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Investigative reporters live with threats. Sometimes tough words lead to bad outcomes. Crooks and other miscreants are often behind these outbursts. None of this is out of the ordinary. Press freedom advocate groups have catalogues of these reports. Still, evil behavior by public officials continues to shock.
In a courtroom last week Zoran Cegar, head of the uniformed sector of the Federal Police Administration (FUP) of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), was standing charged with defrauding the owner of a car rental agency. Reporters from Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), based in Sarajevo, had been following the story as it involved a notable public official. The trial began October 26th and as the days proceedings ended a CIN reporter asked Mr. Cegar for a comment. “Don’t let me rip your throat out,” he exclaimed, as reported by CIN and captured by TV channel N1. (See more about investigative reporting here)
This was hardly the first threatening outburst toward reporters by Mr. Cegar. When reached for comments by telephone earlier in October he berated reporters with threats and “cursing,” at one point noting his position. “I know everything. I’m not running a tobacco shop.” Complaints about these threats eventually reached the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska comprise Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which was formed - and divided - by international agreements ending the Bosnian War in the mid-1990s. Tense political realities remain divided along ethnicities. Establishing a functioning market economy remains at “an early stage,” said a European Commission report issued a year ago. Corruption in BiH is rife, third worst in Europe, noted the Transparency International 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index. (See more about corruption here)
The Center for Investigative Reporting is unique in the Balkans, founded in 2004 through grants and technical support from USAID and New York University School of Journalism. It is a steady provider of text and video reports and documentaries. It was a founding member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The most reliable reporting from BiH comes from outlets located in Sarajevo, areas more distant reflecting ethnic, religious and political biases.
The FBiH Interior Ministry suspended Mr. Cegar from his position this week, reported N1 TV (November 3), after an investigation by the Federal Police Administration. His trial resumes December 8.
Conventional wisdom has held that even dictators will allow reputable, internationally recognized news outlets to operate. The benefits, to the dictators, seem obvious. Regular news coverage, even if critical, keeps them from, figuratively, dropping off the map. As recent evidence shows, dictators now prefer an information wall.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s public broadcaster, announced the withdrawal from its Beijing, China bureau, said CBC News chief editor Brodie Fenlon in a statement (November 2). "There is no point keeping an empty bureau when we could easily set up elsewhere in a different country that welcomes journalists and respects journalistic scrutiny. Closing the Beijing bureau is the last thing we want to do, but our hand has been forced.” (See more about media in China here)
He cited the apparent slow-walking of a visa application for CBC News reporter Philippe Leblanc by the Chinese Consulate in Montreal since October 2020. "While there was no dramatic expulsion or pointed public statements, the effect is the same,” Mr. Fenlon wrote. “We can't get visas for our journalists to work there as permanent correspondents.” Mr. Leblanc is currently working from Taiwan. CBC’s last Beijing correspondent, Sasa Petricic, relocated to Canada due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
Since the March 2020 “mass expulsion” of reporters for US news outlets, “the number of new foreign correspondent visas has dried up dramatically,” noted AFP (November 2). The CBC exit means no Canadian media outlets are permanently based in China. The last two Australian reporters based in China exited in 2020. (See more about foreign news correspondents here)
In a report issued in advance of the Beijing Olympic Games last January, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China cited challenging conditions for foreign reporters including “online trolling, physical assaults, cyber hacking and visa denials.” The CBC Beijing bureau had functioned for 40 years.
Clear as a bell is the current disfavor with media mergers and acquisitions; among some, at least. The frenzy to buy market share or a skillset has driven corporate business for decades. There’s a reason: it’s cheaper and faster than the alternatives. The added advantage in this post-modern age is disruption, beloved in the worlds of high finance and digital absolutism.
