Σάββατο 22 Νοεμβρίου 2014

Πώς η ατιμωρησία διαιωνίζει τη διαφθορά και φιμώνει τους δημοσιογράφους #No justice

Διεθνή Ημέρα για τον τερματισμό της ατιμωρησίας, αύριο 23/11...

εισαγωγή από το κουτί της Πανδώρας

Στον «πόλεμο» που υφίσταται το Hot Doc και ο Κώστας Βαξεβάνης, ο οποίος βρίσκεται αντιμέτωπος με 40 αγωγές, πληρώνοντας ακριβό τίμημα, για τις αποκαλυπτικές έρευνες που δημοσιεύει, αναφέρεται, μεταξύ άλλων, το Index με αφορμή την αυριανή Διεθνή Ημέρα για τον τερματισμό της ατιμωρησίας. Δημοσιογράφοι από όλο τον κόσμο μιλάνε στο Index αναλύοντας γιατί η ατιμωρησία είναι μια σοβαρή απειλή για την ελευθερία της έκφρασης. Η ατιμωρησία διαιωνίζει τη διαφθορά και αποτελεί ανοιχτή πληγή για την ελευθερία του Τύπου, τονίζει το δημοσίευμα.

Για τη μάστιγα της ατιμωρησίας που θέτει σε κίνδυνο την ελεύθερη έκφραση και την ελευθερία του Τύπου μίλησε ο Κώστας Βαξεβάνης που ήταν ο νικητής των Index Awards το 2013:
"Η ατιμωρησία προκαλεί τη διαφθορά, η οποία απειλείται από την ελευθερία του Τύπου. Το HOT DOC αντιμετωπίζει σήμερα 40 αγωγές, κατά κύριο λόγο, από υπουργούς και πολιτικούς, σε μια προσπάθεια να εμποδίσουν το δημοσιογραφικό μας έργο. Εμείς αποκαλύπτουμε σκάνδαλα , όπως αυτό με τον υπουργό Δικαιοσύνης , ένα πρώην δικαστή που διέπραξε το "σφάλμα" να χορηγήσει αμνηστία σε αξιωματούχους που είχαν καταχραστεί δημόσια κονδύλια. Αντί να απαντήσει στους πολίτες, όπως απαιτείται, για τις πράξεις του, μας έκανε μήνυση. Μας ταλαιπωρούν στα δικαστήρια, όπου τελικώς κερδίζουμε καθώς είμαστε αθώοι, αλλά όλα αυτά μας κοστίζουν περισσότερα από 80.000 ευρώ, ετησίως, για δικαστικά έξοδα."
Η παρενόχληση , η βία και η δολοφονία των δημοσιογράφων είναι σημαντικά προβλήματα σε όλο τον κόσμο και δυστυχώς και στην Ευρώπη , όπως αποδεικνύει το Index . Οι αριθμοί μιλούν από μόνοι τους : 370 εργαζόμενοι σε ΜΜΕ δολοφονήθηκαν για τις αποκαλύψεις τους κατά τη διάρκεια των δέκα τελευταίων ετών. Στο 90 % των υποθέσεων, οι δολοφόνοι των δημοσιογράφων δεν έχουν τιμωρηθεί . Για πολλά από αυτά τα εγκλήματα δεν έχει διεξαχθεί ούτε έρευνα.

Στο Index μίλησαν για τις δυσκολίες που αντιμετωπίζουν και τα προβλήματα που βιώνουν και οι διακεκριμένοι στις χώρες τους δημοσιογράφοι Heather Brooke, Kareem Amer, Rahim Haciyev, Nazeeha Saeed, Endalk Chala, Andrei Soldatov, Fergal Keane και Veran Matic.

