THE NEW YORK TIMES: One of the paradoxical things about Vladimir V. Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule of Russia was how relatively open society always remained.
For all the state’s control of media, people could read or watch what they wanted, including foreign newscasts like BBC and CNN. The internet was largely unfettered, a portal to the rest of the world. Unlike, say, China, you could criticize the president with some assurance that the police would not knock at the door.
Until now.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, Mr. Putin has strangled the vestiges of a free press to justify an invasion that has been almost universally condemned — and with that moved closer to the stultifying orthodoxy of the Soviet Union. The result will be to isolate the country, as Mr. Putin has isolated himself, leaving it with a one-sided view of the world no longer subject to debate. » | Steven Lee Myers | Monday, March 7, 2022
Showing posts with label media censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media censorship. Show all posts
Monday, March 07, 2022
Monday, January 17, 2022
Eastern Europe Tests New Forms of Media Censorship
THE NEW YORK TIMES: With new, less repressive tactics, countries like Serbia, Poland and Hungary are deploying highly effective tools to skew public opinion.
Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, last week. Like other countries in Eastern Europe, Serbia is adopting new forms of censorship to constrict the space open to critical voices and tilt public opinion in favor of those in power. | Marko Risovic for The New York Times
BELGRADE, Serbia — When Covid-19 reached Eastern Europe in the spring of 2020, a Serbian journalist reported a severe shortage of masks and other protective equipment. She was swiftly arrested, thrown in a windowless cell and charged with inciting panic.
The journalist, Ana Lalic, was quickly released and even got a public apology from the government in what seemed like a small victory against old-style repression by Serbia’s authoritarian president, Aleksandar Vucic.
But Ms. Lalic was then vilified for weeks as a traitor by much of the country’s news media, which has come increasingly under the control of Mr. Vucic and his allies as Serbia adopts tactics favored by Hungary and other states now in retreat from democracy across Europe’s formerly communist eastern fringe.
“For the whole nation, I became a public enemy,” she recalled.
Serbia no longer jails or kills critical journalists, as happened under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. It now seeks to destroy their credibility and ensure few people see their reports.
The muting of critical voices has greatly helped Mr. Vucic — and also the country’s most well-known athlete, the tennis star Novak Djokovic, whose visa travails in Australia have been portrayed as an intolerable affront to the Serb nation. The few remaining outlets of the independent news media mostly support him but take a more balanced approach. » | Andrew Higgins | Monday, January 17, 2022
BELGRADE, Serbia — When Covid-19 reached Eastern Europe in the spring of 2020, a Serbian journalist reported a severe shortage of masks and other protective equipment. She was swiftly arrested, thrown in a windowless cell and charged with inciting panic.
The journalist, Ana Lalic, was quickly released and even got a public apology from the government in what seemed like a small victory against old-style repression by Serbia’s authoritarian president, Aleksandar Vucic.
But Ms. Lalic was then vilified for weeks as a traitor by much of the country’s news media, which has come increasingly under the control of Mr. Vucic and his allies as Serbia adopts tactics favored by Hungary and other states now in retreat from democracy across Europe’s formerly communist eastern fringe.
“For the whole nation, I became a public enemy,” she recalled.
Serbia no longer jails or kills critical journalists, as happened under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. It now seeks to destroy their credibility and ensure few people see their reports.
The muting of critical voices has greatly helped Mr. Vucic — and also the country’s most well-known athlete, the tennis star Novak Djokovic, whose visa travails in Australia have been portrayed as an intolerable affront to the Serb nation. The few remaining outlets of the independent news media mostly support him but take a more balanced approach. » | Andrew Higgins | Monday, January 17, 2022
Thursday, March 23, 2017
German Media Watchdog Instructs Press to Censor Ethnicity and Religion in Reports
The German Press Council – a voluntary, industry-run body – says information about a person’s ethnicity shouldn’t be published “unless there is a justified public interest in doing so.” » | Breitbart London | Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Read the Jihad Watch article here
Monday, November 10, 2008
THE INDEPENDENT: Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall.
The Intelligence and Security Committee, the parliamentary watchdog of the intelligence and security agencies which has a cross-party membership from both Houses, wants to press ministers to introduce legislation that would prevent news outlets from reporting stories deemed by the Government to be against the interests of national security.
The committee also wants to censor reporting of police operations that are deemed to have implications for national security.
The ISC is to recommend in its next report, out at the end of the year, that a commission be set up to look into its plans, according to senior Whitehall sources.
The ISC holds huge clout within Whitehall. It receives secret briefings from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and is highly influential in forming government policy. Kim Howells, a respected former Foreign Office minister, was recently appointed its chairman.
Under the existing voluntary code of conduct, known as the DA-Notice system, the Government can request that the media does not report a story. However, the committee's members are particularly worried about leaks, which, they believe, could derail investigations and the reporting of which needs to be banned by legislation.
Civil liberties groups say these restrictions would be "very dangerous" and "damaging for public accountability". They also point out that censoring journalists when the leaks come from officials is unjustified. MPs Seek to Censor the Media >>> Exclusive by Kim Sengupta | November 10, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Media Could Face Reporting Ban on Issues of National Security
Plans for the security services and police to be given new legally-binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security are being drawn up, it was claimed today.
The proposal is said to feature in a report due before the end of the year from the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee, parliamentary watchdog of the intelligence and security agencies.
According to The Independent newspaper, unnamed sources at Whitehall say that the ISC will urge ministers to set up a commission to look into the proposal.
The ISC is appointed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and reports directly to him.
Its membership is made up of long-standing and trusted members of the major parties and it is chaired by former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells.
It receives secret briefings from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and is highly influential in forming government policy.
The existing DA-Notice system is operated on a voluntary basis and overseen by the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (DPBAC), which brings together officials and representatives of the media.
Under this code of conduct, the Government can request that the media does not report a story which could compromise UK military and intelligence operations or lead to attacks that would damage the critical national infrastructure or endanger lives. >>> By Charlotte Bailey | November 10, 2008
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