Photojournalist Eti-Inyene Godwin Akpan reported on the 2020 protests against police violence in Nigeria. Cedit: Eti-Inyene Godwin Akpan via CP

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Nov 12 2021 (IPS)

The photos showed blood-soaked concrete, a gashed open thigh, and an injured protester grimacing in pain on the ground. Taken by photojournalist Eti-Inyene Godwin Akpan on October 20, 2020, the images tell the story of Nigerian forces’ mass shooting of anti-police brutality protesters at Lagos’ Lekki Toll Gate, an incident the government continues to deny.

One year after Akpan published the photographs on social media, he planned to display them in Lagos at a museum exhibit marking the anniversary of the protests against police brutality that swept Nigeria late last year.

But he postponed the show indefinitely after receiving two calls summoning him, without explanation, to the local offices of Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS), a federal security agency.

“I now sleep with one eye closed, trying to watch my back every second,” Akpan told CPJ in a phone call. “They know I know some things and I have some images…”

The calls came minutes after Akpan gave a live interview on local TV about his work documenting the 2020 protests. Akpan said that he asked the callers for a formal, emailed summons.

He feared that without it, the DSS might mistreat him or hold him for a prolonged period without access to a lawyer or his family, the kind of behavior that CPJ has documented in the past. The calls echoed intimidation tactics he said he faced a year earlier following his posting on social media about the toll gate shooting – tactics that led him to temporarily flee the country.

Reached by CPJ via messaging app, DSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya denied that his agency called Akpan in early October 2021. He also dismissed concerns over the DSS’ history of detaining journalists.

“Right in front of my eyes, I saw dead bodies,” reads the caption on Akpan’s Instagram post from the October 2020 shooting that killed protesters, according to local and international media and rights groups. It was the deadliest incident in last year’s protests, known as the End SARS movement – a reference to the protesters’ call to dismantle Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit.

Journalists covering the protest movement were beaten, harassed, and fined by law enforcement. One reporter, Onifade Emmanuel Pelumi, was found dead at a mortuary on October 30, 2020; he was last seen alive in police custody after he covered unrest around the protests in Lagos.

Images of the Lekki Toll Gate killings are particularly sensitive, Akpan told CPJ, because they contradict the government’s account. In a press conference, Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed marked October 20 this year by calling it “the first anniversary of the phantom massacre,” which took place “without blood or bodies.” Last year the Nigerian army admitted it used live rounds at the toll gate, but said its forces only shot into the air.

After Akpan first published the pictures, he told CPJ that anonymous callers pressured him to take down the Instagram post and replace it with one saying the images were fake. He said his bank account was frozen and that DSS agents arrived at his office looking for him, which DSS spokesperson Afunanya denied.

After that, Akpan decided to heed friends’ advice to leave the country. In the days before he fled, Akpan told CPJ that he believed the images he had captured could contribute to the historical record of the protests. But to protect this evidence for future generations and continue his work, he needed to be safe.

He fled to Ghana by crossing over land through Benin and Togo – a journey of hundreds of miles facilitated by CPJ and Maxime Domegni, an editor with the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

Akpan did not know anyone in Benin or Togo. Nor did he speak the local languages of those two francophone countries. But CPJ introduced him to two local investigative journalists — Igance Sossou in Benin and Ferdinand Ayité in Togo – whose help would prove invaluable.

Sossou and Ayité have both faced reprisal for their work and told CPJ in separate interviews that they agreed to assist Akpan out of journalistic solidarity.

“I understand the risk hanging over journalism in the West African sub-region,” Sossou, who was arrested in late 2019, imprisoned for six months, and fined over social media posts, told CPJ via messaging app. “If you are a journalist who experienced what I experienced between 2019 and 2020 in Benin, you are necessarily sensitive to the case of Eti-Inyene.”

After Akpan slipped across Nigeria’s western border, he met Sossou in Cotonou, Benin’s economic capital. Sossou said he assisted Akpan with changing his money into local currency and finding a car and driver to transport him to Togo’s border, which Akpan crossed on foot before finding a cab to Lomé, Togo’s capital.

Ayité, whose newspaper L’Alternative has been repeatedly suspended and who continues to face harassment by authorities, told CPJ he met Akpan in Lomé. Ayité arranged and paid for Akpan’s dinner and overnight accommodation as well as a motorcycle driver who could safely navigate the border with Ghana the following morning. Once across, Akpan caught a bus from the Aflao border town to Accra.

“We are just journalists and we have no borders. Wherever one of us is threatened, all journalists are concerned,” Ayité told CPJ. “Solidarity must be the cardinal value of our profession and I think that this is what guided Ignace Sossou and my modest self to come to the aid of [Akpan].”

Akpan told CPJ that his travel across Togo and Benin would have been “so difficult, if not impossible” without this assistance. “I would have been attacked or duped,” he said. “It was an amazing collaboration.”

After arriving in Accra, a friend helped Akpan find accommodation. He stayed in hiding for four months but decided to return to Nigeria in February 2021. The stresses of exile, exacerbated by the pandemic, made him struggle with loneliness and depression, he said.

“I felt that there was still work for me to do in Nigeria. These stories [of the protests] still need to be told,” Akpan said, adding that he initially avoided telling his mother and sisters of his return because it would make them worry.

Despite one sister’s advice never to set foot back in Nigeria, he felt that the protests had diminished enough to reduce the risk. But the intimidating calls returned this October, as Akpan promoted his photo exhibition.

Akpan told CPJ that the callers claiming to be DSS agents never sent him an emailed summons, as he had requested. After their calls, he received other calls from people asking him questions about his photography.

He said the people claimed to be potential clients, but when he requested the callers send their details over email, they never followed up, compounding his fears. He said he now takes extra precautions to secure his communications and store his information.

Yet, Akpan has not stopped trying to record historic events. He went out with his camera on this year’s October 20 anniversary to photograph a memorial marking the Lekki Toll Gate killings, where journalists were again attacked by police.

The solidarity he experienced over the last 12 months has given him courage and strengthened his commitment to speaking the truth, he told CPJ. “I rest assured that I’m not alone,” he said.

Jonathan Rozen is Senior Africa Researcher at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

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Electronic surveillance devices. Credit: 112 Georgia/ UN Women

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Jul 21 2021 (IPS)

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe was not expecting security agents to appear at her home in a village outside Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, in July 2019, she told CPJ in a recent interview. But they didn’t come to arrest or charge her, she recalled – they came for her devices, hunting for the source for an article published by her employer, Mmegi newspaper.

Basimanebotlhe, a politics reporter, said she surrendered her phone and password to the agents after they presented a warrant and could not find her computer. A senior officer then used technology sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite to extract and analyze thousands of her messages, call logs, and emails, and her web browsing history, according to an affidavit from the police forensics laboratory.

The affidavit, which CPJ reviewed, was submitted during a related court case.“They’re looking for people that are divulging information to the media,” Basimanebotlhe told CPJ.

Botswana police also deployed Cellebrite technology to search the phone of Oratile Dikologang, a local editor charged in 2020 over Facebook posts who alleged that police violently interrogated him about his sources, as CPJ recently reported.

The use of powerful tools provided by private companies to scour seized devices raises significant concerns over privacy and press freedom. The experiences of Basimanebotlhe and Dikologang demonstrate that police in Botswana use digital forensics equipment to sweep up vast quantities of journalists’ communications from seized devices, regardless of whether they are charged with a crime.

The extent of these searches was only revealed when police documents were submitted in court months after the fact, and it’s not clear what happened to the data.

Botswana’s security forces routinely arrest journalists and take possession of their devices, CPJ has found. In March, Botswana police seized computers and phones from arrested reporters and media workers with the Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler, a private, Facebook-based outlet, CPJ recently documented; officers demanded their passcodes, answered calls and read messages on the devices, and kept two of the phones as evidence even after the charges connected to that arrest were withdrawn in April.

David Baaitse, a reporter for Botswana’s Weekend Post newspaper, separately told CPJ that intelligence agents took phones belonging to him and his colleague to be analyzed for six months following their arrest last year.

“If you take my phone and go and analyze it, you have my folders and everything, all my contacts,” Baaitse told CPJ in a recent interview. He added that such actions by security forces hinder journalists’ ability to gather information, saying, “Sources, they no longer trust us. They no longer want to deal directly with us.”

In Basimanebotlhe’s case, Mmegi reported that when her phone was first seized in July 2019, police were seeking evidence for their investigation of a former intelligence chief, Isaac Kgosi.

The police claimed that Kgosi had taken photographs of undercover security agents, exposing their identities, and that those photographs were published by Mmegi in a February 2019 article, Basimanebotlhe said. The article, which was attributed to a staff reporter, had been written by one of Basimanebotlhe’s colleagues, Mmegi later clarified.

“They alleged that I had photos of DIS people,” Basimanebotlhe told CPJ, referring to an acronym for Botswana’s Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services. “They believed I’m the one who wrote the story,” she said.

The affidavit detailing the forensic search of Basimanebotlhe’s devices was submitted during Kgosi’s prosecution over the photographs, his lawyer, Unoda Mack, told CPJ by phone. It states that police used Cellebrite’s Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) and Physical Analyzer technologies to retrieve and evaluate the information from her phone, but found no evidence relevant to their investigation, according to CPJ’s review.

Mack told CPJ that Kgosi pleaded not guilty, and local media reported that a magistrate ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence the charge that he had exposed agents’ identities.

“They said they didn’t find anything in my phone,” Basimaonebotlhe told CPJ. “[But] they went through my SMS, my WhatsApp [messages].”

CPJ contacted Botswana police spokesperson Dipheko Motube over the phone about Basimaonebotlhe’s case and he requested that questions be sent via messaging app. He did not respond to those questions, and previously declined to comment on the case involving Dikologang because it was still before the court.

In response to questions about the Moeladilotlhoko News Boiler arrests, Motube told CPJ that investigations “may necessitate” detentions and confiscation of “any implement which may have been used in the commission of the offence” with “due regard to the rights of the individual arrested.”

Reached by phone, Botswana government spokesperson Batlhalefi Leagajang requested questions about security forces’ alleged use of digital forensics technology be sent by email. CPJ sent those questions, but received no response.

Cellebrite, which is owned by the Japan-based Sun Corporation, says that its UFED toolkit can extract data from mobile phones, SIM cards, and other devices even after the information was deleted, and its Physical Analyzer helps examine digital data.

In April, Nasdaq reported that Cellebrite would be listed on the stock exchange via a merger with TWC Tech Holdings II Corp., a U.S.-based special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) designed to take companies public.

In response to CPJ’s questions about the use of its technology in Botswana and human rights due diligence processes, Cellebrite provided a statement emailed via the Fusion Public Relations company that said it could not “speak to any specifics” about its customers.

Cellebrite “requires that agencies and governments that use our technology uphold the standards of international human rights law,” the statement said. “Our compliance solutions enable an audit trail and can discern who, when and how data was accessed, which leads to accountability in the agencies and organizations that use our tools,” the company added.

Cellebrite did not directly address CPJ’s question about if the company considered the use of its tools to search journalists’ devices to be acceptable. Sun Corporation and TWC Tech Holdings II Corp. did not respond to questions CPJ emailed about this article.

“[Police] want access to the data so they can know the sources of these journalists,” Dick Bayford, a lawyer in Gaborone whose firm represented Basimanebotlhe and Baaitse, told CPJ in a recent interview. “It [has] a chilling effect on freedom of the press.”

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Excerpt:

Justice Motlhabani, left, and Letsogile Barupi, followed by Oratile Dikologang, leave the magistrate’s court in Gaborone, Botswana, on April 14, 2020. (Mmegi/Thalefang Charles via Committee to Protect Journalists, New York)

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, May 11 2021 (IPS)

Oratile Dikologang was naked when police officers pulled black plastic over his head during his detention in April 2020. It was difficult to breathe, but the interrogation continued, he told CPJ in a recent phone interview.

“What are your sources, where do you get information,” he recalled them asking repeatedly. “It was the most painful experience,” he said.

Dikologang, the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People’s Daily News website, and two others still face jail time in relation to Facebook posts that police were investigating when they hauled the three in for questioning.

CPJ documented the incidents, and made several attempts to reach representatives of the government and police in Botswana for comment. Dikologang denies responsibility for the Facebook posts at the heart of the case, and said that police questioned him about his own reporting.

Dikologang told CPJ that he refused to reveal his sources – but he did provide the password to his phone. Police then “successfully extracted” and “thoroughly analyzed” thousands of the journalist’s messages, contacts, images, audio files, and videos, as well social media accounts and applications, according to an affidavit that they submitted to court to support the ongoing prosecution.

Other police documents reviewed by CPJ say Orange Botswana provided mobile account information for Dikologang and his co-accused, as well as another newspaper editor who was questioned during the investigation.

To examine the phone, police used a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) sold by Israel-based Cellebrite and a Forensic Toolkit (FTK) from U.S.-based AccessData, according to the affidavit from the Botswana Police Service Digital Forensics Laboratory, which CPJ reviewed.

Websites run by the two companies advertise their technologies’ utility for extracting information from phones and computers, as well as breaking into locked devices and decrypting information.

The search of a journalist’s phone in detention exemplifies the threat digital forensics technologies pose to privacy and press freedom around the world. CPJ has previously identified the acquisition of UFED and FTK in Nigeria, and of UFED and similar tools in Ghana – both countries where journalists report having their devices seized and being interrogated about their sources. And police in Myanmar used UFED to extract information from jailed Reuters reporters, The Washington Post reported in 2019.

“It’s a huge breach for a journalist,” Outsa Mokone, the editor of Botswana’s Sunday Standard newspaper, whose devices were taken when he was arrested in 2014, told CPJ in a phone interview this month. “We can’t protect our sources if our phones are seized.”

Dikologang was arrested alongside Justice Motlhabani, a spokesperson for an opposition political party at the time – who told CPJ that police tasered him during interrogation – and Letsogile Barupi, a university student who ran the Facebook page identified in the charges.

The police affidavit says that in February 2020, well before the arrests took place, a senior officer had ordered that their devices be searched for information about “offensive” Facebook posts. Barupi and Motlhabani also told CPJ that they gave police the passwords to their devices and accounts during interrogation in April.

Facebook pages they operated were subsequently disabled, they said, and CPJ has not been able to review the posts they were questioned about.

“This thing has sent shivers down the people who take journalism seriously,” the Standard’s deputy editor Spencer Mogapi told CPJ. Mogapi, who is also editor of local newspaper The Telegraph and chairman of the Botswana Editors Forum, said he was also questioned in the case because of messages he had exchanged with Motlhabani, which officers presented to him in a printout. He said he had known Motlhabani for years and was not charged in the case.

Police obtained the identity attached to Mogapi’s phone number in a “subscriber report” from his mobile company Orange Botswana, according to separate police documents submitted to court by the prosecution and reviewed by CPJ.

“It’s shocking,” Mogapi said when CPJ informed him of the report this month. “I don’t know what they have on me, what information they have about my contacts,” he said.

The documents say Orange Botswana also identified accounts owned by the three men facing charges and provided an “activity log” from Dikologang’s; a company representative previously told CPJ by email that they “comply with all court orders” and cannot disclose details to third parties.

In a follow-up email regarding Mogapi’s subscriber report, Orange Botswana said CPJ should direct questions to the police in Botswana.

Reached by phone in April 2021, Morwakwena Tlhobolo, the police officer who conducted the forensic searches and submitted the affidavit, said he was not able to answer questions without senior approval.

When CPJ called back, a person who answered the phone at the police forensics lab said that Tlhobolo was not permitted to respond.

Botswana police spokesperson Dipheko Motube has told CPJ before that he could not comment on the case because it was before the court, something he reiterated in response to a message about Mogapi.

Cellebrite responded to CPJ’s questions by email in April via representatives of Fusion Public Relations company. “We have multiple checks and balances to ensure our technology is used as intended. We require that agencies and governments that use our technology uphold the standards of international human rights law,” the email said.

“When our technology is used in a manner that does not meet international law or does not comply with Cellebrite’s values, we take swift and appropriate action, including terminating agreements,” the email said. Cellebrite declined to comment on “any specifics” involving their customers or the use of their technology.

