“Media freedom is often a casualty of war, and Israel’s recent war with Iran is no exception. We have seen Israeli authorities use security fears to increase censorship, while extremist right-wing politicians have demonized the media, legitimizing attacks on journalists,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Despite hopes that we will see a ceasefire in Gaza this week, Israel’s government appears relentless in its determination to silence those who report critically on its military actions.”

After Haaretz newspaper published an interview with Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to shoot at unarmed Gazans waiting for food aid, a mayor in southern Israel threatened to shut shops selling the popular liberal paper. This follows the government’s decision last year to stop advertising with Haaretz, accusing it of “incitement.”

Authorities are also pushing ahead with a bill to dismantle the public broadcaster, Kan, and shutter its news division, the country’s third-largest news channel. Meanwhile, government support has seen the right-wing Channel 14 grow in popularity.

The hostile climate fueled by Israel’s right-wing government has emboldened settler violence against journalists. On July 5, two Deutsche Welle (DW) reporters wearing press vests were attacked by Israeli settlers in Sinjil, West Bank — an incident condemned by Germany’s ambassador and the German Journalists’ Association, which called it “unacceptable that radical settlers are hunting down media professionals with impunity.” Reporters from AFP, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were also present. Palestinian journalists had to flee.

“War is a dangerous time for civil rights – rights that Netanyahu’s government is actively undermining as it moves toward dismantling democracy,” Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn told CPJ.

‘Broadcasts that serve the enemy’

During the Israel-Iran war of June 13 to 24, anti-press government actions included:

• A June 18 military order requiring army approval before broadcasting the aftermath of Iranian attacks on Israeli military sites. Haaretz reported that this order was illegal as it was not made public in the official government gazette or authorized by a parliamentary committee.

• On June 19, security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Israelis who see people watching “Al Jazeera broadcasts or reporters” to report their sightings to authorities. Israel shut down the Qatari-based outlet in May 2024, and six of its journalists have been killed while reporting on Israel’s war in Gaza. Many Arabs in Israel still watch Al Jazeera broadcasts, and former Israeli officials have appeared on the network since the shutdown. 

“These are broadcasts that serve the enemy,” Ben-Gvir said. 

• On June 20, Ben-Gvir and communications minister Shlomo Karhi issued a directive that broadcasting from impact sites without written permission would be a criminal offense.

When Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanded that the ministers explain the legal basis for their announcement, the ministers said she was “trying to thwart” their efforts to ensure that foreign media “don’t help the enemy target us.”

• On June 23, Haaretz reported that the police’s legal adviser issued an order giving officers sweeping powers to censor journalists reporting from the impact sites.

“This directive, which primarily targets foreign media and joins a wave of police and ministerial efforts to obstruct news coverage, is unlawful and infringes on basic rights,” Tal Hassin, an attorney with Israel’s biggest human rights group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told CPJ.

ACRI petitioned the Attorney General, arguing that the police adviser did not have the legal authority to issue such an order. It has not received a response.

Journalists censored, detained, and abused

CPJ subsequently documented at least four incidents involving journalists who were abused and blocked from reporting.

• On June 20, police stopped a live broadcast from Tel Aviv by Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT’s correspondent Mücahit Aydemir, although he told the officers he had the required permits, including authorization from the military censor. For several days afterwards, Aydemir received “unsettling phone calls” from unknown Hebrew-speakers, he told CPJ.

• On June 21, privately owned Channel 13’s journalist Ali Mughrabi and a camera operator, who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisals, were expelled from a drone crash site in Beit She’an, northern Israel, despite showing their press accreditation. During a live broadcast, Deputy Mayor Oshrat Barel questioned their credentials, shoved the cameraperson, and ordered them to leave. She later apologized.

“What we’re experiencing isn’t just about the media — it’s about citizenship,” Mughrab, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian origin, told CPJ.

• On June 22, a civilian police volunteer squad, led by far-right activist and rapper Yoav Eliasi, known as “The Shadow,” detained three Jerusalem-based, Arab Israeli journalists and one international journalist, after separating them from their non-Arab colleagues outside a building in Tel Aviv that had been damaged by an Iranian strike.

Mustafa Kharouf and Amir Abed Rabbo from the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency, Ahmad Gharabli, with Agence France-Presse news agency, and another journalist who declined to be named, citing fear of reprisal, were held for three hours.  

Kharouf told CPJ, the unit asked them who was “Israeli” and allowed the non-Arab journalists to leave. 

“One officer accused us of working for Al Jazeera, even though we showed official press credentials,” said Kharouf.

“When I showed my ID, they told me I wasn’t allowed to film because I’m not Israeli – even though they treat us like Israelis when it comes to taxes,” Gharabli told CPJ.

Armed volunteer squads have rapidly grown from four before the October 2023 Hamas attack to around 900 new units, an expansion that “had negative effects on Arab-Jewish relations,” Dr. Ark Rudnitzky of Tel Aviv University told CPJ in an email. Squad members “tend to suspect an Arab solely because they are Arab,” he said.

“It was clear they targeted the journalists because they were Arab,” said Israeli journalist and witness Oren Ziv, who wrote about the incident.

The Central District Police told CPJ via email that the journalists were “evacuated from the building for security reasons related to their safety and were directed to alternative reporting locations.”

• On June 24,  Channel 13 correspondent Paz Robinson and a camera operator who declined to be named were reporting on a missile strike in southern Israel’s Be’er Sheva when a woman shouted that he was a “Nazi” and “Al Jazeera” and blocked him from filming, screaming, “You came to celebrate over dead bodies.”

“After I saw the woman wasn’t backing down, I decided to leave. I’m not here to fight with my own people. I’m not a politician. I came to cover events,” Robinson told CPJ.

Earlier in the war with Iran, CPJ documented eight incidents in which 14 journalists faced harassment, obstruction, equipment confiscation, incitement, or forced removal by the police.

The Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit told CPJ via email that police “made significant efforts to facilitate safe, meaningful access for journalists” during the war with Iran.  “While isolated misunderstandings may occur…case was addressed promptly and professionally.”

CPJ’s emails to the Attorney General, Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk, Ben-Gvir, and Shlomo requesting comment did not receive any replies. 

Kholod Massalha is a CPJ consultant on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a researcher with years of experience in press freedom and freedom of expression issues.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Mohamed Mandour.

The April 27 women’s anti-war demonstration in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia was small but significant — one of several recent protests criticizing Hamas, which has controlled Gaza with an iron fist since ousting its political rival Fatah in 2007. Designated a terrorist organization by many Western governments, Hamas is known for violently targeting and killing its critics.

“They even told me that I would be responsible if my wife participated in the demonstration,” said Abu Jarad, a 44-year-old correspondent for Ramallah-based privately owned Sawt al-Hurriya radio station. “I have not covered any recent demonstrations,” he concluded, recalling how he was beaten and interrogated for hours by Hamas-affiliated masked assailants in the southern city of Rafah in November 2023, accusing him of “covering events in the Gaza Strip calling for a coup.”

He only secured his freedom with a promise to stop reporting.

Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Their fears of reporting on opposition to Hamas seem well-founded. A statement by Palestinian Resistance Factions and Tribes in Gaza, which includes Hamas, condemned the protesters as “collaborators with Israel,” a charge historically used to justify executions. Israeli outlets said that Hamas had killed Palestinians who participated in the March anti-war protests.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, a Palestinian official from a Hamas-allied militant group condemned “suspicious figures” who tried “to exploit legitimate protests to demand an end to the resistance” against Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Armed, masked Hamas militants forcibly dispersed some protesters and assaulted them, according to the BBC.

Spies and journalists are ‘one and the same’

Abu Jarad reported Hamas’ threat against himself and his wife to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the official union for Palestinian journalists, and PJS publicly condemned Hamas for violating press freedom.

Prior to this, PJS had only published one other incident involving Hamas during the war — the brutal assault of Ibrahim Muhareb, who was beaten unconscious by armed men in plainclothes who said they were from the police investigations department. He sustained deep head wounds.

“Without giving any reason, they tried to assault me,” said Muhareb, a freelance photographer for the local Quds Feed media network and the Turkish state-owned broadcaster TRT, who was working from a tent next to southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.

“When I tried to contact a police officer in charge of journalists’ affairs, they tried to dismantle my tent. When I resisted, they began assaulting me, by kicking me,” the 28-year-old said.

“I tried to speak to them calmly, but they began to beat me even more severely. They suddenly struck me with an instrument, causing me to lose consciousness, and blood flowed from my head,” he told CPJ.

“Some colleagues tried to intervene, but they prevented them, literally telling them that ‘the spy and the journalist are one and the same,'” Muhareb said.

Muharab said he tried to lift a cover put over his head and face but the officers threatened him with a gun. Eventually, some journalists pulled him free and sought medical treatment for wounds all over his body.

Muharab’s experience is not unusual — it’s his decision to go public that marks him out.

“There are major violations committed by the Hamas government and group against journalists,” PJS’ head Nasser Abu Bakr told CPJ. “The violations range from summonses, interrogations, phone calls, threats, sometimes beatings and arrests, to harassment, publication bans, interference with content, and surveillance.”

Violations by Hamas are underreported

For almost two decades, CPJ has documented multiple press freedom violations by Hamas — as well as all the other warring parties in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories — including detentions, assaults, obstruction, and raids.

The war in Gaza has been the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ started keeping records in 1992, with at least 178 journalists among some 52,000 Palestinians killed since Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. An overwhelming majority of these killings, arrests, and threats were carried out by Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, press freedom violations by Hamas during the war have been vastly underreported.

PJS often documents Hamas attacks on the media internally, without publicizing them, for fear of reprisals, the group told CPJ. In other cases, PJS staff hear about events secondhand as journalists are too scared to report them.

CPJ’s experience echoes that of PJS.

In separate incidents this year, two Gaza-based journalists told CPJ that they were intimidated by Hamas security agents who blocked them from reporting in certain areas. The journalists did not consent to CPJ going public about their experiences for fear of retaliation. To them, the priority was to be able to continue reporting from the field.