No justice: how impunity silences journalists

Ahead of the International Day to End Impunity, journalists from around the world tell Index why impunity is a serious threat to free expression
By Milana Knezevic / 21 November, 2014
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Impunity is a festering sore on freedom of the press. Harassment, violence and murder of journalists are problems around the world — even in Europe, as Index’s project mapping media violations has shown. The numbers speak for themselves: of the 370 media workers murdered in connection with their job over the past ten years, 90% have been murdered without their killers being punished. Many of these crimes aren’t even investigated.
Journalists from around the world told Index why impunity is such a danger to free expression and a free press.

Kostas Vaxevanis, Greek investigative journalist, HOT DOC, and 2013 Index award winner

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Impunity generates corruption and its enemy is the one thing that exposes and threatens it: the freedom of the press.
The HOT DOC is currently facing 40 lawsuits mainly from ministers and politicians in an attempt to shut us down as journalists. We reveal scandals like one with the minister of justice, a former judge who committed an “error” that granted amnesty to officials who had abused public funds, and instead of answering in public as required as politicians, we are being sued. We pester the courts and despite winning lawsuits, we need more than 80,000 euro per year for court expenses.

Heather Brooke, British-American journalist and 2010 Index award winner

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It is a problem that journalists around the world get threatened, intimidated and killed just for doing their job.
These crimes, like any other crime, need to be investigated. If not, it sends a message that this is okay; that the law is only for certain people. It is an implicit acceptance of this behaviour.
If we want to have a strong press, threats, intimidation and murder of journalists can’t be seen to be implicitly condoned by the state. It’s a dangerous message. It makes people frightened to ...
ask tough questions, and if that happens, you are on the way to shutting down a robust press.

Kareem Amer, Egyptian blogger and 2007 Index award winner

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I come from a country where we have a lack of justice. The executive power controls the parliament and the justice system. People feel that if they get mistreated or oppressed by those in power nothing will protect them or bring them justice.
Not only people who express their opinions suffer from a lack of justice. People from different backgrounds who have a different way of thinking and different interests also don’t trust the justice system. Those who have more power can easily avoid punishment and take revenge against victims who tried to get their rights through judiciary system.
Officially, police officers don’t have any kind of formal immunity. According to the law they can be questioned if they violate the rights of people by torturing or murdering. But, in fact, all those accused of killing protesters and torturing prisoners managed to avoid being punished, with a few exceptions.
I feel that it’s not safe to express your opinions freely in a country where people can easily avoid punishment.
I have been sentenced to four years in jail for writing two articles and publishing them on the internet, and during that time I have been through physical violence and mistreatment committed by security forces. I reported it but no one has been questioned or punished. That made me feel that there is no justice in my country and that it is easy to be humiliated and tortured and you will not get protected, since the judiciary system is practically part of the executive power and the judges do what the authorities want them to do.

Rahim Haciyev, Azerbajiani journalist and acting editor of 2014 Index award winner Azadliq

Rahim Haciyev, deputy editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Rahim Haciyev, deputy editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Freedom of expression is the basis of all other rights and freedoms. Free speech is something all authoritarian regimes are worried about as it threatens their existence. That is why freedom of expression is specifically targeted by authoritarian regimes. If there are no free people, there is no freedom of expression. Free speech is a precondition for journalists to be able to work in full strength and thus fulfill their functions in society. Authoritarian regimes organise permanent attacks on journalists with impunity. A free journalist armed with freedom of expression is a threat to an authoritarian regime, this is why perpetrators receive awards, not punishment for oppressing journalists’ rights. This process leads to self-censorship, and journalists stop being carriers of truthful information, which in the end affects society.

Nazeeha Saeed, award-winning Bahraini journalist, who was tortured in police custody

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Impunity is a threat to free expression because journalists and people who report the facts on the ground will feel danger, and if no one gets punished for crimes against journalists or others it establishes a systematic impunity culture. Feeling insecure is something bad, it stops people from having a normal life, functioning and expressing themselves.