On April 8, Cellebrite, which is owned by the Japan-based Sun Corporation, announced it would go public via a shell company and be listed on Nasdaq, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In an emailed response to CPJ’s questions, Sun Corporation said, “We are very sorry to hear about what happened, however we are afraid that we are not prepared to provide any comments, where there is no evidence provided.” CPJ asked what kind of evidence would warrant a response, but received no reply.

AccessData and its parent company, Exterro, did not respond to questions CPJ emailed in mid-April to addresses listed on their websites and to two people who identified themselves as Exterro marketing representatives on LinkedIn.

CPJ called AccessData’s offices in the U.S. but was unable to connect to a representative. A voicemail CPJ left on the company’s U.K. phone number in May was not returned before publication. In early May, a person who answered the phone at Exterro’s U.K. office said they would find someone to respond to questions, but did not return CPJ’s call before publication.

“This affects my work,” Dikologang told CPJ of the incident. “Since [my sources] know the phone has been taken by the state, maybe they will be afraid to give information.”

*Jonathan Rozen is CPJ’s senior Africa researcher. Previously, he worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peace-building processes. Rozen was a U.N. correspondent for IPS News and has written for Al-Jazeera English and the International Peace Institute.

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Journalists in the line of duty. Credit: Left - UNESCO/©Thomas Hawk; Right - UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Apr 28 2021 (IPS)

Spyware’s repeated use to target journalists and those close to them poses an existential threat to the privacy required for press freedom to flourish. Without the ability to privately communicate with sources, conduct research, and compile information, journalists are hampered in their ability to keep the public informed and hold the powerful to account.

“The spyware attack revealed to me that regardless of where I am and what citizenship I hold, if the Moroccan government wants to gather surveillance, they will…It prevents you from being able to do your work because you don’t want to put people [you speak to] at risk,” said Samia Errazzouki, an editorial board member with the Moroccan Mamfakinch news site with U.S. citizenship. Errazzouki was based in the U.S. when she and 14 other Mamfakinch staff were targeted with spyware in 2012.

In March, the Committee to Protect Journalists mapped dozens of incidents where members of the media were targeted with sophisticated, secret surveillance on nearly every continent. The compiled reporting details how spyware products sold by companies based in Israel and Europe have been allegedly used by governments to reach across borders and oceans into the devices of journalists and their associates to monitor their lives without their knowledge.

“It’s not just the fear or anxiety,” said Errazzouki, who now considers the possibility of being unknowingly recorded by her devices’ cameras and microphones. “It’s real, the way it changes your everyday habits. Not changing your clothes in front of your computer. Putting your phone in a drawer to have a private conversation.…[There’s] some degree of paranoia.”

The evidence of spyware’s use against the press uncovered by investigators, including from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, Amnesty International, and Reuters, outlines a chilling threat to the privacy required for journalists to work freely.

Unbridled use of technology to access and conduct surveillance on journalists’ devices promotes fear and self-censorship, often accompanied by physical intimidation or arrests.

In 2020, Moroccan journalists Omar Radi and Maati Monjib were arrested after being targeted with spyware. Monjib was granted provisional release on March 23 following a 19-day hunger strike, but Radi remains behind bars. Another journalist in India, Anand Teltumbde, was also jailed last year following similar spyware targeting.

How the efforts to hack these journalists’ phones may have contributed to their arrests remains unclear, but their experiences illustrate the familiar, tandem nature of digital and physical threats.

In Nigeria, for example, police used call record data to lure and arrest journalists and in Ghana reporters worry that digital forensics tools will be deployed to access information on seized devices. They have reason after the Washington Post reported that Myanmar police leveraged the same technology to search the phones of two jailed Reuters journalists and the Nigerian military sought a “forensic search” for sources on editors’ phones and computers.

Without a robust defense of privacy from governments, corporate leaders, and citizens, journalists’ phones will continue to be converted from useful tools into grave vulnerabilities.

*A shorter version of this report was also published in the April 2021 edition of The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership newsletter.

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Excerpt:

This screenshot from the U.S. Embassy in Ghana website shows Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan, right, donating technology to the executive director of the Economic and Organized Crime Office, Frank Adu-Poku, rear, and Jacob Puplampu, left, at a “cyber dark web investigations training” session in Accra in May 2019. Credit: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Jul 16 2020 (IPS)

In May 2019, senior members of Ghana’s law enforcement posed for photos with the U.S. ambassador to their country at a ceremony in the capital, Accra. Between them they held boxes and bags, gifts from the U.S. government to Ghana which, according to one of the recipients, contained Israeli phone hacking technology.

That recipient was Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, then-director general of the Ghana police’s criminal investigation department. In May 2020, she spoke to CPJ about how the U.S. and U.K. governments, as well as Interpol, provided Ghana’s security forces with digital investigations training and technology.

She cited tools made by the Israel-based Cellebrite corporation – whose website says their technology can break locks and encryption – and two U.S.-based companies, IBM and Digital Intelligence.

Journalists in Ghana say they are worried about how such technology may be used against them or their sources.

Last year, CPJ documented the use of Cellebrite’s Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) by Nigerian security forces, and how the military targeted journalists’ phones and computers with a “forensic search” trying to reveal their sources.

Six days before the U.S. gave the same tools to Ghana, The Washington Post reported on how police used UFED to retrieve documents from journalists’ phones in Myanmar. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Cellebrite has pitched its technology to help authorities access devices of infected people to trace their contacts, Reuters reported in April.

“If a state agency can decode my system without access to my password, that is scary,” Emmanuel Dogbevi, managing editor of the website Ghana Business News, told CPJ in early July.

Dogbevi, a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has reported on sensitive subjects, including offshore finances and Ghana’s purchase of hardware from the Israel-based spyware company NSO Group.

He told CPJ that many sources were already hesitant to speak for fear of being identified, and the years-long pattern of Ghanaian authorities trying to intimidate journalists left him worried he too may be targeted. “Sources send me information, send me documents. I wouldn’t want anyone to have access to that,” Dogbevi said.

Before being transferred from criminal investigations to head police welfare in January 2020, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said she sought to strengthen prosecutions by building the police’s capacity to extract and analyze information from phones and computers. “In this [digital] era, most of the evidence are held on electronic devices…You arrest one person and the person says I’m not going to inform you [of] my accomplice. These are the tools that can help you to know who or whom that person is talking to,” she told CPJ.

A year earlier, in June 2019, officers from Ghana’s National Security Ministry arrested editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum, both of the Modern Ghana news website, held them for days, and searched their phones and computers in an effort to reveal their sources for a report on National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah, CPJ reported at the time.

Abugri told CPJ his devices were taken to an “IT room” and he was forced to give the officers his passwords. “They were going into my gadgets,” he said.

The Greater Accra police command still has Abugri’s phones and tablets, while the National Security Ministry has his computer, Abugri said. (A police spokesperson, Afia Tengey, said she was unable to comment because she could not locate the case files).

The experience changed the way Abugri thought about the safety of information: “Sometimes in journalism there are certain information that are very confidential to you, that you don’t want any other person to know the source…having those information on your gadgets and those same gadgets are in the hands of certain people [security forces], I feel threatened.”

Abugri sued Ghana’s national security coordinator, inspector-general of police, and attorney general claiming his arrest and detention, including alleged torture, violated his constitutionally guaranteed rights; the case is due in court July 15, he told CPJ.

CPJ’s calls to Kan Dapaah following the June 2019 arrests and in June 2020 rang unanswered. But Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ that she had at times relied on the National Security Ministry digital forensics and surveillance capacities to assist with police investigations.

“If the phone is on, [based on a telephone number] they were able to tell that this person was here at this time, he moved here at this time,” she said.

Manasseh Azure Awuni, a freelance investigative journalist, told CPJ the arrests of the Modern Ghana journalists and seizure of their devices shows that journalists and sources are vulnerable. “If it has happened to some journalists, it is possible it can happen to me,” Awuni said.

Awuni said he received death threats and was forced into hiding in 2019 because of a documentary that alleged Ghana’s ruling party operated a secret militia group. The party denied ties to the group, he said.

“It can exert a chilling effect on press freedom,” Roland Affail Monney, president of the Ghana Journalists Association, told CPJ of security forces’ capacity to break into journalists’ phones and computers.

Ghana’s police first received Cellebrite’s UFED technology from Interpol in 2017 at training for West African law enforcement in Cote d’Ivoire, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ. The year before, Cellebrite signed an agreement to provide Interpol with “digital forensic equipment [including UFED] and training services over a three-year period,” according to their websites. Interpol’s press office acknowledged in an email that has provided Cellebrite tools to some national police but did not identify which countries or otherwise elaborate.

Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said that in 2019 the U.K. trained and provided Ghanaian police with IBM i2 Analyze to help organize and evaluate information pulled from devices. IBM i2 Analyze “facilitates analysis of large volumes of data” and “uncover[s] hidden connections,” according to its website.

CPJ emailed the British High Commission in Accra requesting an interview regarding U.K. digital forensics support for Ghanaian law enforcement, but no interview was arranged before publication.

IBM’s head of communications for the Middle East and Africa, Mark Fox, told CPJ in an email that IBM had “no record of selling or providing” IBM i2 Analyze to the government of Ghana, but declined to comment on whether Ghana’s police used the technology. “[W]e carefully review potential business opportunities to ensure they do not conflict” with IBM’s principles of trust and transparency, Fox said.

Separately, a 2019 British Immigration Enforcement document appears to show that the agency supplied Ghana’s Immigration Service with Detego digital forensics equipment made by U.K.-based MCM Solutions (the document misspells the equipment as “Detago”).

Detego can “[e]xtract and seamlessly analyse data from multiple devices,” according to MCM’s website. In March 2019, MCM posted on Twitter that its staff were in Ghana “conducting an advanced [Detego] training course for a number of specialist units.”

John-Paul Backwell, MCM Solutions’ global sales and marketing director, told CPJ that the company had multiple clients in Ghana, but did not respond by publication time to a question about which security agencies had the technology. Backwell said MCM Solutions’ ambition was to have their technology “used for good” to “solve security challenges,” but acknowledged the company “cannot always control how a customer uses the software.” MCM Solutions would investigate cases where their tools may have been used against journalists, he said.

The U.S. embassy provided Ghana with Cellebrite UFED and UltraBlock, another digital forensics tool made by the Digital Intelligence corporation, in May 2019 at the ceremony with U.S. Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ. UltraBlock is used to facilitate the extraction of information from hard drives, but does not have decryption capacity, Chris Stippich, the president of Digital Intelligence, told CPJ by phone in late June. He said company policy did not permit him to comment on Digital Intelligence’s customers.

Procurement documents reviewed by CPJ and a report by the Nextgov news website indicate that in December 2018 the U.S. embassy in Ghana made a request to purchase UFED and UltraBlock technology. The request specified UFED be capable of “extraction” and “decoding” of major cellphone models, including Android, Blackberry, Nokia, and Huawei, as well as GPS systems like TomTom.

According to a U.S. government database, State Department contracts were awarded to two U.S.-based companies—BIT DIRECT INC and Lyme Computer Systems, Inc— for cyber investigations equipment for Ghana. Other contract listings indicate that in recent years U.S. embassies around the world have ordered equipment directly from Cellebrite.

CPJ’s calls and an email to Josh Longacre, Lyme Computer Systems’ CEO and president, as well as calls and a voicemail to the publicly listed number for BIT DIRECT INC, went unanswered.

CPJ’s questions emailed to Cellebrite’s press office and Masao Koda, a representative for Cellebrite’s Japan-based parent company, Sun Corporation, were not answered before publication.

The U.S. embassy in Ghana told CPJ in an emailed statement that it gave the country’s police and the Economic and the Organized Crime Office (EOCO) “assistance to enhance their capability in investigating cyber-related offenses” with technology and training.

It said those who were trained underwent “Leahy vetting,” a reference to U.S. laws that prohibit spending on foreign security forces implicated in human rights abuses. The embassy did not directly answer CPJ’s questions specific to UFED and UltraBlock.

CPJ reached Frank Adu-Poku, executive director of Ghana’s EOCO, by phone in May 2020, but he declined to comment. Ghana immigration service spokesperson Michael Amoako-Atta told CPJ by phone that he would check for information about British support in 2019, but CPJ’s subsequent calls and text messages to Amoako-Atta went unanswered.

“Any data that is accessed by police would be done so in accordance with [the] law,” Sheila Kessie Abayie-Buckman, a spokesperson for Ghana’s police, told CPJ by phone. She said a “framework for police-media relations and safety of journalists” launched on July 1 would help curb instances where officers seized journalists’ devices or interrogated them about their sources. Abayie-Buckman did not provide answers to emailed questions concerning police use of Cellebrite and IBM technology.

“Sometimes I think it is good for governments to have that kind of [digital forensics] tools,” Abugri told CPJ, noting that there are public safety reasons for devices to be searched. “But in a situation where people like us [journalists] are involved…those tools are not being used for their intended purpose…that is where it becomes a worry.”

• For information on digital security, consult CPJ’s Digital Safety Kit.

Excerpt:

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Feb 19 2020 (IPS)

As reporters for Nigeria’s Premium Times newspaper, Samuel Ogundipe and Azeezat Adedigba told CPJ they spoke often over the phone. They had no idea that their regular conversations about work and their personal lives were creating a record of their friendship.

On August 9, 2018, Ogundipe published an article about a communication between Nigeria’s police chief and vice president. Days later, police investigating his source issued a written summons, CPJ reported at the time.

It was not addressed to Ogundipe and made no mention of his article or the charges he would later face of theft and possession of police documents. Instead, as Ogundipe recounted, police called Adedigba for questioning in connection with a slew of serious crimes, allegations that evaporated after police used her phone to summon her friend to the station.

Ogundipe’s experience is one of at least three cases since 2017 where police from across Nigeria used phone records to lure and then arrest journalists currently facing criminal charges for their work.

In each case, police used the records to identify people with a relationship to a targeted journalist, detained those people, and then forced them to facilitate the arrest.

The police methods reinforce the value of internet-based, encrypted communications at a time when authorities have also targeted journalists’ phones and computers to reveal their sources. Those prosecuted in all three cases are free on bail.

Nigerian journalist Samuel Ogundipe (Photo: Samuel Ogundipe)

“If the police called me and said we have something to ask you, I would go there…this is just their tactics,” Ogundipe said.

Ogundipe and Adedigba told CPJ that police made no secret of the way they had established their relationship, showing them each call records they claimed to have obtained from the pair’s cellphone network providers—Nigeria-based 9mobile, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Etisalat telecom company, and South Africa-based MTN, respectively.

“[Police have] been checking who I’ve been talking to…[in order to] see who was close enough to me to be used as bait,” Ogundipe added.

CPJ’s repeated calls in late 2019 and early 2020 to Nigerian police spokesperson Frank Mba rang unanswered.

The 2003 Nigerian Communications Act mandates that network service providers assist authorities in preventing crime and protecting national security. Regulations for enforcing it grant senior police officials the power to authorize requests to obtain “call data” from telecom companies without a judicial warrant, according to CPJ’s review.

That data includes where and when regular phone calls and SMS messages took place and between which numbers, according to documents reviewed by CPJ and interviews with three individuals with knowledge of police requests for call data in Nigeria. All three requested not to be named for fear of reprisal.

Nigeria has over 184 million active mobile phone lines, with roughly two million lines added every month to service its estimated 190 million people, according to 2019 data released by the national telecom regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). SIM card ownership for these lines is tracked under a 2011 regulation, which CPJ reviewed, mandating the collection of personal information, including fingerprints and photos, that police can access without a warrant as long as a senior-ranking officer gives written approval.

Other NCC regulations, released in October 2019 and reviewed by CPJ, detail police permissions to intercept communications under certain circumstances.

At the time of publishing, Ogundipe told CPJ his next court date had yet to be scheduled, but two journalists who were taken into custody at the end of 2019–Gidado Yushau and Alfred Olufemi–were preparing for their fifth hearing scheduled in Kwara State for March 4.

Similar to Ogundipe and Adedigba, police used call records to identify individuals that could be used to lead them to their targets, those affected told CPJ.

