International Media

Article in The Guardian by Rebecca Ratcliffe, 10/24/24

Headline: “Journalist who exposed Cambodia’s scam industry released by authorities”

Subhead:  “Mech Dara, charged with incitement, freed on bail after video of him apologising to country’s leaders appears”

“Mech Dara, one of Cambodia’s most prominent journalists, known for exposing the country’s billion-dollar scam industry, has been released on bail after a video of him apologizing to the country’s leaders appeared in pro-government media.

“Dara was arrested last month while traveling with his family, and charged with incitement over social media posts.”

“. . . Dara investigated scam compounds doggedly for the outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD) until it was shuttered last year by authorities in a move widely seen as an attack on independent media. He continued reporting for other outlets, doing so at far greater risk and with fewer rewards than many international reporters, Southern said.”

His reports documented the Telegram channels where trafficked workers are bought and sold, and the desperate pleas of those trapped inside compounds; he wrote about workers who jumped from balconies in attempts to escape, and the role and response of Cambodian officials.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/24/cambodian-journalist-mech-dara-exposing-scam-industry-released

Video Article in Al JAzeera by Hashem Ahelbarra, 10/23/24

Headline:  “Will the US pressure Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza?”

“Dozens of US House Democrats urge US President Joe Biden to push Israel for independent media access to Gaza.

“Israel has severely restricted international journalists from entering Gaza as its military has carried out its assault on the Palestinian territory for more than a year.

“Politicians in the United States are questioning the decision to block access to foreign media outlets

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-story/2024/10/22/will-the-us-pressure-israel-to-allow-foreign-journalists-into-gaza

Article in The Guardian by Moustafa Bayoumi, 10/23/2410.19

Headline: ” ‘I don’t have much hope for a Harris presidency’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israeli apartheid and what the media gets wrong about Palestine”

““The Palestine I saw bore so little likeness to the stories I read, and so much resemblance to the systems I’ve known,” he writes. The intensity of his critique extends almost as much to American journalism as it does to Israel’s system of control.”

“. . . The thing that I’ve thought a lot more about is the fact that you have a class of low-information journalists, certainly when it comes to Palestine and Israel, and perhaps the world. And I say that as somebody who was among them. These people are not low-information because they’re bad people or even necessarily incurious people. But there is tremendous pressure not to have this conversation”

“. . .I think there’s appropriate sensitivity around the Holocaust. I think there is appropriate sensitivity around the lethal force and weight of antisemitism in western history. But that doesn’t give journalists a pass to not know [what is happening to the Palestinians].”

“. . .There are very few, if any, major media organizations where Palestinians, Palestinian Americans or maybe even Arab Americans have much power in terms of determining what the coverage looks like.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2024/oct/23/ta-nehisi-coates-interview-palestine-kamala-harris