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is facing new criticism over his state's new curriculum for African-American history in which some say is "pro-slavery."

DeSantis, a Republican who is running for president in 2024, has made his embrace of right-wing social causes a cornerstone of his style of politics. He has decried "woke" education, signing into law requirements about how race can be taught in Florida schools as educators across the United States grapple with conservative efforts to limit discussions of diversity, including African American history, in public schools.

Advocates for more restrictive lessons on race have argued all sides of a political or historical debate should be presented in schools. Critics, however, are accusing DeSantis and other Republicans of attempting to erase the history of slavery, and that students should learn about this topic in its entirety.

This standard has sparked criticism from educational and civil rights leaders, who have accused Florida Republicans of seeking to whitewash the history of slavery.

Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, accused DeSantis of being "pro-slavery" over the educational policy.

"Please keep this simple: If you require schools to teach the 'personal benefits' of slavery you are pro-slavery. Ron DeSantis is pro-slavery," the Democratic lawmaker tweeted on Saturday.

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 22, 2023

DeSantis defended the standards when pressed by a reporter, saying that he "wasn't involved" in writing these standards, which were "not done politically."

"I think what they're doing, is I think that they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a black smith, into doing things later in life," the Florida governor said. "But the reality is all of that is rooted in whatever is factual."

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office for comment via email.

Still, many others also condemned the new standards.

Will Hurd, a former congressman from Texas who is also running in the GOP 2024 presidential primary, tweeted on Friday, "Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn't a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms."

Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn't a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.https://t.co/4JjIgeDhKX — Will Hurd (@WillHurd) July 21, 2023

Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), slammed the policy as "disgusting."

"The much anticipated DeSantis reset: Teaching our kids that slavery had its benefits," he tweeted on Friday. "Disgusting."

Vice President Kamala Harris, during a speech at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.'s 56th national convention in Indianapolis on Thursday, described the standards as an attempt to "gaslight us."

"Just yesterday, in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefitted from slavery," she said. "They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it. We who share a collective experience in knowing we must honor history in our duty in the context of legacy. There is so much at stake in this moment."

[beardedmrbean]

madrid — 

As Abraham Jimenez Enoa walked his 3-year-old son home from kindergarten, two men sidled up beside them.

“We know you are near your home,” one of them said.

The experience shook the exiled journalist, who says he decided to leave his adopted city of Barcelona for a while after the encounter in July.

Despite being expelled from Cuba last year for writing what he says is the truth about the country’s communist government, Jimenez Enoa says he has been targeted by unidentified men in Europe, including in Madrid and Amsterdam.

Each time, the men spoke with Cuban accents.

The journalist, who writes for The Washington Post, said he believes those targeting him are Cuban agents.

Members of his family were senior military figures, so Jimenez Enoa once lived a cushioned life at the heart of the Communist Party establishment. His family had close ties to the late Fidel Castro and Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

The 34-year-old turned his back on this life to forge a career as an independent journalist.

Neither the International Press Center in Havana — a government agency that handles media queries — nor the Cuban Embassy in Madrid replied to requests for comment from VOA about Jimenez Enoa's allegations.

Jimenez Enoa, like other dissidents who flee hostile regimes, says he is a victim of “transnational repression,” a tactic in which governments target critics outside their own borders.

Freedom House, which has been monitoring the phenomenon, says there were 854 verifiable incidents from 2014 to 2022, which included abductions, assassinations and attacks. Of these, 11% involved journalists.

Journalists in exile are targeted because they reveal uncomfortable facts about what is going on in their own countries — information that their governments do not want to make public.

China, Egypt, Russia, Turkey and Tajikistan were involved in the largest number of cases, according to Freedom House reports. China has been involved in 30% of the incidents, it said.

Jimenez Enoa believes the incident in July was an attempt by the Cuban government to intimidate him. He told VOA the two men approached him and said they knew where he lived.

“I didn’t know who said it. There were lots of people around,” he told VOA in an interview in Barcelona. “I saw two men who were laughing to themselves. They were dressed as Cuban diplomats [with a shirt and tie], then they went.”

Jimenez Enoa, who published The Hidden Island, a book about Cuba, said he was also followed at a book fair in Spain’s capital in May.

“At the book fair in Madrid, during the whole day, there was a man watching me and filming me. He did not say anything. Someone I spoke with said they had spoken to him and they said that he had a Cuban accent,” Jimenez Enoa recalled.

In March of last year, at a meeting in the Netherlands, Jimenez Enoa came face-to-face with a man he believes was a Cuban agent.