More recently, a TV crew told CPJ they were assaulted by Hamas security forces while trying to film. But, again, the journalists did not want CPJ to publicize the incident as it was later resolved between the powerful clans that wield influence over most of Gaza’s population.

PJS’ deputy head Tahseen al-Astal told CPJ that Palestinian journalists are reluctant to spotlight their own problems, driven by a collective desire not to “pivot eyes from the war in Gaza,” which they felt was a more pressing story.

“Most journalists have begun to practice self-censorship in their writing to avoid any problems with security,” he added.

Mohammed Abu Aoun is another of the few journalists willing to speak publicly.

A correspondent for Fatah-affiliated Awda TV, Abu Aoun told CPJ that he was beaten by Hamas’ Internal Security Force in 2024 while interviewing a woman near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“During the interview, the woman insulted Hamas and some of its leaders. The officers immediately took me to an unknown location and beat me,” said Abu Aoun, 26, adding that they searched his cell phone and told him to stop working in the vicinity of the hospital.

In response to CPJ inquiries, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the government had received no media complaints regarding “threats related to covering protests or public gatherings,” threats from security personnel, or summonses from internal security agents.

Al-Thawabta said the government had “fully opened the field” for media to cover events freely in a “safe, transparent” environment and it was committed to “ensuring that security agencies do not interfere with the content of media coverage or the work of journalists.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Prime Minister James Marape has issued a strong appeal to all young men and boys in Papua New Guinea — stop abusing girls, mothers, and sisters.

He made the plea yesterday before flying to Australia, emphasising the importance of respecting women and children in society.

Marape urged young men to take their issues to him instead of resorting to violence against women and children.

• READ MORE: Other PNG gender-based violence reports

Marape also called for the nation to rise in consciousness to preserve the values and achievements of their fathers and mothers who fought for independence 50 years ago.

“We want to give a special recognition to the fathers and mothers of our country, a generation and people of our country to be proud to be here today,” he said.

He expressed his pain at seeing the continued cycle of abuse and disrespect towards women and children in the country.

Marape’s message was clear: violence and abuse towards women and children would not be tolerated, and the nation must come together to ensure the safety and well-being of all its citizens.

‘Don’t do it to our sisters’
“These are not two things that we want to take on. For every young boy out there, if you have an issue in society, I don’t mind you taking it upon me. But please don’t do it to the girls in the neighbourhood,” he said.

“Don’t do it to our sisters in the neighbourhood. Don’t do it to our mothers and aunties in the neighbourhood.

“In a time when our nation is facing a 50th anniversary, I call for our nation to rise in a consciousness to preserve what our fathers and mothers did 50 years ago.

“Lawlessness, disrespect for each other, especially women and children amongst us. This is something that I speak at great lengths and speak from the depth of my heart.

“It pains me to see girls, women, and children continue to face a vicious cycle of abuse and total abhorrence, abuse of children, rape,” he said.

“I just thought these are important activities coming up. I want to conclude by asking our country through the media.

“We are in another state of our 50th anniversary year.

‘Let us take responsibility’
“We have many challenges in our country. But all of us, we take responsibility of our country. As government, we are trying our absolute best.

“Citizens, public servants, private sector, all of us have responsibility to our country. Unless you have another country to go and live in, if property is your country in the first instance, I call out to all citizens, take responsibility in your corner of property.

“Privacy alone cannot be able to do everything that you expect it to do.

“I’m not omnipotent. I’m not omniscient. I’m not omnipresent.

“I’m but only one person coordinating at the top level. Call for every citizen of our country.

“As we face our 49th year and as we welcome our 50th of September 16,) we call this on every one of us.”

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Mariam Barghouti in Jenin for Drop Site News

On December 28, 21-year-old Palestinian journalist Shatha Sabbagh was standing on the stairs of her home on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp when she was shot and killed.

The bullets weren’t fired by Israeli troops but, according to eyewitnesses and forensic evidence, by Palestinian Authority security forces.

The Palestinian Authority has been conducting a large-scale military operation in Jenin since early December, dubbing it “Operation Homeland Protection”.

• READ MORE: Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel, Hamas at ‘closest point’ – Qatar
• Other Israel’s war on Gaza reports

A stronghold of Palestinian armed resistance in the occupied West Bank, the city of Jenin and the refugee camp within it have been repeatedly raided, bombed, and besieged by the Israeli military in an attempt to crush the Jenin Brigade — a politically diverse militant group of mostly third-generation refugees who believe armed resistance is key to liberating Palestinian lands from Israeli occupation and annexation.

Over the past 15 months, the Israeli military has killed at least 225 Palestinians in Jenin, making it the deadliest area in the West Bank.

The real aim, residents say, is to crush Palestinian armed resistance at the behest of Israel. Dubbed the “Wasps’ Nest” by Israeli officials, Jenin refugee camp has posed a constant threat to Israel’s settler colonial project.

But the current operation, which is being billed as a campaign to “restore law and order,” is the longest and most lethal assault by Palestinian security forces in recent memory. While the PA claims to be rooting out armed factions and individuals accused of being “Iranian-backed outlaws,” according to multiple residents and eyewitnesses, the operation is a suffocating siege, with indiscriminate violence, mass arrests, and collective punishment.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed so far, with security forces setting up checkpoints around the city and refugee camp, cutting electricity to the area, and engaging in fierce gun battles. Among those killed are six members of the security forces and one resistance fighter, Yazeed Ja’aysa.

Yet the overwhelming majority of those killed have been civilians, including Sabbagh, and at least three children — Majd Zeidan, 16, Qasm Hajj, 14, and Mohammad Al-Amer, 13.

“It’s reached levels I have never seen before. Even journalists aren’t allowed to cover it,” M., 24, a local journalist and resident of Jenin, told Drop Site News on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested or targeted by PA security forces.

Dozens of residents, including journalists, have been arrested from Jenin and across the West Bank by the PA in the past six weeks under the pretext of supporting the so-called Iranian-backed “outlaws.”

PA security forces spokesperson Brigadier-General Anwar Rajab has justified the assault as “in response to the supreme national interest of the Palestinian people, and within the framework of ongoing continued efforts to maintain security and civil peace, establish the rule of law, and eradicate sedition and chaos”.

‘Wasps’ Nest’ threat to Israel’s settler colonial project
But the real aim, residents say, is to crush Palestinian armed resistance at the behest of Israel. Dubbed the “Wasps’ Nest” by Israeli officials, Jenin refugee camp has posed a constant threat to Israel’s settler colonial project.

Just one week into the operation, on December 12, PA security forces shot and killed the first civilian, 19-year-old Ribhi Shalabi, and injured his 15-year-old brother in the head. Although the PA initially denied killing Shalabi and claimed he was targeting its security forces with IEDs, video captured by CCTV shows Ribhi being shot execution-style while riding his Vespa.

The PA later admitted to killing Shalabi, saying “the Palestinian National Authority bears full responsibility for his martyrdom, and announces that it is committed to dealing with the repercussions of the incident in a manner consistent with and in accordance with the law, ensuring justice and respect for rights”.

Just two days later, the PA began escalating their attack on Jenin. At approximately 5:00 am on December 14, the Palestinian Authority officially declared the large-scale operation, dubbing it “Himayat Watan” or “Homeland Protection.”

By 8:00 am, Jenin refugee camp was under siege and two more Palestinians had been killed, including prominent Palestinian resistance fighter Yazeed Ja’aisa, and 13-year-old Mohammad Al-Amer. At least two other children were injured with live ammunition.

The roads leading to Jenin are now riddled with Israeli checkpoints while the entrance to the city is surrounded by PA armoured vehicles and security forces brandishing assault rifles, their faces hidden behind black balaclavas.

Eerily reminiscent of past Israeli incursions, snipers fire continuously from within the PA security headquarters toward the refugee camp just to the west, sending the sound of live ammunition echoing through the city. The PA also imposed a curfew on the city of Jenin, warning residents that anyone moving in the streets would be shot.

PA counterterrorism units have also been stationed at the entrance to Jenin’s public hospital, while the National Guard blocked roads with armoured vehicles and personnel carriers, denying entry to journalists.

When I attempted to reach the hospital on December 14 with another journalist to gather information for Drop Site on the injuries sustained during the earlier firefight and follow up on the killing of Al-Amer, the 13-year-old, armed and masked PA security forces claimed the area was a closed security zone. When we attempted to carry out field interviews outside the camp instead, two armed men in civilian clothing who identified themselves as members of the mukhabarat — Palestinian General Intelligence — requested that we leave the area.

“If you stay here, you might get shot by the outlaws,” he warned. Yet, from where we stood between the hospital, the PA security headquarters, and Jenin refugee camp, the only bullets being fired were coming from the direction of the PA headquarters towards the camp.

PA security forces also appear to have been using one of the hospital wards as a makeshift detention center where detainees are being mistreated. While Brigadier-General Rajab, the PA’s spokesperson, denied this; several young men detained by the PA told Drop Site they were taken to the third floor of Jenin public hospital where they were interrogated and beaten.

“They kept asking me about the fighters,” said A., a 31-year-old medical service provider from Jenin refugee camp, who says he was held for hours, blindfolded, and denied legal representation.

“They kept beating me, cursing at me, asking me questions that I don’t have answers for.”

Fear of being arrested, abused again
Since his arbitrary detention, A. has not returned to work out of fear of being arrested and abused again.

According to residents, the PA also stationed snipers in the hospital, firing at the camp from inside the facility. During the past six weeks, according to interviews with several medics in Jenin, PA security forces shot at medics, burned two medical vehicles, beat paramedics, and detained medical workers throughout the siege.

“What exactly are they protecting?” Abu Yasir, 50, asks as he stands outside the hospital, waiting for any news of the security operation to end.

A father of three, Abu Yasir grew up in the Jenin refugee camp. “There are people being killed in the camp just for being there. They didn’t do anything,” he told Drop Site as he burst into tears.

