VIOLENCE AGAINST MEDIA PERSONS

1. VIOLENCE AGAINST MEDIA
PERSON

2. The peacetime, targeted killing of journalists, and especially killing of
journalists in revenge for critical coverage, is more dangerous than the
next great sin against freedom of the press – unfortunately also quite
common – which is a systemic lack of pluralism, undue governmental
influence, and monopolisation of mass media.
It is more dangerous for many reasons.
• First, when there is brutality as punishment for the journalists’ work,
then it is also a message; to the colleagues, editors, owners, and to all
their families.
• Violence becomes censorship far beyond the context of the actual
controversy; it will impede the press in performing its most important
task in defence of democracy, because it is journalists covering human
rights abuses and corruption scandals that are most punished with
violence.

3. •The effect of the violence extends to the whole society by collapsing
editors’ willpower. Editors are the ones in any democracy that practically
define which issues are to be reported and discussed.
• Finally, violence against journalists joins even the forces that
commercialise the media. It adds the element of physical fear to the
effects that today are pushing the media away from meaningful
information, towards empty entertainment.

4. According to the report there were 17 violations against journalists and
two against their property.
• The Al-Jazeera English crew were detained by government police in
the Gaza Strip.
• Palestine Public TV’s Fouád Jaradeh was summoned for investigation
by the Internal Security Service and questioned while blindfolded for 7
hours.
• A’lam radio presenter Samer Ruweishid was arrested by the
Palestinian Intelligence Services in Hebron city; he remains in custody.
• Quds TV program coordinator Nawaf Al-Amer was repeatedly
summoned for investigation by the Palestinian Preventative Service in
Nablus city.
• Quds TV correspondent Mamdouh Hamamreh and cameraman Akram
Alnatshe were arrested following a raid on The Pal Media agency’s
headquarters in Hebron.

5. • Quds TV correspondent Mamdouh Hamamreh and Pal Media
cameraman Abdul Ghane Natshe were followed and apprehended by
the Palestinian Preventative Service following a report on Christmas
celebrations in Bethlehem.
• Columnist Ala’ Rimawi was released by the Palestinian Security Service
on the 12th of December after 42 days of detention.
• Freelance journalist Sami Alási was released by the Palestinian
Security Service on the 21st of December after 23 days of detention.
• A’lam radio presenter Samer Rweishid was summoned for
interrogation about his new job by the Israeli Intelligence Service.
• Alhayat Aljadedah newspaper photographer Muheeb Barghouti and
Palestine Public TV cameraman Najeeb Sharawneh were prevented from
covering the events of the weekly Nabi Saleh march near Ramallah by
Israeli forces.

6. • Al-Quds newspaper photographer Mahmud A’lian was beaten by
Israeli forces during his coverage of a solidarity march to Qalandia
checkpoint.
• Israeli settlers damaged the tires of vehicles belonging to Reuters, Pal
Media agency, and the photographer of a French agency Nasser Al-
Shoukhi in Hebron.
Reporters Without Borders has learned that Mohammad Mehdi Emami
Naseri, the editor of the daily Maghreb, was arrested at his office on 1
October 2012 by officials from the Tehran prosecutor’s office, who
confiscated his computer and questioned all of his colleagues.
On 6th February 2012 The Tehran revolutionary court sentenced Mehdi
Khazali, editor of the Baran blog, to 14 years’ imprisonment, 10 years’
internal exile in the south-western city of Borazjan and 70 lashes. He
was arrested on 9 January for the third time in less than two years.

7. A report by the Director General of UNESCO on the safety of
journalists and the danger of impunity presented to the council of
UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of
communication (IPDC), the report provides information on the 127
killings of journalists condemned by UNESCO in 2010 and 2012
In 2008-2009, the UNESCO Director-General condemned the killings of
125 journalists, a figure comparable to that of the previous biennium
2006-2007 (122 killings condemned)3, which indicates that there has
been no improvement in the safety of journalists in the last few years.
A yearly analysis of the killings of media professionals condemned by
the UNESCO Director-General reveals that the worldwide tally in 2009
(77) surpassed the previous record of 2006 (69), when violence in Iraq
was pervasive and media fatalities there were common. The decline in
the worldwide death toll in 2007 (53) and 2008 (48) was largely
attributable to an improvement of the situation in Iraq.

8. The very significant rise in 2009 can be partly explained by the killing of
30 journalists in the Philippines on 23 November.
Statistics gathered by UNESCO to testify to the staggering number of
journalists and media workers killed while performing their duties. The
report notes that “in most cases, these journalists were reporting on
local conflicts, corruption and other illegal activities and many of these
attacks were perpetrated by police and security personnel, militia as
well as non-state actors, such as organized crime groups.”
A noteworthy evolution in 2008-2009 is that the percentage of killings
not linked to conflict situations has dramatically increased compared
with 2006-2007. While in the previous biennium, almost 72% of the 122
victims were killed in a conflict or post conflict situation (Afghanistan,
Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestinian
Territories, Democratic Republic of Somalia, Sudan and Democratic
Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka).

9. In 2008-2009 this number fell to 37% (Afghanistan, Colombia,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Iraq, Federal Democratic
Republic of Nepal, Palestinian Territories, Democratic Republic of
Somalia and Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka).
As a collective body, journalists are most under threat in the regions of
endemic conflict, such as Kashmir, the North-Eastern states, and the
Maoist-insurgency areas in the central forested plains of India.
Indian television journalist Naveen Soorinje who works for the
Kannada-language news channel Kasturi TV documented a large-scale
attack on young women and reported the episode to police in Karnataka
state was charged with participating in the assault.
Chaitali Santra, a freelance journalist who contributed to the Delhi-
based weekly Julm se Jang, was killed when she opened a parcel bomb,
which triggered a concealed explosive.

10. • On September 17, 2012 two media workers of local daily The
Arunachal Times in India were attacked.
• An associate editor Tongam Rina of the English-language Arunachal
Times was attacked on July 16, 2012 .
• March 6, 2012 – An Indian journalist Rajesh Mishra, worked as an
editor for Media Raj, a Hindi weekly published in the city of Rewa,
Madhya Pradesh state died after being beaten over the head by
unknown assailants.
• Four journalists were assaulted and one of them briefly detained by
the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while covering protests in
Srinagar Kashmir.
Obviously, all loss of life and violence suffered by journalists at work is
tragic and a setback for the profession.
It is a special war – a peacetime war on journalism.

11. • The Report of UNESCO on The Safety Of Journalists And The Danger Of
Impunity
•International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC)
•Reporters Without Borders
•Committee to Protect Journalists
•IPI: International Press Institute 2012
• International Federation of Journalists .

12. BY : RUKAYA SYED
IUST, DEPARTMENT OF
JOURNALISM,