Notations From the Grid (Special W-End Edition): On Press Freedom Around The World

As a Virtual Media Company, we remain profoundly concerned about the state of Press Freedom in Our World.     We decided to feature the latest edition of the "Torch" published by the Committee to Protect Journalists because an understanding of the challenges is profound as we do our part to live up to our Mission to help Change the Conversation about our World:

Chinese journalist Huang Qi is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on January 22, 2015. Today, Huang was sentenced to 12 years in prison. (AFP/Fred Dufour)

On Monday, a Chinese court in Sichuan province sentenced Huang Qi, publisher of the human rights news website 64 Tianwang, to 12 years in prison on charges of "deliberately leaking state secrets," and "illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries."

Tanzanian police arrested investigative reporter Erick Kabendera on Monday. One day later, the city police chief said at a press conference that Kabendera was being questioned about his citizenship. In 2013, the journalist linked a similar investigation to attempts to muzzle him. Press freedom has deteriorated drastically in Tanzania under the presidency of John Magufuli, CPJ has found. In 2017, freelancer Azory Gwanda disappeared in the country's eastern Rufiji region and has not been heard from since.

Global press freedom updates

• In a rare piece of good news, Mauritania finally freed blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed two days before the inauguration of the country's new president. CPJ has advocated for Mohamed's release since his arrest in 2014, including featuring him in the #FreeThePress campaign.
• A Kyrgyz court Tuesday upheld the life sentence of Azimjon Askarov. The journalist was convicted in 2010 on charges of incitement to ethnic hatred and complicity in the murder of a police officer, after he documented human rights violations.
• Brazilian President Bolsonaro says Glenn Greenwald may 'do jail time'
• From conflict zones to courtrooms, Myanmar's journalists are under fire, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin reports
• Kurdish military forces detain journalist in Iraqi Kurdistan
• CPJ calls for President Lopez Obrador to strengthen press freedom in Mexico
• Explosive detonated outside office of Costa Rican TV station Teletica

Spotlight

Art by Jack Forbes

This week we published a new, updated Digital Safety Kit for journalists looking to better protect themselves, their sources, and their information. The kit, produced by CPJ's Emergencies Department, combines six bite-sized safety notes on different topics in an accessible format that is easy to digest.

CPJ Emergencies also provides safety advice on psychosocial and physical safety, as well as ongoing safety advisories in response to emerging threats. This information is all free and available on our website.

What we are reading

• No one is safe: How Saudi Arabia makes dissidents disappear -- Ayman M. Mohyeldin, Vanity Fair
• The Incredible Life and Tragic Death of Lyra McKee -- Susan McKay, The New Yorker
• An explainer for when the internet goes down: What, who and why? -- Isabel Linzer, African Arguments
• Diane Foley: Trump Has Freed American Hostages. But He's Made It 'Less Safe' to Be a Journalist -- Diane Foley, The Daily Beast
• Report on the Facebook Third Party Fact Checking programme -- Full Fact
• Jamal Khashoggi and Azory Gwanda Remain Atop Latest "10 Most Urgent" List Of Press Freedom Cases From One Free Press Coalition -- Forbes

So far in 2019...

At least 14 journalists have been killed worldwide in relation to their work. Explore our data.

Visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database for info on press freedom violations in the U.S.

Notations From the Grid (Special Opening Month Edition): On Our World

   

It is the dawn of a new Month here at the Daily Outsider.     We decided to "hit the ground" running as we chose headlines over the past few weeks as Boris Johnson became UK Prime Minister, the UK Government began a "turbo-charge" effort for Brexit with profound implications.   Europe has new leadership as well as we could not agree more with the image we've headlined courtesy of the team at the Economist of London on how the structures of society is ever so challenged. 

We look forward  to our responsibility in working to help transform to change the conversation about our World. 

As the headlines underscore, we have profound challenges in our World which will be a focus of us throughout our properties: 

myFT Instant Alert Politics Will Boris Johnson lose his seat at the next general election? Labour candidate believes demographic shift means he can beat the UK prime minister JULY 28, 2019 by William Wallis in Uxbridge

myFT Instant Alert Politics Legal sector faces £3.5bn hit from no-deal Brexit, says Law Society Disorderly exit could curb lawyers’ access to European market and imperil 10,000 jobs JULY 31, 2019 by Kate Beioley

myFT Instant Alert Economy Sajid Javid to unveil £2bn extra Brexit cash for no-deal planning Pot includes £434m to stop UK running out of vital medicines and £138m information campaign JULY 31, 2019 by George Parker in London

World Vladimir Putin: the full interview The Financial Times is the first major international newspaper to be granted an interview with the Russian leader for 16 years JULY 5, 2019 by Edited by Margot Tiounine and Tom Hannen

EU Moves To Select My Leader Who Has Called For A “United States Of Europe” by jonathanturley We have previously discussed how the controversial EU President Jean-Claude Juncker has dismissed the notion of national boundaries and called nationalists "stupid."  Various countries are faced with parties seeking to exit from the European Union as the EU exercised more and more control over every aspect of life in various countries.  Rather than look for a figure to allay such concerns, the EU is moving toward a leader who has called for a United States of Europe with a single military.  Ursula von der Leyen is Angela Merkel's defence minister and was proposed by EU leaders to take over in October as the new leader in Brussels. Read more of this post The Economist today The best of our journalism, handpicked each day British foreign policy How to lose friends and not influence people A leak, a leadership race and a lame-duck prime minister expose the weaknesses of Brexit Britain’s diplomacy Biting the bullet Deutsche Bank shrinks and restructures At last, Germany’s biggest bank recognises reality doing Farewell, Syriza Kyriakos Mitsotakis sweeps to victory in Greece But can his New Democracy party overcome a history of clientelism?

As We Go Dark....

The Wild Geese in Iran (Courtesy Kaven Madani) 

Solar Panel Construction at Aliso Niguel High School, Aliso Viejo, CA (Source: Our Founder's Collection) 

On a Window Into the Future (Courtesy World Bank/Kaveh Madani) 

Our team will go dark throughout our properties as we wanted to close out the Month as we celebrate Mother Earth (With the beauty of Iran), showcasing commitment to going green in our community(as Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, California Goes Solar) and a celebration of the Blue Economy.    As we look forward to our analysis next month, our Live Broadcast Pod will be active and our Twitter Channel will have updates throughout as we look forward to our commitment to serve to change the conversation about our World.