By December 14, with Operation Homeland Protection entering its 10th day, families in the refugee camp had run out of food, the chronically ill needed life-saving medication, and with electricity and water punitively cut from the camp, families found themselves under siege and increasingly desperate.

Women and their children tried to protest in an attempt to break the PA-imposed blockade. They also wanted to challenge the PA’s claim of targeting outlaws. As the women gathered in the dark towards the edge of the camp, several men worked to fix an electricity box to restore power to the camp.

When the lights came on, cheers echoed in the camp — but barely 15 minutes later, PA forces shot at the box, plunging the area into darkness again.

Denying electricity for families
According to residents of the camp, over the course of 10 days, the PA shot at the electric power boxes more than a dozen times, denying families electricity just as temperatures began to plummet.

Elderly women confronted soldiers of the Special Administrative Tasks squad (SAT), a specialised branch of the PA security forces, SAT is trained by the Office of the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) and is responsible for coordinating operations with the United States and Israel, including joint-operations and intelligence sharing.

“I yelled at them,” said Umm Salamah, 62. “They burst through the door, and at first, I thought they were Israelis’” she told Drop Site, pointing to the destroyed door. “I told them I have children in the house. But they forced their way in.

“I told them we already have the Israeli army constantly raiding us, and now you?”

Not only were homes raided, according to Umm Salameh, but PA security forces also fired at water tanks, effectively cutting water supplies to the camp. Jenin refugee camp had already been severely damaged in the last Israeli invasion, during which Israeli military and border-police bulldozed the city’s civilian infrastructure, turning streets into hills of rubble.

Operation Homeland Protection comes just three months following “Operation Summer Camps,” Israel’s large-scale military operation between August and October.

Under the pretext of targeting “Iran-backed terrorists,” Israeli forces destroyed large swathes of civilian infrastructure in the northern districts of the West Bank, namely Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus and Tubas, and killed more than 150 Palestinians over three months, a fifth of whom were children.

Protest over ‘outlaws’ framing
Outside in the mud-filled streets, the group of women began to chant “Kateebeh!” (Brigade) in support of the Jenin Brigade, and in protest of the PA’s attempt to frame them as “outlaws” and a “threat to national security.”

Within minutes, the SAT unit responded with teargas and stun grenades fired directly at the crowd, which included journalists clearly marked with fluorescent PRESS insignia. While elderly women tripped and fell to the ground, children ran back towards the camp as PA security forces kept lobbing stun grenades at the fleeing crowd.

In an interview with Drop Site that evening, Brigadier-General Rajab affirmed that “this operation comes to achieve its goals which are the reclaiming of safety and security of Palestinians and reclaiming Jenin refugee camp from the outlaws that kidnapped it and spread corruption in it while threatening the lives of civilians.”

Days later, the PA had expanded its operations to Tulkarem, where clashes between resistance fighters and PA security forces erupted on December 19. This came just one day following an Israeli airstrike which killed three Palestinian fighters in Tulkarem refugee camp: Dusam Al-Oufi, Mohammad Al-Oufi, and Mohammad Rahayma.

On December 22, Saher Irheil, a Palestinian officer in the PA’s presidential guard was killed in Jenin, and two others injured.

According to official state media and statements by the PA, Lieutenant Irheil was killed by the “outlaws” of Jenin refugee camp. Brigadier-General Rajab claimed “this heinous crime will only increase [the PA’s] determination to pursue those outside the law and impose the rule of law, in order to preserve the security and safety of our people.”

By military order, speakers from mosques across the West Bank echoed in a public tribute to the fallen officer. The same was not done for those killed by the PA, including Shalabi, the 19-year-old whom the PA dubbed “a martyr of the nation” after being forced to admit they killed him.

That week, PA security forces escalated their attack on the Jenin refugee camp, using rocket-propelled grenades and firing indiscriminately at families sheltering in their own homes. PA security officers even posted photos and videos of themselves online, similar to those taken by Israeli soldiers while invading the camp in August and September.

On December 23, security forces shot and killed 16-year-old Majd Zeidan while he was returning to his home from a nearby corner store. The PA claimed Zeidan was an Iranian-backed saboteur.

Killed teenager had bag of chips
“They killed him, then said he was a 26-year-old Iranian-backed outlaw,” Zeidan’s mother, Yusra, told Drop Site. “Look,” she said while pulling her son’s ID card from her pocket. “My son was 16 years old, killed while returning from the store with a bag of chips.”

According to Yusra, not only was her son killed, but her brother who lives in Nablus, was arrested by the PA a few days later for holding a wake for his slain nephew.

“The Preventative Security are detaining my brother because he was mourning a mukhareb,” she said. The term “mukhareb” which roughly translates to “saboteur” is a term derived from the Israeli term “mekhablim” which is commonly used when arresting Palestinians.

A few days later, on December 28, Shatha Sabbagh, a young journalist, was shot and killed as she stood on the stairs of her home at the edges of the camp. Official PA statements claim that Sabbagh was killed by resistance fighters, not its security forces.

However, accounts by eyewitnesses and the victim’s family belie those claims.

According to testimonies from her family and residents, Sabbagh was killed while holding her 18-month-old nephew; her sister lives nearby, on Mahyoub Street in the refugee camp — the same area PA snipers were targeting. Initial autopsy findings shared with Drop Site show that the bullet that struck her came from the area in which PA snipers were positioned in the camp.

Known for her reliable reporting during both Israeli and PA raids on Jenin, local residents claim that PA loyalists had been inciting against Sabbagh for some time. Further inflaming tensions, Sabbagh’s killing underscored the risks faced by Palestinian journalists in documenting what the PA would rather conceal.

Soon afterward, Brigadier-General Rajab spoke about the killing of Sabbagh in a live interview with Al Jazeera. He turned off his camera and left the interview, however, as soon as Sabbagh’s mother was brought on air. Sabbagh’s mother, Umm Al-Mutasem, was next to her daughter when she was killed.

Two days after Sabbagh’s killing, the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, which is closely affiliated with the PA, released a statement accusing Al Jazeera of incitement, bias and attempts to stir internal discord.

On January 5, the Magistrate Court of Ramallah announced a suspension of Al Jazeera’s broadcasting operations in the West Bank, citing a “failure to meet regulations.” This move followed Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera offices during Operation Summer Camps in September of last year.

100 Palestinians arrested in operation
The Preventative Security, an internal intelligence organisation led by the Minister of Interior, and part of the Palestinian Security Services, arrested more than a hundred Palestinians as part of Operation Homeland Protection, including five journalists in Nablus and Jenin. Palestinians were summoned and interrogated, at times tortured, and detained without legal representation.

The PA not only targeted residents of the camp, but also expanded its repressive campaign to target anyone that would sympathise with the camp or is suspected of having any solidarity with the armed resistance.

Amro Shami, 22, who was arrested by the PA from his home in Jenin on December 25 had markings of torture on his body during his court hearing in the Nablus Court the following day. Shami was reported to have bruising on his body and was unable to lift his arms in court.

Despite appeals by his lawyer, the court denied Amro release on bail. Amro’s lawyer was only able to visit 15 days later when he reported additional torture against Amro, including breaking his leg.

At the very end of December, as the operation stretched into its fifth week, journalists were able to enter the camp at their own risk. With water and electricity cut off, families huddled outside, burning wood and paper in old metal barrels to try and keep warm.

The camp reeked with uncollected trash piled in the alleyways due to the PA cutting all social services from the camp.

Inside the camp, armed resistance fighters patrolled the streets. After confirming our IDs as journalists they helped us move safely in the dark.

“In the beginning there were clashes between the Brigade and the PA, but we told them we are willing to collaborate with anything that does not harm the community,” H., a 26-year-old fighter with the brigade, told Drop Site. The young fighter was referring to the PA’s claims that they are targeting “outlaws”, in which the Jenin Brigade agreed to hand over anyone that is indeed breaking the law.

However, the PA seemed more interested in the resistance fighters.

Spokesmen of the Jenin Brigade have made several public statements informing the PA that as long as the operation was not targeting resistance efforts, they would fully comply and coordinate to ensure law and order.

‘We are with the law . . .  but which law?’
“We are with the law, we are not outside the law. We are with the enforcement of law, but which law? When an Israeli jeep comes into Jenin to kill me, where are you as law enforcement?”

Abu Issam, a spokesman for the Jenin Brigade told Drop Site: “As I speak right now, the PA armoured vehicles and jeeps are parked over our planted IEDs, and we are not detonating them,” he said.

A former member of the PA presidential guard, Abu Issam is no stranger to the PA’s repressive tactics to quell resistance.

“Our compass is clear, it’s against the occupation,” he said. “Come protect us from the Israeli settlers, and by all means here is my gun as a gift. Get them out of our lands, and execute me.

“We were surprised with the demands of the PA. They offered us three choices: to turn ourselves in along with our weapons, offering us jobs for amnesty; to leave the camp and allow the PA to take over; or to confront them.

“We have no choice but to confront,” he says, holding his M16 to his chest. “We want a dignified life, a free life, not a life of security coordination with our oppressors,” H. said.

By the second week of January, not only did the PA expand its security operations to Tulkarem and Tubas, but intensified its violence against Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp as well.

On January 3, PA snipers shot and killed 43-year-old Mahmoud Al-Jaqlamousi and his 14-year-son, Qasm, as they were gathering water. Two days later, PA security forces began burning homes of residents near the Ghubz quarter of the camp.

“Why burn it? I didn’t build this home in an hour, it was years of work, why burn it?” Issam Abu Ameira asks while standing in front of the charred walls of his home.

The operation, ostensibly intended to restore security and order, has instead brought devastation, raising troubling questions about governance and resistance in the West Bank.

“This is not solely the PA. This is also the United States and Israel’s attempt to crush resistance in the West Bank,” H. said. Like him, other fighters find the timing of the operation to be questionable.

“This is an organisation that negotiated with the occupation for more than 30 years, but can’t sit and talk with the Jenin refugee camp for 30 hours?” Abu Al-Nathmi, a spokesperson for the Jenin Brigade, said as he huddled inside the camp while fighters patrolled around us and live ammunition fired continuously in the area.

