–PEC
Tap here to read: Part I | Part II | Part III

05.05.2021. INDIA. India is now losing four journalists every day and emerges as the second most Covid-19 affected nation in the world with at least 141 journalists dead from coronavirus while the global toll reaches 1248 scribes in 75 countries due to corona complications since March 2020.
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2021. DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE MEDIA

29.04.2021. The Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the media. The human cost of the pandemic is very high: more than 1,200 journalists have died from the novel coronavirus since March 2020 in 75 countries. The situation is particularly alarming in India: in the past two weeks, at least 50 journalists have succumbed to the virus, 3,5 per day.
REMEMBER THE DEAD, FIGHT FOR THE LIVING


27.04.2021. BURKINA FASO. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) strongly condemns the murder of two Spanish journalists and one Irish citizen on Monday in Burkina Faso. David Beriain and Roberto Fraile (photo) were in the Pama area of the country, making a documentary on poaching in the region. The area is a dangerous one, where terrorist groups, poachers, bandits and jihadists operate. The journalists were embedded in a patrol of some 40 Burkinabe anti-poaching troops, which was attacked by armed individuals. The PEC sends its condolences to the families of the victims. Authorities in Burkina Faso must ensure that those responsible are found and brought to justice.
26.04.2021. INDIA. Now it’s alarming for Indian journalists, loses 107 scribes to Covid-19, 45 in two weeks

26.04.2021. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The Press Emblem Campaign is shocked by the murder of a young journalist in Kansas City. Aviva Okeson-Haberman (photo), a KCUR reporter, has died after suffering a gunshot wound in her Kansas City apartment. She was 24.
Aviva joined the radio KCUR in June 2019 as the Missouri politics and government reporter. In her nearly two years at KCUR, Aviva covered a host of issues, ranging from corruption in Clay County and medical marijuana to the conflicting pandemic restrictions in differing Kansas City area cities and inequities in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The PEC calls for a full investigation of this tragic incident. Homicides in Kansas City have increased in the last few years, mostly due to gun violence.
24.04.2021. INDIA. DRAMATIC RISE IN NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS DEAD. India rapidly losing scribes to Covid-19, global tally reaches 1180 – India is fast losing working journalists to Covid-19 and crosses 100 mark till date where the global tally hits 1180 scribes in 76 countries. The country lately starts losing around three journalists every day.

22.04.2021. MYANMAR/BURMA. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) calls for the unconditional release of all journalists in Myanmar. “The arrested journalists face sedition laws under section 505 (a) of Myanmar penal code that may put them behind the bars for around three years. The military authority run Myanmar Radio and Television continues to broadcast the name of wanted journalists under the specified rules, which is appalling,” said PEC general secretary Blaise Lempen. Over 65 journalists performing their job were arrested/detained since the military coup on 1 February.
17.04.2021. INDIA. More scribes dying of Covid-19 in South Asia, PEC urges preparedness
As more journalists are falling preys to Covid-19 in south Asian nations (India and Bangladesh), Switzerland based media rights and safety body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) urges for preparedness among media persons as they have to continue playing the role of corona warriors after the doctors, nurses, sanitation workers.
13.04.2021. PEC press release. More than a thousand journalists have died from Covid-19 around the world

12.04.2021. Impact on the safety and work of journalists of the measures that Governments have taken to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. PEC submission to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

09.04.2021. GREECE. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) is appalled by the murder of journalist Giorgios Karaivaz (photo), shot dead on April 9 near his home in Athens. The PEC urged the authorities to fully investigate this cold-blooded murder. Giorgios Karaivaz was the founder and owner of bloko.gr and one of Greece’s most well-known crime reporters. It is the second murder of a journalist in Greece since 2010. It sadly reminds us of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak in Slovakia. All light must be shed on this despicable murder.
01.04.2021. Indian scribe died of Covid-19, The global tally of novel coronavirus infected individuals among journalists has reached 970 in 72 countries, PEC urges for alertness

29.03.2020. MYANMAR. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) welcomes the release of Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw (photo). He has been released from detention in Myanmar three weeks after he was arrested on February 27 for covering a protest against the country’s military coup. Thein Zaw told the Associated Press by phone following a court hearing on Wednesday that all charges had been dropped because he was doing his job at the time of his arrest. The PEC is relieved that Thein Zaw has been freed from prison, but additional journalists there remain detained. We urge Myanmar to release all journalists and allow them to report freely and safely on what is happening inside the country. We strongly condemn the increasing violence, restrictions on Internet access, on publication and broadcasting by media outlets in the country.
12.03.2021. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL – 46th session. Item 4 General Debate. Statement delivered by the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC): The PEC is concerned by the deterioration of the safety of journalists in Belarus, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and calls for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
10.03.2021. PEC joins call for the UN Security Council to act against the killing of journalists in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) with the support of the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) and 39 other civil society organizations from around the globe, in a letter to the UNSC and UNAMA, highlights the wave of journalists’ killings in Afghanistan and urges them to stand in solidarity with the Afghan journalists to help ensure their safety and media freedom given the role they play in a peaceful and democratic transition during and after the ongoing peace negotiations.
04.03.2021. COVID-19. In one year, at least 840 journalists died from Covid-19 in 68 countries, more than 2 per day on average, the heaviest toll in the media community since World War II.

02.03.2021. AFGHANISTAN. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) strongly condemns the killing of three female workers of the Enikas TV network in the eastern Jalalabad city, capital of the Nangarhar province on Tuesday. “They were going home from the office on foot when they were shot in two separate attacks in Qasaba and Arabzai areas of the city,” Zalmai Latifi, the director at Enikas TV said. According to the network director, Mursal Waheedi, Saadia Sadat, and Shahnaz Raoufi (photo) all three employees worked in the dubbing department for the broadcaster.

The PEC is outraged at these brutal killings and expects these heinous crimes to be investigated and perpetrators brought to justice. According to PEC data, 11 journalists and media workers have been killed in Afghanistan since the peace deal was signed between the United States and the Taliban in February 2020. Most of these journalists were deliberately targeted for their work, which underscores the lack of effective protection in the country, specially for female journalists (18 female journalists killed in Afghanistan since 2001, according to AFJC data). The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the killing of the three women.