Mexican authorities secretly opened investigations into acclaimed investigative journalist Marcela Turati and two other experts on disappeared people, human rights attorney Ana Lorena Delgadillo and forensic anthropologist Mercedes “Mimi” Doretti. The probes allowed officials to spy on the three women, who were working to uncover the truth behind one of Mexico's most notorious massacres, the 2011 murders of 193 people in San Fernando. José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, called the actions the result of "a dysfunctional, incompetent judicial system that is routinely used for abuse of power.” The news comes on top of revelations that Mexican authorities tried to place Pegasus spyware on the phones of Turati and three other co-founders of GIJN member Quinto Elemento Lab. A petition, already signed by journalists in 60 countries, is underway that demands the government stop the investigation and remove information on Turati and the others. (See link below.)
Source: Quinto Elemento
Aga Khan University's Graduate School of Media and Communications is offering a three-day introduction to mobile journalism for reporters located in Uganda and Burundi. The free, online course will walk attendees through the foundations of multimedia storytelling and feature practical tips on how to storyboard, shoot, and edit to create a video story using a smartphone. The course, which runs for seven hours each day from December 1 - 3, 2021, has a limited number of spaces and will be conducted in English only.
Source: Aga Khan University
Reporters Without Borders is offering a fully-paid, four-month residency next year to assist conflict zone journalists with digital security. Between March 1 to November 30, 2022, the organization will host 12 reporters from war zones or other crisis areas in Berlin, Germany, as part of its "Empowering Journalists in the Digital Field" scholarship program. The training will provide recipients "practical knowledge and skills to protect themselves against digital threats such as surveillance or hacker attacks in their journalistic activities." Candidates must have a very strong command of the English language and past experience as a working or citizen journalist. The deadline for applying is Monday, November 29.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
The Scottish government is considering whether to launch a Public Interest Journalism Institute to foster "a diverse, pluralistic, and sustainable Scottish public interest media sector.” The group would have an independent board and give out grants of £3m per year (about US$4m), a third of that, at least initially, from the government. An advisory council, which recommends the action, also urged Scottish officials to let public interest news providers register as charities and get tax breaks, and to let community groups take over endangered media.
Source: PressGazette
After concluding a week-long visit to Hungary, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression warned that the country was continuing to jeopardize press freedom and human rights. The UN representative, Irene Khan, spoke to the international press in Budapest, where she expressed concerns that media capture via state advertising could lead to a "toxic environment of violence [and] hatred" in the lead up to that country's elections next year. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist party has taken control of large swaths of the private media since his rise to power in 2010, all but silencing critical reporting of his government. "I see a distorted media environment in Hungary where pluralism, diversity, and independence of media is being questioned," Khan said.
Source: Reuters
Stavros Malichudis, a journalist with GIJN member Reporters United, discovered that he was being tracked by the government after reading another news report about Greece's National Intelligence Service (known by the acronym EYP). Malichudis had been working on a story about migrant camp conditions that involved finding a 12-year-old Syrian boy, Jamal, whose artwork depicting the grim fate of refugees in Greece had been featured in an article for the French newspaper Le Monde. After reading an internal intel service communiqué published in a Greek newspaper, Malichudis recognized that he fit the description of a reporter being surveilled for his interest in Jamal's story. Citing "information from a highly credible source," the Greek spy service detailed his reporting efforts and also sought to identify Malichudis' sources as well as more information on the boy. "If the function of EYP is to protect national security, then keeping tabs on my movements is nothing more than a waste of money, and cannot be justified under any circumstances," Malichudis said.
Source: Reporters United
