PEC Annual Report – Part I

–PEC

AT LEAST 1887 JOURNALISTS HAVE DIED FROM COVID-19 IN 85 COUNTRIES

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77 JOURNALISTS KILLED SO FAR IN 2021 

09.12.2021. PEC annual report.

Afghanistan and Mexico most dangerous countries in 2021 for journalists

Afghanistan and Mexico are the most dangerous countries for media work this year, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said in its annual report in Geneva on Thursday in view of Human Rights Day. Since January, 77 media workers have been killed in 28 countries around the world.

Of the 77 journalists murdered, 29 were in war zones (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Gaza, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen). 62% wew killed outside conflict zones, by criminal gangs. Terrorist groups were responsible of at least 20 murders (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen), an increase compared to previous years.

07.12.2021. MYANMAR. PEC demands unconditional release of all Myanmar journalists. Lately the PEC expresses serious concern over a recent intentional attack on anti-junta protesters that left many seriously wounded including a female journalist Ma Hmu Yandanar Khet Moh Moh Tun (photo) who was on duty at that moment in the Yangon city and still remains in critical condition. It’s already a grave situation in Myanmar and following the imprisonment of pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by the military court in NayPieTaw the situation may deteriorate more.

30.11.2021. The PEC Award 2021 goes to Indian Journalist Nava Thakuria

The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) rewards Indian journalist Nava Thakuria for his relentless initiatives to safeguard the rights of media persons in the south Asian country and defending the press freedom in the region with an exemplary commitment. Last year, a record number of 15 journalists were killed in India and six more this year. The PEC award also wants to pay tribute to some 300 journalists who died throughout India with Covid-19 complications (on the picture Nava Thakuria, far right, during a demonstration with other media workers).

21.11.2021. SOMALIA. Journalists again among the prime targets of terrorist groups. 

Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) condemns in the strongest terms possible the targeted killing of the state-owned Radio Mogadishu journalist and director, Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled (popularly known as Abdiaziz Africa, photo) and the injuries of two other colleagues in Mogadishu, on Saturday night 20 November. The prominent Somali journalist who was a critic of the al-Shabab armed group was killed by a suicide bomber as he was leaving a restaurant in the capital, Mogadishu, relatives and officials said. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the blast. He became the second journalist murdered in Somalia this year. On 1 March, gunmen shot dead independent journalist, Jamal Farah Adan in Galkayo. Those responsible must be held accountable.

20.11.2021. Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is pleased to welcome a new member to its steering committee. Jean-Philippe Jutzi (photo) replaces our vice-president who died on November 7, Daniel Favre, founding member of the PEC in 2004. Current president of the Swiss section of the International Union of the Francophone Press (UPF), Jean-Philippe (66) was a journalist in several Swiss newspapers from 1982 to 2003 (La Liberté, Le Matin, 24 Heures), before becoming the spokesperson for the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit from 2003 to 2005, then the deputy head of communication of the SDC (Swiss Development Cooperation Agency) (2006-2008), and the spokesperson for the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in 2008 and 2009. From 2010 to 2013, he was in charge of Cultural Affairs at the FDFA and member of Présence Suisse before becoming cultural advisor at the Swiss Embassy in France (2013 to 2016) and head of the section media and culture at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing before retiring in 2020. “His vast experience as both a journalist and diplomat in Switzerland and abroad will certainly be very useful within the Steering Committee of the PEC in strengthening our work to protect journalists around the world, ” said General Secretary of the PEC Blaise Lempen.

14.11.2021. AFGHANISTAN. Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is sad to learn that another journalist has been killed in Afghanistan. Hamid Saighani (photo) was killed in yesterday’s explosion in Kabul. His wife Fawzia Wahdat, also a journalist, confirmed the heart-breaking news. Saighani used to work with Khurahid and Aryana News. It is the 12th journalist to be killed since the beginning of 2021 in the war-torn country, according to PEC casualties.

