Could Attacks on Journalists Be Made War Crimes?
The global journalist defense group Reporters Without Borders wants the International Criminal Court and the United Nations to consider attacks on journalists war crimes.
The global journalist defense group Reporters Without Borders wants the International Criminal Court and the United Nations to consider attacks on journalists war crimes.
The U.N. Security Council met Friday to discuss what can be done to protect journalists amid news that more than 50 have been killed so far this year. An estimated 90 percent of those deaths go unpunished.
The Associated Press reported:
The director of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, called the statistics on killings “sinister” and warned that impunity amounts to “encouragement” for more attacks.
Deloire said 88 journalists were killed in connection with their work last year — a record since the organization started keeping count in 1995.
The British ambassador to the U.N., Mark Lyall Grant, told the chamber, “This is not just an issue for media, it’s an issue for all of us.”
The proposal found support among attendants of the security council meeting. The Guatemalan ambassador, one of the meeting’s hosts, called the idea a good one, especially with many attacks on reporters occurring in countries with dysfunctional or collapsed judicial systems.
As reporters subject to the United States’ increasingly hostile Justice Department know, the threats to journalists include imprisonment. The briefing notes for the meeting said 183 journalists around the globe are currently in prison.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
In a major decision Monday, the US Supreme Court denied Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges and other plaintiffs the right to challenge a law that allows the U military to indefinitely detain people alleged or suspected to have helped al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges discussed "recent conflicting federal court decisions on the legality of NSA spying" in a talk at the Connecticut Civil Liberties Conference at Central Connecticut State University on Saturday.
The long list of Obama's shames includes the retention and forced feeding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, 84 of whom have been cleared for release, many of whom have never been charged. A short animated film produced by The Observer allows five of them to tell their story.
The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has dealt a terrible blow to Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky and the other activists and journalists suing to prevent the indefinite military detention of American citizens Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has dealt a terrible blow to Chris Hedges and the other activists and journalists suing to prevent the indefinite military detention of American citizens.
"I’ve been detained at Guantanamo for 11 years and three months," Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel says. "I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial."
More than 60 people have been injured in violent confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli army in the West Bank, a Palestinian humanitarian group said. Demonstrators were calling for the release of four Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strikes.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.