The latest on threats to freedom of expression around the world

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Friday, 31 March 2023
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AMLO, as he is known, is inaugurated as Mexican president in December 2018. Photo: Mabel Lemoniel/Presidencia República Dominicana, CC BY NC ND 2.0

One Mexican journalist was attacked every 13 hours last year and some of these attacks were fatal. Let that number sink in. Consider its implications - the lives cut short, the families devastated, and, of course, the broader industry toll. There will be stories untold, there will be corruption that has gone unchallenged. It is nothing short of an outrage. And so we start this newsletter with a damning statistic from one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist today, before branching out to the other countries this week that have shown just how high-stakes reporting can be.

The Mexico number is in Article 19's annual report ([link removed]) , released on Tuesday. They found the threats that Mexican journalists faced had reached record levels in 2022. Another kicker: they found state actors and security forces were responsible for a whopping 42% of the aggression. We asked a journalist based in Mexico to respond to this report. Here is his article ([link removed]) , straight from the streets of one of Mexico's most troubled towns.

Now for those Index aficionados, you'll remember we awarded Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Tyrant of the Year ([link removed]) back in January. It was a public vote, crowned by you rather than by us. But we nominated him because of the culture of impunity and violence that he presides over and indeed encourages. Obrador's dictionary of slurs against the media is colourful to say the least - “thugs, mercenaries, sellouts” and, a personal fave, “the real mafia” (because nothing says cartel like a press badge and a notebook). His vitriol is so pointed that at the end of last year Mexican journalists issued a desperate plea ([link removed]) - stop slandering us.

We want to note for this newsletter's record that we know Obrador is not to blame for all the violence. When he came to power in 2018 he inherited a media landscape in tatters (something we documented here ([link removed]) and here ([link removed]) and here ([link removed]) ). But words matter - hence Index - and where Obrador had an opportunity to make the situation better he trashed it through all his trashing.

Obrador assumed Mexico’s presidency with a promise to tackle the country's violence. The next presidential elections are July 2024. The clock is ticking on this pledge.

Alas elections are not a blueprint for civility, as Nigeria has shown. There both the presidential election at the end of February and the governor and state assembly ones in the middle of March took place against a backdrop of ethnic tension and political harassment. Some said they were prevented from voting because of their identity or party affiliation. Journalists got caught in the crosshairs, as one told us here ([link removed]) . She was beaten up and her photos deleted. Dozens more reported similar stories. The election results have been contested, but just how probing can reporters be when their own lives are at stake?

While physical attacks might be a common tactic, when it comes to silencing the press there are many ways to skin a cat, as Russia knows all too well. Over two decades of Putin rule there have been targeted killings, arrests, detentions, suspension of publications, fines - you name it, they've done it. They upped their game this week with the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich ([link removed]) , who was charged with espionage, a crime that carries up to 20 years in prison. To quote the FT's Polina Ivanova "the allegations are ridiculous".

Here is what we know so far: Gershkovich, 31, has ample experience in Russia, speaks Russian and has official accreditation. He was investigating the notorious Wagner Group and was detained on Wednesday during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Ekaterinburg. On Thursday, he appeared at a courthouse in Moscow, which ordered him to be held in pre-trial detention until at least 29 May. Many observers have accused Russia of engaging in “hostage taking”. Either way, it's a very cynical move. After the passage of a law last year that threatened foreign reporters with jail terms of up to 15 years for spreading “fake news” many foreign journalists fled. Gershkovich's arrest will do nothing to assuage the fears of those who remain.

By this stage in the newsletter you might be saturated with bad media freedom stories but please bear with me for one last one, which is particularly close to my heart right now. In Afghanistan under the Taliban, the concept of media freedom is about as mythical as the three-headed hydra. As a result the Index inbox is full of emails from those who worked in the media before the fall of Kabul - people who spent years training and had high hopes for the role of journalism in their country - and how they now fear for their lives. These people are desperate. Many are trapped inside. Some have left but for them their fates are not always better. In this impassioned essay ([link removed]) from two Afghan journalists, they discuss the challenges and cite one horrendous example, the case of a journalist who is so desperate for money he is contemplating selling a kidney. We have urged the UK government to do more to help
Afghan refugees and will continue to do so. In the meantime we will publish their stories. It is the least we can do.

Jemimah Steinfeld
Editor-in-chief
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** More Saudi prisoners of conscience
go on hunger strike
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[link removed] many prisoners in Saudi Arabia, a hunger strike is the only way to protest their detention and ill treatment, including refusal of access to lawyers and family, dreadful conditions and torture. Salma al-Shehab and seven other prisoners who were handed farcically long jail sentences by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, originally set up to try terrorists but now routinely handling human rights cases, have now stopped eating. Salma and her fellow prisoners should have their sentences quashed and they should be released without delay. Read about this shocking case here ([link removed])
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** From the archive
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** Frenemies
Kaya Genç
June 2017
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A satirical short story ([link removed]) about a US president with fake tan, a penchant for Coke and an uncomfortable political alliance. No hush money though.
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