‘PA acting like group of gangs’
“The PA is acting like a group of gangs, each trying to prove their power and dominance at the expense of Jenin refugee camp,” Abu Al-Nathmi tells Drop Site. “Right now the PA is trying to prove itself to the United States to take over Gaza, but there was no position taken to defend Gaza.”

Last week, the PA requested an additional US$680 million from the US for security assistance. “What the PA is doing now is destroying the homeland, and breaking the law” Abu Al-Nathmi said.

While the PA continued its attack on Jenin refugee camp, the Israeli military waged military operations on the neighboring villages of Jenin, as well as Tubas and Tulkarem where 11 Palestinians were killed in the first week of January, three of whom were children.

In the 39 days since the PA launched Operation Homeland Protection, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in the West Bank, including six children. Over that same time period, Israeli courts have issued confiscation orders for thousands of hectares of land belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank.

The PA is failing to provide protection to the Palestinian people against continuous settler expansion and amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza, residents of the Jenin refugee camp say.

“The PA is claiming they don’t want what happened to Gaza to happen here, but here we are dying a hundred times,” Abu Amjad, 50, told Drop Site. Huddled near a fire outside the rubble of his home, he cries “we are being humiliated, attacked, beaten, and told there’s nothing we can do about it. In this way, it’s better to die.”

Mariam Barghouti is a writer and a journalist based in the West Bank. She is a member of the Marie Colvin Journalist Network. This article was first published by Drop News.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end divestment from any economic ties with Israel.

“In order to honour commitments to decolonisation and human rights, universities must act now,” says the open letter signed by more than 165 academics.

“As a te Tiriti-led university in Aotearoa New Zealand”, the academic staff said they were calling for the University of Otago to immediately:

• READ MORE: ‘Student revolution’: US protesters promise to continue despite crackdown
• Biden hails ‘press freedom, democracy’ but ignores Gaza media death toll of 142
• Other War on Gaza student protest reports

1. Endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and disclose and divest from any economic ties to the apartheid state of Israel,
2. Condemn those universities [that] have called on police to violently remove protesters from their campuses, and
3. Call for the protection of students’ rights to protest and assemble and endorse the aims of those protests — the immediate demand of ceasefire and longer term demands to end the apartheid, violence, and illegal occupations under which Palestinians continue to suffer.

The full letter states:

“Kia ora koutou,

“As we write this letter, universities across the United States have become battlegrounds. University administrators are sanctioning and encouraging violence against students and faculty members as they protest the genocidal violence in Gaza.

“Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed—of those deaths, it is estimated that more than 13,000 of them have been children. Israel has destroyed all 12 universities in Gaza and targeted staff and students at those universities.

“The recent discovery of mass graves in Gaza, the hands and feet of many victims bound, has shocked the conscience of the world.

“In keeping with a long tradition of campus protest, students and staff are demanding their universities stop contributing to genocidal violence.

Student bodies brutalised
“In return, their bodies have been brutalised, their own universities endorsing their arrests. Universities should, at the very least, offer crucial spaces for protest, debate, and working through collective responses to urgent social issues. Instead, administrators have called in militarised police forces, fully decked out in anti-riot regalia to repress student protests.

“The results have been predictable: Professors and students have been arrested en masse and physically assaulted (beaten, pepper-sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, knocked unconscious, choked, and dragged limp across university lawns, their hands cuffed behind them).

“We at the University of Otago, an institution committed to acknowledging, confronting, and seeking to repair colonial violence, are part of a society that extends far beyond the borders of Aotearoa New Zealand.

“Acknowledging our history, including that history within its students’ experiences and working practices, compels us as a collective to call out and condemn colonial violence as and when we see it. It is not at all surprising that many of the protests in Aotearoa New Zealand calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been organised and led by Māori alongside Palestinian activists.

“Most recently, the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi have come out against the genocide, with one of the rally organisers, Te Ōtane Huata, stating “Tino rangatiratanga to me isn’t only self-determination of our people, it is also collective liberation.”

“If it is to mean anything to be a te Tiriti-led university here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we must include acknowledgment that the history of Aotearoa New Zealand has been marked by consistent and egregious violations of that very treaty, and that such violations are indelibly part of settler colonialism.

“Violent expropriation, cultural annihilation, and suppression of resistance have been the hallmarks of this project.

Decolonisation and human rights
“In order to honour commitments to decolonisation and human rights, universities must act now. We thus call for the University of Otago to immediately:

“1. Endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and disclose and divest from any economic ties to the apartheid state of Israel,
“2. Condemn those universities who have called on police to violently remove protesters from their campuses,
“3. Call for the protection of students’ rights to protest and assemble and endorse the aims of those protests – the immediate demand of ceasefire and longer term demands to end the apartheid, violence, and illegal occupations under which Palestinians continue to suffer.

“In other words, the University must call for a liberated Palestinian state if it is to conceptualise itself as a university that seeks to confront its own settler-colonial foundations.

“The above position aligns with the named values of our universities here in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is our duty that we make these demands, particularly as Palestinians have seen the systematic destruction of their universities and educational infrastructure while Palestinian students of our universities have witnessed their families and friends targeted by the Israeli government.

“If the University of Otago wants to authentically position itself as an institution that takes seriously its role as a critic and conscience of society and acknowledges the importance of coming to grips with ongoing settler-colonial violence, it should take these demands seriously.

“We further support the Open Letter to Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater from Auckland University Staff in Solidarity with Students Protesting for Palestine.”

In solidarity,
Dr Peyton Bond (Teaching Fellow, Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology)
Dr Simon Barber (Lecturer in Sociology)
Rachel Anna Billington (PhD candidate, Politics)
Dr Neil Vallelly (Lecturer in Sociology)
Erin Silver (PhD candidate, Sociology)
Professor Richard Jackson (Leading Thinker Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies)
Dr Lynley Edmeades (Lecturer in English)
Dr Olivier Jutel (Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication)
Lydia Le Gros (PhD candidate & Assistant Research Fellow, Public Health)
Dr Abbi Virens (Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Sustainability)
Sonja Bohn (PhD candidate, Sociology)
Joshua James (PhD Candidate, Gender Studies)
Sophie van der Linden (Postgrad Student, Bioethics)
Dr Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour (Lecturer in Gender Studies, Criminology)
Brandon Johnstone (Administrator, TEU Otago Branch Committee Member)
Dr David Jenkins (Lecturer in Politics)
Jordan Dougherty (Masters student, Sociology)
Rosemary Overell (Senior Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication)
Dr Sebastiaan Bierema – (Research Fellow, Public Health)
Dr Sabrina Moro (Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication studies)
Rauhina Scott-Fyfe (Māori Archivist, Hocken Collections)
Dr Lena Tan (Senior Lecturer, International Relations & Politics)
Cassie Withey-Rila (Assistant Research Fellow, Otago Medical School)
Duncan Newman (Postgrad student, Management)

• The full list of signatories is here

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Majuro Mayor Ladie Jack is raising the alarm about criminal behaviour involving Marshallese deported from the United States, saying the “impact of these deportees on our local community has been nothing short of devastating”.

Marshallese deported from the United States have been convicted over the past three years of a murder, a knife assault, and rape, while two additional assaults that occurred last month are under investigation.

In a letter to President Hilda Heine dated April 1 and obtained last Friday, the mayor is seeking significantly stepped-up action by the Marshall Islands national government on the issue of deportations.

• READ MORE: Other Marshall Islands reports

“I urge you to explore viable solutions that prioritise the protection of our community while also addressing the underlying issues that contribute to the cycle of criminal behavior,” Mayor Jack said in his letter.

He called on the national government to “take proactive steps to address this pressing issue promptly and decisively”.

Mayor Jack included with his letter a local government police report on four individuals that the mayor said were deported from the US, all of whom committed violent assaults — three of which were committed in the rural Laura village area on Majuro, including two last month.

In the police report, two men aged 28 and 40, both listed as “deportees” are alleged to have assaulted different people in the rural Laura village area of Majuro in mid-March.

Five years for rape
Another deportee is currently serving five years for a rape in the Laura area in 2021.

A fourth deportee was noted as having been found guilty of aggravated assault for a knife attack on another Marshallese deported from the US in the downtown area of Majuro.

Another deportee was convicted last year and sentenced to 14 years in jail for the shooting murder of another deportee.

The national government’s cabinet recently established a Task Force on Deportations that is chaired by MP Marie Davis Milne.

She told the weekly Marshall Islands Journal last week that she anticipates the first meeting of the new task force this week.

The Marshall Islands is seeing an average close to 30 deportations each year of Marshallese from the US.

Mayor Jack called the “influx of deportees” from the US an issue of “utmost concern.” The mayor said “a significant number of them [are] engaging in serious criminal activities.”

With the Marshall Islands border closed for two-and-a-half-years due to covid in the 2020-2022, no deportations were accomplished by US law enforcement.

‘Moral turpitude’
But once the border opened in August 2022, US Homeland Security went back to its system of deporting Marshallese who are convicted of so-called crimes of “moral turpitude,” which can run the gamut of missing a court hearing for a traffic ticket and being the subject of an arrest warrant to murder and rape.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that in fiscal year 2023 — October 2022 to September 2023 — 28 Marshallese were deported. This number mirrors the average 27 per year deported from the US in the seven years pre-covid, 2013-2019.

Including the post-covid deportations, from 2013 to 2023, 236 Marshallese were deported from the US to Majuro. That 11-year period includes the two no-deportation years during covid.

In 2016 and 2018, deportations hit a record of 35 per year. In contrast, neighboring Federated States of Micronesia, which also has a Compact of Free Association with the US allowing visa-free entry, has seen deportations over 90 per year both pre-covid, and in FY2023, when 91 Micronesian citizens were removed from the US.

The Marshall Islands has never had any system in place for receiving people deported from the US — for mental health counseling, job training and placement, and other types of services that are routinely available in developed nations.

