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Under normal circumstances, reporters and news crews working in foreign countries apply for visas and residency permits just like employees of any other company. There are rules to be followed, declarations of employment and residence. Renewals are mostly pro-forma, bring a photo and pay the fee on time. This generally works out well for everybody.
Moscow correspondent for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant Tom Vennink was tossed out of the Russian Federation this week, reported RFE/RL (November 4). The Russian Interior Ministry cited “two administrative violations,” seemingly frivolous paperwork issues. For foreign reporters nothing is frivolous in Russia. In August, longtime BBC Russia correspondent Sarah Rainsford was ordered to leave “forever.” Mr. Vennink has worked in Russia since 2015.
It is somewhat cliché to view both of these expulsions as the new normal in the Russian Federation, where authorities are hypersensitive to criticism. Russian nationals working for media outlets are regularly placed on a list of “foreign agents” by the Justice Ministry, requiring a higher level of personal disclosure. Of course, some Russian media workers have faced far worse. (See more about media in the Russian Federation here)
Tom Vennink’s expulsion appears related to official Russian dismay with Dutch court decisions. One recently found that historical Crimean artifacts, currently held at a Dutch museum, are the legal property of Ukraine, not the Russian Federation, which seized Crimea in 2014. This week Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin traveled to Crimea for National Unity Day and repeated that the territory is “forever” party of Russia, reported Reuters (November 5). (See more about press/media freedom here)
Then, too, a top level court case heard in the Netherlands has been back and forth for more than a decade with former Yukos Oil shareholders wrangling with the Russian Federation about compensation due from the government seizure. The Dutch Supreme Court decided (November 5) not to decide and returned the procedure to the Court of Arbitration, based in the Hague. Shareholders are looking for €43 billion. "There are a lot of problems, diplomatic problems, and it is possible that Russia has decided to expel me because of this,” said Mr. Vennink to De Volkskrant (November 6).
Coincident with the seizure - “annexation” - of Crimea was the major worldwide breaking news that Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 originating in Amsterdam was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 with all 298 aboard losing their lives, mostly Dutch and Australian citizens. Multiple international investigations identified the Russian missile, even the Russian launch team. A criminal trial in the Netherlands in ongoing, news reporting extensive. "What is clear is that relations between the Netherlands and Russia have been very bad since the MH17 accident in 2014,” added Mr. Vennink.
It was a move that horrified publishers. Used to calling the tune in various parliaments on copyright issues, they faced an unexpected turn. A big US tech company, object of unending ire, chose to leave rather than give in. Publishers ranted as the moving van, figuratively, drove away.
Of course, this refers to Google pulling Google News and the Google Spain search portal out of Spain in 2014. The Spanish parliament at the time adopted provisions of the European Union Copyright Directive requiring news aggregators to pay a central fee to publishers for listing titles, links and snippets. Google would be having none of this, as their lawyers previously explained to Belgian and German politicians. Local search aggregators also, shall we say, changed business models. (See contemporaneous story here)
Today, this is all - somewhat - in the past. The current Spanish parliament overturned the law (November 2). Out is the provision for a collective fee for “neighboring rights,” often called a “snippet tax” or “link tax.” News aggregators can now negotiate with publishers individually. "Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law,” said Google Iberia vice president Fuencisla Clemares, quoted by Reuters (November 4). (See more about Google/Alphabet here)
During the ensuing years Spanish publishers rushed to erect paywalls for their online portals. The money did not arrive. The Spanish Association of Publishers of Periodical Publications (AEEPP) commissioned a study a year after (2015) news aggregators found something else to do. “The impact of the closing down of Google News and some other aggregators has generated a decline of visitors to the 84 major Spanish online newspapers,” said the report. “Breaking down traffic depending on the newspaper size, also confirms that the effect has been uneven. For the sample of online newspapers in Spain, it appears that smaller newspapers have been the worst affected ones.” (See more about media in Spain here)
As time passed - not to forget coronavirus pandemic impact - a different shift has affected publishers in Spain. “The true leading media are the regional newspapers whose names are hardly known abroad because they operate in the provinces,” said Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) European correspondent Paul Ingendaay at the recent International Congress of Periodicals (October 20). “In all parts of Spain except Madrid and Barcelona, newspapers with regional roots are the best and shape public opinion with a market share of up to eighty percent.”
Some Spanish publishing associations express relief at unwinding the “Google tax” law. Lobbyist for traditional Spanish newspapers and major supporter of the 2014 legislation, Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI), has remained silent. It is likely that Google, subsidiary of Alphabet, will propose to selected publishers inclusion in the Google News Showcase, which limits the use of paywalls.
