Anja Kožul works for Novosti, a Croatian and Serbian-language weekly magazine published by the Serb National Council (SNV) in Croatia, which covers issues related to the Serb community in the country.

She has been exposed to numerous threats, insults and attacks coming from Serbia since 1 December. The hate campaign started after she published an article entitled “From Islamophobe to state official” about Arnaud Gouillon, a French and Serbian national known in Serbia for his advocacy for the Kosovo Serbs. The article refers to Gouillon’s recent appointment as head of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the region.

The threats were reported to the police and an investigation is currently underway. The EFJ, the IPI and the ECPMF urge the General Police Directorate and the Croatian Minister of the Interior to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to protect Anja Kožul.

As the vote on the first reading of the “Global Security” law achieved a majority in the French National Assembly on Tuesday 24 November, the International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ), as well as other representatives from the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) called on the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to withdraw three articles from the text, and on journalists and democracy activists to demonstrate on Saturday 28 November.

The draft law on Global Security was tabled by two deputies from the government majority and  secured a majority vote (388 votes for, 104 against) in the National Assembly on Tuesday 24 November. It seeks to amend the law of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press as follows: “The act of disseminating by any means whatsoever and whatever the medium, with the aim of harming his physical or mental integrity, the image of the face or any other element of identification of an official of the national police or a military member of the national gendarmerie when he acts as part of a police operation is punishable by one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.”

The IFJ, EFJ, their affiliates in France and the MFRR consider that this law is contrary to international legal standards on freedom of expression and disproportionately restricts the rights of journalists and press freedom.

For more than a month, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered and protested across the country against the decision of the Constitutional Court to ban abortions in cases of foetal abnormality. The Constitutional Court has been criticised for its lack of independence in recent years. The protests, led by women and organised by the Women’s Strike initiative, have reached an unprecedented scale including in small towns and communities.

Since the beginning of the protests, ARTICLE 19 as part of the MFRR has been concerned about a number of violations of the right to protest in Poland

The International Press Institute (IPI) condemned the arrest of photojournalist Agata Grzybowska in Warsaw and called on Polish authorities to drop the charges against her immediately. Grzybowska, an award-winning photographer who works for the RATS agency and co-operates with the Associated Press and Gazeta Wyborcza, was arrested as she documented a protest outside the Ministry of National Education in Warsaw on November 23.

On 23 November 2020, openDemocracy released a report regarding a UK government unit called the ‘Clearing House’, based out of the Cabinet Office. According to the report,  Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to Whitehall departments that are deemed sensitive, or too expensive to answer are forwarded to the unit for further vetting. As noted in the report, Act of Darkness authored by Lucas Amin, ‘the FOI act does not stipulate the need for a Clearing House and the unit has no public policy mandate.’

This centralisation of the responsibility to respond to FOI requests gives ample cover for political decisions to inform the government’s response. Something that goes against the spirit, and likely also the letter, of the 2000 Freedom of Information act.

Journalists from openDemocracy, The Guardian, The Times, the BBC, and many more, as well as researchers from Privacy International and Big Brother Watch have been included on lists compiled by the Clearing House.

It is vital that an independent and robust investigation is carried out to ensure that all FOI requests are treated equally and without political interference or the appearance thereof.

Antonis Rigopoulos who works for the media outlets Documento and Koutipandoras.gr was detained at approximately 3pm on 17 November when he was covering a rally in commemoration of the 1973 Polytechnic University student uprising against the military dictatorship.

IPI raised concern that, according to reports, officers repeatedly refused to acknowledge the reporter’s “press” ID when it was presented. The MFRR calls for an internal investigation into the alleged abuse and intimidation suffered by Rigopoulos while he was held in a police station.

Photo credit: James Cruickshank

In the night between Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, unknown individuals set fire to a car owned by James Cruickshank, the publisher of The Digger as it was parked outside the house he shares with his partner. While the fire spread to his neighbour’s car, no houses were affected and the blaze was soon put out by the fire service. However, as reported by the Press Gazette, this was not an isolated incident. During the same night, individuals visited approximately ‘30 of the 750 shops that stock The Digger in the Glasgow area to try to intimidate them to stop selling it’. According to the article, of those visited, two stopped selling the publication as a result. 

It is strongly believed that the two incidents are connected to each other and to The Digger’s reporting on organised crime in Glasgow. We call on Police Scotland to ensure the investigation is swift, thorough and robust and ensures those behind these attacks are brought to justice.

The letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State, Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP was signed by 17 organisations. It outlines a number of concerns that without intervention by the government of the United Kingdom, whistleblower and British citizen Jonathan Taylor may be stuck in Croatia fighting extradition to Monaco for many more months.

On 31 July 2020, Taylor, a whistleblower who disclosed bribery and corrupt practices in the oil and gas industry, was arrested upon his arrival in Croatia for a holiday pursuant to an Interpol Red Notice issued on request of Monaco. On 1 September, a court in Dubrovnik ordered his extradition. However, on 12 October the Supreme Court partially sustained an appeal by Taylor, ruling that, as the extradition concerned a UK national, that country should be afforded the right to request Taylor’s surrender under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) scheme. If the UK does not seek his surrender, the Supreme Court said, the lower court should rule on the request for extradition by Monaco. On 20 October, the court in Dubrovnik wrote to the UK authorities requesting a statement as to whether it seeks Taylor’s surrender under the EAW, which would be absurd given he is not under investigation in the UK.

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemned police violence against photojournalists reporting on clashes in the Polish capital Warsaw. The violence led to numerous injuries and the hospitalization of a 74-year-old photographer who was shot in the face with a rubber bullet.

In each of the attacks the journalists in question had either been wearing “PRESS” signs or were otherwise clearly identifiable as members of the media. The incidents happened on November 11, 2020 as media covered violent clashes between police and members of far-right and nationalist groups during the annual Independence Day march through the capital.

Photo credit: Jedrzej Nowicki