Task force first step
The appointment of a task force on deportations is the first government initiative to formally consider the deportation situation, which in light of steady out-migration to America can only be expected to escalate as a greater percentage of the Marshallese population takes up residence in the US.

“The behavior exhibited by these deportees has resulted in a wave of havoc across our community leading to a palpable sense of fear and unease among our citizens,” Mayor Jack said.

“Incidents of violent crimes, sexual assault and other illicit activities have increased exponentially, creating a pressing need for immediate intervention to address this critical issue.”

He called on the national government for a “comprehensive review of policies and procedures governing the admission and monitoring of deportees.”

Without action, the safety of local residents is jeopardised and the social fabric of the community is undermined, he added.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Arakan Army, already in control of three townships in Rakhine state, began an assault on the seaside township of Rathedaung on Wednesday, residents told Radio Free Asia, adding that junta officials are retaliating in the coastal area by air, land and sea.

“The AA attacked the junta’s battalions in Rathedaung on Wednesday. The frequent sound of heavy and small weapons could be heard, and airstrikes were carried out,” said a Rathedaung resident who declined to be named for safety reasons. “The junta is shelling artillery now.”

The AA targeted Rathedaung-based junta battalions of 536, 537 and 538, according to locals. 

Calls by RFA to Rakhine’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein and national junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered. 

The junta’s retaliation largely focused on civilians, township residents said, adding that troops shelled nine villages with heavy artillery near Rathedaung city. 

The AA said on Wednesday that Kha Naung Gyi, Ywar Thit Kay and Nwar Tin Koke were the first to be ambushed.

Following the cessation of a year-long ceasefire with junta troops in November, the AA has seized control of three townships – the historic capital of Mrauk-U, Minbya, and Kyauktaw. Additionally, the resistance force took over the city of Pauktaw and Taung Pyo, a military post on the Bangladesh border, alongside the adjacent city of Paletwa in Chin state.

Separately, the AA also captured Kyauktaw-based Western Regional Headquarters, one of the state’s three junta headquarters, on Monday. 

Moving South

Publications in Rakhine cited sources close to the AA stating that on Monday, the anti-junta group warned of its plans to target the Sittwe-based junta Military Regional Command Headquarters. Furthermore, the group reportedly demanded the junta’s surrender before their arrival in Rakhine state’s capital city.

However, the junta is not planning to surrender, said a resident in Sittwe who asked to be anonymous. 

The junta army has been preparing defensive forts and urgently moving soldiers’ family members to safer locations, he told RFA.

“There are reports that the Arakan Army is going to attack Sittwe city. Defensive forts at the battalions, nearby offices and outskirts of the city are built and prepared,” he said. “I saw that the army’s family members are being moved out towards Yangon by military [personnel] and on civilian planes. I don’t know the exact number of people, and I can’t estimate it.”

Two high-ranking junta officials are in the AA’s custody, and another two have been killed at their hands, the anti-junta group claimed in a statement on Wednesday. 

Kyauktaw-based Military Regional Operation Command Brigadier Zaw Min Tun was captured alive during a naval battle near Ah Pauk Wa village on Jan. 10. Separately, regional operation center commander Lt. Col. Nyi Nyi Win was captured with injuries on Jan. 16 and was given medical treatment.

In December, Lt. Col. Banyar Paing Soe, a commander in Paletwa township, died during a battle in Chin state’s Paletwa township. Meanwhile, Col. Min Min Tun, the commander of the 11th Regiment, died during an attack of Infantry Battalion 377 in Mrauk-U, according to the AA.

A spokesperson for the AA, Kaing Thu Kha, has not responded to RFA’s inquiries as of this writing.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has so far announced the winners of 253 of the 265 contested parliamentary seats amid a slow counting process hampered by the interruption of mobile service.

According to those results, independents backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) won 92 seats, while former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) garnered 71, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) obtained 54 mandates. The remainder are spread among other small parties and candidates.

Both Khan and Sharif declared victory.

As results appeared to point to a hung parliament, PTI's acting Chairman Gohar Ali Khan on February 10 told a news conference in Islamabad that the party aimed at forming a government as candidates backed by it had won the most seats.

Khan also announced that if complete results were not released by February 10 in the evening, the PTI intended to stage a peaceful protest on February 11.

Third-placed PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister who is the son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, could play kingmaker in case of talks to form a coalition government.

Sharif said on February 9 that he was sending his younger brother and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as an envoy to approach the PPP and other political parties for coalition talks.

The elections were held in a highly polarized environment as Khan, a former cricket superstar, and his party were kept out of the election. Khan is currently in prison after he was convicted of graft and leaking state secrets. He also saw his marriage annulled by a court.

Earlier on February 10, the chief of Pakistan's powerful military urged the country's political class to set aside rivalries and work for the good of the people.

"The nation needs stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarization, which does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people," General Syed Asim Munir said in a statement.

"Political leadership and their workers should rise above self-interests and synergize efforts in governing and serving the people, which is perhaps the only way to make democracy functional and purposeful," Munir said.

The military has run Pakistan for nearly half its history since partition from India in 1947 and it still wields huge power and influence.

The February 8 vote took place amid rising political tensions and an upsurge of violence that prompted authorities to deploy more than 650,000 army, paramilitary, and police personnel across the country.

Despite the beefed-up security presence, violence continued even after the election. On February 10, the leader of Pakistan’s National Democratic Movement, Mohsin Dawar, was shot and wounded in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district.

Daward was shot and injured as he addressed supporters in front of a military camp in Miramsha in the country’s northwest.

Dawar, a well-known Pashtun politician, was shot in the thigh and rushed to a nearby hospital in stable condition. He was later transported to the capital, Islamabad, for further treatment. His injuries are not life threatening. Videos of a bloodied Dawar circulated on social media

Three supporters were killed and 15 more injured in the incident, Rahim Dawar, a party member and eyewitness who is of no relation to the Pashtun politician, told RFE/RL.

Dawar, who was running for the lower house of parliament, arrived at the headquarters of the regional election committee, located inside the military camp, to demand officials announce the result of the vote.

Soldiers barred Dawar from entering and he was later shot as he addressed supporters outside the office. Dawar’s supporters accuse the police and security forces of firing at them.

The security forces have yet to respond to the allegation. Local media, citing unidentified security sources, reported that some policemen were also killed in the incident, but RFE/RL could not confirm that.

Dawar won a five-year term in 2018 and served in parliament until it was dissolved. Election officials later in the day said Dawar had lost the election.

Crisis-hit Pakistan has been struggling with runaway inflation while Islamabad scrambles to repay more than $130 billion in foreign debt.

Reported irregularities during the February 8 poll prompted the United States, Britain, and the European Union to voice concerns about the way the vote was conducted and to urge an investigation.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on February 10 rejected the criticism.

PTI was banned from participating in the vote because the ECP said it had failed to properly register as a party. Its candidates then decided to run as independents after the Supreme Court and the ECP said they couldn’t use the party symbol -- a cricket bat. Parties in the country use symbols to help illiterate voters find them on the ballots.

Yet the PTI-backed independents have emerged as the largest block in the new parliament. Under Pakistani law, they must join a political party within 72 hours after their election victory is officially confirmed. They can join the PTI if it takes the required administrative steps to be cleared and approved as a party by the ECP.

Khan, 71, was prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He still enjoys huge popularity, but his political future and return to the political limelight is unclear.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

At least 14 journalists, who were reporting on Wine’s return to Uganda from an overseas trip on Thursday, were briefly detained and several were also assaulted and had their equipment damaged or confiscated by the officers, according to media reports.

“It is a great shame that Uganda’s security sector repeatedly treat reporting on the political opposition as a criminal offense,” CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo, said on Friday. “Police should drop any pending investigations into journalists arrested while covering Bobi Wine’s return home, investigate reports that security personnel assaulted journalists, and ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

Wine competed against Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni in elections in 2021, and at least 50 people died in protests over the pop star-turned-politician’s arrest ahead of that vote.

After citing security concerns over plans by Wine’s party to hold a one-million strong welcome march, security personnel arrested Wine upon arrival at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport and drove him home, where he said he was being held under house arrest.

Journalists said they were targeted by both police officers and people they believed were military personnel, according to a statement by the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda. The Ugandan press freedom group said some journalists recorded statements with the police “though the charges [against them] remained unclear.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

If there is a rise in robberies in some of Fiji’s urban areas, then something must be triggering it. Unless this is the norm, and robberies are part and parcel of life in these urban centres, something is amiss, and we need to get to the bottom of what’s causing it.

Residents along Raiwaqa’s Falvey Rd, we learn, are living in fear as robberies in the area have become an almost daily occurrence. Biren Pal, 61, a resident of the area for more than six decades, claimed robberies and assaults were a norm.

Last Sunday, Mr Pal was robbed and, in the process, was severely injured in the face when thieves mobbed him before fleeing with his mobile phone. He was walking to a friend’s house when he was pushed to the ground and knocked unconscious.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji crime reports

He only regained consciousness when his friends took him to the hospital. Southern Police Commander SSP Wate Vocevoce confirmed receiving a complaint from Mr Pal.

He said in the past four months crimes committed in the area included four cases of assault, one of burglary and property damage and one case of theft.

In the Lagilagi area in the past six months, police recorded 14 cases of assault, one case each of theft, assault, intimidation, and trespass and two cases of property damage. Now such robberies and assaults on people are harmful for many reasons.

Aside from the pain and suffering it causes people like Mr Pal, there is the negative impact on life itself for those living in the area for instance.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt
There is fear, uncertainty and doubt cast over the area because of the actions of thugs.

The ripple effect on businesses in the area is felt by everyone connected to it.

And we are talking about stores operating in the area, shoppers, staff of these stores and residents living in the area.

There is a sense of fear that may stick to the area because of the robberies.

People will eventually hesitate to travel through the area, to shop there, or visit family and friends for instance. It breeds doubt, with only the brave who are willing to take their chances, visiting it.