Nigerian journalist Gidado Yushau (Photo: Gidado Yushau)

Yushau, publisher of The News Digest website, and Olufemi, a freelance reporter, were charged in November 2019 with criminal conspiracy and criminal defamation in connection with a complaint over a May 2018 News Digest report Olufemi wrote about a factory owned by Sarah Alade, now special adviser to Nigeria’s president. Alade and other representatives of the factory did not answer calls or declined comment when CPJ reported on the case.

The first journalist police used to track down Yushau and Olufemi worked in another city for an unrelated news outlet. Wunmi Ashafa, a Lagos-based journalist with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), told CPJ that police tricked her into meeting, then made her summon her colleague, Yusuf Yunus, who in turn was used to facilitate the arrest of the Digest’s web developer, Adebowale Adekoya. The officers claimed to know they were connected from their call records.

Police were “tracking all the people that are calling me, that I’m talking to,” Yunus told CPJ in an interview. “The network provider has said that this line and this line have spoken at this particular hour,” he said police told him. Ashafa and Yunus said they were released after police detained Adekoya.

“I don’t know why they decided to do that,” Ashafa told CPJ, adding that she missed a meeting at her daughter’s school because police involved her. “They apologized to us, to myself and Yunus, that that was the only way they could get [Adekoya].”

Mistaken for the Digest’s publisher, Adekoya described being held for five nights, driven over 1,200 kilometers—including to Abuja and Kwara State—and threatened with detention if he did not lead the officers to Yushau and promise to help bring Olufemi into custody, before his release.

Nigerian journalist Alfred Olufemi. (Photo: Alfred Olufemi)

CPJ reached Peter Okasanmi, a spokesperson with the Kwara State police, by phone in January. He declined to comment on Yushau and Olufemi’s case because the trial was ongoing, but described how police regularly used telecommunications information to make arrests.

“We are able to track the culprits by use of technology through the SIM [cards] that were registered,” Okasanmi said. “Suspects, they are usually like kidnappers…we use all of those gadgets to track their locations and get them arrested…we have our own equipment we are using,” he added, without elaborating.

On November 4, CPJ contacted NCC spokesperson Henry Nkemadu by phone and upon his request sent questions regarding security agencies’ access to communications data, but received no response. Subsequent calls to Nkemadu and other NCC officials went unanswered.

Police used a similar tactic in 2017 to arrest Tega Oghenedoro, the Uyo city-based publisher of the Secret Reporters news website who writes under the pseudonym Fejiro Oliver, CPJ reported this month.

He faces cybercrime charges related to reports alleging corruption in a Lagos-based Nigerian bank and is due in court on May 28, CPJ reported.

Isaac Omomedia, an aide to the governor of Delta State, told CPJ in October 2019 that he did not know Oliver, but that they had a mutual acquaintance, Prince Kpokpogri, the publisher of Integrity Watchdog magazine.

In March 2017, Omomedia arrived at a hotel in Asaba, the Delta State capital where he lives, after receiving a call to collect a parcel from the DHL delivery company, he told CPJ.

Instead, he was met by six police officers who questioned him about Kpokpogri, someone they claimed to know he was in touch with by reviewing his call records. On their instructions, Omomedia said he invited Kpokpogri to a meeting.

Kpokpogri told CPJ that police arrested him upon arrival, drove him over 200 kilometers to Uyo, and told him, in turn, to summon Oliver. The officers had identified him because they had “bugged” both his and Oliver’s phone lines, he remembered them saying. Kpokpogri said police arrested Oliver when he arrived and drove them both over 350 kilometers to Benin City; Oliver was then flown to Lagos and Kpokpogri was released without charge.

Kenneth Ogbeifun, the Lagos-based investigating officer in Oliver’s case, requested emailed questions when contacted for comment by CPJ in January 2020. Follow-up emails and messages went unanswered.

CPJ also reached an officer who confirmed his name as Moses and that he was part of the team that arrested Oliver on behalf of Lagos police, but when asked about how Omomedia and Kpokpogri were used in the arrest, the line disconnected.

Those involved in Oliver’s arrest, and the chain leading to Yushau and Olufemi, told CPJ they relied on the Nigeria-based Globacom, also known as Glo, India-based Airtel, or MTN for their cell phone service.

“I will give you the number used to commit the crime and you have only 60 minutes to produce the details,” the Premium Times quoted Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s minister of communications and digital economy, as saying in late 2019. Operators that failed to produce data would be sanctioned, according to that report.

CPJ called the ministry of communications and digital economy in mid-January. Philomena Oshodin, a deputy director, said that she was not the relevant person to comment before the line went silent; follow up messages went unanswered.

Between November 2019 and January 2020, CPJ reached out to public relations departments at MTN, 9mobile, Airtel, and Glo, and emailed questions to representatives for each about security agencies’ access to telecom user data in Nigeria. None replied with answers by date of publication.

“You’re reporting as a journalist, which is not a crime…[but] you feel you’re being punished,” Ogundipe told CPJ, reflecting on his arrest and prosecution. “It’s very scary…it’s difficult to predict how far these guys will go.”

For information on digital safety, consult CPJ’s Digital Safety Kit.

*Jonathan Rozen is CPJ’s senior Africa researcher. Previously, he worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peace-building processes. Rozen was a U.N. correspondent for IPS News and has written for Al-Jazeera English and the International Peace Institute. He speaks English and French.

Excerpt:

Hamza Idris (left), an editor with the Daily Trust newspaper, sits with colleague Hussaini Garba Mohammed in their office in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, in February 2019. The office was raided in January by the military, who seized 24 computers. Credit: CPJ / Jonathan Rozen

By Jonathan Rozen
ABUJA / NEW YORK, Oct 24 2019 (IPS)

Hamza Idris, an editor with the Nigerian Daily Trust, was at the newspaper’s central office on January 6 when the military arrived looking for him.

Soldiers with AK47s walked between the newsroom desks repeating his name, he told CPJ. It was the second raid on the paper that day; the first hit the bureau based in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where Idris had worked for years.

The soldiers did not know what Idris looked like and his colleagues did not point him out, he said. Unable to find their target, they ordered everyone to evacuate and seized 24 of the paper’s computers. Idris simply filed out with everyone else.

In Maiduguri, however, the military arrested Uthman Abubakar, the Daily Trust northeastern regional editor, with his two phones and computer, CPJ reported at the time. He was held for two days, interrogated about his sources for a report written with Idris about a military operation in the region, and then released without charge.

“They took the devices to their computer forensics room,” Abubakar told CPJ. “They conducted some forensic search.”

The Daily Trust raids are emblematic of a global trend of law enforcement seizing journalists’ mobile phones and computers—some of their most important tools. CPJ has documented device seizures around the world, from the United States to Slovakia to Iraq.

In Benin, police copied data from the seized computer of Casimir Kpedjo, the editor of Nouvelle Economie newspaper, CPJ reported in April. And in Tanzania, during the detention of two CPJ staff in November 2018, intelligence officers took their devices and boasted about Israeli technology that could extract their information.

Forensics technology designed to extract information from phones and computers is marketed and sold to law enforcement agencies around the world. CPJ has found at least two companies that produce digital forensics tools—Israel-based Cellebrite and U.S.-based AccessData—operating in Nigeria, where CPJ research shows that security forces regularly arrest and interrogate journalists.

Recent Nigerian national budgets feature significant financial allocations to bolster surveillance and digital forensics capacities. From 2014 to 2017, the Nigerian government spent at least 127 billion naira (over US$350 million) on “surveillance/security equipment,” according to a 2018 calculation reported by Paradigm Initiative, a Nigeria-based digital rights group.

“Evidence showed that these purchases were made for political reasons, especially by the then authorities in power to monitor their adversaries and political opponents,” that report said.

One of Nigeria’s major security concerns is the years-long conflict in the northeast against Boko Haram and splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). Hours before the raids on Daily Trust’s offices, the paper had published a report about a Nigerian military effort to retake six towns from Boko Haram.

In a statement published on Facebook the next day, a Nigerian army spokesperson said the report had divulged classified information, “undermining national security” and contravening Nigeria’s Official Secrets Act.

Privacy is enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution, and law enforcement agents must obtain a judicial warrant to search computer systems under Nigeria’s 2015 cybercrime law.

However, the 1962 Official Secrets Act gives sweeping powers for security forces to grant themselves warrants to search and seize all materials considered evidence, as well as arrest those suspected of committing offenses under the act.

On January 10, four days after the raids, Nigerian military investigators summoned Idris and Nurudeen Abdallah, the Daily Trust investigations editor, to question them about their sources for the report, which they refused to reveal, they told CPJ. Then the officers demanded their phones. “They said they want to scan it,” Idris told CPJ.

“They said [they] just want to see the contents and then maybe the numbers of the people I talk to—I said no.” The officers told them a server for scanning technology was housed at the Office of the National Security Adviser, the president’s top security aide, Abdallah told CPJ. The journalists said they had not brought their phones, and refused several follow-up requests to return with them.

CPJ reached Sagir Musa, a Nigerian military spokesperson, by phone on October 9 and asked about the Daily Trust raids. Musa said he could not hear and asked to be sent a message before the line went silent; subsequent calls and messages went unanswered. Calls to Onyema Nwachukwu, director of defense information for the Nigerian military, also went unanswered.

An individual within Nigerian law enforcement told CPJ that security forces use Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) and Forensic Toolkit (FTK) to retrieve information from devices. UFED is sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite, which is owned by the Japan-based SUNCORPORATION, while FTK is sold by the U.S.-based AccessData Group.

The individual agreed to speak to CPJ due to concerns about the technology’s possible misuse, but asked that their name be withheld for fear of reprisal.

Cellebrite’s website says their UFED product can “[e]xtract and decode every ounce of data within digital devices” and that their equipment is deployed “in 150 countries.” Company records stolen by hackers and reported by VICE News in 2017 suggest client relationships with Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. U.S. federal law enforcement has also invested in the Cellebrite technology, according to government procurement information listed online and media reports.

In Nigeria, “authorities seized [a drug lord’s] Samsung phone” during his arrest “and extracted and analyzed data from it using UFED,” according to a case study publicized on Cellebrite’s website.

Separately, Cellebrite’s UFED was used in Myanmar to “pull documents” from the phones of then jailed Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, The Washington Post reported in May 2019.

Cellebrite said it required clients to “uphold the standards of international human rights law” or it may terminate their agreements, according to the Post’s report. Cellebrite’s terms and conditions state that products, software, and services are to be used “in a manner that does not violate the rights of any third party.”

CPJ reached Christopher Bacey, Cellebrite’s director of public relations, by telephone in mid-September to request clarification about the company’s sales in Nigeria, and if the company reviews countries’ human rights records or considers the rights of journalists to protect their sources.

At his request, CPJ sent questions by email, but received no response before publication. Msao Koda, who works in Cellebrite sales for SUNCORPORATION, similarly requested questions by email in September and did not respond before publication.

Like Cellebrite, AccessData advertises FTK as a tool to identify information on “any digital device or system producing, transmitting or storing data,” including from web history, emails, instant messages, and social media. It also boasts capacity to “[d]ecrypt files, crack passwords, and build a report all with a single solution.”

In 2011, System Trust, a Nigeria-based digital security company, established a sales partnership through DRS, a South Africa-based cybersecurity company, to distribute AccessData technology, the Nigerian Vanguard newspaper reported at the time. System Trust CEO Philip Nwachukwu told CPJ by phone that the Nigerian security forces were not among his clients for their technology, but that he was not sure if AccessData had other business relationships in the country.

He also emphasized that digital forensics equipment should be deployed ethically. “I can’t be a state actor and feel like I have the power, then go and invade the privacy of an individual,” he said.

Several CPJ calls to AccessData’s corporate headquarters in the U.S. were forwarded by an operator, then rang unanswered. Interview requests sent to two email addresses provided over the phone by people at their London and Frankfurt offices also went unanswered.

CPJ’s repeated calls to DRS in early October were forwarded to cybersecurity specialist Zach Venter. On one occasion, Venter asked that CPJ call back after 30 minutes. Subsequent attempts to reach him via phone and messages were unsuccessful.

Uthman Abubakar’s devices were returned shortly after his release from detention in Maiduguri, but it was nearly seven weeks before the 24 computers confiscated during the second raid were returned, Mannir Dan-Ali, Daily Trust’s editor-in-chief told CPJ. The paper would not be using them again, he said.

For information on digital safety, consult CPJ’s Digital Safety Kit.

*Jonathan Rozen has previously worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peace-building processes. Rozen was a U.N. correspondent for IPS News and has written for Al-Jazeera English and the International Peace Institute. He speaks English and French.

Excerpt:

A billboard for Nigeria's incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, who won re-election in February. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Apr 17 2019 (IPS)

When Nigeria’s incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari won re-election this year, he campaigned (as he did in 2015) on an image of good governance and anti-corruption. Billboards in the capital, Abuja, bore the smiling faces of the president–who first led Nigeria as military ruler from 1983-1985–and his vice-president Yemi Osinbajo, and called for voters to let them “continue” their work and take the country to the “Next Level.”

Under Buhari’s first elected term, CPJ documented detentions, assaults, and harassment of the press. In one particularly grave case, Jones Abiri, editor of the Weekly Source, was detained without charge in 2016 and denied contact with his family or a lawyer, for over two years.

Abiri was released in August, but in the months before the February general election, authorities continued to harass the press: Premium Times reporter Samuel Ogundipe was detained and prosecuted for refusing to reveal a source; Buhari stated publicly that “rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest”; and the military raided two Daily Trustoffices, according to media reports and CPJ research.

CPJ spoke with five Nigerian journalists about their views on press freedom and the potential challenges in Buhari’s second elected term. Their answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

CPJ also attempted to contact the government for comment. When contacted by phone on April 12, presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu told CPJ that he would call back later that day. CPJ’s subsequent calls went unanswered. CPJ also attempted to contact Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, but its calls and a WhatsApp message went unanswered.

Nurudeen Abdallah, investigations editor of the Daily Trust, pictured outside the newspaper’s headquarters in Abuja. The paper was raided by the military in January. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

Nurudeen Abdallah, investigations editor, Daily Trust, Abuja:

You know Buhari was a military ruler. When he was campaigning for election in 2015, he promised Nigerians that he’s a converted democrat. In the last four years he didn’t live up to his promise that journalists will be safe under his democratic administration.

Our offices here in Abuja and our regional office in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria were raided, closed down and journalists were taken away. So many bloggers are undergoing prosecution across the states by governors that are under the same party platform as him. He did not live up to expectations.

At the beginning I expect [the administration] will scale down the attacks, because they won the elections. But toward the next election, they will likely scale it up. At that time, they [won’t] want stories they consider negative to the government to be published.

Certainly they will use their normal state apparatus: denial of advertisements, spying on journalists, and sometimes outright attack. But we have our constituency, our readers. We have to tell them the truth, not what the government wants.

I’m only hoping that the people in power–the presidency and the state governors–will see reason and see journalists as partners in progress. The same people who are complaining against our reports now were the same people that were in the opposition. It’s a vicious cycle, but they should know that the people have the right to know. They should be responsible to the electorate.

They can only be there in power for a limited time. General Sani Abacha [Nigeria’s military ruler from 1993-1998] was here. Where is he today? The journalists that were hounded into prison, the newspapers he closed down, they are back in full throttle. But he is no more. That is just my message. You cannot muzzle the media. Maybe you can muzzle it for some time, but not forever.

Jaafar Jaafar, of the Daily Nigerian, pictured outside the office of his newspaper in Abuja. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

Jaafar Jaafar, editor-in-chief, Daily Nigerian, Abuja:

Buhari’s first term was really bad. A number of journalists were incarcerated for no just cause. I can remember the case of Jones Abiri, who was detained for more than two years in the secret service dungeon.

I fear for press freedom in Nigeria, as the Buhari administration may get emboldened. The president has his final term now. He is not seeking re-election. My fear is that this administration in the next four years may not condone some publications. Anything that does not favor the government, or the government doesn’t like, they may descend on.

Just a few days before the election, they laid siege to the Daily Trust offices, took computers, and only recently returned them. What about after the election? What do you think will happen?

In November, the Kano state government filed a civil suit against me for publishing videos of the governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, allegedly receiving bribes. Government officials tried to persuade me not to publish the videos. But I stood my ground and I published.