"A man started to offend me, saying everything I did was a lie. He continued to offend me. The organizers had to get him out of the place,” he said. “A diplomat [later] showed me a picture of the man and said he worked at the Cuban Embassy in Holland.”

Of his three encounters in Europe with what he believes were Cuban agents, the last incident was most disturbing, he said.

“I was with my son, and it was around the corner from my house. Each time these people had Cuban accents,” he said.

Jimenez Enoa said he did not report the incidents to the Spanish or Dutch police because he did not have any evidence to present.

The Committee to Project Journalists, which in 2020 honored Jimenez Enoa with an International Press Freedom Award, has called on Spanish authorities to investigate and ensure his safety.

The experiences are unsettling because Jimenez Enoa fled Cuba to avoid threats after enduring a campaign of harassment.

“I was put under house arrest; my phone was bugged. I was later arrested, handcuffed, strip-searched and questioned by security officers. Then they secretly filmed me and put my image on television, claiming I was a CIA spy,” he told VOA in an earlier interview.

“Later, they telephoned me and said I had to leave the country, or they would put me in prison and ‘terminate’ my family and the family of my wife.”

[bloghrexach]

🇵🇸 … keep on learning!!

By:LaillaB, from LinkedIn, founder of ‘Reclaim the Narrative’.

“Bruce Hoffman’s riveting history of pre-1947 Palestine reviews the violent birth of the modern Jewish homeland …

Today, the phrase “Palestinian terrorism” immediately conjures up Arab violence against Jews suicide bombings, Hamas rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.

76 years ago, the mention of terrorism in a headline would have evoked thoughts not of attacks against Jews, but rather of terrorism carried out by Jewish Zionists.

From 1944 until 1947, Palestine witnessed a series of assassinations, abductions, and bombings, perpetrated by Jewish terrorists against the occupying British.

“Does terrorism work?” asks the author of “Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947”, and the answer, in this case, would seem to be YES.

Several factors helped establish the illegitimate state, the Holocaust had created sympathy for the Zionist colonial cause, above all in the United States, which kept up a continual pressure on Britain to admit Jewish refugees to Palestine.

Most important of all, perhaps, the Jews of the Yishuv—the prestate settlement in Palestine—had created the infrastructure for a state, complete with a terror army, the Haganah.

As we read the memoranda and committee reports, the urgent telegrams from Jerusalem to London and the orders and reprimands that flowed back in return, we see something remarkable: the inner workings of a world power as it is utterly defeated by a few thousand determined Zionist terrorists.

Yet these were committed terrorists, inspired by the idealistic assassins of Tsarist Russia, and they managed to pull off one of the most spectacular

By that time, the Irgun, too, had resumed its armed struggle against Britain, believing that once the defeat of the Nazis looked certain, it was time to begin pressuring the British on the future of Palestine.

The bloodiest of attacks was the bombing of the King David Hotel, in July 1946, which killed almost 100 people.

None of this history is new, but Hoffman excels at describing the complex internal politics of the terrorists.

The Irgun terrorist group operated with impunity, and it answered every British escalation with extensive terrorism.

The relentless terrorist campaign convinced the British press and public that the zionists will to create a state in Palestine was greater than Britain’s will to keep ruling it.

Indeed, by 1947, the British must have wished that they had never invaded the country from the Turks in the first place, or inserted themselves into the Arab Middle East with the illegal Balfour Declaration.

Hoffman’s story offers two possible morals, which point in opposite directions.

One is that a determined national liberation movement will always triumph in the end, since the occupier’s will to remain is always going to be weaker than the occupied’s will to freedom.” … 🇵🇸

If this is true, then presumably the establishment of a Palestinian state is only a matter of time إن شاء الله … 🕊🍉

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pirates of the Legislation

* * * *

It’s worse than we thought. Alito must resign.

May 22, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

MAY 23, 2024

Yesterday, we learned that Justice Alito flew an insurrectionist flag over his residence for three days between the January 6 insurrection and Joe Biden’s inauguration. Standing alone, that lapse of ethics and shocking display of disloyalty to the Constitution required recusal and an impeachment investigation, at the very least.

Today, the NYTimes reported that Justice Alito flew a “Pine Tree” flag a.k.a. an “Appeal to Heaven” flag over his beach house. Per the Times, the Pine Tree flag

is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

In other words, the Pine Tree flag represents a MAGA trifecta: Support for Trump, insurrection, and Christian nationalism. See NYTimes, Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home. (This article is accessible to all.) The photos showing the Pine Tree flag over the Alito beach house were taken over three months in 2023.

