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.

'It's important that reforms be implemented' said UN chief Antonio Guterres on Lebanon

In a virtual meeting before Lebanon's prime minister announced the government's resignation on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "a credible and transparent investigation determine the cause of the explosion and bring about the accountability demanded by the Lebanese people."

The Aug. 4 detonation at a port warehouse of more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed at least 163 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed swathes of the Mediterranean capital, compounding months of political and economic meltdown. President Michel Aoun accepted the resignation and asked Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government - formed in January with the backing of Iran's powerful Hezbollah group and its allies - to stay as a caretaker until a new cabinet is formed, a televised announcement said.

Ahead of Diab's announcement, demonstrations broke out for a third day in central Beirut, with some protesters hurling rocks at security forces guarding an entrance leading to the parliament building, who responded with tear gas. Diab's government was under severe pressure to step down. Some ministers had already resigned over the weekend and Monday while others, including the finance minister, were set to follow suit, ministerial and political sources said.

Aoun has said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. In later comments, he said the investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when angry demonstrations spread over an economic crisis rooted in pervasive graft, mismanagement and high-level unaccountability.

North Korea has 'probably' developed nuclear devices to fit ballistic missiles: UN report

North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it has "probably developed miniaturised nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles," according to a confidential U.N. report.

The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea's past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturised nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017. The interim report, seen by Reuters, was submitted to the 15-member U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee on Monday.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is continuing its nuclear program, including the production of highly enriched uranium and construction of an experimental light water reactor. A Member State assessed that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is continuing production of nuclear weapons," the report said. North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week there would be no more war as the country's nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats. The U.N. report said one country, which it did not identify, assessed that North Korea "may seek to further develop miniaturisation in order to allow incorporation of technological improvements such as penetration aid packages or, potentially, to develop multiple warhead systems."

North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. While the Security Council has steadily strengthened sanctions, U.N. monitors regularly report that North Korea's continues to enhance its programs and violate sanctions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times since 2018, but failed to make progress on U.S. calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and North Korea's demands for an end to sanctions.

In May 2018 North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its main nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, which Pyongyang said was proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing. But they did not allow experts to witness the dismantlement of the site.

The U.N. report said that as only tunnel entrances were known to have been destroyed and there is no indication of a comprehensive demolition, one country had assessed that North Korea could rebuild and reinstall within three months the infrastructure needed to support a nuclear test.

UN: US protesters, journalists need their rights protected

Geneva, Switzerland: Protesters and journalists in US cities, including Portland in Oregon, must be able to take part in peaceful demonstrations without risking arbitrary arrest, detention, the unnecessary use of force or other rights violations, the UN human rights office said Friday.

Spokeswoman Liz Throssell of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted reports that some peaceful demonstrators in Portland had been detained by unidentified officers. That is a worry, because it may place those detained outside the protection of the law, and may give rise to arbitrary detention and other human rights violations, she told reporters in Geneva.

Throssell said authorities should make sure that security forces who are deployed are properly and clearly identified and use force only when necessary proportionately and in line with international standards. Victims, she said, should have the right to a remedy and be able to seek an investigation of any rights violations.

In a controversial move, President Donald Trump has dispatched federal agents to cities like Portland amid unrest on the sidelines of protests seeking racial justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing by police in May. Unrest has escalated in Portland after some federal agents were accused of whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause.

Two US government watchdogs said on Thursday that they had opened investigations into the conduct of federal agents in Portland. 

Tanker off Yemen risks spilling four times as much oil as Exxon Valdez- UN

If action is not taken to deal with a deteriorating oil tanker stranded off the coast of war-torn Yemen there is a risk it could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster near Alaska, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

The Safer tanker is carrying 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded off Yemen's Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for more than five years. On May 27 water began leaking into the engine room, threatening to destabilize it, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock told a Security Council meeting on the issue.

While divers from the Safer Corporation were able to fix the leak, Lowcock - who has mentioned the plight of the tanker during monthly council briefings on Yemen for more than a year - warned that "it is impossible to say how long it might hold."

In a statement after the briefing, the 15-member Security Council "expressed deep alarm at the growing risk that the Safer oil tanker could rupture or explode, causing an environmental, economic, and humanitarian catastrophe for Yemen and its neighbors."

Last week Houthi officials said they would agree to allow a U.N. mission to conduct a technical assessment and whatever initial repairs might be feasible on the tanker. But Lowcock said similar assurances were given in August 2019 and then the Houthis canceled the mission one day before departure.

Yemen foreign minister Mohammed al Hadhrami said- "The proposal consisted of three stages, first, assessment and necessary repairs; two, basic maintenance and facilitating oil extraction; and three, disposal of the tanker. And that all potential revenue from the sale of oil is to be used as a contribution to paying salaries to civil servants in Yemen. The government of Yemen have agreed to this and the Houties have not. I am afraid, Mr. President, that settling to merely granting access to the tanker by the Houties at this stage will not solve the problem, and it will enable them yet again to highjack the issue in the future, when the pressure is lifted."

Permanent representative of Egypt to the UN, Mohamed Idris said-"The deteriorating condition of the 44-year-old Safer oil tanker represents a clear and eminent threat that can at any moment cause a massive environmental and economic catastrophe that adds to the tremendous suffering of the people of Yemen, as well as causing irreversible damage to the coastal states of the Red Sea, including Egypt, and the safety of international maritime transportation through the strategic Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, which is the southern gate to the Suez Canal."

The Security Council called on the Houthis to facilitate unconditional U.N. access to the tanker as soon as possible. Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Iran-allied Houthi group ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition in 2015 intervened in a bid to restore the government.