I have received a lot of threats [from people saying] “We know where you are, and we know how to deal with you.” I went into hiding for about a month. Some people that I knew in the government warned me that there are some plans against me, that I should just leave my house or I shouldn’t go to Kano, my home state. I didn’t go to Kano during this election, even though I registered there to vote.

I believe the only thing that may reduce the crackdown on newspapers or crackdown on the press is if agencies like CPJ will be very watchful over the next four years. Just put your eyes on Nigeria.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: In his defamation complaint, the governor said that the reports were false, according to court documents seen by CPJ. Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a spokesperson for Ganduje, told CPJ he was unable to comment on Jaafar’s case because it is already in the court. He said that “no effort was made” by the government to prevent Jaafar from publishing. In October, Yakasai told CPJ there was “no threat from the government side” and “no reason to believe there is any threat” against Jaafar.]

Evelyn Okakwu, a reporter for Premium Times, pictured at the Center for Investigative Journalism in Abuja. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

Evelyn Okakwu, judiciary and human rights reporter, Premium Times, Abuja:

The challenges for the next four years are not particular to the media, but to the entire system in Nigeria. You find out that where there is a perceived score to settle between the government and an individual or a group perceived to be “enemies of the government,” a government agency is used to track down those people.

In January 2017, I was arrested alongside Premium Times publisher Dapo Olorunyomi for a story. But there was a loud, general consensus in Nigeria and in the international media against it, and in the end the army even apologized. So we are getting somewhere.

What happened during Samuel Ogundipe’s arrest in August is worrisome. Unless we come to that point that institutions act only by the law, then we will continue to go around and around this circle, where people in power believe they can just use a government agency–be it the police or the Department of State Security–to just hijack a person they feel is a threat, and get them locked up.

Zainab Suleiman Okino sits at her desk in the Blueprint office in Abuja. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

Although the government won their re-election, they are still not comfortable. They try to muzzle journalists who have views different from theirs. Going forward there’s palpable fear in the air, fear that Buhari’s past as Nigeria’s military leader might be re-enacted.

Jones Abiri for example. The government said they suspected he was doing some form of terrorism, or he was aiding or abetting terrorism. For them to be able to put him in prison for two years, they had to read political meaning into his offense, which I do not think is the truth. So once in a while we have things like that. But by and large the Nigerian press is fairly open.

Martin Ayankola, editor of Punch, at the headquarters of the newspaper, known as ‘Punch Place,’ outside Lagos. (CPJ/Jonathan Rozen)

Martin Ayankola, editor, Punch, Lagos:

I would say that the situation is not terrible, although there have been attempts to curtail press freedom. I think that if you do your job right, you are also respected.

Journalists are not supposed to make people in government look good. That is not our business. We are supposed to put out information we have. [The government] shouldn’t see us as an extension of their public relations departments.

The biggest challenge that I see is the attempt to silence the opposition. People should understand that there won’t be any democracy without opposition.

There are subtle ways to create problems for the press. For instance, the government may decide to hit the revenue of the papers, because the government is a very big advertiser. That will be a subtle way to arm twist you, to get you to dance to their tune. You always see the arrests, but there are also subtle attempts to also cow the media.

[Reporting from Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria.]

*Jonathan Rozen has worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peacebuilding processes. He was a UN correspondent for Inter Press Service (IPS) and has written for Al Jazeera English and the International Peace Institute. He speaks English and French.

Excerpt:

The Independence Arch is pictured in Accra, Ghana. Authorities have failed to hold anyone to account in recent attacks on journalists. Credit: CPJ/Jonathan Rozen

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Feb 11 2019 (IPS)

Three bullets, fired at close range by two assassins on a black and blue Boxer motorbike on January 16, 2019, killed investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, according to Sammy Darko, a lawyer working on Divela’s case.

Darko told CPJ over the phone that bystanders saw it happen. Ghana’s media community, international rights groups (including CPJ), and social media users around the world responded swiftly, mourning the loss and demanding justice.

They may not get it.

“I’m devastated because the life of a brilliant, dedicated and young journalist has been cowardly cut short. I’m angered because journalists in Ghana have never felt safe, despite our role very clearly recognized and sealed by the country’s constitution,” Emmanuel Dogbevi, managing editor of the privately owned, investigative Ghana Business News, told CPJ the day after Divela’s murder.

Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela was shot to death in Accra, Ghana, on January 16, 2019. Credit: Tiger Eye Private Investigations

Fatal violence against journalists in Ghana is rare. In 2015, radio reporter George Abanga was also shot dead at close range; he is the only other journalist in Ghana killed in connection with their work since CPJ began keeping global records in 1992.

According to CPJ research, he had been investigating a cocoa farmers’ dispute in western Ghana and covered other political tensions. No one has been held accountable for ending his life, and his reporting.

Impunity prevails in another recent attack that police committed to investigating.

In March 2018, as CPJ reported, journalist Latif Iddrisu said he was dragged into the criminal investigation department (CID) headquarters in Accra and beaten by a group of police officers for asking a question while reporting on a protest outside.

He was left bloody and a medical report at the time identified the “suggestion of right frontal bone fracture” in his skull. Iddrisu this month told CPJ without elaborating that the condition of his head injury has since worsened.

Similar to what followed Divela’s murder, Iddrisu received a wave of solidarity from journalists and private citizens. The hashtag #JusticeForLatif flooded social media, but there has been no justice: “[T]he perpetrators are yet to be identified but the case docket has been forwarded to the Attorney General’s office for advice,” Ghanaian police spokesperson David Senanu Eklu told CPJ recently, 10 months after the attack.

In the case of Divela’s murder, local witnesses had watched his killers–one heavyset and one slim–loitering for hours on January 16 in the Medina neighborhood of Ghana’s capital, Accra, confused about who they were or what they wanted, Darko told CPJ.

Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas in Abuja, Nigeria, in June 2018, wearing beaded strands to obscure his face and hide his identity. Credit: CPJ/Jonathan Rozen

The two men were conspicuous in a way that their target and the rest of the Tiger Eye Private Investigations team, headed by the undercover journalist known as Anas Aremeyaw Anas, had always sought to avoid. Anas and those with whom he works hide their identities.

Divela had told CPJ he feared for his life after an image of his face was broadcast on live television by Kennedy Agyapong, a member of parliament from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), accompanied by repeated threats.

During radio and TV appearances in May and June 2018, Agyapong railed against Anas and his team’s undercover method of investigating corruption by secretly filming officials allegedly accepting bribes. Visibly angry, he directed staff of his own Net 2 TV channel to display Divela’s picture and called for those listening to attack the journalist on sight.

Parliament has not taken punitive action, but on January 29 an opposition member submitted a complaint against Agyapong, specifically pertaining to his threats against Ahmed and Anas, and it has been referred to the privileges committee that deals with disciplining parliamentarians, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the majority leader in Ghana’s parliament and fellow NPP member, told CPJ.

Agyapong did not answer CPJ’s repeated calls for comment since Divela was killed. He told Joy News on camera that he did not regret broadcasting Divela’s face and said police should investigate Anas.

On January 21, Ghanaian police issued a statement saying they had spoken with Agyapong and Kwesi Nyantakyi, the former Ghana Football Association (GFA) president, and were following “significant leads.”

Agyapong’s threats came days before the premiere of Anas’ film “Number 12”–which featured Nyantakyi accepting $65,000, resulting in a lifetime from ban FIFA, and is now part of a corruption investigation by the Ghanaian government, Darko told CPJ. Divela had been assisting prosecutors, the lawyer said.

Oppong Nkrumah, Ghana’s minister of information, told CPJ on January 24 that the government and police were keen to get to the bottom of who killed Divela, but said it was still in question if the attack was related to his work.

Nkrumah said he was not aware of the details surrounding Abanga’s shooting in 2015, and on Iddrisu’s case said the government “continues to encourage the police to be professional and diligent in their work.”

Today, Eklu confirmed to CPJ that authorities have not arrested anyone in Abanga’s case and that the investigation is ongoing. Augustine Kingsley Oppong, chief inspector and police public relations officer for Brong Ahafo, the region where Abanga was killed, told CPJ he is committed to getting to the bottom of Abanga’s murder.

Ghanaian journalist Latif Iddrisu stands outside his Accra home in May 2018, wearing a neck brace and carrying an umbrella because direct sunlight aggravated his head injury from an attack by police in March 2018. Credit: CPJ/Jonathan Rozen

In early May 2018, journalists from around Africa and the world met at a hotel in Ghana’s capital to discuss and celebrate the media’s role in holding power to account. It was World Press Freedom Day and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo addressed the gathering with praise for his country as one of the safest places in Africa for journalists and the media’s role in a healthy democracy.

Later that week, sitting in his Accra home after the conference, Iddrisu told CPJ he hoped the police attack against him would spark a “new conversation” about press freedom in Ghana. He is now less optimistic.

“If the police had dealt with [the officers] that assaulted me, it would have sent a strong message,” Iddrisu told CPJ this month.”Because they failed to act, people think they can break the law, they can assault journalists, and even go to the extent of killing a journalist and get away with it…now my brother, a colleague, is shot and murdered in cold blood…it’s heartbreaking.”

Dogbevi, from Ghana Business News, told CPJ he also believed the lack of accountability for attacks against journalists would encourage more violence: “Unfortunately, I don’t feel confident in the ability or willingness of the state to protect me–the example of Latif Iddrisu says all.”

Excerpt:

By Muthoki Mumo and Jonathan Rozen
ACCRA, Ghana, May 3 2018 (IPS)

When Uganda in April ordered Internet service providers to shut down all news sites that had not been authorized by the communications regulator (pdf), it was the latest attempt by President Yoweri Museveni’s government to constrict the space for independent media.

The regulator said that only 14 online publishers had met the requirements to remain online, including a USD 20 fee and an interpol clearance certificate (pdf). If the directive is implemented in full, millions of websites would become inaccessible and Ugandans would be thrown into a virtual information blackout.

Uganda is not alone in its ambition to control online journalism.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, governments are taking aggressive steps to control what their citizens do and say online, justifying their suppression as necessary for public order and morality or security.

Unless this repressive trend is stemmed, Africa’s young but robust and diverse online media will wither. As journalists today meet in Accra, Ghana, to mark World Press Freedom Day, openness of online journalism in Africa hangs in the balance.

In similar fashion to its northern neighbour, the government of Tanzanian president John Magufuli now requires bloggers to register, a privilege that could cost an initial USD 484 and another USD 440 annually. The government will also license those streaming content online, though at a reduced fee.

Tanzania’s steep registration fee is most certainly impossible for many people in a country where gross national income per capita is USD 900. Those who have not applied for registration by May 5 face, upon conviction, a fine of five million Tanzanian shillings (USD 2,200), a prison term of a minimum 12 months, or both.

Registration requirements pose a barrier to entry for those who want to have their voices heard online. Free expression has flourished on the Internet precisely because users are unencumbered by infrastructure, regulatory or financial demands that weigh so heavily on traditional media like newspapers, radio, or television.

Although CPJ advocates for transparency in media ownership, there is fear that governments are collecting this information with the intention of being better able to target critical reporters and outlets.

This intention was laid bare in Tanzania, where the March 2018 Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) regulations would effectively strip Internet users of anonymity that often protects whistleblowers and dissenters. Yet it’s not just registration that is stifling online journalism.

On January 1, 2018, Timothy Elombah, editor-in-chief of Elombah.com, was arrested with his brother, Daniel, at their home, and charged in Abuja under Sections 24 and 26 of Nigeria’s 2015 cybercrime act. Although Daniel was released, Timothy spent 25 days in detention.

During a meeting with the Committee to Protect Journalists in Abuja, Timothy said he believes they were arrested and charged in reprisal for their critical reporting on Nigeria’s government. A court hearing for their case is scheduled for today, May 3.

Nigeria’s cybercrime act and its vaguely worded offenses have been repeatedly used against journalists, according to CPJ research. For example, Section 24 (1-b) criminalizes “grossly offensive” messages sent using a computer and Section 26 (c) may find guilty anyone that “insults publicly through a computer system or network.” These offenses are punishable by imprisonment for up to three years and five years respectively, and/or a multi-million-Naira fine.

Ambiguously defined crimes can also be found in South Africa’s Film and Publications Amendment Bill. In March 2018, South Africa’s National Assembly approved amendments to the Films and Publications Act, also dubbed the Internet Censorship Bill, that would grant authorities wide powers to regulate online media content, including newspapers and social media.

While the government has argued it will protect children from explicit content and fight hate speech and revenge pornography, the South African Freelancers’ Association (SAFREA) has criticised the bill for its “vague definitions and impractical requirements” that would grant the state power to dictate what content can be posted online, crossing the “fine line between protection and censorship”.

South African intentions to control online media are not new. During a June 2017 meeting in Durban, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers expressed concern over South Africa’s cybercrime bill’s “vague language that affords opportunity for repressive implementation, as well as enhanced investigative and surveillance powers for security agents.” If passed into law, both these bills would imperil online journalism in South Africa.

During the Internet Freedom Forum held last month (April) in Abuja, Wakabi Wairagala, the executive director of Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), warned of copy-cat legislation, in which African governments adopt similar versions of the problematic regulations. The crafters of Nigeria’s cybercrime act did not sufficiently consider the negative ramifications for press freedom and free expression online. South Africa’s lawmakers may yet avoid this mistake.

Across Africa, governments have sought to close the internet as an open space for journalism. Ethiopia, Cameroon, Chad, DR Congo, Uganda and Somaliland have shut down Internet access, in whole or in part, to control public debate during elections or public demonstrations. Yet it is during these moments of political tension that citizens most need accurate information to make decisions.

This is not to say that the Internet does not pose governance challenges. Citizens and government have reason to be concerned about disinformation, hate speech, and incitement to violence. It is in this context that responsible journalism remains as important as ever.

But heavy-handed regulation or legislation that unduly curbs press freedom and free expression is not the appropriate response. Instead of silencing dissenting ideas, laws ought to protect the digital rights of citizens and nurture press freedom online.

For example, Nigeria’s National Assembly and Senate have passed the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill. If signed into law by the president, the law would guarantee (pdf) the rights of expression and information online, protect whistleblowers, and limit government censorship to specific, narrowly defined circumstances as mandated by a judge.

The proposed law in Nigeria shows that it is possible for African governments to write regulations and laws that work for, not against, journalists. But unfortunately this bill is the exception to a repressive norm.

(The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. It defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. www.cpj.org )

Excerpt:

A billboard featuring President Salva Kiir, left, and opposition leader Riek Machar, is displayed in Juba in 2016. South Sudan is due to resume peace talks under an agreement that includes calls for an end to harassment of the press. Credit: (AFP/Albert Gonzalez Farran, CDS)

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Feb 5 2018 (IPS)

A ceasefire agreement signed on December 21 between the South Sudanese government and opposition forces has revived a 2015 peace process and brought hope that the conflict will not persist into its fifth year.

The agreement includes obligations to “ensure protection of media” and “[c]ease all forms of harassment of the media.” Yet, ahead of another round of talks scheduled for February 5, the government has continued its years’ long campaign of intimidating journalists.

Authorities have imposed bureaucratic red tape; denied journalists access to certain areas and, in some cases, the whole country; threatened reprisal for critical coverage; and created conditions that do not promote accountability and sustainable peace. The result is that international journalists are prevented from covering conditions inside the country and some local journalists self-censor for fear of reprisal, CPJ has found.

The government has defended its actions as a reasonable response to unwarranted criticism. “There are agitators sending negative messages to the social media, to the international community, that Juba is insecure,” Michael Makuei Lueth, South Sudan’s Minister of Information, told CPJ.

In response to remarks by President Salva Kiir on January 1 that called for an end to reports that could hinder the peace process, Makeui added, “Of course, this includes the media, whether it is national or international.”

Over the past year, authorities have shrunk the operating space granted to local and international press. In late October, the South Sudanese Media Regulatory Authority, which oversees the press, suspended three press associations until they applied for operating licenses, Reuters reported. One of the associations, the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), is still waiting for the body to approve its application and permit it to resume work.