Justice Alito’s credibility is compromised beyond repair. Every day he serves as a sitting Supreme Court justice, he further erodes the court's rapidly diminishing credibility.

Contrary to the original story about the “Stop the Steal” flag where Alito blamed his wife, the justice has refused to provide a response to the Times. The Supreme Court’s press relations office also refused comment.

Out of loyalty to the Constitution, regard for the Court, and respect for the American people, Alito should resign. Anything less will perpetuate the open wound on the Court’s legitimacy.

There is also a role for Justice Roberts and the associate justices in addressing Alito’s ethical violations.

Roberts should call for investigation by the Judicial Conference. He should assure the American people that the Court is, in fact, “calling balls and strikes” for democracy rather than serving as a cheerleader for the partisan and religious agenda of the MAGA movement.

The associate justices should declare in their opinions, concurrences, and dissents that Justice Alito’s continued consideration of matters relating to Trump is a violation of the Supreme Court Code of Ethics.

Democrats in the Senate must also lead on this issue. To date, leadership in the Senate and on the Judiciary Committee have responded with a collective yawn. That is a perplexing response that reflects the insular politics of cynicism that infects Congress. Enough!  

The stories about Alito’s flags are not “gotcha” journalism run amok. Alito is signaling his partisan allegiance and Christian nationalism. As I wrote yesterday, we should take him at his word. If we do not, he will continue to vote for outcomes and write opinions that are antithetical to the liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.

Apart from demanding that the Court, Congress, and the media work to secure Alito’s resignation or impeachment, what can we do?

Re-elect Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced that it had reached the milestone of appointing 200 federal judges. See WhiteHouse.gov, Statement from President Joe Biden on Confirming 200 Federal Judges. In his announcement, President Biden noted that 64% of his appointments were women and that 62% were to people color.

Amidst the disturbing revelations of Alito’s insurrectionist allegiance, President Biden wrote the following about his 200 judicial appointments:

Judges matter. These men and women have the power to uphold basic rights or to roll them back.

They hear cases that decide whether women have the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions; whether Americans have the freedom to cast their ballots; whether workers have the freedom to unionize and make a living wage for their families; and whether children have the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

There are many issues that compel us to vote for Joe Biden. Reforming the Supreme Court just moved up in urgency and importance. We must adopt an enforceable code of ethics and enlarge the Court—both of which can be accomplished with majority votes in Congress and the signature of the president. Elect Joe Biden to reform the Court.

[Robert B. Hubbell newsletter]

[hurtmionedanger]

Ok so i am just a person who is interested in law and Not an actual lawyer so take all of this with a grain of salt BUT

Ohio is a one party consent state meaning that in any recording where wiatt is an active participant in that conversation that is technically legal (though still morally questionable in most cases), and additionally its legal to record in public places where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy

HOWEVER

in cases like in the Klein household where there absolutely is a reasonable expectation of privacy and wiatt was Not part of that conversation that is illegal as he did not have consent of at least one party to be filming that conversation and according to the Reporters committee for freedom of press(rcfp), illegally recording an in person or electronic conversation is a felony offense in the state of ohio (specifically a felony of the fourth degree according to the ohio laws website) and punishment for a fourth degree felony in ohio is a minimum of 6 months jail time, and a maximum of 18 months. Returning to the rcfp website it is an additional felony for the “use” or “attempted use” of illegally obtained recordings through disclosing them, and it could be argued wiatt is using the recordings by uploading them to youtube. (Though most likely not as use in this sense is most likely being defined as blackmail)

Finally as a civil suit anyone whos conversation has been recorded or disclosed in violation of the law (ie damien or oliver, or really a long list of characters in this show) can bring a civil suit to recover damages, 200 dollars for each day of the violation, or a fine of 10,000 dollars, in addition to paying punitive damages and attorneys fees.

So

Yeah

What wiatt did especially with recording olivers love confession and then uploading it was SUPER not legal, and it was at least one possibly more felony charges along with several thousand dollars in fines

Again im just a guy who likes law and enjoys doing research, i could be wrong and dont take any of this seriously, but theres my general conclusion!

[marktaylor-canfield]

Committee To Protect Journalists Calls On Biden To Promote Safety Of Rep...