When High Court judge Justice Daniel Goundar sentenced a 19-year-old casual labourer for stealing a mobile phone recently, he mentioned that muggings were prevalent.

In the Western Division, we learn that theft, assault, and burglary were among the most reported crimes in the division in the month of August.

Decrease in overall crime
Divisional police commander West senior superintendent of police (SSP) Iakobo Vaisewa said while these criminal acts were at the top of the list, their division has noted a decrease in the overall crime rate though.

“Even if the smallest item is stolen, they are investigated,” he said.

Now that’s a good thing because how else are we supposed to fight this? We look up to the police force to put in place measures that will empower people to assist it in the war against crime.

Fiji needs people who are willing to put their hands up and accept responsibility for their actions. In saying that, we look up to the powers that be to lead the way.

However, it is obvious that we need a united front.

The flip side to that is more crime, and more uncertainty, insecurity, fear and doubt! And those who assault and rob people need to get a life!

This editorial was published in Fiji’s Sunday Times today under the title “We need to work together”. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

The reason: His decade reporting on the environmental havoc caused by the illegal extraction of gold from his childhood home in the Amazon rainforest in eastern Peru.

Despite the danger, Calloquispe, a freelancer for El Comercio, Latina Televisión, and environmental news site Inforegión, presses ahead with his investigations and scoops.

Unlike Lima reporters who sometimes cover these issues by spending a few days in the area before returning to the safety of the capital, Calloquispe lives in the jungle and must deal with the fallout of his reporting. “The pressure against me is very strong,” Calloquispe, 57, said in an interview with CPJ in the Amazon town of Puerto Maldonado where he is based. “But this is where I want to be.”

Journalists in Peru face a variety of threats, ranging from a rising number of criminal defamation lawsuits to attacks by police during anti-government protests. Reporting on environmental issues from the Amazon, which encompasses parts of Peru and several other South American countries, can be especially dangerous due to its remote location, the lack of law enforcement that allows criminal groups to thrive, and poor communications infrastructure. Last year, British freelance journalist Dom Phillips was shot by suspected illegal fishermen while researching a book on how to protect the Amazon with Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira. Their bodies were found dismembered and buried in the Brazilian rainforest.

Illegal gold mining, Calloquispe’s beat, is often carried out by criminal networks which extract the precious metal without permits or authorized machinery. This underground industry is estimated to account for more than one-quarter of Peru’s total gold production, according to think tank InsightCrime. Environmental groups blame the industry for the contaminating rivers with mercury, destroying riverbeds with dredges, and for deforestation. It’s also a source of political corruption and human trafficking as girls and young women are brought into mining areas for sex work, according to the U.N.

In the Peruvian capital of Lima, Calloquispe’s editors describe him as an extremely well-sourced journalist willing to venture into dangerous areas to report on one of the biggest threats to the Amazon rainforest.

“You need courage and willpower to cover this beat,” said Ricardo León, the weekend editor at El Comercio who works closely with Calloquispe. “What struck me about Manuel is that he is one of the few journalists in the region strongly opposed to the industry.”

Aside from documenting the environmental havoc, Calloquispe’s reporting helps explain why the industry is so entrenched, León said. For example, ahead of local elections in 2014 and 2018, he found that numerous candidates in Madre de Dios province, the mining epicenter in the Peruvian Amazon, were connected to the industry.

Calloquispe often goes along on police raids against illegal miners. But Rodolfo Mancilla, a public prosecutor in Puerto Maldonado, told CPJ that political support for the industry is so strong that local mayors and legislators often try to stymie these law enforcement operations. Calloquispe has also reported on a jump in homicides in the mining zone, on the industry’s impact on Indigenous communities, and on human trafficking.  

“Manuel is very committed to his work,” Pamela Bressia, his editor at Latina Television, told CPJ. “He is always trying to investigate and uncover wrongdoing.”

That commitment comes, in part, from Calloquispe’s upbringing. When he was 5, his father moved his family from the mountains of central Peru to a plot of land in the Amazon rainforest about 25 miles from Puerto Maldonado. Calloquispe fished, hunted wild boar with a shotgun, and soaked in his jungle surroundings. His father tried panning for gold but soon switched to farming.

“He found a few nuggets but came to believe that the forest did not want to give up its gold,” Calloquispe said. “He felt a bad vibe, like he was doing something wrong. He told me: ‘This is not for us.’”

His father had been illiterate but eventually learned to read and furnished their home with three books: a Bible, a classic Peruvian novel called “La Serpiente del Oro” (“The Gold Snake”), and a volume of geography. The books sparked Calloquispe’s own interest in reading and writing.

“I figured if my father was illiterate and learned how to read, why can’t I?” he said. 

Calloquispe attended an elementary school in the jungle where there was one teacher for all six grades. He then graduated from high school in Puerto Maldonado and moved to Lima to become the first member of his family to see the Pacific Ocean and to enroll in a university. He didn’t know what a journalist was but liked telling stories and contributed to the school’s so-called “newspaper wall” where students printed out articles they had written and posted them on a bulletin board.

Upon returning to Puerto Maldonado in the late 1990s, he jumped into journalism.

At first, Calloquispe reported for a local newspaper and a TV station where he hosted a news and interview program. He started focusing on illegal mining following the construction of a highway connecting Peru’s interior to the Amazon jungle that opened up the region to a wave of fortune-seekers and made it easier to bring in dredges and other heavy machinery. Calloquispe’s coverage attracted the attention of media outlets in Lima and he began reporting for Inforegión in 2011 and for El Comercio and Latina Televisión in 2013.

León, the El Comercio weekend editor, said that reliable regional correspondents like Calloquispe are difficult to find. He said many reporters in remote areas are poorly paid and as a result often tempted to accept bribes from politicians and business owners in exchange for ignoring scandals and producing puff pieces.

“It’s very difficult to find good reporters because there is so much corruption,” León said. Before hiring Calloquispe “we never had a regular contributor” in Puerto Maldonado.

For his part, Calloquispe says he became committed to exposing environmental crimes because he was raised in the rainforest and remembers what it was like before loggers and gold miners invaded the area.

“It used to be a virgin forest and now it’s deforested,” he says. “You used to be able to swim in the rivers which were pristine. Now, they are just muddy water and lots of sediment and no fish or wildlife. It gets worse every day.”

Meanwhile, Calloquispe faces ongoing harassment and danger. In January, when a horde of miners who had discussed killing the journalist on chat groups surrounded his home and shouted threats in response to his article about an illegal mining boss allegedly funding anti-government protests. Calloquispe’s editors at Latina Television contacted the police, who escorted the journalist to the airport so he could board a flight to Lima. He stayed there for two weeks until he could safely return to Puerto Maldonado.

“We were very worried,” Bressia said. “If he would have stayed put, they would have killed him.”

Although Calloquispe has filed complaints with the police and Attorney General’s office, he says there have been no arrests stemming from the attacks and threats against him. A police official in Puerto Maldonado told CPJ he was not authorized to comment on the attacks on the journalist. CPJ emailed the press department of the Attorney General’s office but received no response.

Bressia noted that station managers have talked with Calloquispe about switching to another beat or reporting from Lima but that he’s adamant about staying put, in part, because he wants to write a book about illegal mining.

Calloquispe says that after publishing controversial stories he will go into hiding for a few weeks then return to Puerto Maldonado. He is also trying to get hold of a protective vest and to save up the USD$2,500 he needs to buy a pistol. Some of his friends in the police department have promised to teach him how to shoot.

“There will come a moment when I will have to defend myself,” he said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by John Otis.

The reason: His decade reporting on the environmental havoc caused by the illegal extraction of gold from his childhood home in the Amazon rainforest in eastern Peru.

Despite the danger, Calloquispe, a freelancer for El Comercio, Latina Televisión, and environmental news site Inforegión, presses ahead with his investigations and scoops.

Unlike Lima reporters who sometimes cover these issues by spending a few days in the area before returning to the safety of the capital, Calloquispe lives in the jungle and must deal with the fallout of his reporting. “The pressure against me is very strong,” Calloquispe, 57, said in an interview with CPJ in the Amazon town of Puerto Maldonado where he is based. “But this is where I want to be.”

Journalists in Peru face a variety of threats, ranging from a rising number of criminal defamation lawsuits to attacks by police during anti-government protests. Reporting on environmental issues from the Amazon, which encompasses parts of Peru and several other South American countries, can be especially dangerous due to its remote location, the lack of law enforcement that allows criminal groups to thrive, and poor communications infrastructure. Last year, British freelance journalist Dom Phillips was shot by suspected illegal fishermen while researching a book on how to protect the Amazon with Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira. Their bodies were found dismembered and buried in the Brazilian rainforest.

Illegal gold mining, Calloquispe’s beat, is often carried out by criminal networks which extract the precious metal without permits or authorized machinery. This underground industry is estimated to account for more than one-quarter of Peru’s total gold production, according to think tank InsightCrime. Environmental groups blame the industry for the contaminating rivers with mercury, destroying riverbeds with dredges, and for deforestation. It’s also a source of political corruption and human trafficking as girls and young women are brought into mining areas for sex work, according to the U.N.

In the Peruvian capital of Lima, Calloquispe’s editors describe him as an extremely well-sourced journalist willing to venture into dangerous areas to report on one of the biggest threats to the Amazon rainforest.

“You need courage and willpower to cover this beat,” said Ricardo León, the weekend editor at El Comercio who works closely with Calloquispe. “What struck me about Manuel is that he is one of the few journalists in the region strongly opposed to the industry.”

Aside from documenting the environmental havoc, Calloquispe’s reporting helps explain why the industry is so entrenched, León said. For example, ahead of local elections in 2014 and 2018, he found that numerous candidates in Madre de Dios province, the mining epicenter in the Peruvian Amazon, were connected to the industry.

Calloquispe often goes along on police raids against illegal miners. But Rodolfo Mancilla, a public prosecutor in Puerto Maldonado, told CPJ that political support for the industry is so strong that local mayors and legislators often try to stymie these law enforcement operations. Calloquispe has also reported on a jump in homicides in the mining zone, on the industry’s impact on Indigenous communities, and on human trafficking.  