Part of the process of registering for licenses included a requirement for unions to hand over lists of their members, Sapana Abuyi, the regulator’s director general for information and media compliance, told CPJ. Abuyi said that the registration process would not restrict who could work as a journalist in South Sudan. However, multiple journalists and members of South Sudanese civil society told CPJ they are concerned that it may be a further attempt by the government to control the press.

Members of the press are already forced to reapply for accreditation every three to six months, in a process that includes a review of their work, several journalists told CPJ. Abuyi told CPJ that he was not aware that journalists’ work was currently being reviewed, but said there were plans to begin assessing for “certain standards.”

In June, the Nairobi-based Foreign Correspondents’ Association of East Africa called for an end to South Sudan blocking at least 20 international journalists from covering issues inside the country via means including rejecting media accreditation and visa requests. The call came two months after the U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR) reported that authorities detained its East Africa correspondent, Eyder Peralta.

Authorities held Peralta for four days after he entered the country to seek media credentials to cover the conflict, before ordering him to leave, according to reports. His South Sudanese fixer remained in detention for over a week longer.

Even local journalists are having trouble getting into South Sudan. According to a November 20 letter that the U.N. Panel of Experts on South Sudan wrote to the U.N. Security Council, the country’s National Security Service refused to renew the passport of John Tanza, a South Sudanese journalist who works with Voice of America, over allegations that his reporting was “anti-government.”

Tanza, who covers South Sudan issues from Washington, D.C., told CPJ that authorities still have his passport and that he has, in effect, been “stuck” outside his home country since December 15, 2016.

When asked about Tanza’s case, Abuyi told CPJ, “There should be no reason why [Tanza] should be prevented from coming [home], unless there is something not to do with journalism.”

Journalists’ access within the country is seemingly conditional on favorable reporting.

After authorities in December 2016 arrested and deported Justin Lynch, the American freelancer tweeted that officers had said his reporting was too critical of the government. He told CPJ he believes his status as a foreign journalist afforded him the privilege of deportation.

Authorities also use arbitrary detention and suspension orders to punish journalists already inside the country.

A Juba-based South Sudanese journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, told CPJ he has been threatened over his reporting. “Agents came after me … some even wrote on a Facebook page that I should be arrested and dealt with,” the journalist said.

And in July, CPJ documented how South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) director Adil Faris Mayat spent a week behind bars and was subsequently fired for failing to broadcast President Kiir’s address on the sixth anniversary of South Sudan’s independence. The letter terminating his employment, which was seen by CPJ, referred to Mayat’s actions as “sabotage.”

The websites of at least four media were blocked the same month for publishing what Makuei at the time told CPJ was “subversive” content. Michael Duku, an official with the press rights group Association for Media Development in South Sudan, told CPJ that the sites were likely targeted for their critical coverage of the government.

In early May, South Sudanese presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Voice of America that the country’s media regulator suspended Al Jazeera English from working in the country after its journalists traveled to rebel-controlled areas without permission or an escort. Al Jazeera English confirmed to CPJ that the suspension was subsequently lifted.

“If there is any country that is to be applauded for being good to journalists, it’s South Sudan,” Ateny said, emphasizing the restriction was imposed out of concern for the safety of journalists and not Al Jazeera English’s coverage of the conflict.

As well as the threat of arrest or being denied access, journalists face danger from crossfire as they cover the civil war. On August 26, American freelance reporter Christopher Allen was killed during fighting between South Sudanese government and rebel forces in Kaya, near the borders with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Allen is the sixth journalist to be killed in connection with their journalism in South Sudan since it gained independence in 2011, according to CPJ research. CPJ is investigating the deaths of another four journalists to determine if their journalism was the reason they were targeted.

The ongoing meetings between South Sudan’s warring parties–formally termed the High Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF)–and their December 21 agreement is already being tested, with fighting continuing in some areas.

On January 27, during a meeting on South Sudan at the African Union Summit, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said he had “never seen a political elite with so little [interest] in the well-being of its own people.” He added that he would support any decisions to ensure accountability for violations of the ceasefire or humanitarian law.

Similarly, Anataban, an independent South Sudanese youth movement named after the Arabic translation of “I’m tired,” called on social media and at an event in Juba for “all citizens of #SouthSudan to actively engage and keep a close watch over the HLRF process.” Its campaign is called #SouthSudanIsWatching.

“We are just emboldening the media to keep the records,” Jon Pen de Ngong, co-founder of Anataban and spokesperson for the South Sudan Civil Society Forum in East Africa, which will be representing civil society at the February talks, told CPJ. “It’s a warning to the warring parties and to the region itself … to whoever is going to play around with our peace … we are watching you.”

Journalists are well positioned to play a crucial role in bolstering accountability in South Sudan. When press freedom is impeded so too are existing, local capacities to sustain peace.

Excerpt:

By Muthoki Mumo and Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Jan 26 2018 (IPS)

On January 10, radio journalists Darsema Sori and Khalid Mohammed were released from prison after serving lengthy sentences related to their work at the Ethiopian faith-based station Radio Bilal. Despite their release and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s promise earlier this month to free political prisoners, Ethiopia’s use of imprisonment, harassment, and surveillance means that the country continues to be a hostile environment for journalists.

Darsema, who featured in CPJ’s Free the Press campaign, and Khalid were released after a supreme court ruling late last year reduced their sentences. Mustefa Shifa Suleyman, who acted as one of their lawyers, told CPJ that the journalists should have been released on the day of the court ruling, and that the delay was “not appropriate.”

Like all of the journalists jailed in Ethiopia at the time of CPJ’s 2017 prison census, Darsema and Khlaid were held on anti-state charges. At least three other journalists remain in prison: Zelalem Workagegnehu is serving a five-year, four-month sentence, and Woubshet Taye and Eskinder Nega are serving 14 and 18 years respectively for their journalism, according to CPJ research.

Even those journalists freed pending the outcome of a trial face frustrations from arbitrary court delays. Befekadu Hailu, a member of the Zone 9 blogging collective who was previously jailed for his journalism with eight of his colleagues in 2014, told CPJ that is still awaiting a final verdict related to that case.

Since the prime minister announced that political prisoners would be released, authorities have freed at least 115 people, according to a Reuters report. Yared Hailemariam, executive director of the Swiss-based Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, told CPJ the government had yet to provide any indication on “whether journalists are included” among those who will be freed.

Befekadu told CPJ that releasing political prisoners is only part of the wide-ranging reforms needed to make Ethiopia a friendlier environment for dissenting voices, a sentiment echoed by Human Rights Watch. Befekadu and Yared both told CPJ they believe that the government should urgently review the anti-terror proclamation of 2009, which has been used to silence dissenting voices and to persecute critical journalists. On January 19, the United Nations human rights spokesperson, Liz Throssell also called on Ethiopia to amend anti-terror legislation in line with international standards, and to revise laws that restrict the media, Reuters reported.

As well as legal action, the government has a series of other tools to intimidate and harass critical reporters. A December 2017 report by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, found that since 2016, “a campaign of targeted malware attacks apparently carried out by Ethiopia” was directed at activists and Oromia Media Network (OMN), a U.S.-based media outlet that reports on Ethiopia. Jawar Mohammed, the network’s executive director, said that the attacks began four days before a state of emergency was declared.

“Our contacts were not compromised … we were able to beef up our security,” Jawar told CPJ. “If this is what [Ethiopian authorities] are doing to us here abroad, imagine what they’re doing to journalists in Ethiopia where they control the telecommunications.”

During the state of emergency, in place between October 2016 and August 2017, the government tightened its control over access to information, banning diaspora television and victimizing those associated with these outlets, according to Human Rights Watch.

During this period CPJ found that journalists were slapped with terror charges or harassed while trying to cover unrest, and the government periodically blocked the internet. One privately owned publication, the Addis Standard, stopped printing on account of what it described to Reuters as “impossible” conditions.

Authorities have used internet shutdowns during other politically sensitive periods too, CPJ has found. During protests in 2016, authorities cut access to social media access at least four times in the country’s Oromia region, according to research by digital rights group, Access Now.

These shutdowns continued even after the state of emergency was lifted, with media reports indicating that the government blocked access to social media sites again following protests in mid-December. Mobile data was still inaccessible outside Addis Ababa this month, according to Yared and Atnafu Berhane, another Addis-based Zone 9 blogger.

As well as restricting Ethiopians’ access to information, the shutdowns have hampered journalists’ ability to communicate safely with each other and their sources. Befekadu and another journalist, Belay Manaye, said that because of this, the flow of news from regions outside Addis Ababa is, in effect, blocked.

Other journalists have been targeted directly over their critical commentary on social media.

Zone 9 blogger Mahlet Fantahun told CPJ that while she was covering a trial in November, a judge called her to the defendant’s stand to ask her about her Facebook posts, and warned her against writing critical comments on the social media site.

Mahlet said that in one of the posts the judge referred to, she had shared her opinion of a trial in which the defendants complained about the judge. In the second post, she had shared a Facebook user’s plea for a verdict in another trial. Mahlet said that she has since deactivated her Facebook account.

Excerpt:

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, Aug 21 2017 (IPS)

“The internet for journalism is now like the air you breathe,” said Befeqadu Hailu, an Ethiopian journalist and a member of the Zone 9 blogger collective who was arrested in April 2014 and charged with terrorism. “Without the internet, modern journalism means nothing.” Yet, the internet is something that journalists in multiple African countries are often forced to do without.

Between 30 May and 8 June, the Ethiopian government shut down the country’s internet service for the third time in the last year. These shutdowns have occurred in the context of an ongoing crackdown on the press by authorities, who are currently keeping nine of the 17 journalists recorded on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2016 prison census behind bars.

Since the state-run Ethio Telecom holds monopolistic control over both internet and telephone service, the government has the ability to effectively sever its population’s communications on a whim.

“We’ve been through extraordinarily difficult times [during] the ten days of [the] shutdown,” Tsedale Lemma, editor-in-chief of the Addis Standard, told CPJ over WhatsApp.

There was a complete digital blackout during the first few days after which broadband became available, said Hulu. But since broadband is largely only available for businesses and organisations, many journalists continued to face major challenges. The frequent clampdown on internet access prevents them from securely communicating with sources or publishing on time.

After the third day of the shutdown, Lemma ran between hotels to find internet access. “This is insecure as you are using the business centres there, which is not a secure connection,” Lemma said.

Congo-Brazzaville

On 25 June 2017, Congo-Brazzaville’s internet connection was restored after a 15-day shutdown that was reportedly caused by a mysterious fishing boat that damaged the country’s submarine cables.

While journalists and analysts inside and outside of Congo-Brazzaville speculated over the truthfulness of a boat’s involvement, private mobile companies were able to provide some satellite connection. Nevertheless, journalists remained hampered.

“As long as the internet is not stable, many field, remote reporters or correspondents are facing big problems to send their stories, their work,” a Congo-Brazzaville-based journalist told CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Internet shutdowns are on the rise. In 2016, the #KeepItOn campaign documented 56 shutdowns worldwide, including in six African nations. This is up from 15 documented shutdowns in 2015
While online media distributors are effectively blocked from their platforms during internet shutdowns, print and broadcast journalists’ investigative capacities also suffer greatly.

Cameroon

For 93 days between January through April 2017, the Cameroonian government with cooperation from private mobile operators cut off internet access in the two western, Anglophone regions of the country.

The government also imposed a suffocating culture of fear through a campaign of arrests and detentions, according to a forthcoming CPJ report on Cameroon’s use of anti-state legislation against journalists. Attacks on the press increased dramatically. At least eight journalists were arrested in connection with their journalism (six of them remain in detention in Yaoundé).

Without the internet, reporting on people’s daily realities became extremely difficult. The media environment in Cameroon was choked. Fear of reprisal, coupled with the internet shutdown, restricted communication between online and offline regions. Coverage of ongoing abuses was stifled.

“Content [was] sent to the [media] station through road,” a Cameroonian broadcast journalist based in the English-speaking regions who requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal told CPJ. “We could therefore not relay timely news items from other areas because we had to wait for them two [to] three days after.”

With such limited information, speculation reigned supreme, the journalist said.

Secure communications

As governments improve their surveillance tactics, journalists are forced to use a small number of internet-based communication platforms in pursuit of private conversation.

“You pick up your phone to make that call, and you know your phone is tapped, you know there is someone on the other end listening,” Lemma told CPJ. “People don’t [even] feel safe meeting in person.”

“It’s no more a secret that many journalists are actually [wiretapped],” a Congolese journalist told CPJ over WhatsApp on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Also, internet is very important for the journalists’ work, since some social media [helps] to bypass [wiretapping] or line monitoring when they need to check or get or publish some facts.”

This perspective is supported by a 2011 report, which highlights how “the November 2009 law on electronic communications and the 2010 decree on identification of [telecommunications] subscribers show that the [Congolese] state has seemingly unlimited power to invade the privacy of its citizens in the interest of security … It seems that the state can access personal data under any pretext without the consent of the individual concerned, who can do nothing to stop it from happening.”

When journalists are too afraid to speak on regular telecommunication lines for fear that their government will intercept the communication and arrive at their door, encrypted internet-based tools like WhatsApp or Signal offer a practical method of communication and information dissemination.

In his 2015 piece titled “Surveillance forces journalists to think and act like spies“, CPJ’s staff technologist Tom Lowenthal explains how important encryption technology is for journalists to connect with sources and write important stories. Without secure communication tools, journalists’ ability to communicate privately with sources becomes limited and self-censorship flourishes.

“Internet shutdowns are particularly censorious in areas where fear of reprisal for critical journalism reigns, and unfortunately, this fear exists in many of the African countries that have experienced internet shutdowns,” said CPJ’s emergencies director María Salazar-Ferro. “Journalists should never feel that their work is putting them or those they communicate with in danger.”

Resisting shutdowns

Internet shutdowns are on the rise. In 2016, the #KeepItOn campaign documented 56 shutdowns worldwide, including in six African nations. This is up from 15 documented shutdowns in 2015, according to the same data.

Many of these shutdowns occur during elections and other moments of political tension, when access to information is critical for the public to make informed decisions.

In response, internet freedom advocates have mobilised to compel governments and telecommunications companies to resist shutting off internet access.

In March 2017, the Freedom Online Coalition, which is composed of 30 national governments working to advance internet freedom, expressed deep concern over the “growing trend of intentional state-sponsored disruptions”. They also offered a list of five good practices for governments to avoid shutdowns and seize the economic and social growth brought by the internet.

In Ethiopia, for example, a 30-day shutdown cost the government upwards of US$8.5 million, while a separate 15-day shutdown in the Republic of the Congo cost over US$72 million, according to a 2016 Brookings Institute report.

On 10 April 2017, a creative advocacy proposal was put to the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), the body that allocates Africa’s IP addresses, which are identifiers for computers and other devices that connect to the internet. The proposal called for the denial of new IP addresses for one year to countries that order their internet to be shut down.

Though media reports indicate that the proposal was denied as a result of intense opposition from African governments, AFRINIC subsequently issued a statement calling for African governments to “renounce the use of internet shutdowns as a policy tool”.

Internet advocates are also targeting telecommunications companies and internet service providers in an effort to get them to resist government calls for shutdowns.

On 15 February 2017, nearly a month into Cameroon’s internet shutdown, CPJ was among 27 signatories on a letter to three Cameroon telecommunication companies’ CEOs, requesting “support in restoring internet access”.

A month later, United Nations Special Rapporteur on free expression David Kay’s report to the UN Human Rights Council highlighted the responsibility of private “provider” companies to “ensure that they do not cause, contribute or become complicit in human rights abuses” involved in shutdowns.

“Being able to survive as a journalist in this age without access to the internet – the idea itself is very daunting,” Lemma told CPJ. “But beyond the idea, it’s everything from losing your security [to] not being able to communicate the way you want.”

Respect for press freedom means letting it breathe by enabling journalists to conduct their work. Without internet access journalists cannot publish online, nor can they conduct thorough investigations or talk securely with their sources. To have a free press, African governments need to #KeepItOn.

This article originally appeared on Africa Portal

Excerpt:

A graphic at UN headquarters in New York compares daily spending on arms versus peace. Credit: IPS UN Bureau.

