For two months, the brutal murder of the US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul and its geopolitical repercussions have dominated headlines worldwide. However, his case is far from an anomaly.
According to the International Press Institute, violence against journalists and impunity for the perpetrators are “two of the biggest threats to media freedom in our world today.”
Governments often use both carrots and sticks to keep journalists in line. They might reward journalists for toeing the official line, using financial or other kinds of bribes.
Illustration: Yusha
However, those who refuse to be bought may suffer the loss of basic rights (such as passport renewal), or have their reputations destroyed.
To this end, some autocratic regimes emulate US President Donald Trump, calling journalists “enemies” who disseminate “fake news.” This is a bleak reversal for the US, a nation that has historically set a powerful positive example with its formal and informal mechanisms for protecting freedom of the press and its robust culture of investigative journalism.
Imprisonment is another favorite way for autocratic regimes to silence journalists who dare to speak truth to power.
In Egypt, al-Jazeera’s Mahmoud Hussein has been detained for two years without trial. In the United Arab Emirates, the Jordanian journalist Tayseer al-Najjar is serving a three-year sentence, which will be prolonged if his family is unable to pay the massive US$136,000 fine imposed on him for a post he made on social media.
In Turkey, more than 150 journalists have been imprisoned since the failed coup in July 2016, making the country the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.
And then, of course, there are the journalists who are forced to make the ultimate sacrifice in service of the truth. By one count, 73 journalists have been killed so far this year, and in 12 countries five or more murders of journalists went unresolved last year.
This includes not only violence-plagued countries like Iraq, Somalia and Syria, but also democracies — and quasi-democracies — like Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria and Russia.
Such countries — many of which are allies of the US and other Western countries — have often faced no political or diplomatic price for their actions. In this sense, Khashoggi’s murder sends a powerful message.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, or MBS as he is widely known, is believed to have ordered the killing. Yet journalists and human rights activists in developing countries that benefit from or depend on financial support from Saudi Arabia are being politely (or not so politely) requested to keep quiet as MBS tours the region in order to restore his image.
In many Arab countries, for example, it is a crime to carry out any action or publish anything that could hurt the reputation of “a brotherly or friendly country.” So, while Tunisian human rights activists protested MBS’ recent visit, many Arab activists had to refrain, despite strongly opposing the Saudi leader’s actions, in order to avoid imprisonment.
Even some Western nations have failed to take a stand. Trump, for example, has declared that he “stands with” Saudi Arabia, a close US ally, largely in order to protect large arms deals with the kingdom.
Among the few who have been courageous enough to speak out are Palestinian journalists living under Israeli occupation.
More than 150 independent Palestinian journalists have signed an Avaaz petition stating that his murder sets “a dangerous precedent that threatens the lives of journalists, their right to free expression, the freedom of journalistic work, and the right of the public to know.”
The petition also looks beyond Khashoggi’s case, calling for the enactment of “binding laws that protect journalists, guarantee their right to work in freedom, and punish those who violate this right.”
Given how widespread crimes against journalists are — and how vital their work is to our societies — the petition’s demands deserve the support of all citizens where press freedom is restricted or under threat.
Daoud Kuttab, a former Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University, is the head of the press freedom committee in the board of the International Press Institute.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past