Meanwhile, in INDIA, a 22 years old journalist and Right to Information (RTI) activist named Buddhinath Jha (also known as Avinash Jha, photo) was found dead in Madhubani district of Bihar in eastern India. Buddhinath used to report on many fake medical clinics operating in his locality He is the sixth journalist killed this year in India.

13.11.2021. MYANMAR. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) expressed its dismay over the 11-year imprisonment of American journalist Danny Fenster (photo) by the military junta of Myanmar (also known as Burma) and demanded his immediate and unconditional release by the military dictators in Naypietaw.  Nearly 50 journalists are behind bars in Myanmar.

12.11.2021. The PEC committee learned with sadness of the death, Sunday November 7, 2021 in Lausanne, of one of its founding members, Daniel Favre, at the age of 82.

11.11.2021. PAKISTAN. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is shocked by the killing of two media activists in one week in Pakistan. Pakistan loses one more socially responsible media activist Muhammad Zada (photo) killed by two gunmen on 8 November at his residence in Sakhakot area of Malakand locality in  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Nazim Samwal Jokhio, a videographer in western Sindh province, was killed on 4 November. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa authorities must take the brutal murder of Nazim Samwal Jokhio and Muhammad Zada seriously and assure that the culprits will not enjoy impunity.

10.11.2021. YEMEN. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) strongly condemns the killing of a Yemeni journalist and her child in an explosion that targeted her family’s vehicle Tuesday in Yemen’s southern city of Aden. The explosion took place in Aden’s neighborhood of Khormaksar when Rasha Abdalla (photo, with her husband and her first child) and her family were heading to a doctor, officials said. Abdalla, who works for the United Arab Emirates-based Asharq satellite television channel, was pregnant. Her husband Mahmoud al-Attomy, also a journalist, was seriously wounded and hospitalized in critical condition. It is the third journalist to be killed in Yemen in one month and the fourth this year. On October 10, two yemeni journalists were killed in an explosion targeting the governor of Aden. Perpetrators must be brought to justice. The war since 2015 in Yemen spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

08.11.2021. UNITED NATIONS. Civil society participation at UN Human Rights Council cannot be an afterthought. Civic space conditions are declining under the pretext of Covid-19. These measures have been instrumentalised by some delegations. Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) joins other organisations in recommending the maintenance of the option of remote participation in all debates.

International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists 2 November 2021

To mark the United Nations International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on 2 November 2021, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) demands governments to bring those who threaten journalists to justice. According to PEC figures, at least 66 journalists have been killed so far this year (2 more than last year in 10 months). Mexico and Afghanistan remain the most dangerous countries for journalism. “There is no progress for the safety of media workers and killers of journalists still get away with murder. No crime must go unpunished”, stressed PEC Secretary-General Blaise Lempen.  No one has been held to account in 81% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, CPJ’s 2021 Global Impunity Index has found. Two journalists were killed in Mexico in the last three days. On Thursday, Mexican journalist Fredy López Arévalo (photo) was shot dead outside his home in San Cristobal de las Casas in the state of Chiapas. Lopez, who was a correspondent for El Universal in Guatemala in the 1990s, worked for the Central American magazine Panorama and was in charge of the Notimex office in Chiapas. He also was head of information in the newspaper Novedades and published articles in the magazine Proceso. On October 31, in Acapulco, photojournalist Alfredo Cardoso died from his wounds. PEC strongly condemns those new cowardly murders which brings the total figure for Mexico to 10 journalists killed since January.

PEC endorses demand of Cambodian civil society organizations (CSO) on the occasion of ‘International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’ for ensuring safety to working journalists in the south-east Asian country and urged the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh to allow the media persons to perform their duties without any fear and trepidations. According to a group of CSOs, the incidents of persecution against journalists are increasing while over 80 media persons were targeted in 2021 till date. Among them over 30 were arrested, 20 subjected to violence, 8 faced judicial harassment (photo: demonstration in Cambodia for the Day to End Impunity)