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3 2016 (IPS)

As the world struggles to respond to conflicts and the people fleeing them, UN insiders are also struggling to advance a ‘shift in mindset’ to help prevent these crises from happening in the first place.

“Part of the challenge is the way we have characterised the work of the UN as one of a first responder, fire-fighter, as an organisation that comes in when things fall apart,” Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN, told IPS. “As a consequence all of the institutions in the UN tend to be more reactive than preventive.”

To change this, a group of diplomats and UN staff are seeking to bolster the UN Peacebuilding Fund. This fund operates with an annual budget of roughly 100 million dollars, making small yet targeted investments to avert crises over the long-term.

“Conflicts are pushing UN system to its limits,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “Without the Peacebuilding Fund, we will be forced to stand by as we witness the preventable loss of countless lives.” But the fund is dramatically under financed.

‘Bang for buck’

On September 21, the UN Peacebuilding Fund held a pledging conference for the fund’s continued operation. The contributions of 30 countries, however, only amounted to 152 million dollars – just over half of the 300 million dollar funding target.

“The rhetoric that we have on peacebuilding is way ahead of the willingness to face up to the challenges of delivering on peace,” said Kamau, who also serves as the Peacebuilding Commission chairperson. “Something fundamentally different needs to happen.”

This year’s budget for the UN’s 16 Peacekeeping missions is roughly eight billion dollars. Looking ahead, small investments by the UN Peacebuilding Fund could save money by preventing the need for expensive missions that respond to what are often already dire circumstances, argue proponents of peacebuilding.

But improved foresight and proactive investments may also have impacts beyond countries’ chequebooks.

“If we are able to stop these conflicts from emerging in the first place, much of what we see today in the refugee situation putting a lot of pressure on individuals and countries would of course not have happened in the first place,” said Olof Skoog, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the UN.

‘Sustaining peace’

The UN Peacebuilding commission is a relatively new arm of the UN, established only in December 2005. Its mandate widened in April this year with the adoption of two identical resolutions by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. These moved peacebuilding responsibilities beyond post-conflict recovery to include comprehensive efforts for more proactive conflict prevention and ‘sustaining peace.’

Sustaining peace is the “idea that this process of prevention is actually something that goes on from the early warnings … over the conflict stage … and the post-conflict,” Jan Eliasson, UN Deputy Secretary-General, told the Peacebuilding Fund pledging conference. It involves consideration for the whole range of social, political, and economic factors that may contribute to peace.

This links conflict prevention to the achievement of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030). For example, Goal 1 and Goal 10 – “No Poverty” and “Reduced Inequalities” – will not be possible without sustained peace.

According to the World Bank, the world’s poorest people are becoming increasingly concentrated in fragile areas affected by conflict and violence, as peaceful areas reap the benefits of development. By 2030, 46 percent of people in extreme poverty will live in fragile and conflict affected areas, up from 17 percent today, says the Bank.

“We are still in early days to say what [Agenda 2030] will look like in terms of implementation,” Helder da Costa, General Secretary of the g7+ association of developing countries affected by conflict, told IPS after a meeting on Goal 16. “If you really want to build peaceful societies … we need practical implementation on the ground.”

One of the Peacebuilding Fund’s investments provided two million dollars to register births of 350,000 children in Côte d’Ivoire. Without registration, these children, many of whom were born just before or during the recent conflict, would be left in “legal limbo” without access to social services, advanced schooling or employment.

While the Peacebuilding Fund has been involved with various initiatives in Côte d’Ivoire since 2008, this registration effort aims to promote national identity for improved social cohesion, strengthening the social fabric of the country.

Investment in the SDG’s will support the social, economic, and political conditions that may prevent conflict and sustain peace. This process, however, will take time and the UN Peacebuilding Fund is looking to make the immediate and targeted investments that may curb the potential for conflicts.

“Lets not be impeded by bureaucratic challenges … lets think outside the box and then try to help things at the country level,” da Costa continued. But in a large and complex institution like the UN, new and innovative ways of thinking do not easily gain political traction or financial backing. In some cases they may even be directly opposed.

The UN Security Council initially resisted the Peacebuilding Commissions’ role in conflict prevention, said Eliasson. They believed it was an “infringement” on their primacy as the UN body for peace and security matters. Even now, with the world’s compounding crises of conflict, climate change, and refugees, countries’ investments remain focused on reacting to crises rather than preventing them.

It is important to cover the urgent humanitarian needs of today, Skoog explained to IPS. “At the same time, it’s very important to get this shift going to avoid these conflicts in the first place.”

As the international body with the mandate to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the UN’s credibility rests largely on its ability to prevent and resolve conflict. Nevertheless, too often violence is permitted to spiral out of control and endure.

The president of the General Assembly for 2016-2017 has said he will support the shift to a more proactive mindset of ‘sustaining peace’ and encourage additional contributions to the Peacebuilding Fund. But after January 1 2017, when the next UN Secretary General takes office, it remains to be seen how the new leadership will prioritise proactive conflict prevention and the ‘sustaining peace’ mindset.

A delegation from the UN Security Council visited South Sudan at the beginning of September 2016. UN Photo/Isaac Billy.

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 28 2016 (IPS)

Nearly one month after UN Security Council members visited troubled South Sudan, disagreement reigns over even the limited outside measures proposed to try to bring the security situation in the world’s newest country under control.

“To fix South Sudan you will need 250,000 soldiers, you will need four or five billion dollars per year. Who is going to do that? Nobody.” Berouk Messfin, Senior Researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, told IPS.

While it is clear that neither an arms embargo nor an additional 4000 UN troops – two measures currently on the table – will be a panacea for troubled South Sudan, there is a slim hope that they may pressure the country’s leadership to act in the interests of its people.

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a high-level meeting on South Sudan’s humanitarian situation on September 22: “Time and again, (South Sudan’s) leaders have resorted to weapons and identity politics to resolve their differences.”

For three days in early September Security Council members traveled to South Sudan. At the end of the visit a ‘joint communiqué’ was issued that seemingly brokered an agreement with the interim Transitional Government of National Unity. It outlined the strengthening of the existing 12,000-troop UN peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) through an additional 4000-troop Regional Protection Force, and the removal of restrictions to humanitarian access. But in the days since the communiqué, South Sudanese officials have insisted that specifics of the additional force remain unresolved.

“We have agreed in principle … but the details of their deployment, the countries that will contribute … that is the work that is left now,” Hussein Mar Nyuot, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management for the South Sudan government told IPS. “I don’t see the difference that this [4000] will come and do.”

The proposed additional force would be under the command of UNMISS and was endorsed in July by the east African Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) body leading the South Sudan peace talks. Building on UNMISS’ existing mandate, which already calls for the “use all necessary means” to protect UN personnel and civilians from threats, the Security Council believes the additional troops would strengthen the security situation.

The force is to be deployed as soon as possible, Hervé Ladsous, Under Secretary General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, told reporters Friday. Though he also said they were trying to elucidate “contradictory statements” from the capital, Juba.

In this context, human rights advocacy groups, along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, have continued their calls for the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo to stop both sides’ continued militarization.

“It’s going to be more difficult for parties to the conflict to get access to ammunition and supplies,” Louis Charbonneau, UN Director for Human Rights Watch, told IPS. “Combine it with the boosting of UNMISS … [and] it’s going to make a difference for civilians.”

However, the South Sudanese government, whose soldiers have been implicated in ethnically motivated killings, rape, and looting, disagrees on the value of an embargo.

“[The] issue is not actually the arms that are coming … even if you have an arms embargo there are already arms in the hands of the local people … the arms that are coming in are not actually the ones causing any problems,” Hussein Mar Nyuot told IPS.

If they say they want to have [an] arms embargo, ok, but what will you do with the arms that are in the hands of the people?” he continued. “We should encourage the government to disarm the civilian population.”

Peacekeepers and UN police officers (UNPOL) with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Credit: UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein

As a party to the conflict, South Sudan’s government is not impartial in their position, however they are also not entirely alone in their hesitance. “[An embargo] has to be a last course … we are not there yet,” Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary of IGAD, told IPS.

Despite the existing arms in the country and the potential for continued illicit inflows, targeted sanctions by the Security Council may signal deeper commitment to ending the violence and protecting civilians. Nevertheless, neither an embargo nor 4000 additional troops will cure the political divisions among South Sudan’s leadership, which lie at the heart of the conflict.

Paths forward

“The South Sudanese have a string to hang on now … and that is the implementation of the [August 2015] agreement,” Maalim said. “It has had some problems because of the July incident, but it’s going to come on track,” he added referring to violent clashes which took place in South Sudan in July, bringing the country to the brink of all-out war.

However, not everyone agrees on the viability of the previous agreement.

“You have two sides that are not negotiating in good faith … who do not understand how to implement peace agreements they have signed,” said Messfin.

So what is to be done? Beyond the intended value for the protection of civilians, additional troops and restrictions will only go so far without political commitment from the country’s leadership.

Conflict prevention in South Sudan is about strategically applied political leverage, Cedric de Conning, Senior Researcher at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, explained to IPS.

A protection force like a reinforced peacekeeping mission can only implement what is agreed to politically, and the warring parties are not committed and remain mistrustful. While immediate action is necessary to save lives, there will eventually need to be a “reset” and a new administration, he continued.

Meanwhile, civil society groups have also reported increased repression of their activities, indicating a further weakening of South Sudan’s social resilience.

“There has been a steady uptick in press freedom violations in South Sudan in recent months,” Murithi Mutiga, East Africa correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told IPS. “We have seen a number of cases of newspaper outlets being arbitrarily closed down, the most prominent cases being the Nation Mirror and the Juba Monitor.”

Press freedom can support the pursuit of a sustained cessation of hostilities, urged CPJ, because accurate and accessible public information allows citizens to better understand how to react to crises without turning to violence. A well-informed population may also be better positioned to define a peaceful future for their country.

The importance of uninhibited civil society for conflict prevention also matches the priorities outlined in two identical resolutions passed by the UN Security Council and General Assembly in April, which recognize pathways to “sustaining peace.” Notably, this includes the development and maintenance of social, political and economic conditions necessary for conflict to be prevented.

South Sudan has experienced persistent violence since 2013, when armed conflict broke out between groups loyal to president Salva Kiir and opposition leader in exile Riek Machar. Fighting escalated along ethnic lines, pitting Dinka against Nuer, until a peace agreement was signed in August 2015. But fighting continued and escalated in July 2016 with a series of clashes in Juba, which left approximately 300 dead. Over the last three years thousands have been killed, over 1.6 million people remain internally displaced, and roughly 4.8 million currently suffer from food insecurity, according to the UN.

While the implementation of September’s joint communiqué will be reviewed with next steps considered at the end of the month, South Sudan’s Humanitarian Response Plan is severely under-funded at just over 50 percent; despite there being no doubt that South Sudan needs immediate assistance.

But this will only serve as a stop-gap against man-made famine. While the Security Council may still unite for the application of an embargo, the fate of South Sudan ultimately lies with its leadership. Their ability to find a lasting agreement, with support from the UN, the African Union, and IGAD, hinges on their willingness to stop the conflict.

“The lives and future of an entire generation hang in the balance,” Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, said Thursday. “Literally the future of South Sudan.”

Products made from collected garbage provide a new source of livelihood for many in the “gur districts” (urban outskirts) of Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar. Credit: Jonathan Rozen/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
ULAANBAATAR, Sep 22 2014 (IPS)

Ulziikhutag Jigjid, 49, is a member of a 10-person group in the Khan-Uul district on the outskirts of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, which is producing brooms, chairs, containers, and other handmade products from discarded soda and juice containers.

“In the early morning we collect raw materials from the street, and then we spend the morning making products,” Jigjid told IPS. At four o’clock in the evening, she heads off to her regular job at a meat company.

The creation of her group’s business, and others like it, are part of an initiative called Turning Garbage Into Gold (TG2G), developed and supported by Tehnoj, an Ulaanbaatar-based non-governmental organisation.

“Ulaanbaatar produces about 1,100 tons of solid waste every day…This poses health risks to the population of the city and causes environmental damages." -- Thomas Eriksson, UNDP’s deputy resident representative in Mongolia
Founded in 2007, this organisation supports the creation of small businesses based on the sale of handcrafted products.

Defining itself as a “business incubator centre” for small and medium-sized businesses, Tehnoj estimates that it has organised trainings for approximately 30,000 people across Mongolia, through various projects.

The TG2G project is currently operational in three of Ulaanbaatar’s outer districts: Khan-Uul, Chingeltei and Songino Khairkhan, and includes 20 production groups of around five to six people each.

“The goal of this project is to recycle products and reduce unemployment,” Galindev Galaariidii, director of Tehnoj, told IPS.

The NGO receives its funding from the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP)’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Innovation Fund, a new U.N. initiative to support innovative programmes that “provide the creative space and discretionary resources to prototype innovative solutions and experiment with new ways of working to tackle complex development challenges outside the traditional business cycle,” Thomas Eriksson, UNDP’s deputy resident representative in Mongolia, explained to IPS.

The Innovation Fund is currently supporting the creation of programmes in 32 countries and helps promote environmental sustainability and inclusive economic and social development, key components of the U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda.

Waste management and pollution are major problems in Mongolia, especially in the urban outskirts. With extremely limited infrastructure and a general lack of governmental resources, Galaariidii explains that 90 percent of garbage from these areas ends up on the street.

“Ulaanbaatar produces about 1,100 tons of solid waste every day… This poses health risks to the population of the city and causes environmental damages,” said Eriksson.

According to UNDP, over 10,000 households move to Ulaanbaatar every year. “Unfortunately, the migrant population [find it difficult to gain employment] and obtain access to already strained social services,” Eriksson continued.

The TG2G programme aims to mitigate the waste management issues while also tackling social inequalities by empowering the less fortunate members of some of Mongolia’s poorest communities.

According to World Bank data for 2012-2013, Mongolia’s poverty rate stood at 27.4 percent of its population of 2.9 million people.

Finding jobs in the landlocked country, comprised of some 1.6 million square km, of which only 0.8 percent is arable land, is no easy task. While the mining sector has led rapid economic growth over the last decade, with growth touching 16 percent in the first quarter of 2012, not everyone has benefitted. In fact, the unemployment rate in 2012 was roughly 11 percent.

“We target Ulaanbaatar’s poorest areas with high unemployment,” Galaariidii explained to IPS. “We focus on two main groups: women [often mothers of disabled children], and the unemployed.”

The programme currently focuses on training groups in the creation of six main products: brooms, chairs, foot covers (often used for walking in temples or schools), picnic mats, waterproof ger (yurt) insulation sheets and containers of all sizes.

But new product designs are constantly being created. Oven mitts, bags, hats and aprons are just a few of the new forms of merchandise being developed.

“Our technology design is improving day by day,” said Galaariidii. For example, where zippers once secured the fabric covers of chairs, now elastic rings are used.

Presently, city cleaning teams are testing products with the potential for a government contract, and soda-bottle-broom orders are already coming in from hairdressers in Ulaanbaatar.

Communities involved in the TG2G programme seem to have a fresh sense optimism about the future.

Unrolling a large hand-drawn poster, Jigjid and two other group members – Baguraa Adiyabazar, 54, and Baasanjav Jamsranjav, 37 – explained how they plan to use the funds they earn from selling their products.

They want to build a kindergarten school, achieve full employment in their area, build a chicken farm, expand their ability to grow their own food and increase the availability of cars. There are even plans to allot a certain amount of the money towards a savings account, which can then be used to make small loans within the community.

“We plan to have more registration for the projects and more training programmes,” Jigjid explained. “[Eventually] we want to replace products that are imported from other countries.”

Beyond the material level, the programme is also having a positive impact on the mentality of the community.

“We have a mission to become more creative,” Jigjid continued. “Now as a group we have a goal.”

Next year Jigjid will retire from her job with the meat company and focus on building their product development into a successful business.

“I will have something to do,” she said happily. “I can see my future is secure.”

Edited by Kanya D’Almeida

A Kopal gender sensitisation meeting in Uttarkashi district, India, ranked the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women. Credit: Nitin Jugran Bahuguna/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, May 7 2014 (IPS)

As the U.N. focuses on refining its Post-2015 Development Agenda, divisions surrounding issues of population and development continue to plague consensus on a universal way forward.

