This is the latest installment of our press freedom round-up, recapping the latest attacks on journalists, their right to publish, and our right to know. Here’s the news for the week of January 18, 2025.
Portland journalist to go to trial over coverage of a pro-Palestine protest
Independent journalist Alissa Azar, who was arrested in May 2024 while filming a student-led pro-Palestine protest at Oregon’s Portland State University, will go to trial on trespassing charges on January 27 in Multnomah County. Prism reports that Azar may face harsher sentencing due to a felony conviction in a separate case, when the state of Oregon called into question Azar’s role as a journalist and argued that she is not a reporter, but rather an antifa leader.
“Azar’s case has brought to light a complex history of harassment, violence, and abuse of power by local law enforcement and reveals a landmark legal condemnation against social media journalists and press freedom in the U.S. Her identities as a self-taught movement journalist, Arab, and antifascist woman puts her at the speartip of state repression”
Jen Byers, Prism
Sign Defending Rights & Dissent’s petition urging the Multnomah County DA to immediately drop the charges against Azar.
Three journalists released by Israel as part of ceasefire deal
Three journalists & members of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate – Rula Hassanein, Bushra Al-Tawil and Ashwaq Awad – are among the first 90 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel as part of ceasefire deal.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomed their release and urged Israel to stop persecuting Palestinian journalists, and to immediately and unconditionally release them all.
CPJ: Israel catapults to second-place among top jailers of journalists
Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) published its 2024 annual prison census documenting more than 100 new jailings of journalists around the world. Next to countries that routinely rank among the top jailers of journalists – China, Myanmar, Belarus and Russia – Israel made second-place despite rarely appearing in CPJ’s annual prison census before the start of its war on Gaza.
Article 19: ceasefire should bring an end to the persistent attacks on freedom of expression
Article 19 has welcomed the the agreed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and reiterated their demand for justice and accountability for the human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during this conflict.
“The ceasefire must lead to a robust, thorough investigation into all crimes against civilians, including journalists. Israel must grant journalists and the media access to all areas of Palestinian territory, including Gaza.”
Article 19 statement
Former CIA analyst pleads guilty to 2 counts under the Espionage Act
Former CIA analyst Asif Rahman pled guilty to 2 counts under the Espionage Act for leaking information on a planned Israeli attack on Iran. According to AP, prosecutors claim he “abused his access to top-secret information by accessing, removing and printing out two documents related to Israel and a planned attack on Iran” and shared them with people not authorized to receive them. He’s expected to be sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.
Journalists’ right to source confidentiality under threat in France
Following the publication of his article questioning the practices of the Parisian law firm Ziegler, journalist Philippe Miller was arrested in a Parisian restaurant while meeting with an alleged source, and had his equipment seized by the French police “during a heavy-handed and disproportionate intervention”, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
RSF condemned the arrest, as well as the seizure and examination of Miller’s equipment stating that “Philippe Miller’s case sets a worrying precedent for source confidentiality in France. This case, like Ariane Lavrilleux’s, underscores the urgent need to reform the 2010 law which does not sufficiently protect one of the cornerstones of press freedom.”