“Manuel is very committed to his work,” Pamela Bressia, his editor at Latina Television, told CPJ. “He is always trying to investigate and uncover wrongdoing.”

That commitment comes, in part, from Calloquispe’s upbringing. When he was 5, his father moved his family from the mountains of central Peru to a plot of land in the Amazon rainforest about 25 miles from Puerto Maldonado. Calloquispe fished, hunted wild boar with a shotgun, and soaked in his jungle surroundings. His father tried panning for gold but soon switched to farming.

“He found a few nuggets but came to believe that the forest did not want to give up its gold,” Calloquispe said. “He felt a bad vibe, like he was doing something wrong. He told me: ‘This is not for us.’”

His father had been illiterate but eventually learned to read and furnished their home with three books: a Bible, a classic Peruvian novel called “La Serpiente del Oro” (“The Gold Snake”), and a volume of geography. The books sparked Calloquispe’s own interest in reading and writing.

“I figured if my father was illiterate and learned how to read, why can’t I?” he said. 

Calloquispe attended an elementary school in the jungle where there was one teacher for all six grades. He then graduated from high school in Puerto Maldonado and moved to Lima to become the first member of his family to see the Pacific Ocean and to enroll in a university. He didn’t know what a journalist was but liked telling stories and contributed to the school’s so-called “newspaper wall” where students printed out articles they had written and posted them on a bulletin board.

Upon returning to Puerto Maldonado in the late 1990s, he jumped into journalism.

At first, Calloquispe reported for a local newspaper and a TV station where he hosted a news and interview program. He started focusing on illegal mining following the construction of a highway connecting Peru’s interior to the Amazon jungle that opened up the region to a wave of fortune-seekers and made it easier to bring in dredges and other heavy machinery. Calloquispe’s coverage attracted the attention of media outlets in Lima and he began reporting for Inforegión in 2011 and for El Comercio and Latina Televisión in 2013.

León, the El Comercio weekend editor, said that reliable regional correspondents like Calloquispe are difficult to find. He said many reporters in remote areas are poorly paid and as a result often tempted to accept bribes from politicians and business owners in exchange for ignoring scandals and producing puff pieces.

“It’s very difficult to find good reporters because there is so much corruption,” León said. Before hiring Calloquispe “we never had a regular contributor” in Puerto Maldonado.

For his part, Calloquispe says he became committed to exposing environmental crimes because he was raised in the rainforest and remembers what it was like before loggers and gold miners invaded the area.

“It used to be a virgin forest and now it’s deforested,” he says. “You used to be able to swim in the rivers which were pristine. Now, they are just muddy water and lots of sediment and no fish or wildlife. It gets worse every day.”

Meanwhile, Calloquispe faces ongoing harassment and danger. In January, when a horde of miners who had discussed killing the journalist on chat groups surrounded his home and shouted threats in response to his article about an illegal mining boss allegedly funding anti-government protests. Calloquispe’s editors at Latina Television contacted the police, who escorted the journalist to the airport so he could board a flight to Lima. He stayed there for two weeks until he could safely return to Puerto Maldonado.

“We were very worried,” Bressia said. “If he would have stayed put, they would have killed him.”

Although Calloquispe has filed complaints with the police and Attorney General’s office, he says there have been no arrests stemming from the attacks and threats against him. A police official in Puerto Maldonado told CPJ he was not authorized to comment on the attacks on the journalist. CPJ emailed the press department of the Attorney General’s office but received no response.

Bressia noted that station managers have talked with Calloquispe about switching to another beat or reporting from Lima but that he’s adamant about staying put, in part, because he wants to write a book about illegal mining.

Calloquispe says that after publishing controversial stories he will go into hiding for a few weeks then return to Puerto Maldonado. He is also trying to get hold of a protective vest and to save up the USD$2,500 he needs to buy a pistol. Some of his friends in the police department have promised to teach him how to shoot.

“There will come a moment when I will have to defend myself,” he said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by John Otis.

Photo by Courtney Hedger

In May of 1933 in Berlin, Nazis gathered in the streets, built a gigantic bonfire, and burned thousands of books.

The books had been seized from the city’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. The nonprofit institute was the first in the world to focus on the science of gender and sexuality. It was supportive of LGBTQ studies and provided gender-affirming health care.

Before the raid, the organization had a number of transgender employees and hosted an extensive library of materials on LGBTQ health. Tragically, at least one transgender woman is believed to have died in the violent attack that preceded the book burning.

As Nazi atrocities go, this was an early and foreboding event.

The attack on scholarship and on a vulnerable community heralded an eventual descent into unimaginable violence. Book burning and banning, while not invented by the Nazis, became closely associated with them — and with authoritarian repression more generally.

It’s stunning now, after so many years and lessons learned, to watch the meteoric rise of the right-wing, pro-censorship group Moms for Liberty.

The group embraces book banning as a centerpiece of its activism. Its favored targets are materials relating to Black, brown, and LGBTQ communities. For its national convention the weekend before the Fourth of July, it chose to bring its supporters to Philadelphia, a city with a rich civil rights history and ties to our nation’s independence.

That sends an unmistakable message about the central role the group sees for itself in American culture and politics. So does the attendance of the half-dozen presidential candidates, including Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

This is especially disorienting for a younger generation that grew up with incremental but seemingly irreversible progress toward freedom and inclusivity.

We saw the rise of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at work and school and the legalization of same-sex marriage. We saw the election of our first Black president. We took it for granted that we would always have the right to reproductive freedom. Until we didn’t.

We’re witnessing the wholesale forgetting of the authoritarian forces behind book banning and censorship. And the worst thing we could do would be to look away.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is not looking away — it named Moms for Liberty as an extremist group in its annual Year in Hate and Extremism report.

Some media outlets have been vigilant about debunking Moms for Liberty’s claims to be a low-budget, grassroots group. Ditto any claims that it is peaceful: there are numerous reports that local Moms for Liberty operatives have turned threatening and aggressive.   The organization was even forced to apologize after a local chapter approvingly quoted Hitler in its newsletter.

But this criticism hasn’t really dented Moms for Liberty’s ability to attract money or the attention of presidential candidates. It will take more than that to protect the freedom to learn.

We need a multiracial, multigenerational, cross-cultural response that clearly affirms American values.

We need to assert the right of parents to decide if their kids are mature enough to read a book, but not to make that decision for everybody else’s kids.

We need to stand up for accurate and honest school curricula in which our nation’s full history is taught and the stories of all Americans are included. That fosters respect, understanding, and empathy — and prepares kids for meaningful civic engagement.

The last big right-wing group to promote book banning and censorship — the Moral Majority — collapsed under the weight of its own financial and sexual scandals, but not before it did serious harm to marginalized communities in this country. We can’t wait around for this movement to burn itself out as well.

Fighting censorship is as American as you can get, and that’s what this year’s celebration of our country’s birthday should be about.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Svante Myrick .

Rishi Bagree, a Twitter user known for sharing and spreading political misinformation, posted this video clip with the following caption, “Electricity officials are attacked by local residents in Karnataka when they came for meter reading. Residents says that they won’t pay from electricity now onwards as per Congress Guarantee”.

Electricity officials are attacked by local residents in Karnataka when they came for meter reading.

Residents says that they won’t pay from electricity now onwards as per Congress Guarantee

pic.twitter.com/T0sVUjD2Ux

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) May 24, 2023

Even as we write, the video clip is going viral on Facebook, accumulating thousands of views, with the same claim being shared.

Fact Check

We first made a transcript of the conversation audible in the viral video:

It is evident from the conversation that the person wearing the yellow shirt, who is at the centre of the controversy, did not make any mention of the newly established Congress government in the state or any reference to the pre-election promise of free electricity.

In order to further confirm the information, we sought out news reports relating to the incident. According to India Today, the accused was identified as Chandrashekar Hiremat from Kukanapalli in Koppal town of Karnataka. The report says according to police, “the electricity company employee had gone to disconnect Hiremat’s power supply as he had not paid his dues, adding up to over Rs 9,000 for the past 6 months.”

A case against Hiremat was filed at the Munirabad Police Station, and he was arrested after the video had gone viral.

News outlet South First published a video report featuring a statement from SP Yashoda Vantagodi of Koppal. The statement does not make any reference to the incident being related to the Congress party’s pledge of providing free electricity for consumption of up to 200 units.

Video of a #Karnataka man assaulting electricity company staff goes viral with a misleading claim.

The man is seen verbally abusing and thrashing the GESCOM staff who visited the house seeking the payment of the pending electricity bill.https://t.co/jl1uu95Cn4 pic.twitter.com/SxCkFvyxj8

— South First (@TheSouthfirst) May 24, 2023

Although the aforementioned video is not related to the pre-poll promises of the Congress, there are reports emerging that in various districts of Karnataka, residents are declining to pay their electricity bills, citing the promises made during the elections. The newly elected state government held its first cabinet meeting on May 20, during which it gave preliminary approval to fulfil its electoral assurances, including the ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme, under which the government would provide free electricity up to 200 units to all houses in Karnataka.

The post Power bill defaulter assaults staffer: Incident unrelated to Cong’s free electricity promise; viral claims false appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

The post Montana Constitution Survives GOP Legislative Assaults appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Ochenski.

On Tuesday, February 14, about 10 armed Taliban members raided the headquarters of the privately owned broadcaster in Kabul, beat several staff members, and held them for 30 minutes, according to news reports and a journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

That journalist said they did not know what led to the raid. Tamadon TV is predominantly owned and operated by members of the Hazara ethnic minority, and covers political and current affairs as well as Shiite religious programming. Hazara people have faced persecution and escalated violence since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

“The Taliban’s raid of Tamadon TV and attacks on its employees show the group’s failure to abide by its professed commitment to freedom of expression in Afghanistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Access to information in Afghanistan is critical. The Taliban must stop harassing journalists and stifling the work of the free press.”