“People have to be at the centre of development,” Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS. “I think we are beginning to see a greater commitment [of governments] to deliver on gender parity, girls rights, issues of gender-based violence and girls education.”“I don’t think that many of these big problems are going to be resolved by exchanging documents and meeting at conferences. It’s going to be what we do on the ground." -- UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Following the 2014 U.N. Commission on Population and Development (CPD), an annual gathering where member states, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other members of civil society discuss and define goals on population and development, serious divisions emerged regarding issues of sexual health, sexual education and gender.

“The balance of this resolution remains heavily skewed towards peculiar interests of certain developed countries, as evidenced by undue emphasis on selected rights over the real development priorities,” said Fr. Justin Wylie, attaché for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the U.N., on Apr. 12, following the adoption of the CPD outcome resolution.

“I refer in particular to the heavy focus on sexual or reproductive mores,” he said.

The sentiment that particular issues had a negative effect on the conduct of the conference was also expressed by member states with views in support of U.N. priorities.

“We were disappointed that certain contentious issues remained the focus of the conference at the expense of discussing more productive topics to improve the health of global populations,” Nicolas Doire, spokesperson for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFAIT), told IPS.

While UNFPA may not agree with the views of everyone at the CPD, the agency does understand the political nature of such conferences and the need for inclusive, plural dialogue in adopting the platform on population and development.

“The issue of sexuality, the issue of sexual reproductive health and [reproductive] rights evokes all kinds of things … apart from the politics,” Osotimehin told IPS. “We’ve always had conservatism around our issues.

“If we don’t bring people together in order to construct an action platform that brings all of the groups together, we are not likely to achieve the adoption,” he said.

For Dr. Osotimehin, a human rights-based agenda is essential because it was the foundation for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. That being said, he also recognises that over the last 20 years, the world has changed.

“Today there are more non-state actors and some of the countries are more vocal than they were before, so we are dealing with a new set of constituencies,” he said. “But if you don’t address rights … you are not going to make the kind of progress we want to see and match the investments.”

Many girls in rural areas of Pakistan say they dropped out of primary school either because there were no secondary schools in their villages, or because they were not within safe walking distance. Credit: Farooq Ahmed/IPS

Linking population and development

The U.N. Programme of Action of the ICPD Beyond report, released on Feb. 12, outlined the progress made on issues of population and development since the 1994 Cairo Conference.

A primary finding of the report was that where girls have the power make choices in their lives, from reproductive rights to education, they can add significantly to the economic capacity and development of their country.

That is why UNFPA has identified inequality as the primary impediment to developmental goals and defined the adolescent girl as the “face of development.”

“Imagine that you can give her the education she needs to protect her rights … ensure that she can access contraception when she needs to, ensure that she can get good quality jobs, ensure that she can marry when she wants to marry, ensure that she can participate politically. Then, you just changed the world,” Osotimehin told IPS.

This is not to say that ground level cultural needs are not recognised. It is important to engage in dialogue with communities, he said, in order to understand what they need, not only what their needs are believed to be.

Taking action

The U.N. has identified the imperative for direct action on population issues in addressing the associated developmental problems.

“I don’t think that many of these big problems are going to be resolved by exchanging documents and meeting at conferences. It’s going to be what we do on the ground,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, U.N. under-secretary-general and the executive director of U.N. Women, told IPS. “Activism, activism, activism.”

With this is mind, international conferences do provide legitimacy from which actors can work.

“It does help activists on the ground when something has been agreed to [in the conferences], because there is something to hang onto. So you also want those victories. But I think that we must not fool ourselves and think that [with a piece of paper], the problems have been solved,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

Beyond 2015

Looking to the ICPD conference in September, the key work ahead will be to reduce divisions and promote implementation.

“The fact that we have a document and that everybody has signed it does not mean that the problem has gone away. Those that feel they have lost will not necessarily implement what is there because it has been agreed to,” Mlambo-Ngcuka told IPS.

Moving the agenda’s focus away from controversial issues to incorporate the range of connections population issues have on development is one strategy UNFPA and other members of the international community are looking at.

“Integration should be big in the next development agenda,” Osotimehin told IPS. “We need to create linkages between one thing and the next … so were actually driving a development agenda.”

“We are focused on building consensus around initiatives that are proven to have the greatest impact,” said Doire.

The importance of a dynamic approaching to developmental challenges is central to the U.N. strategy as it works to build an agenda that includes contested subject matter.

“We need to bring all of the issues to bear when we talk about [population], so that it doesn’t get caught up in the old debates and questions,” Kathy Calvin, president and chief executive officer of the U.N. Foundation, told IPS. “It’s about your country’s economy [and] your country’s environment.”

Residents of Clara Town, a low-income neighbourhood of Monrovia, Liberia. Clean water and adequate sanitation remain major problems for billions in the developing world. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 2014 (IPS)

How will the U.N. prioritise the goals of its Post-2015 Development Agenda? Which goals deserve more funding? And which goals will help the most people? These are the questions that the Copenhagen Consensus Centre (CCC) seeks to answer.

“Right now the U.N. [Post-2015] process is a little bit like going into a very expensive restaurant, and you get this menu, but there are no prices. So you have no idea what you’re signing up for. You have no idea what’s really good and what’s not,” Bjorn Lomborg, president of the CCC, told IPS.“It means you have a sense of what it is you end up buying. What’s the bang for the buck?” -- Bjorn Lomborg

As the world moves beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and into the Post-2015 Development Agenda, member states will need to decide which goals to focus on and the best way to approach these challenges. The current list contains about 1,400 goals, ranging from poverty eradication to disease mitigation.

“What we would like to do is take a look at all of these goals and say, well how much do they cost, how much are they going to do?” said Lomborg. “If money was of no concern we should be focusing on all of these goals, but we clearly don’t have enough money to deal with everything.”

In July 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed 27 leaders from civil society, governments and the private sector to the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Based on the panel’s analysis, the CCC has identified around 60 goals to be economically assessed.

The CCC is asking some of the world’s top economists to assess these goals based on how much money they will cost and the impact they will have.

“Were providing the price-tags for all these things,” Lomborg told IPS. “It means you have a sense of what it is you end up buying. What’s the bang for the buck?”

After the economists’ assessment, the results will be given to U.N. agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide further feedback, he explained. This information will then be presented to a panel of four Nobel laureates to be categorised into “bang-for-buck” value groups.

“I think this will help the conversation immensely, not just for member states, but for billions of people,” Lomborg stated.

Political challenges

The CCC recognises that choosing and prioritising goals for the Post-2015 Agenda is deeply influenced by political dynamics and national interests.

“At the end of the day, this is ultimately going to be a political decision made among a lot of different people, with a lot of different interests. But we see ourselves as giving tail wind to good ideas, and head wind to bad ideas,” Lomborg told IPS.

During a visit to New York, the CCC met with numerous U.N. member state missions and U.N. agencies. All of them expressed support for the CCC initiative.

“The economic angle is one important perspective, but there could be other criteria as well to determine what should or should not be the goals and target framework,” Peter van der Vliet, deputy permanent representative of the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the U.N., told IPS.

For initiatives aiming to make an impact on U.N. decisions, it is important to recognise that other factors will inevitably influence the formal results, noted Lomborg.

“We welcome this contribution from the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and remain confident that it, along with all ideas and similar initiatives from civil society stakeholders, will enrich the deliberations,” Amina Mohammed, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, told IPS.

While the CCC recognises that the numbers from their assessment will likely be “inconvenient” for some actors, and likely not the sole factor in determining actors’ priorities, they also believe that the financial costs of individual goals are important to think about.

“Economic evidence will help push off the good ideas and drag down the bad ideas, and the politics will inevitably also do some of this. But if we can push it in the right direction, that’s all you need,” said Lomborg.

The possible impact

While the magnitude of the Post-2015 Development Agenda brings many levels of complexity to the goal assessment process, it also means that the agenda has the ability to make a serious impact.

“The Post-2015 agenda, you could say, is this generation’s biggest opportunity,” said Lomborg. “This process could end up influencing 700 billion dollars of development aid and trillions of dollars in local resources spent by developing countries.”

For the CCC, because the Post-2015 Agenda is so large, that the impact of even slightly greater efficiency in the way funds are spent would make a serious difference.

“We’re trying to help people move a little bit towards a more rational, effective way of thinking about these issues,” Lomborg told IPS. “I think everybody would agree that there is a consensus on getting a little more information.”

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2014 (IPS)

It plays like a Hollywood movie. A former member of the Syrian military police, later codenamed “Caesar”, smuggles digital memory sticks containing photographs of corpses displaying signs of severe torture and starvation — in his shoe. That was between September 2011 and August 2013. But now comes the question of accountability.

“What he brought out over a period of two years is direct, specific, provable evidence of widespread and industrialised killing,” Professor David Crane, former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, told reporters Tuesday. “The photographs and the witness himself are credible and sustainable in a court of law.”

At the beginning of the year, Crane and Dr. Stuart Hamilton, a forensic pathologist from England, traveled to the Middle East to assess the credibility of the photographs and the individual who captured them on film.

At first they were skeptical, but now they are convinced of the authenticity of both, Crane said.

It’s direct, provable, sustainable evidence — beyond a reasonable doubt– of war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the regime of President Bashar al Assad.

But Crane stressed that while the photographs were taken at government-run detention centres, the goal is to hold all perpetrators of such crimes to account.

“There are no good guys and bad guys in this anymore> Both sides are committing serious violations of international law, and we have to deal with all sides fairly and openly for this to be a respected and appropriate justice mechanism,” Crane told IPS.

There are four options for justice, explained Crane, a Syrian court, an internationalised domestic court, with assistance from the international community, a regional court and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I’m advocating for two pieces, a more local court and then one at the ICC, for prosecuting more senior individuals,” Crane told IPS.

France is pushing for the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the ICC because Damascus is not a signatory to the Rome Statute — and it is the only way the court can get jurisdiction in the country.

But with Russia’s veto power on the council this appears an unlikely scenario.

“We have created the ICC, we are party to the ICC, it would be weird if we were to simply give up the ICC, and simply say the ICC is a dead end … so we are trying again,” said Ambassador Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the U.N.

”We are going to try to convince our Russian friends and the other members of the Security Council that it is a fair solution to a real problem,” he continued.

Currently, 58 U.N. member states have declared their support for an ICC referral on Syria. So has the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

“Our findings confirm that torture is being routinely used in government detention facilities in Syria, and that torture is also used by some armed groups,” Pillay said Monday.

The photo evidence provided to Crane and Hamilton came from only three of the more than 50 detention facilities in Syria. From this evidence and other evidence, Crane said a “crime based matrix” is being built, which maps and logs crimes against humanity. Currently, it is more than 1,200 pages long.

“This is not about Assad … It’s about justice for the people of Syria,” added Crane.

Youth represent 40 percent of the African continent’s population. This number is expected to rise over the next 20 years and represents the population bearing the brunt of African economies’ failure to create sufficient jobs and address poor economic management.

The 2014 Economic Report on Africa (ERA), developed on the theme of “dynamic industrial policy in Africa”, is based on the study of industrial policy frameworks in 11 African countries. It aims to identify and suggest remedies regarding the “challenges and pitfalls” facing the “design and implementation” of industrial policy in Africa.

“It is only through industrialisation and structural transformation that Africa can ensure broad-based growth with greater impact on employment creation,” Maged Abdelaziz, U.N. Under-Secretary General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Africa, said Friday.

Speaking at a meeting, where the report was released, he said:
“ERA 2014 will provide guidelines on institutional arrangements for promoting industrial development.”

Over the last decade, African nations have experienced an average of five percent annual growth, with some nations achieving seven percent. But, the ERA indicates that without a corresponding development of industry and structural economic transformation, this largely commodity-driven growth has not translated into employment or social development.

“For too long African countries have formulated policies within a rather static framework that failed to address market failures or respond to emerging regional and global challenges and opportunities,” said Dr Carlos Lopes U.N. Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Since the 1980s, the contribution of manufacturing to gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa has steadily declined from about 12 percent to about 11 percent.

“If this trend continues, it could end up marginalising African countries in manufacturing for their domestic and international markets and in turn further jeopardizing productivity, employment as well as innovation and technological accumulation,” explained Lopes.

While Africa has experienced notable growth over the last decade, this has not translated into sufficient job creation or the broad-based economic and social development needed to reduce the high poverty and rising inequality in many countries, said Abdelaziz.

The report outlines the importance of policy flexibility, autonomy and efficiency, while also noting the vital need for associated political support.

Thirty-four of the 48 nations on the U.N. Least Developed Countries (LDC) list are located in Africa.

“If we can ensure…that they are really at a certain level of development, [noting the strategic aid based objective that many LDCs have for trying to stay on the list], I think that that will help a lot in releasing many of the African countries from the LDC list,” Abdelaziz told IPS.

The ERA launch in 2013 identified that African countries have made steady progress in addressing some of their key social and economic challenges. Nevertheless, the imperative for industrialization remains.

“Industrialisation remains key for Africa’s structural transformation and is therefore a precondition for Africa to obtain an inclusive economic role,” said Tete Antonio, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the U.N.

At the 2014 report release, many African nations expressed their support for and confidence in the ERA findings and the U.N. analysis mechanism.

“On the continent, we see countries like Mauritius and South Africa displaying sophisticated and effective high levels of coordination. If they can do it, so can the rest of Africa,” said Lopes.

Source: Lusha Chen/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 8 2014 (IPS)

In many countries across the world, the bite of a small insect can mean death. These vector borne diseases, the theme for the annual World Health Day (WHD) 2014, are deeply intertwined with many other developmental issues.

“They develop slowly…it does not capture the attention of world leaders, it impacts on the lives of the most vulnerable, the poorest of the poor, and it doesn’t kill in many instances. But it causes life long disabilities and stigma,” Dr. Jacob Kumaresan, Executive Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Office at the U.N., told reporters Monday.

Vector borne diseases, which are transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, ticks and other insects, include malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, Chagas disease and leishmania.

In many cases, these diseases are spreading to areas where the disease was never present, states the WHO. This is due to an increase in the free movement of both people and trade and virus multiplication as a result of climate change and rising global temperatures.

“Dengue was always an urban disease, it was never a rural disease,” Kumaresan told IPS. It’s transmission is from people to people.

“If urbanisation is planned very well, with good infrastructure and good sanitation, [disease transfer] shouldn’t happen, but because there are so many slums and informal settlements, even in urban areas, this is the breeding ground. Then it goes back to rural areas,” he said.

Half of the world’s population is at risk from these diseases, one billion people are affected and a million people die each year, the U.N. reported.

“If you reduce disease transmission, fewer people get the disease, fewer people are affected, children have greater attention spans at school, learn better and study better, and at the end of their studies produce more for society as a whole,” explained Alan Court, Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for ‘Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria’.

“There is a direct impact on the economies of the countries that are endemic, and this goes across those neglected tropical diseases.” “Were not just talking about health, were talking about a country’s economy and its development over time.”

Malaria has the propensity to rebound quickly once vector control initiatives are interrupted or ended, noted Ambassador António Gumende, Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the U.N.

“Mozambique is still facing an uphill challenge in the fight against malaria,” he said. But with serious political and resource commitment, progress can be made.

Vietnam has reduced the number of confirmed malaria cases by 90 percent between 1991 and 2012, and reduced malaria deaths by 99 percent in same period, stated Ambassador Le Hoai Trung, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the U.N.

General improvement of the standard of living in Vietnam contributed to success, he continued. “Economic growth and socioeconomic development plays a very important role.”

Vector controls such as long lasting insecticidal nets, indoor residual spray and other techniques, combined with political commitment and substantial funding, all help eradicate vector borne diseases.

“No country can fight [these diseases] alone,” stated Le, “a global partnership is needed.”

Over 601,000 people have been uprooted from their homes throughout the country, with over 177,000 of them in Bangui alone. Credit: EU/ECHO Jean-Pierre Mustin/cc by 2.0

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 4 2014 (IPS)

In a country suffering from what the U.N. has called “ethno-religious cleansing”, a “disappeared” state structure and “unacceptable sectarian brutality,” gaining access to the population of the Central African Republic has proven a difficult and sometimes deadly task for humanitarian workers.