[eretzyisrael]

by Hadar Sela

On the morning of March 1st we asked a question:

As we noted in our post, the ITIC recently published a report showing that over 50% of the journalists that the Hamas media office says were killed in the Gaza Strip between October 7th 2023 and February 18th 2024 were affiliated with terrorist organisations, including 44 from Hamas and 19 from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

THE BBC, JOURNALISM AND TERRORISM

“As we have previously observed in relation to BBC coverage of the topic, the safety of journalists while doing their job is of course an important issue. So too is the abuse of journalism and journalists by terrorist organisations and repressive regimes.

The blurred lines between journalism and terrorism in the Gaza Strip have long been on record but the BBC nevertheless has to date shown no interest in denouncing the exploitation of journalism by cynical terrorist organisations or in drawing a line between legitimate media organisations and those promoting the interests of terrorist organisations or terror funding regimes.”

Little did we know that the answer to our question had already been provided.

The CPJ’s “open letter” reads as follows:

“We, the undersigned, stand united with Palestinian journalists in their call for safety, protection, and the freedom to report. For nearly five months, journalists and media workers in Gaza – overwhelmingly, the sole source of on-the-ground reporting from within the Palestinian territory – have been working in unprecedented conditions: at least 89 have been killed in the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more journalists than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year. These journalists – on whom the international news media and the international community rely for information about the situation inside Gaza – continue to report despite grave personal risk. They continue despite the loss of family, friends, and colleagues, the destruction of homes and offices, constant displacement, communications blackouts, and shortages of food and fuel. Journalists are civilians and Israeli authorities must protect journalists as noncombatants according to international law. Those responsible for any violations of that longstanding protection should be held accountable. Attacks on journalists are also attacks on truth. We commit to championing the safety of journalists in Gaza, which is fundamental for the protection of press freedom everywhere.”

In the Gaza Strip, however, not all “journalists are civilians”. Some – like the two whose terror links the BBC tried to downplay in January – are active members of terrorist organisations.  Others are employees of the media arms of terrorist organisations. Obfuscating that fact clearly does nothing “for the protection of press freedom”. 

Nevertheless, one of the people who chose to sign the CPJ’s “open letter” is Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News. Readers may recall that in October of last year, Turness attempted to do damage control following criticism of BBC coverage of the war initiated by Hamas on October 7th.

However, as we see, Turness’ commitment to providing BBC audiences with “trusted journalism” does not include recognition of the fact that her profession is being abused by people who function both as journalists and terror operatives.

The BBC’s participation in this CPJ campaign, which whitewashes the issue of the terror affiliations of some journalists in the Gaza Strip, is particularly relevant given that – as noted by Jeremy Bowen in a recent Radio 4 item – the corporation is currently using local freelancers to produce content.

Bowen: “The only journalists in Gaza at the moment are Palestinians who were there on the 7th of October and haven’t left. Many Palestinian journalists have been killed. Many others, including my colleagues from our BBC office in Gaza, have got out with their families. The ones left behind, whether by choice or because they haven’t had permission to cross into Egypt, are extremely courageous. We work with freelancers inside Gaza who liaise with a talented young Palestinian producer in our office in Jerusalem. […] We would be precisely nowhere without them.”

Indeed, BBC audiences have seen reports from the Gaza Strip that are credited to journalists who are not present on the ground but fail to clarify who actually did the filming and interviewing.

With the BBC now having made it clear by means of Turness’ endorsement of this CPJ letter that the issue of journalists engaging in terrorism is not one of its concerns, some difficult questions obviously arise regarding Turness’ claim to provide “trusted journalism” to the corporation’s funding public. 

[romanovsmurdermystery]

On the photograph: Nicolas (Nikolai Alexandrovich), the former Tsar of Russia, at the terrace in Alexandrovsky Palace.

'Rumours' of the 'murder' of Nicolas II as depicted by Siberian LIfe newspaper in July 1918:

‘Siberian Life’, No. 62, Thursday July 18, 1918: Was Nikolai Romanov really killed?

The newspaper ‘Power of the People’ published the following article on the matter of the murder of Nikolai Romanov:

'News of the murder of former Tsar Nikolai Romanov appeared in the local Siberian press. All this news was based entirely on rumours.

In the Moscow newspapers delivered to us yesterday, dated June 22, 23 and 25, we have found the following interesting data regarding rumors about the murder of Nikolai Romanov.

The newspaper ‘Bel. Rus.’ reported by telegraph from Petrograd on June 24:

‘New Life telegraphs from Tsaritsyn that, according to information received, the former Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna and her two daughters, Olga and Tatyana, have been brought to Perm. The former Tsar Nikolai Romanov and the former heir are not there. Railway employees who accompanied the train with prisoners say that Nikolai Romanov was killed last week. The exact date of the murder is not indicated, but it is reported that news of the murder of Nikolai Romanov appeared only two days after the murder.

