Kashmir-based journalist allegedly beaten and abused at police station for writing a news report accusing the cops

Srinagar, J&K: A journalist, who was summoned by cyber police over his article on alleged intimidation of Twitter users by police, has alleged that he was slapped at the police station and that the SP verbally abused his family.

Auqib Javeed, a Kashmir-based journalist, was summoned on September 18 after his story was published in Article 14, an online portal. In a statement, the Cyber Police Station denied that Javeed was beaten and intimidated. SP Tahir Ashraf Bhatti said the police have already issued a statement. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express that “he would personally look into it”

Javeed, an executive member of Kashmir Press Club (KPC), went to the police on September 19 along with two KPC executives. There, he said, he was slapped by a masked policeman. Javeed alleged that SP Bhatti abused him. “He started abusing my mother and sister… He said I had maligned the image of cyber police.”

The police now admit the only thing wrong with the story @AuqibJaveed's wrote for us was that we ran a photo of the old cyber police building.
And for this he was summoned, slapped, abused & detained there for over 5 hours. https://t.co/jZhMK1q27Y

— Article 14 (@Article14live) September 21, 2020

Javeed alleged that Bhatti was upset about the headline of his article and the accompanying picture of the old Cyber Police Station. “I called the editor, who quickly put out the note and tweet about the photograph… We refused to accept that the story itself was ‘fake and baseless’, as the SP insisted it was,” he said.

The Cyber Police Station stated, “The allegations of excesses by police officials/officer, published subsequently by Article-14 and other social media handles are misleading and factually incorrect, hence refuted. (The) writer was called in the Cyber Police Station Kashmir in connection with clarification of facts mentioned in the article…The writer and other accompanying senior journalists regretted the incorrect detail and assured that story will be tweaked accordingly … Later they left for their respective destinations.”

Three years after Tripura journalist Santanu Bhowmik murder, family is still waiting for justice

Agartala, Tripura: Three years after journalist Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering a political protest at Mandwi village in Tripura, his family is still waiting for justice.

Santanu Bhowmik, a journalist with Channel DinRaat, a local cable television channel, was killed on September 20, 2017. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Santanu’s mother Papri Nag Bhowmik, 55, Sunday said she wants to see her son get justice before she dies. Bhowmik, who serves in a clerical position with the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), said: “My son is gone. I just want to see his criminals brought to justice before I die. What else can I ask for?”

Santanu’s sister Pinki Bhowmik, who was pursuing BSc in Horticulture outside Tripura at the time of his death, has now finished her studies and is staying with her mother. His estranged father Sadhan Bhowmik, who had expressed distrust in the then-Left government’s probe and sought CBI inquiry, could not be reached for comment.

Barely two months after Santanu’s killing, Sudip Dutta Bhowmik, of Syandan Patrika, a local Bengali newspaper, was shot inside Tripura State Rifles (TSR) 2nd battalion headquarters at RK Nagar in West Tripura on November 21. Their murders had been among the key issues on which Tripura’s 2018 Assembly polls were fought.

Then-ruling CPI(M) had accused Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) cadres of being involved in Santanu’s killing. However, IPFT, now a partner in the state government with the BJP, had rubbished the allegations. 

The Left Front government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the issue, a move opposed by journalists, who demanded a CBI probe.

This demand found place in the BJP’s Vision Document for the Assembly polls, and shortly after taking charge, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb handed over the case to the CBI. However, two years later, journalists are angry with the slow progress of the investigation. On Sunday, several memorial programmes were held for Santanu, where the demand to bring his killers to book was repeated.

Santanu’s news channel remembered him in a programme Sunday morning. Samir Dhar, Executive Editor of Channel DinRaat, offered floral tributes in memory of the late journalist and said, “We haven’t got justice for Santanu’s death yet. He was working to expose people conspiring to destabilise peace in the state. He was brutally killed”.

A group of journalists under the banner of Tripura Assembly of Journalists (TAJ) held a condolence meeting in Santanu’s memory in front of Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhawan in Agartala.

TAJ Chairerson Subal Kumar Dey said, “Justice for Santanu is yet to come. The entire family is helpless today, though the previous government paid Rs 10 lakh compensation to them. The incumbent government has handed over investigation to the CBI, but is not interested in actual progress.” A separate condolence meeting was held at the Agartala Press Club, where club secretary Pranab Sarkar offered tributes to Santanu.

Former Australian reporter in Beijing said his 14-year-old daughter was threatened with detention

 A former ABC reporter in Beijing said Monday that he and his 14-year-old daughter were threatened with detention before they left China two years ago.

Matthew Carney said he had not revealed the 2018 incident until now because he had wanted to avoid “negative consequences” for Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s operations in China. Two weeks ago reporters for the state-funded ABC and The Australian Financial Review newspaper became the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media to leave China due to threats of detention.

Carney was the ABC’s China bureau chief in 2018 when Australia passed laws outlawing covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which he said “outraged” China. Carney said the laws started “three months of intimidation and all types of threats” for him and his family.

