Media Tracker lists the challenges and achievements of the journalists and media organisations worldwide. Here’s a list of journalism at risk stories in the recent month. We would like to thank international media protection organisation and news outlets for their content.
- Yulia Zavyalova, the editor of an independent news website in Volgograd, Russia, faced sabotaging of her car brakes last week.
Bloknot Volgograda, a popular regional website, is critical of the local authorities and publishes investigative reports on corruption cases. Zavyalova believes that the sabotaging of her car is linked to her journalistic work.
Bloknot Volgograda reported that the incident has been so far categorized as no more than a case of “damage to another person’s property.” Russia is currently ranked 148th out of 180 countries by international media watchdogs for press freedom.
(RSF)
- Sudip Dutta Bhaumik, an investigative reporter at the Bengali-language daily Syandan Patrika, was shot dead last week by a guard outside the office of a commandant in the Tripura State Rifles paramilitary force, in India’s Tripura state.
Bhaumik was invited to speak with him about a clarification in an earlier story about alleged financial irregularities in the paramilitary force, according to the news. The police said that the guard who allegedly shot Bhaumik has been detained, and the state’s chief minister, Manik Sarkar, said that that the commandment was suspended from duty.
According to international media watchdogs, at least 41 journalists have been killed in relation to their work in India since 1992,
(CPJ)
- Eight employees of the national newspaper Red Pepper are being held in Ugandan government detention without charge.
According to reports police arrested three editors (Ben Byarabaha, Richard Kintu, and Tumusiime Francis Tinywana), the chief executive officer (Richard Tusiime), and four senior managers (Patrick Mugumya, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, James Mujuni, and Johnson Musinguzi Byarabaha) from Red Pepper and confiscated office computers and phones after authorities raided the newspaper’s office in Kampala on allegations that the paper had published a controversial story.
The arrests and raid was a result of publishing an article on stating Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni’s plans to overthrow Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.
They face sentences of up to seven years for publishing material “likely to disrupt public order and security.” However, the police said that they have not ruled out charging the detained editors and managers with other offences.
(CPJ)
- A recently published report, Freedom on Net, by the Freedom house shows that the Internet based freedom is now getting squeezed by countries other than China and Russia. In their survey of 65 countries they found that the governments of 30 countries are using various tactics to manipulate netizens—the figures are up from 23 countries in the previous year—suppressing dissent and endangering democracy.
These tactics include trolls and bots—automated accounts e.g., false news sites and propaganda outlets.
(HKFP)