While entering the broadcaster’s premises, Taliban members beat a security guard, two journalists, and two media workers, the journalist who spoke to CPJ said.

The Taliban members then pointed guns the station’s staff members, confiscated their mobile phones, and transferred them to a meeting room, where they were held for 30 minutes while Taliban members verbally harassed them, referring to one as an “infidel Hazara journalist,” according to that journalist.

Taliban members roamed around the headquarters, but it was not clear if they conducted any additional searches, and then confiscated two of the broadcaster’s vehicles when they left the scene.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but did not receive any response.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan, showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom since the Taliban retook control of the country, marked by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

The son of Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama is facing criminal charges in Australia over domestic violence-related allegations.

Meli Bainimarama, 36, was charged in the Windsor Court in Sydney with 17 offences related to domestic violence, including five charges of assault resulting in bodily harm, stalking, common assault, and destroying or damaging property.

The offences alleged happened between February and May of 2022 in Sydney.

Meli Bainimarama was arrested in Queensland last week and extradited to New South Wales the next day.

He was granted bail.

An interim suppression order, granted last Saturday, was lifted today.

Meli Bainimarama did not appear in person and his lawyer appeared via audio link.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

The federal Department of Education has begun investigating Liberty University’s handling of student reports of sexual assault. In a statement to ProPublica, the school pledged its “full cooperation” with the investigation.

Never miss the most important reporting from ProPublica’s newsroom. Subscribe to the Big Story newsletter.

Last October, ProPublica revealed how the school, which was founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell, had discouraged students who tried to report being sexually assaulted. Some students who came forward were encouraged to sign forms acknowledging they might have broken Liberty’s moral code of conduct, “The Liberty Way.” Others described being encouraged to pray instead of reporting their cases.

Federal law requires that universities receiving federal funds properly handle claims of sexual assault. Liberty students receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. Following our story, senators urged the U.S. Department of Education to investigate.

Liberty students told ProPublica that federal agents have been at the school’s campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, this week. In an email viewed by ProPublica, a Department of Education official reached out to student advocates to arrange meeting times. An agency spokesperson declined to comment, citing a policy not to discuss ongoing investigations.

“Liberty University welcomes the U.S. Department of Education’s review of our Clery Act compliance program,” the university said in its statement to ProPublica. The federal Clery Act requires schools to inform students who report sexual assaults about the option of going to law enforcement and to assist in that reporting if necessary.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., one of the senators who had called for the investigation, praised the government’s move. “I’m glad the Department of Education is investigating Liberty’s handling of sexual assault,” he said in a statement to ProPublica. “I hope the Department looks into it thoroughly.”

In another development, an unnamed former Liberty University student filed a federal lawsuit against the school on Wednesday, claiming the university failed to properly investigate after she reported a rape to school authorities a year ago. The plaintiff also alleged that when she reported being sexually assaulted, she was penalized by the school for violating The Liberty Way, because she had been at a party where alcohol was consumed.

A spokesperson for Liberty declined to comment on the suit.

In November, two weeks after ProPublica’s investigation, Liberty pledged to launch an “independent and comprehensive review” of the school office tasked with handling discrimination and abuse. The school has not responded to ProPublica’s request for an update on the status of that review.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Hannah Dreyfus.

Indonesian police have arrested a total of 90 Papuan students during a protest action near the Presidential Palace complex in Central Jakarta which ended in chaos with allegations of assaults on six protesters.

The demonstration by the Papuan students last Friday was to oppose the creation of new provinces in Papua.

“A total of 90 people”, said Metro Jaya regional police public relations division head Senior Commissioner E Zulpan when sought for confirmation on the arrests.

• READ MORE: Police break up protests in Jayapura over new Papuan provinces plan
• Other West Papua reports

After being arrested, the students were taken to the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters.

Zulpan said that they would be returned home after being questioned.

“They will be returned home after being identified and questioned,” said Zulpan.

The protest, which ended in chaos, resulted in Central Jakarta district police intelligence unit head Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon suffering head injuries after being allegedly assaulted by the protesters.

In addition to this, a number of other police officers were injured.

The demonstrators claimed that five protesters suffered injuries during the clash with police. One of them, a women, was knocked unconscious.

Zulpan however denied that police assaulted any of the demonstrators.

“There were no police officers who assaulted the demonstrators,” said Zulpan.

Advocacy Team slams police violence
The Papua Advocacy Team has called on the Metro Jaya police chief to punish the police officers who allegedly committed violence against six Papuans during the rally near the Presidential Palace.

One of the Advocacy Team members, Teo Reffelsen, said that if the acts of violence by police were based on an order from a superior officer, then they must also be held responsible.

“Police must legally process police officers who committed the violence against the six Papuans,” said Reffelsen in a written release sent to CNN Indonesia.

“If it was based on an order, then their senior officer must also be held criminally responsible,” he said.

Reffelsen also said that based on information obtained from the participants in the action, one of the six students, Ince, was kicked in the chest by a police officer and fell unconscious.

Another, Bob, suffered scratches to his leg and chest after being kicked. Samuel Purwaro was kicked and dragged into a detention vehicle and suffered injuries to his right eye, and Deris Murib was kicked in the forehead and back of his body.

Daten meanwhile was struck in the head using a motorcycle helmet and a member of Solidarity Indonesia was kicked by police.

Suffered injuries, cracked teeth
“He suffered injuries to his body and cracked teeth. His genitals were grabbed, then his mobile phone. [But] his mobile phone has been returned,” said Reffelsen.

The Papuan students clashed with police near the Presidential Palace when they wanted to move off to the Home Affairs Ministry to protest against the creation of six new provinces in Papua.

Around 30 people claiming to be Papuan students tried to head off to the nearby Home Affairs Ministry on Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara via Jalan Veteran near the State Secretariat building in the presidential complex.

There, scores of police officers had already prepared a blockade and the demonstrators were prohibited from going any further. Tough negotiations between the two parties proceeded for up to 30 minutes.

The police continued to refuse to let the demonstrators pass and the two sides began pushing and shoving each other. A short time later the demonstrators broke through the blockade.

Police then chased the students and succeeded in breaking up the demonstration. Several were involved in fist fights.

IndoLeft News notes: A second article by CNN Indonesia later on the same day reported that 89 of those arrested had been returned home. “Yes, they’ve been sent home”, said Zulpan when sought for confirmation. Zulpan said however that one person named Alfius Wenda was still being questioned in relation to the alleged assault on Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was Demo Papua Berujung Ricuh di Dekat Istana, Total 90 Orang Ditangkap.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Indonesian police have arrested a total of 90 Papuan students during a protest action near the Presidential Palace complex in Central Jakarta which ended in chaos with allegations of assaults on six protesters.

The demonstration by the Papuan students last Friday was to oppose the creation of new provinces in Papua.

“A total of 90 people”, said Metro Jaya regional police public relations division head Senior Commissioner E Zulpan when sought for confirmation on the arrests.

• READ MORE: Police break up protests in Jayapura over new Papuan provinces plan
• Other West Papua reports

After being arrested, the students were taken to the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters.

Zulpan said that they would be returned home after being questioned.

“They will be returned home after being identified and questioned,” said Zulpan.

The protest, which ended in chaos, resulted in Central Jakarta district police intelligence unit head Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon suffering head injuries after being allegedly assaulted by the protesters.

In addition to this, a number of other police officers were injured.

The demonstrators claimed that five protesters suffered injuries during the clash with police. One of them, a women, was knocked unconscious.

Zulpan however denied that police assaulted any of the demonstrators.

“There were no police officers who assaulted the demonstrators,” said Zulpan.

Advocacy Team slams police violence
The Papua Advocacy Team has called on the Metro Jaya police chief to punish the police officers who allegedly committed violence against six Papuans during the rally near the Presidential Palace.

One of the Advocacy Team members, Teo Reffelsen, said that if the acts of violence by police were based on an order from a superior officer, then they must also be held responsible.

“Police must legally process police officers who committed the violence against the six Papuans,” said Reffelsen in a written release sent to CNN Indonesia.

“If it was based on an order, then their senior officer must also be held criminally responsible,” he said.

Reffelsen also said that based on information obtained from the participants in the action, one of the six students, Ince, was kicked in the chest by a police officer and fell unconscious.

Another, Bob, suffered scratches to his leg and chest after being kicked. Samuel Purwaro was kicked and dragged into a detention vehicle and suffered injuries to his right eye, and Deris Murib was kicked in the forehead and back of his body.

Daten meanwhile was struck in the head using a motorcycle helmet and a member of Solidarity Indonesia was kicked by police.

Suffered injuries, cracked teeth
“He suffered injuries to his body and cracked teeth. His genitals were grabbed, then his mobile phone. [But] his mobile phone has been returned,” said Reffelsen.

The Papuan students clashed with police near the Presidential Palace when they wanted to move off to the Home Affairs Ministry to protest against the creation of six new provinces in Papua.

Around 30 people claiming to be Papuan students tried to head off to the nearby Home Affairs Ministry on Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara via Jalan Veteran near the State Secretariat building in the presidential complex.

There, scores of police officers had already prepared a blockade and the demonstrators were prohibited from going any further. Tough negotiations between the two parties proceeded for up to 30 minutes.

The police continued to refuse to let the demonstrators pass and the two sides began pushing and shoving each other. A short time later the demonstrators broke through the blockade.

Police then chased the students and succeeded in breaking up the demonstration. Several were involved in fist fights.

IndoLeft News notes: A second article by CNN Indonesia later on the same day reported that 89 of those arrested had been returned home. “Yes, they’ve been sent home”, said Zulpan when sought for confirmation. Zulpan said however that one person named Alfius Wenda was still being questioned in relation to the alleged assault on Assistant Superintendent Ferikson Tampubolon.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was Demo Papua Berujung Ricuh di Dekat Istana, Total 90 Orang Ditangkap.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The post #18. Trump Labor Board Assaults Workers’ Rights appeared first on Project Censored.

This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Project Censored.