- Not Wynning ways - 21st November 2024
- Winning the race…. - 20th November 2024
- More turbulence - 19th November 2024
During a 41 year career as a journalist our Editor Phil Parry, has always been lucky enough to work in a largely free environment, and this is now underlined by a book which has just been published from a writer who walked out with other reporters to found another more independent newspaper, after the proprietor muzzled a critical story.
I salute the bravery of other journalists.
When one, Illia Pomorenko was faced with a tycoon-proprietor who tried to prevent a piece in his newspaper from being published, he, and the ENTIRE writing staff resigned on the spot to found another paper.
Since then that paper (the Kyiv Independent) has been an essential source of news after the Russian invasion.
For others it is even worse.
Marina Zolotova, the editor of Tut.by, an independent news website in Belarus, has declared tellingly: “Blue press jackets and press badges have become targets. When journalists go to cover a protest they cannot be sure that they will come home. This is a real war by the authorities against independent journalism and their own people.”
Another journalist there who is now in prison is Yekaterina Bakhvalova, who was arrested as she filmed riot police firing stun grenades into a crowd demonstrating against the death in police custody of a fellow protester.
She was due to be released two years ago, but was sentenced to an additional eight years in jail for “state treason”, according to the channel she worked for.
Around the world it appears to be becoming worse for media freedom and investigative journalism – while dumbed-down ‘news’ presented by airhead ‘celebrities’, is seemingly wanted by authorities everywhere.
Endorsing what is happening, dozens of reporters covering the anti-racism protests after the killing of the unarmed black man George Floyd that rocked the US, were targeted by security forces using tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.
In many cases, the reporters said they were attacked despite showing clear press credentials
Such assaults “are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate (reporters)“, said the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based lobbying group.
Attacks on journalists carried out by protesters have also been reported. The arrest of a CNN news crew live on air in Minneapolis, first drew global attention to how people in the city were treating reporters covering the protests.
The Australian Prime Minister at the time Scott Morrison, asked his embassy in Washington to look into the use of force by police against an Australian news crew, as officers dispersed protesters there the previous day. It came after dozens of attacks on journalists and media crews across America over a single weekend were reported on social media.
In total the US Press Freedom Tracker, a non-profit project, says it is examining more than 100 “press freedom violations” at protests. About 90 cases involve attacks.
In Russia a special website is devoted to the numbers of journalists that have been killed for simply doing their jobs. Sometimes the persecution has official backing. Vladimir Putin recently signed a law that will allow Russia to declare journalists and bloggers as “foreign agents” in a move that critics say will allow the Kremlin to target government critics.
Under the vaguely worded law, Russians and foreigners who work with the media or distribute their content and receive money from abroad would be declared foreign agents, potentially exposing journalists, their sources, or even those who share material on social networks to foreign agent status.
The investigative reporter, Jeff German, was found stabbed to death at his home, and his alleged killer, Robert Telles, was detained by armed police officers, before being prosecuted for the crime.
Mr Telles appeared in front of a judge smirking, according to media reports, as he was told when his next court appearance would be. The man he is accused of attacking was working on a story about Mr Telles the week he was killed, his one time newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, reported.
His trial is due to start next month.
The paper’s editorial cartoonist published an illustrated tribute to Mr German, calling him, “one of the finest investigative reporters in the country. His job was to shine the light on the darkness”.
This is an uncanny echo of the slogan in Welsh and English on The Eye, which I edit: “Finding Light in Darkness”.
Mr Telles has said of Mr German in the past “He’s a bully” and “he’s obsessed with me”, which are identical to phrases which have been hurled at me as I have attempted to do my job. This is disconcerting to say the least.
The abuse I suffer is as nothing compared with this – previously I have been called (wrongly), a “bastard”, a “liar”, a “misogynist”, a “little git”, and (accurately), a “troublemaker”, a “nuisance”, “irritating”, as well as “annoying”.
I celebrate the fact that I am ‘annoying’ and a ‘troublemaker’, even if these words are hurled at me as insults.
We need more troublemakers, I just wish I was as courageous as Mr Pomorenko…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing decades long award-winning career in journalism (where he has always worked in an environment of relative media freedom) as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Illia Pomorenko’s book ‘I Will Show You How It Was’ is published by Bloomsbury.
Tomorrow – how the risks taken by all journalists are underlined today by the release from jail of one who America said “…should never have been arrested in the first place”.