Carney told his story in an interview aired on ABC radio and in an account posted on the news organization’s website Monday. There was no immediate response from China. Carney said he was told to bring this 14-year-old daughter, Yasmine, to a Beijing Public Security facility where interrogations and detentions were the norm.

A woman official told him that he and his daughter were being investigated for a “visa crime.” “Your daughter is 14 years old. She is an adult under Chinese law and as the People’s Republic of China is a law-abiding country she will be charged with the visa crime,” Carney said he was told.

He said the woman said his daughter could be detained “with other adults” in an undisclosed location. “She was obviously very skilled in interrogation and in ramping up the fear and the panic,” Carney said. Carney said he offered to leave China with his wife and three children the next day, but was told he could not leave the country while he was under investigation.

With his visa due to expire within days, the official said he could be placed in detention. After consultation with the Australian Embassy and the ABC, Carney said he decided to confess his guilt and apologize for the “bizarre visa violation,” on condition that his daughter was allowed to stay with the family.

Their confessions were video recorded and the woman told him she would write a report to “the higher authority” for judgment. With the family’s visas about to expire, the official said the judgment could be weeks away. But he got a phone call the next day and was told two-month extensions had been granted to their visas.

He said he thought it was “some bizarre theater” to send a message to himself and Australia’s government that “A, if you do bad reporting, B, if your government is going to introduce harsh laws we don’t agree with, well then there is a price to be paid?”

“In retrospect, that’s what I think it was, thank God. They didn’t follow through on their threats,” Carney said. Carney said he made the sudden decision to leave China after a Chinese woman threatened to sue him for defamation over a story he reported about Chinese attempts to engineer better citizen behavior.

He had legal advice that that he would be banned from leaving once legal proceedings were initiated against him. Australia updated its travel advice in July to warn its citizens of potential arbitrary detention on security grounds in China.

Chinese-Australian spy novelist and blogger Yang Hengjun has been detained in China since he arrived on a flight from New York in January last year in what some suspects is a Chinese reaction to deteriorating bilateral relations. The 55-year-old has since been charged with endangering state security.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the day the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media in China left the country that Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGTN, China’s English-language state media channel, had been detained on suspicion of national security crimes.

India: Delhi Journalist Rajeev Sharma arrested on charges of spying, sold sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agencies

New Delhi: A freelance journalist who was arrested on charges of spying two days ago, was allegedly passing on sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agencies, said Delhi police on saturday, claiming to have a busted a major spying operation amid soaring tensions between the two countries.

The Delhi Police said it has also arrested a Chinese woman and her Nepalese associate, and claimed that they were paying huge amounts of money to the freelance journalist Rajeev Sharma for allegedly providing sensitive information."Special Cell has arrested a freelance journalist, Rajeev Sharma, for passing sensitive information to Chinese intelligence. One Chinese lady and her Nepalese associate have also been arrested for paying him large amounts of money routed through shell companies. Chinese intelligence tasked the journalist for conveying sensitive information in lieu of large amounts of money," the police said.

"Huge number of mobile phones, laptops and other incriminating and sensitive material have been recovered," the police said. Mr Sharma, a journalist accredited with the Press Information Bureau (PIB) who lived in Delhi's Pitampura, was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Monday.

"He was found to be in possession of some classified defence-related documents. The investigation is in progress and further details will be shared in due course," senior police officer Sanjeev Kumar Yadav had said on Friday.

According to the police, Mr Sharma was getting $1,000 for each piece of information and was paid Rs. 30 lakh in one-and-a-half years. He wrote on defence-related issues for China's Global Times and was contacted by Chinese agents in 2016, the police said.

Sharply criticising the arrest the "well-known independent journalist of long standing", the Press Club of India (PCI) called the move "high-handed" and alleged that it "may be inspired by obscure or questionable considerations".

"This is on account of the dubious track record of the Special Cell. More generally also, the record of Delhi Police is hardly a shining one," it said.

"Of late, Delhi Police, including its Special Cell, have made preposterous arrests under the lawless law called UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) in which the word of the government is enough to keep an innocent person behind bars for long periods. These have happened in matters relating to anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests and the carefully designed communal killings in the so-called February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi," the PCI said. 

The arrests come amid a months-long border standoff between India and China in Ladakh that peaked on June 15, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty - a first in more than four decades. Even after that, there have been repeated attempts by the Chinese troops to recapture the heights occupied by the Indian soldiers.

Algerian Journalist Khaled Drareni’s Prison Term Reduced But Only by a Year

Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni, who was sentenced to three years in prison by an Algiers court last month, was re-sentenced to a reduced prison term of two years on September 15, Tuesday, following an appeal. This was announced in a statement released by the National Committee for the Release of Detainees. 

The Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers had on August 10 sentenced Drareni to a three-year prison term, along with a fine of 50,000 Algerian Dinars (around USD 400). Two other co-defendants, Hirak movement activists Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, were also sentenced to two years in prison along with Drareni. The two have now received reduced sentences of four months in prison each, and a one year-suspended prison term. They were released on the time served.