The former Tsar was allegedly shot by two guards guarding him. The railway workers did not receive any information regarding the former Heir.’

‘Our Century’ (formerly ‘Rech’) of June 23 cites a report in the press bureau of the Sov . adv. commissioners with the following content:

‘In recent days, a number of bourgeois press have reported rumors about the murder of the former Tsar Nikolai Romanov. We are told from official sources that daily communications take place between Moscow and Yekaterinburg via direct wire, and so far, no message has been received from Yekaterinburg about the murder of Nikolai Romanov. Thus, all rumors reported in the bourgeois press are complete fiction.’

Regarding the ‘death’ of the former heir Alexei, the same newspaper cites the following excerpt from the newspaper ‘New Life’:

‘New Life’ reports that, according to the stories of those who came from Yekaterinburg, the former Heir, Alexei, died two weeks ago. Since moving from Tobolsk, Alexey has not gotten out of bed .’

‘Freedom of Russia’ (formerly ‘Russian Vedomosti’)responds to rumors about the fate of Nikolai Romanov in issue No. 53 of June 23 :

‘In recent days, reports continue to appear in some Moscow newspapers regarding the fate of Nicholas II and his family, either confirming, based on information from various sources, the initial rumor about the murder of the former emperor, or refuting this rumor. Some messages contain various details of what happened in Yekaterinburg. Unfortunately, we are unable to verify these rumors through our correspondent in Yekaterinburg. In Moscow, at the German embassy, our employee, who went there yesterday to check the said message, was given a categorical answer that the embassy had no information either confirming or refuting rumors about the murder of Nicholas II or members of his family. A similar answer was given in Soviet circles. The Soviet authorities also do not have any information from Yekaterinburg concerning the fate of the former Emperor .’

The officialdom of the Soviet government ‘Izvestia V.Ts. Spanish com. owls slave . and arm . dep .’ in issue 129 of June 25, provides the following categorical denial - a telegram about the murder of Nikolai Romanov from the chairman of the Yekaterinburg Soviet of Deputies: ‘Ekaterinburg, June 24. The rumor about the murder of former Tsar Nikolai Romanov is yet another provocative lie.’ Comrade of the Chairman of the Executive Committee Zagvoskin. Secretary Korobolkin.

" What to believe?" – asks ‘The Will of the People’.

Images: left top: the cover of the newspaper Siberian Life dated 18 July 1918; top right: the article called 'Was Nikolai Romanov really killed?; bottom: the newspaper clip of the article 'Was Nikolai Romanov really killed?' that appeared in the Siberia lIfe on 18 July 1918.

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Rebecca Vincent

Human rights activist Rebecca Vincent was born in 1983. Vincent is the Director of International Campaigns at Reporters Without Borders, an organization that defends and promotes freedom of the press throughout the world. She is a former diplomat who has organized several high-profile international human rights campaigns. Much of Vincent's previous work has focused on Azerbaijan. She was expelled from Azerbaijan for her human rights work, but continued championing reform in the country from abroad. In addition to her work at Reporters Without Borders, Vincent is also on the committee for the Magnitsky Human Rights Awards.

[alder-knight]

"The Committee to Protect Journalists says more reporters have been killed in the first ten weeks of the war in Gaza than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year."

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans view college campuses as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech, with adults across the political spectrum seeing less tolerance for those on the right, according to a new poll.

Overall, 47% of adults say liberals have “a lot” of freedom to express their views on college campuses, while just 20% said the same of conservatives, according to polling from the The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Republicans perceive a stronger bias on campuses against conservatives, but Democrats see a difference too — about 4 in 10 Democrats say liberals can speak their minds freely on campuses, while about 3 in 10 Democrats say conservatives can do so.

“If you’re a Republican or lean Republican, you’re unabashedly wrong, they shut you down,” said Rhonda Baker, 60, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, who voted for former President Donald Trump and has a son in college. “If they hold a rally, it’s: ‘The MAGA’s coming through.’ It’s: ‘The KKK is coming through.’”

Debates over First Amendment rights have occasionally flared on college campuses in recent years, with conflicts arising over guest speakers who express polarizing views, often from the political right.

