PEC Annual Report - Part III

–PEC

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16.07.2021. AFGHANISTAN. Very sad news: Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui (photo) was killed in Afghanistan clashes. On July 13, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist was traveling with the Afghan Special Forces when the Taliban attacked near Kandahar. Reuters India chief photographer Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday in crossfire while reporting about clashes, according to the news agency.

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The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) condemns the brutal killing of Danish Siddiqui, the sixth journalist killed in Afghanistan since the start of this year. Our thoughts are with his family and his colleagues. The PEC demands Afghan authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the killing and calls on all parties to the conflict to guarantee the protection of journalists in the current transition period.

15.07.2021. NETHERLANDS. Dutch reporter Peter R. de Vries dies after being shot last week in Amsterdam (photo: where the journalist has been attacked July 6). The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is deeply dismayed. De Vries had been fighting for his life in an Amsterdam hospital since the attack. Authorities in the Netherlands must ensure that those responsible for this heinous killing and those who ordered the crime are held to account.

De Vries, 64, was a reporter who covered crime and was on an “underworld hit list” due to his work as an adviser in a drug prosecution. Police have detained two suspects in the killing, according to news reports. “This despicable murder illustrates the dangers faced by journalists investigating criminal organizations in Europe after the killings of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017, Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February 2018, and Giorgios Karaivaz in April 2021 in Greece. Impunity must not prevail”, stressed the PEC Secretary-General Blaise Lempen.

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07.07.2021. NETHERLANDS. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is shocked by the attack on journalist Peter de Vries (photo) yesterday in the Netherlands. Those responsible must be brought to justice. Enough is enough after the killings in Europe in Malta, Slovakia and Greece. Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries, known for his work in exposing the criminal underworld, has been shot and seriously wounded on a street in Amsterdam. Three suspects were detained, including the possible gunmen, police said, without providing details.

06.07.2021. 35 journalists killed in first six months of 2021 – At least 1580 journalists dead from Covid-19

In the first six months of the year, 35 journalists were killed in 21 countries around the world, the Emblem Campaign Press (PEC) reported on Tuesday. Afghanistan was the most dangerous country with five journalists killed. The casualty figure is stable compared to the previous year (photo: the most recent victim Diego Charles, killed on 30 June in Port-au-Prince)

The Covid-19 pandemic also continues to claim many victims among media workers. Since March 2020, the PEC has identified more than 1580 journalists dead from Covid-19 in 78 countries. The number of victims slowed during the month of June, especially in India, with around 60 dead, compared to more than 200 in the world in May. Latin America witnessed the highest casualties, with more than half of the victims.

24.06.2021. MEXICO. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) condemns the murder of two journalists in one week in Mexico. Gustavo Sánchez Cabrera (photo), director of the digital newspaper Noticias Minuto a Minuto, was shot dead on 17 June in Mexico’s state of Oaxaca. Sánchez Cabrera had received violent threats in the past and had survived an armed attack in July 2020. Saul Tijerina Rentería, La Voz de Coahuila, was shot dead in Ciudad Acuna, June 23. The PEC urges a thorough investigation into those killings.

10.06.2021. Why so many journalists are dying from Covid-19 in Brazil?

Amidst layoffs, income cuts, loss of private healthcare, precarious employment, lack of social protection, unsatisfactory or dangerous working and sanitation conditions, Brazil has reached the sad mark of more than 200 media workers killed by Covid-19 infection. In comparison to the general population, the casualties’ rate has been the triple among journalists in the South American nation (photo: a press conference in Rio).

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07.06.2021. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) announced in Geneva on Monday that the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 journalists in 77 countries around the world. We deplore a record number of deaths in May, more than 200 in one month. According to the PEC tally, media in India have paid the heaviest price for the novel coronavirus, with at least 246 deaths since March 2020. Brazil follows India closely with 239 journalists who died from the coronavirus, ahead of Peru 163 and Mexico 112.

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05.06.2021. Myanmar Military Intensifies Crackdown on Journalists: The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) demands unconditional release of all scribes in Myanmar. At least 85 journalists were arrested in the last four months where over 50 scribes are still behind bars as they are facing a newly revised law on spreading wrong information. Lately, two reporters namely Ko Aung Kyaw (associated with Democratic Voice of Burma) and Ko Zaw Zaw (photo, working for Mizzima media group) were imprisoned by a military court for two years because of their coverages of public unrest.

04.06.2021. THE GENEVA CALL TO FREE JULIAN ASSANGE // APPEL DE GENEVE A LIBERER JULIAN ASSANGE.

On the occasion of a press conference and the inauguration of the statues of David Dormino in Geneva, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) signed the Geneva call to free Julian Assange and launched an urgent appeal to the new United States administration and to President Joe Biden to rescind their request for extradition to the United States and to authorize the British judicial system to free Julian Assange immediately, for humanitarian reasons. It is time to close this case, which has already gone on far too long, and to allow Julian Assange to join his family and return to his country.