Big international events afford reporters from around the globe to hear and, sometimes, question world leaders about the weighty events of the day. The prominent names in world affairs are most often duly protected from journalistic encroachment. But inquiring reporters want to know.
This past Sunday (October 31) Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro toured Rome while other G20 attendees sat for meetings. He was asked about this incongruity by TV Globo Europe correspondent Leonardo Monteiro, TV Globo being a major Brazilian news broadcaster associated with major Brazilian newspaper O Globo. “You’re from Globo? You have no shame, kid,” retorted president Bolsonaro, who often rails about news coverage. In turn Sr. Monteiro was met with punches from the assigned security detail and, afterward, hospitalized.
This did not sit well with O Globo officials. “Who hired the bouncers? Who gave them the guidance to drive journalists away with the use of force? Will those responsible be punished? Globo is seeking information on the procedures necessary to request an investigation from the Italian authorities,” said an editorial (November 1). (See more about press/media freedom here)
It was not the only such incident. Ana Estela de Sousa Pinto, a reporter for Folha de Sao Paulo, another big Brazilian newspaper, was “attacked,” reportedly by Italian security agents hired to protect president Bolsonaro from indignities such as questions. BBC Brasil reporter Matheus Magenta was “pushed, held down and slapped” upon attempts to ask a question. “The president himself… encourages intolerance towards journalistic activity with actions and words,” said a statement from the Brazilian National Federation of Journalists.
The mobile phone of news portal UOL photojournalist Jamil Chade was snatched and stomped by a security agent in another altercation the same evening. Sr. Chade has asked president Bolsonaro about skipping the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. “I don’t owe you the satisfaction,” quipped president Bolsonaro, caught on video before the stomping incident.
The greatest threat to media workers is not dictators and extremists, it is impunity. Punishments for those assaulting reporters, photojournalists and crew members - not to forget murders - is a rare occurrence. Press and media freedom advocates have long recognized this dark reality.
The United Nations General Assembly in 2013 enshrined November 2nd as International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI). The date commemorates the 2013 murder of two French journalists in Mali. It is observed annually with appropriate events and statements. There’s a hashtag: #EndImpunity. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization) issues a bi-annual report annotating names, numbers and violators. “Only by investigating and prosecuting crimes against media professionals can we guarantee access to information and freedom of expression,” said UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay in a statement. (See more abut press/media freedom here)
To increase awareness of prosecutorial impunity for crimes against media workers, major journalism advocates - Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) - have organized the People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists, launched to coincide with the IDEI at The Hague, Netherlands. Recognized human rights lawyer Almudena Bernabeu is the lead prosecutor. Witness statements will be delivered on the opening day. The Hague is the site of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has conducted investigations and trials covering war crimes and crimes against humanity.
People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists will focus on three cases involving governments failing to deliver justice; the 2009 assassination of Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, the 2011 murder of Mexican newspaper columnist and crime reporter Miguel Ángel López Velasco and the 2015 murder of Syrian journalist Nabil Al-Sharbaji while in detention. The People’s Tribunal will hold five hearings, appropriately concluding on World Press Freedom Day, May 3rd, 2022.
Climate and environmental issues have reached a pinnacle with broadcasters and publishers lending considerable time and space to their reporting. Every oil spill, pollution alert, wildfire and wild flood earns a headline and detailed analysis. And photos of oil covered dying birds on a beach pull at heartstrings, sometimes. Carbon statistics and ocean level forecasts, arguably more horrifying, reach only those who can read. Thus goes the reporting on the United Nations COP26 climate conference taking place through November 12th in Scotland.
Journalism advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) with 61 environment reporting specialists are asking for added attention - and protections - for those who toil to account for mining accidents, water and land use issues, environmental corruption as well as softer “green” subjects essential to the mix. More than 20 media workers involved in climate and environment issues have been murdered for their efforts over the last two decades, noted the RSF statement (October 29). Their appeal is titles “Climate emergency, journalism emergency.” (See more about press/media freedom here)
“Environmental coverage is now vital,” wrote RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire. “Nearly 30 years after the right to cover environmental issues was proclaimed in the United Nations Earth Summit declaration in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, this right must finally become a reality, it must finally be applied and respected without exception, as something that is self-evident.”
Six of the signatories are from Brazil, where effects of climate change are both obvious and contentions. One is Leonardo Sakamoto, director and founder of Repórter Brasil, a collective of journalists and academics focused on social, environmental and labor rights. Another is Marcelo Canellas, a specialist crime reporter for the Globo Network with a background in agronomy.
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