Endalk Chala, Ethiopian blogger and co-founder of the Zone9 blogging collective (of which six members are currently imprisoned for their writing)

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Impunity is a threat for free expression on many levels. In my experience I have seen impunity when it cultivates self-censorship. Let’s take the case of Zone9 bloggers. Since their arrest there are a lot of people who tried to visit them in prison, take a picture of them, attend their trial and tweet about their hearings but all of these have invited very bad reactions from the Ethiopian police.
Some were arrested briefly, others were beaten and it has become impossible to attend the “trial” of the bloggers and journalists. No action was taken by the Ethiopian courts against the bad actions of the police even though the bloggers have contentiously reported the kinds of harassment. As a result, people have stopped tweeting, taking pictures and writing about the bloggers. Apparently, the volume of the tweets and Facebook status updates which comes from Ethiopia has dwindled significantly. People don’t want to risk harassment because of a single tweet or a picture. This self-censorship could be attributed to impunity, which is pervasive in Ethiopia.
Impunity also causes a lack of trust in the Ethiopian judicial system. I don’t trust the independence of the Ethiopian justice system. I have never seen a police man/woman or a government authority being prosecuted for their bad actions against journalists. The Ethiopian government has been prosecuting hundreds of journalists for criminal defamation, terrorism and inciting violence but not a single government person for violating journalists’ rights. This tells you a lot about the compromised justice system of the country.

Andrei Soldatov, Russian investigative journalist and co-founder and editor of Agentura.Ru website

Andrei Soldatov
Russia is known for its traditions of self-censorship. Despite what the laws say, the rules are explained in a quiet voice in some unmarked cabinets. Sometimes the rules are even not explained, and journalists, editors and owners of media have to constantly guess what is allowed at that moment. Not everyone is allowed to ask directly, so we are all in the game about signals sent by the authorities.
Journalists are beaten and killed in Russia, and this provides plenty of room to send such signals to journalistic community. You don’t need to explain that investigative reporting in the North Caucasus is not allowed anymore: you just need to turn the investigation of Anna Politkovskaya’s assassination in 2006 into a show trial, where the assassins are duly found guilty, but the question of masterminds is never answered. You could be sure, the signal would be taken correctly.

Fergal Keane, Irish journalist, BBC foreign correspondent and 2003 Index award winner

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Impunity allows the enemies of free speech to threaten, torture and kill journalists secure in the knowledge they will never be called to account. I can’t think of a greater threat.

Veran Matic, B92 board of directors chairman and B92 news editor-in-chief

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In my 25 years of experience in Serbia, I have been editor-in-chief of a media outlet that was banned on several occasions and I have been arrested.
Impunity directly encourages and expands violence towards journalists. The culture of producing fear is the most efficient form of censorship. One unsolved murder creates space for implementing the next one without any threat for the executioners. In the meantime, the media get killed/eliminated in the process.
The lack of discontinuity with Slobodan Milosevic’s authoritarian regime had left room for impunity to remain intact.
Less than two years ago, I had decided to make a kind of a breakthrough when it comes to impunity. I proposed the establishment of a mixed commission composed of journalists, members of the police and members of the security information agency. We managed to bring the 1999 murder of Slavko Curuvija to a phase where official indictment was brought, along with arrest of all suspects in this murder case. The 2001 murder of our colleague Milan Pantic is also in the final stage of investigation. A 1994 assassination — of Dada Vujasinovic — is being reviewed by the National Forensic Institute from The Hague because local institutions have compromised themselves in this case.
In the same way as impunity restricts freedom of speech, solving of these cases, at least 20 years later, will surely contribute to journalists being encouraged to do their job in the best possible way. Of course, I am not counting here on the new problems with which journalists and media face, and that call for finding new models of financing high quality journalism for the sake of public interest, worldwide.

The International Day to End Impunity was set up in 2011 by free speech network IFEX, of which Index on Censorship is a member, with the aim of demanding accountability and justice on behalf of those “targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression”.

About Milana Knezevic

Milana KnezevicMilana Knezevic is the Assistant Editor, Online and News of Index on Censorship

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