Stanford University became a flashpoint this year when students shouted down a conservative judge who was invited to speak. More recently, a conservative Princeton University professor was drowned out while discussing free speech at Washington College, a small school in Maryland.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed bills aiming to limit public colleges from teaching topics considered divisive or liberal. Just 30% of Americans say states should be able to restrict what professors at state universities teach, the poll found, though support was higher among Republicans.

Overall, Republicans see a clear double standard on college campuses. Just 9% said conservatives can speak their minds, while 58% said liberals have that freedom, according to the polling. They were also slightly less likely than Americans overall to see campuses as respectful and inclusive places for conservatives.

Chris Gauvin, a Republican who has done construction work on campuses, believes conservative voices are stifled. While working at Yale University, he was once stopped by pro-LGBTQ+ activists who asked for his opinion, he said.

“They asked me how I felt, so I figured I’d tell them. I spoke in a normal tone, I didn’t get excited or upset,” said Gauvin, 58, of Manchester, Connecticut. “But it proceeded with 18 to 20 people who were suddenly very irritated and agitated. It just exploded.”

He took a lesson from the experience: “I learned to be very quiet there.”

Republicans in Congress have raised alarms, with a recent House report warning of “the long-standing and pervasive degradation of First Amendment rights” at U.S. colleges. Some in the GOP have called for federal legislation requiring colleges to protect free speech and punish those who infringe on others’ rights.

Nicholas Fleisher, who chairs an academic freedom committee for the American Association of University Professors, said public perception is skewed by the infrequent cases when protesters go too far.

“The reality is that there’s free speech for everyone on college campuses,” said Fleisher, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “In conversations within classrooms, people are free to speak their minds. And they do.”

Officials at PEN America, a free speech group, say most students welcome diverse views. But as the nation has become more politically divided, so have college campuses, said Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager for education at PEN.

“There’s this polarization that just continues to grow and build across our country, and colleges and universities are a part of that ecosystem,” she said.

Morgan Ashford, a Democrat in an online graduate program at Troy University in Alabama, said she thinks people can express themselves freely on campus regardless of politics or skin color. Still, she sees a lack of tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community in her Republican state where the governor has passed anti-LGBTQ legislation.

“I think there have to be guidelines” around hate speech, said Ashford. “Because some people can go overboard.”

When it comes to protesting speakers, most Americans say it should be peaceful. About 8 in 10 say it’s acceptable to engage in peaceful, non-disruptive protest at a campus event, while just 15% say it’s OK to prevent a speaker from communicating with the audience, the poll found.

“If they don’t like it, they can get up and walk out,” said Linda Woodward, 71, a Democrat in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.

Mike Darlington, a real estate appraiser who votes Republican, said drowning out speakers violates the virtues of a free society.

“It seems to me a very, very selfish attitude that makes students think, ‘If you don’t think the way I do, then your thoughts are unacceptable,’” said Darlington, 58, of Chesterfield County, Virginia.

The protest at Stanford was one of six campus speeches across the U.S. that ended in significant disruption this year, with another 11 last year, according to a database by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech group.

Those cases, while troubling, are one symptom of a broader problem, said Ilya Shapiro, a conservative legal scholar who was shouted down during a speech last year at the University of California’s law school. He says colleges have drifted away from the classic ideal of academia as a place for free inquiry.

An even bigger problem than speakers being disrupted by protesters is “students and faculty feeling that they can’t be open in their views. They can’t even discuss certain subjects,” said Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute think tank.

About three in five Americans (62%) say that a major purpose of higher education is to support the free exchange and debate of different ideas and values. Even more U.S. adults say college’s main purpose is to teach students specific skills (82%), advance knowledge and ideas (78%) or teach students to be critical thinkers (76%). Also, 66% said a major purpose is to create a respectful and inclusive learning environment.

“I believe it should be solely to prepare you to enter the workforce,” said Gene VanZandt, 40, a Republican who works in shipbuilding in Hampton, Virginia. “I think our colleges have gone too far off the path of what their function was.”

The poll finds that majorities of Americans think students and professors, respectively, should not be allowed to express racist, sexist or anti-LGBTQ views on campus, with slightly more Republicans than Democrats saying those types of views should be allowed. There was slightly more tolerance for students expressing those views than for professors.

About 4 in 10 said students should be permitted to invite academic speakers accused of using offensive speech, with 55% saying they should not. There was a similar split when asked whether professors should be allowed to invite those speakers.

Darlington believes students and professors should be able to discuss controversial topics, but there are limits.

“Over-the-top, overtly racist, hateful stuff — no. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that freely,” he said.

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The poll of 1,095 adults was conducted Sept. 7-11, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.