Press Freedom

Bangladesh Could Have Free Press Soon

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From The Guardian article of 8/9/24 by Redwan Ahmed and Kaamil Ahmed.

Headline:  “Bangladeshi journalists hopeful of press freedom as Hasina era ends”

Recently the authoritarian leader Sheikh Hasina fled the country after protesters forced her out.  This followed years of oppressive rule and censorship of the press.

“Arrests, abuse and forced disappearances at the hands of Bangladesh’s security forces have loomed over journalists for most of Hasina’s 15-year rule, preventing them from routine reporting for fear of writing anything that could be perceived as embarrassing for the government.”

Link:  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/09/bangladeshi-journalists-hopeful-for-return-to-press-freedom-as-hasina-era-ends

Kansas Newspaper Raid Update

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Article by Sherman Smith in the Kansas Reflector, 8/4/24:

Headline:  “Judge who authorized Kansas newspaper raid escapes discipline with secret conflicting explanation”

About a year ago in August, 2023, a national news article article by Joseph O’Connell in the Washington Post, reported that the police raided a Kansas newspaper.  The Marion County Record was exposing alleged corruption in the city government.

Now reported in an article on 8/4/24 by Sherman Smith in the Kansas Reflector you may follow this link to read the story:

https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/04/judge-who-authorized-kansas-newspaper-raid-escapes-discipline-with-secret-conflicting-explanation/

(The original article may be found on this website’s August, 2023 archive):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/26/marion-county-newspaper-police-raid-what-really-happened/

Want to be A Journalist? Don’t go to Afghanistan

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From The Guardian article by Sakhidad Hatif on 5/1/24

Headline: “The Taliban targeted us, beat us and chased us out. This is how we run our Afghan newspaper from exile”

http://web.archive.org/web/20240507203617/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/may/01/taliban-afghanistan-newspaper-exile-us-reporters

“In the two decades before the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had vibrant media sector. There were newspapers, television channels, periodicals, magazines and more, invigorating the public discourse by allowing citizens to express their views on national and local issues. That is completely gone”

 

Missouri Sues Media Matters, Demands Names

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Headline: “Missouri AG sues Media Matters over its X research, demands donor names – Media watchdog clams ‘meritless, expensive, and harassing investigations.'”

From Ars Technca, Article by Jon Brodkin 4/26/24

http://web.archive.org/web/20240416212423/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/missouri-ag-sues-media-matters-in-lawsuit-echoing-elon-musks-complaints/

 

“Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey yesterday in an attempt to protect Elon Musk and X from the nonprofit watchdog group’s investigations into hate speech on the social network. Bailey’s claims that “Media Matters has used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their advertisements from X, formerly Twitter, one of the last platforms
dedicated to free speech in America.”

Innocent Journalist Was Tortured at Abu Ghraib

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An image obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. – from NPR.

Headline: “Correct a black mark in US history’: former prisoners of Abu Ghraib get day in court”

Article by Alice Speri in The Guardian 4/14/24.

//www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/apr/14/abu-ghraib-iraq-torture-abuse

What Happens in Kansas – Doesn’t Stay in Kansas – Threat to Journalism

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Article on 8/26/23 from the Washington Post about the police raid on the newspaper in Marion, Kansas.

Headline:  “Police raid – what really happened”

“In New York and Washington, word of a police raid on a small Midwestern newspaper caught the immediate attention of a cluster of organizations devoted to asserting First Amendment rights and promoting the safety of journalists around the globe.

“Over the years, these groups have stood up for reporters detained by police while covering stories or pressured by prosecutors to reveal their sources, they’ve gone to court to challenge government officials over access to public records, and they’ve raised concerns about an overt strain of antipathy toward the media increasingly displayed by some politicians and public officials since the dawn of the Trump era.

“Yet an actual raid by police represented a kind of government intrusion on media operations that none could remember seeing in this country.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/26/marion-county-newspaper-police-raid-what-really-happened/

“Seized But Not Silenced”.

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Marion County newspaper that was raided by police – someone had a motive


Article from Associated Press by Jim Salter 8/20/23

Headline:  “Court documents suggest reason for police raid of Kansas newspaper”

“The police chief who led the raid of a Kansas newspaper alleged in previously unreleased in court documents that a reporter either impersonated someone else or lied about her intentions when she obtained the driving records of a local business owner.

“But reporter Phyllis Zorn, Marion County Record Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer and the newspaper’s attorney said Sunday that no laws were broken when Zorn accessed a public state website for information on restaurant operator Kari Newell.”

https://www.aol.com/court-documents-suggests-reason-police-183901188.html