01.06.2021. INDIA. The Press Emblem Campaign, the Switzerland based international media rights and safety body, appreciates the initiative of Indian federal government along with many province authorities for sanctioning financial assistances to the families of Covid-19 victims among journalists, as India continues to be a worst affected country with the highest number of scribes dying of novel coronavirus infection aggravated aliments.

23.05.2021. BELARUS. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) strongly condemns the hijacking of a Ryanair plane to arrest Raman Pratasevich (photo of the video after his arrest in Minsk), a prominent journalist and opponent of Belarus’s president Alexander Lukashenko. “This operation of banditry and state terrorism is another escalation in the repression of independent media in Belarus”, said PEC Secretary-General Blaise Lempen. “We demand the immediate release of the journalist and his girlfriend arrested by illegal means”, he added.

A spokesman in Minsk said President Lukashenko personally ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet accompany the plane – which was traveling from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania – to an airport in Minsk. Mr. Pratasevich is a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app’s Nexta channel, which Belarus last year declared as extremist after it was used to help organise major protests against Mr. Lukashenko. Mr. Pratasevich, who had fled the country for Poland, faces charges that could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on the International Civil Aviation Organisation to begin an investigation. “It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation by the special services to hijack an aircraft in order to detain activist and blogger Raman Pratasevich,” she said. Belarus continued to take action against the opposition and independent news media. Last week, 11 staff members of the TUT.by news website were detained by police. The PEC asks the democratic countries to sanction the illegal methods of the authoritarian regime.

23.05.2021. MALI. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) joins other media and associations to demand the release of French journalist Olivier Dubois (photo), after French Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed on Sunday that he was probably taken hostage by Islamist militants in West Africa’s Sahel region. He disappeared on 8 April in Mali’s northern city of Gao and then appeared on 5 May in a video appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from the JNIM (al Qaeda North Africa) holding him. The Sahel is one of the world’s most dangerous regions for journalists. Two Spanish journalists, David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, were killed on 26 April in neighbouring Burkina Faso #FreeOlivierDubois already detained for 45 days.

18.05.2021. PEC press release: India has overtaken Brazil in the number of journalists dead from Covid-19, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) announced in Geneva on Tuesday. At least 1,356 journalists have died in 76 countries from the coronavirus since March 2020. India has just passed the milestone of 200 journalists dead from Covid-19, just ahead of Brazil (194). In India, 68 journalists have died from Covid since the beginning of May, an average of four a day, a majority of them in their 40s or 50s.

15.05.2021. ISRAEL/GAZA. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) urges the United Nations to call for an international investigation on the destruction by the Israeli defence forces of a building housing the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera Network in Gaza (photo). Even if media staff working in the building have been evacuated following a warning by the Israeli forces, media offices are protected under international law. The targeting of news organisations is completely forbidden and represents a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. The PEC condemns this war crime, the second attack in one week on media offices.

13.05.2021. ISRAEL/GAZA. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) condemns the targeting of media offices in Gaza city by the Israeli forces. The offices of 13 media organisations in Al-Jawhara tower were destroyed in the bombing of the Israeli warplanes on the night of 11 May. There were no injuries as journalists evacuated their offices after the Israeli army warned some of the media that the building would be bombed. However, media organisations lost their equipment. On 13 May, an Israeli airstrike destroyed Gaza City’s Al-Shorouk Tower, a 14-storey building that housed seven media outlets. The Israel Defence Forces said they were “striking Hamas weapons stores hidden inside civilian buildings in Gaza.” The PEC suspects an Israeli attempt to silence Palestinian media.

According to UN Security Council Resolution 2222 adopted in May 2015 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, media offices must be protected. The UN resolution «recalls that media equipment and installations constitute civilian objects, and in this respect shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals, unless they are military objectives», and «calls upon the Member States to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment for journalists, media professionals and associated personnel to perform their work independently and without undue interference in situations of armed conflict». The PEC urges all belligerents to respect their international obligations.

12.05.2021. Globally over 1300 journalists died of Covid-19, India loses 40 in the last 10 days
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to kill working journalists around the world, where the global tally reaches at least 1302 victims in 76 countries till 11 May 2021. Brazil with 191 journo-casualties because of novel coronavirus infection aggravated ailments still tops the list of victims among journalists narrowly followed by India (173 dead). In the south Asian country, at least 40 journalists died of Covid-19 complications in the last 10 days.