Drareni was arrested on March 29 while he was covering the anti-establishment Hirak (movement) protests that have swept Algeria for over a year. He was charged with “inciting an unarmed gathering” and “endangering national unity”, as well as for criticising Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the government on social media. He had called out the government for widespread corruption and political mismanagement of the country, which were the primary causes for the rise of the Hirak protests. Drareni had also expressed solidarity with the Hirak protesters and encouraged them to continue the protest until they achieve their goals of political, social and economic reform in Algeria.

Last week, @TLHumanRights Co-Chairs @RepMcGovern and @RepChrisSmith wrote to the Algerian Ambassador expressing their concerns for press freedom in #Algeria and calling for the unconditional release of journalist #KhaledDrareni. #Journalismisnotacrime https://t.co/ULDN5YajUG

— Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (@TLHumanRights) September 17, 2020

Chekib Drareni, Khaled’s brother, denounced the court’s judgement, saying in a tweet that he is “disgusted, shocked and disappointed by the court’s decision, which once again reinforces injustice in Algeria.” Drareni’s lawyer, Mustapha Bouchachi, told reporters that the defense team now intends to appeal to the Algerian supreme court. Several international press freedom and human rights organisations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International, also condemned the court’s judgement.

RSF secretary general, in a statement responding to the verdict, said, “We are outraged by the blind stubbornness of the Algerian judges who have just condemned (Drareni) to 2 years in prison. Khaled’s detention proves the regime locks itself into a logic of absurd, unfair and violent repression.” Amnesty International demanded the unconditional release of Drareni and other activists, lawyers, journalists and political prisoners who are being unjustly detained by government authorities.

An international campaign launched to secure Drareni’s release has organised rallies in cities in multiple countries in the last few weeks. Journalists affiliated to the National Khaled Drareni Support Committee organised a rally on September 14, Monday, at the Tahar-Djaout press house in Algiers. Journalists have been gathering at the press house for the last three weeks in support of Drareni and to demand his release. Similarly, French journalists staged a rally last week outside the Algerian embassy in Paris to apply international pressure on the Algerian government. Tunisian journalists also demonstrated in front of their union’s headquarters on the same day to show their solidarity and support for Drareni and demand his release.

Journalism under fire: UNESCO raises alarm over surge of attacks on media workers covering protests

In its new report, Safety of Journalists Covering Protests – Preserving Freedom of the Press During Times of Civil Unrest, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural agency (UNESCO) said that between January and June this year, journalists have been increasingly attacked, arrested and even killed.

Launching the report, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay underscored that the freedom to inform citizens on the causes of unrest and the response from State authorities, are of vital importance for democracies to thrive. “Journalists have a critical role in reporting and informing audiences on protest movements”, she said. 

Wide-ranging abuses
UNESCO’s findings reveal a “wider upward trend” in the use of unlawful force by police and security forces over the last five years, with more than 30 protests impeded by police and security forces last year alone – double the 2015 number.

The report finds that during this period, global protests have been rooted in concerns over economic injustice, government corruption, declining political freedoms and growing authoritarianism. 

It details a wide range of abuses journalists face when covering protests, from harassment, intimidation and beatings, to being shot at with lethal or non-lethal ammunition, detention and abduction.

Harassed, injured, arrested and sometimes killed…
The risks for #journalists are many when reporting on protests.

No matter the circumstances, journalists should always be able to cover any event in full security.

OUT NOW - New #WorldMediaTrends report: https://t.co/h3Kl3NsOo8 pic.twitter.com/r3RS6URcEJ

— UNESCO (@UNESCO) September 14, 2020

‘Much greater efforts’ needed
Citing the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, UNESCO said that in some protests, up to 500 separate violations occurred. And during demonstrations linked to the Black Lives Matter movement for greater racial justice, these included the use of rubber bullets and pepper balls, which led to the blinding of several journalists. 

Ms. Azoulay pointed out that “for many years, UNESCO has been raising global awareness” to ensure that journalists can do their jobs, “without fear of persecution” and has continued to train “security forces and the judiciary on international norms in freedom of expression”. However, the UNESCO chief warned the figures in the report “show that much greater efforts are needed”.



Ensuring better protection
The report also contains concrete recommendations for all actors – from media outlets and national authorities to international organizations – to ensure better protections for journalists. 

Strengthening training for police and law enforcement on freedom of expression and appropriate behaviour in dealing with the media, is just one of the proposals outlined in the Safety of Journalists.

Others include providing appropriate training and equipment to journalists, including freelancers, sent to cover demonstrations as well as appointing national ombudsmen to hold police accountable for the use of force against journalists during demonstrations.


Standing shoulder-to-shoulder
UNESCO provides technical assistance to Member States, including training for police and security forces on upholding press freedom and freedom of expression. “We call on the international community and all relevant authorities to ensure that these fundamental rights are upheld”, the UNESCO chief stated.