A US district court effectively paused the acquisition of publisher Simon & Schuster by publisher Penguin Random House (PRH). The US Department of Justice argued the transaction could “lessen competition” for “top selling books.” More arguments will be heard by Judge Florence Pan this week, noted AP (November 1). Then, too, PRH, a division of big media house Bertelsmann, will appeal the decision. (See more about competition and anti-trust law)
Paramount, another big media house, wanted to shed Simon & Schuster - for US$2.2 billion - to build up a war chest for its own digital acquisitions. Early in the negotiations Paramount, then known as ViacomCBS, turned down a bid for Simon & Schuster from HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of News Corporation, principally controlled by the Murdoch family. Also rejected was a bid from Vivendi, at the time owner of French publisher Editis and presumptive buyer of publisher Hachette. (See more about mergers and acquisitions here)
While a final disposition for the PRH acquisition of Simon & Schuster is months, maybe years away, Bertelsmann chief executive Thomas Rabe’s acquisition strategy - “national champions” - has been further disrupted. The proposed merger of French TV broadcaster TF1 Group with Bertelsmann/RTL Group owned M6 Group would have been the keystone of that strategy, creating a whopping huge French broadcaster. Alas, the French Competition Authority demanded both merger partners shed their primary TV channels. In September Herr Rabe and TF1 Group principal Martin Bouygues threw up their hands and walked away.
A trial has begun in Hong Kong with former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam in the dock, reported AFP (October 31). Charges of “sedition” were filed against the two, along with publisher Blue Pencil Limited. Hong Kong authorities and their Chinese masters have claimed “sedition” to criminalize any critical news coverage. It has been quite effective. Hong Kong authorities closed Stand News last December with a raid on its offices, asset seizure and arrest of key staff.
In the proceedings, Mr. Chung and Mr. Lam entered not guilty pleas, reported Hong Kong Free Press (October 31). Their counsel, Audrey Eu, attempted to argue the status of the Colonial-era Sedition Law is at odds with the Hong Kong Basic Law. “Reporting a murder does not mean (news outlets) support the murderer,” she offered. “If the press were in danger of breaking the law whenever they criticised the government, then they might just as well just give up their jobs.” (See more about media in Hong Kong here)
Prosecutor Laura Ng Shuk-kuen told the court that the Stand News publisher and the two editors published material supporting “forces opposing China and disrupting Hong Kong,” reported South China Morning Post (November 1), which often editorially favors the Chinese authorities. “The authorities of Beijing and the Hong Kong government (are) being tested to the limit.” The trial continues.
Last week at the most recent trial of Jimmy Lai, publisher of Apple Daily, the court found him guilty of fraud related to an office lease. Next month he faces trial under the 2020 National Security Law, charged with colluding with “foreign powers.” He has already been tried and convicted of unlawful assembly for an appearance at a vigil marking the Tiananmen Square anniversary. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
In the Reporters sans Frontieres 2022 Press Freedom Index Hong Kong decisively dropped to 148th from 80th in one year, placing Hong Kong just above Turkey. “Press freedom has been eroding in Hong Kong for a while now,” said Hong Kong Foreign Correspondent’s club president Keith Richburg. “Journalists have to figure out how to navigate what I call this new normal.”
Awards, as we often say, are meaningful across the board. This past weekend Prix Europa honored Russian exile news portal Meduza co-founder and chief executive Galina Timchenko as 2022 European Journalist of the Year. Without question, Ms Timchenko has contributed significantly to Russian-language media, understanding of the Russian Federation and operating an online news portal. Prix Europa is a festival for European radio, TV and online producers hosted by German public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), held annually in Potsdam.
Ms Timchenko has spirited Meduza since its founding in 2014, a few months after being fired from then-leading Russian news portal Lenta, where she was chief editor, coincident with reporting on the Russian annexation of the Crimea. She and the Meduza staff were made unwelcome, officially, by the Russian Ministry of Justice and relocated to Riga, Latvia. “Every war begins with the independent press being silenced and freedom of speech being cut into,” she said accepting the award. “Freedom of expression is always one of the first victims in the run-up to armed conflicts. We must try to prevent that!” (See more about conflict zones here)
Financial survival in the first years was tenuous, ad revenues from the Russian Federation blunted. It is currently supported by crowd funding and is a “go-to” source for news from the Russian Federation. Meduza recently launched a companion weekly email newsletter, The Beet, for news from Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. (See more about journalism here)
In July Ms Timchenko was awarded the 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award by the committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Earlier this year Meduza was honored with the 2022 Fritt Ord Foundation (Norway) prize for “courageous, independent and fact-based reporting.” Belsat TV reporter Darya Chultsova was also present at the Prix Europa awards, honored last year but only recently released from prison in Belarus.
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