“For everyone in this country, security is a challenge, because [the situation has] been very volatile and violent…Last year there were nine humanitarian workers who lost their lives,” Judith Léveillée, deputy representative for the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF in the CAR, told IPS from Bangui.“We don’t carry weapons and we never use armed escorts.” -- Benoit Matsha-Carpentier of IFRC

“I’ve never seen anything like it, and this is my seventh mission,” she said.

The conflict in the CAR began in 2012 when Muslim Séléka rebels launched attacks against the government. During the following two years, the conflict has grown along sectarian lines, with Christian anti-balaka (anti-machete) militias taking up arms against Séléka groups. While Muslim civilians represent a majority of the targeted population, Christians have also been threatened.

“There are situations where we physically cannot access the people we need to reach because the forces that are fighting are making it hard for us to get to them,” Steve Taravella, spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), told IPS.

“Roads are blocked, convoys are redirected, food supplies are looted and people are being otherwise attacked,” he said.

In recent months, due to both the increase of international forces and the mass flight of the Muslim population, the U.N. has reported a calming of hostilities in the capital.

Nevertheless, the extreme and often random violence in the CAR poses a complex network of security challenges for aid workers trying to reach the approximately 2.2 million people in need to humanitarian assistance.

“At one point, the only road that goes from Cameroon to Bangui, the one we use as a corridor for food, was completely closed because the drivers from Cameroon, who were mainly Muslim, didn’t want to cross the border. [For weeks] they were too scared,” Fabienne Pompey, the regional communications officer for the WFP based in the CAR, told IPS.

“Now the road is open to transport the food from the border, but we use a military escort from [the African Union peacekeeping mission] MISCA.”

“Insecurity and banditry is on the rise, and this is of course a very big problem for humanitarian organisations…Its difficult to drive on the roads, and its complicated to have vehicles in your own compound because there is a risk that they will be stolen,” Marie-Servane Desjonqueres, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in central and south Africa, told IPS.

The EU has been airlifting life-saving humanitarian cargo to the Central African Republic. Credit: EU/ECHO Jean-Pierre Mustin/cc by 2.0

International presence

The creation of a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid in the CAR and an increase of international troops were both key elements of U.N. Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon’s six-point recommendation of Feb. 20.

Nevertheless, security remains an issue and aid workers continue to be targeted and attacked by armed groups, the U.N. reported Thursday.

Currently, the only international military forces in the CAR are roughly 2,000 French troops, under the Sangaris mission, and approximately 6,000 African Union peacekeepers, under the MISCA mission.

Following the UNSG’s request, the European Union pledged nearly 1,000 to lend further support, but this force has yet to materialise.

For UNICEF and the WFP, the use of armed escorts allows for access into areas of the country with serious security concerns.

“We do regularly act with [escorts from] the Sangaris or MISCA operations…but that is in the case of a last resort,” explained Léveillée. “It’s very important that we keep our neutrality. We don’t necessarily want to be associated with armed escorts.”

On Mar. 3, the UNSG proposed a 12,000-person U.N. peacekeeping mission in the CAR. The U.N. Security Council (UNSC), which must approve all peacekeeping missions before their implementation, is expected to vote on the resolution during the second week of April, with a perspective implementation in September, current UNSC president and Nigerian ambassador, Joy Ogwu, told reporters Wednesday.

Negotiating access

While some organisations, like Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) do not use armed escorts, negotiating with the parties to the conflict is a universally used tactic to gain access to people who would be otherwise inaccessible.

“We do not have armed personnel for security, we rely on the respect of the parties to the conflict,” Sylvain Groulx, head of the MSF mission based in Bangui, told IPS. “A lot of our operation includes outreach and dialogue.”

“We don’t carry weapons and we never use armed escorts,” Benoit Matsha-Carpentier, spokesperson for the IFRC, told IPS. “This is actually one of our principles.”

“There are ongoing discussions, whether at high level with the government or at the volunteer level…with whoever is in front of them, to make sure [aid workers] have safe access to those who are in need.”

Beyond the larger international organisation, the IFRC has a network of national, country-specific societies, which help facilitate support on a more local level. This IFRC national society in the CAR has had a major impact in helping both the IFRC and other humanitarian organisations that may be experiencing restrictions get aid to the Central African population.

“If it’s too dangerous to have us on the ground, then we [distribute] using a local partner,” Desjonqueres explained. “Our main partner in CAR is the Central African Republic Red Cross. They have a very strong network all over the country, a lot of volunteers all over the place.”

Changing the perspective

Broadening respect for humanitarian access is an important factor in the ability for aid workers to support the suffering population in the CAR.

“One of our mandates is to disseminate the respect for international humanitarian law,” Desjonqueres continued. “For many years, we have been conducting sessions…to talk about those basic rules of humanity that need to be respected during times of war, and that includes safe passage for humanitarian workers.

“We are distributing food to the people in need, our criteria is people in need,” stressed Pompey. “It is very important to repeat this every time so that the parties involved in the conflict let us go.”

For the crisis in the CAR, which has killed thousands and displaced more than 600,000 people, getting aid to those in need is an immediate objective, but it is not a long-term solution.

“The best option would be a political settlement [to the conflict],” Pompey told IPS, “something inside the country to help make peace.”

Source: Lusha Chen/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2014 (IPS)

Sudan and South Sudan represent two of the most serious and worsening humanitarian crises on the planet, yet U.N aid efforts in both countries are receiving dramatically less funding and attention than is necessary, according to a senior U.N official.

“We know there is a huge amount of demand on countries to be generous, but we need to draw attention…to those who have the resources to understand and realise that the situation has become dramatically worse in both [Sudan and South Sudan], needing a much larger and much more generous response,” John Ging, Director of the Operational Division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters Tuesday.

U.N. agencies believe the deepening financial plight of the crisis in Sudan, specifically Darfur, is dramatic and urgent.

“In 2011, we had about 65 percent of our appeal funded, in 2013 that was down to 57 percent, and this year it’s alarming because we only have three percent of the 995 million dollars that we have requested,” Ging noted. “There is a very urgent need to mobilise funding for this crisis.”

Approximately 6.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Darfur, which represents a 40 percent increase from this time last year, the U.N. reported. Furthermore, violence in Sudan has displaced an additional 200,000 this year, adding to the roughly 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) through 2013.

“Its quite shocking for us to see a region of the world that used to be very central to global attention has fallen off…while the situation has deteriorated.”

“The fact that we are not getting the funding that is required…is going to [effect] children in Sudan,” said Yasmin Ali Haque, Deputy Director for the Office of Emergency at the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “The basic services that had been arranged [in IDP camps], because of the funding situation, are not available to all children.”

South Sudan’s massive humanitarian crisis is also severe — with OCHA reporting five million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 3.7 million people at risk of food insecurity, 700,000 people internally displaced, 67,000 people sheltering in eight UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) basses and almost 250,000 refugees in neighbouring nations.

With 25 percent of the almost 1.3 billion dollar request funded, South Sudan is in a better financial position than Sudan, stated Ging. “But we are in a race against time. With the rainy season fast approaching we have to preposition stocks…we really do appeal to our donor community to give us the funding that we need.”

There is also a distinct link between the need for a successful political peace process in South Sudan and managing the financial burden of meeting the humanitarian needs in the country, Haque explained.

“The timing is crucial, we need the talks [in Addis Ababa] to come to a positive outcome. The rains have started. We have people who are displaced, risking not being accessed. It means that our humanitarian operations are going to be come much more expensive, as we’ll have resort to airlifts.”

Conflict “has severely disrupted hope that children had in South Sudan, and it’s really urgent that we make sure we have the funding and the services in place to meet their needs.”

Until 2011, when South Sudan gained independence from Sudan, the country had been embroiled in decades of civil war, since 2003 the Darfur region of Sudan has experienced almost constant conflict, and since December 2013 South Sudan has been torn by an internal armed struggle between the South Sudanese government an a faction of the military.

“Our requests are relatively modest, but they are nonetheless hundreds of millions of dollars,” stated Ging. “We appreciate that that is a large amount of money, but only to deliver very modest [life saving] support.”

Source: Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 2014 (IPS)

The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund) has allocated 12 million dollars to three recent projects targeting tuberculosis and some of the developing world’s most neglected diseases, which affect over one billion people.

Initiated in April 2013, the Fund was “set up specifically to drive forward product development of vaccines, medicines and new diagnostics for diseases that affect much of the developing world, particularly malaria, tuberculosis and other neglected tropical diseases,” Dr. BT Slingsby, CEO and Executive Director of the Fund, told IPS.

Last week’s funding announcement includes — three specific grants totaling 6.8 million dollars to speed the development of innovative drugs targeting schistosomiasis, Chagas disease and parasitic roundworms, a second round of funding for a novel tuberculosis vaccine candidate totaling 5.65 million dollars and a new investment programme that will help researchers to find promising new drug candidates in the struggle against these and other infectious diseases.

Neglected tropical diseases exist primarily in poor populations and in geographically concentrated areas, where people will often suffer from more than one parasite or infection, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports. More than 70 percent of areas that note the presence of such diseases are categorised as lower-income or lower middle-income economies.

“The physical damage from these diseases is enormous, but that’s just the beginning. Victims are stigmatised by their communities, and because of repeated bouts of serious illness, they can’t provide for their families. The result is a never ending cycle of poverty that can and must be stopped,” stated Slingsby.

The GHIT Fund focuses on the development of these innovative and vital products, but it also works with other organisations to ensure the vaccines and treatments get to those in need.

“We advance the development through identifying partnerships, identifying projects…then advancing them through funding and through management. Once those products are created though, then it’s a matter of how you get them out there, and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is helping us do that,” Slingsby explained to IPS. “UNDP is working as an advisor, in terms of the [delivery] strategy.”

“We want to make sure that countries have the capacity to take advantage of any new technologies,” Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of HIV, Health and Development Practice at UNDP, told IPS. “Our role is very much about building capacity in low and middle-income countries, so that when and if the GHIT Fund grantees produces something, countries have the capacity, in terms of the regulatory environment and supply management systems…to make sure that these health technologies actually get to patients.”

Investment in product development partnerships for low and middle-income countries often “hit a wall” because countries don’t have the necessary capacity to effectively administer any newly developed health products, Dhaliwal explained. The GHIT Fund and UNDP are also coordinating with other organisations like the WHO and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health to address this gap and complement the work of the GHIT Fund and its grantees.

The GHIT Fund’s eight funding partners — five leading Japanese pharmaceutical companies, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — have made a five-year commitment of about 120 million dollars.

“Were a completely independent organisation,” clarified Slingsby. “None of our private funders are involved in the management of our Fund, nor in the selection of grants.”

Beyond developing healthcare products for those in need, the GHIT Fund also serves as a method for the already strong Japanese pharmaceutical industry to broaden itself into the developing world.

“Many major pharmaceuticals that have come out in the last 10 to 15 years are Japanese products, so despite the fact that Japan is a leader in the world in terms of pharmaceutical innovation, they really haven’t been focused on these global health diseases,” Slingsby explained.

The GHIT Fund “allows Japan, as a pharmaceutical industry, to be known throughout the world as innovators of global health products, it allows them to create networks in the developing world, it allows them to enter into these markets as a responsible company or corporation in the developing world. So there is a lot of benefit that goes beyond a return on investment.”

“The GHIT Fund is prioritising research and development for diseases of poverty that nobody else is really investing in,” Dhaliwal noted. “Its not a pure private sector model, it’s a public-private partnership.”

The three most recent grants are the second round of GHIT Fund grants to date. The first round focused on global partnerships working on drugs and vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas.

“I think [the GHIT Fund is] filling an important gap. If they produce something, it could improve the health of millions and that’s a major contribution to human development.”

Source: WFP

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 18 2014 (IPS)

A lack of access and a desperate need to deliver food to starving people in remote areas of South Sudan has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to initiate food airdrops.

“In conflict situations, aid agencies just have less control over what they’re trying to accomplish, so insecurity has really changed the way that we operate,” Steve Taravella, senior spokesperson for WFP, told IPS. “This is not a routine way that we deliver food. We do this when we really cant get food in any other way.”

Tuesday’s drop delivered enough cereals to feed 8,000 people for 15 days in the town of Ganyiel in Unity state and came in the wake of a recent trial drop to Maban County in Upper Nile state. Currently, nine drops are planned for Upper Nile, Jonglei and Unity states.

“We are concerned about reports of alarmingly high rates of malnutrition among children arriving at refugee camps in neighbouring countries, particularly Ethiopia,” stated Valerie Guarnieri, WFP Regional Director for East and Central Africa. “Given the level of the conflict, we have known for some time that we would have to move some food by air to some parts of the country, particularly during the rainy season, but we have faced more difficulties than envisioned and now need to deliver more food by air than planned.”

WFP faces numerous obstacles in their efforts to deliver food, beyond their normal methods by road and river.

“[Airlifts are] difficult, they’re complicated, they’re expensive, and in many ways just impractical. They require a team of people on the ground to secure a drop zone and people have to be in place to collect the food and distribute it when it falls,” stated Taravella.

In conflict areas, many dangers exist both for the people involved and for the aid supplies. Roadblocks can limit movement, warehouses can be raided and trucks can be commandeered.

“In South Sudan insecurity is an obstacle…especially to food delivery,” Taravella continued. “Conditions just aren’t safe either for our staff…who are trying to deliver aid, or for the people who need help…Sometimes people don’t feel safe coming out of hiding in daylight, because they’re afraid.”

“The challenges to routine delivery are so great, it just forces us to find other ways to reach people who need food.”

The present conflict in South Sudan began in December 2013 as a result of a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and a faction of the nation’s military, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, headed by Riek Machar.

Since the conflict began, WFP has provided lifesaving assistance to approximately 765,000 people in South Sudan. Additionally, WFP plans to scale up their efforts in order to support 2.5 million people in the months to come.

South Sudan contains over 90,000 internally displaced people, according to United Nations Security Council member and Luxembourg ambassador, Sylvie Lucas.

WFP is also working with the U.N. Refugee Agency to support the more than 210,000 refugees in countries bordering South Sudan.

With the Afghan election date set for April 5, 2014, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ján Kubiš, outlined his expectations as well as his concerns for a successful democratic process in the country.

“The success of the April 2014 elections will be of critical significance in reinforcing Afghanistan’s institutional and political stability and instilling confidence in the future,” said Kubiš, during his address to the UN Security Council (UNSC) Monday.

Kubiš emphasised the importance of universal participation of Afghan men and women in the elections, as well as the centrality of security and prevention of “spoilers and terrorists.”

During the UNSC meeting, the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was renewed for another 12 months.

The UNSC also expressed a unanimous expectation that the upcoming election be a timely, credible, transparent and inclusive electoral process. The election is expected to be a “strong move” contributing further “stability and prosperity,” said Kubiš.

“Election preparations are well on track and we expect that the elections will take place as planned,” he continued, adding that quality elections are important for continued support for Afghanistan on the part of the international community.

“The expectation is that, notably after 2014, linked to the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), but also the changed environment, it is expected that the U.N. and UNAMA will play even a more prominent role with regard to all core and critical elements of the mandate,” explained Kubiš. “We should be even more active, even more visible.”

Currently, UNAMA is present in 13 locations across Afghanistan. The added presence is expected to provide additional support for the Afghan authorities going forward.

Additionally, Kubiš identified a concern about the presence of the illicit narcotic trade in Afghanistan, particularly its role in funding terrorism. UNAMA plans to continue to address this in a facilitating role, in cooperation with the Afghan authorities.

April’s election will mark Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power, coming during a time where the Afghan authorities are taking increasingly greater responsibility for their domestic affairs.

Following an attack last January, in which four members of UNAMA were killed in a Kabul restaurant, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and stated, “We fully support the transition of Afghanistan toward a better future in peace, development and security.”

Former child soldiers enlisted by Al Shabaab are handed over to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) after their capture by forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Credit: UN Photo/Tobin Jones

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2014 (IPS)

In 2003, Moses Otiti, a 15-year-old from Uganda, was walking in a group with his father when members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) ambushed them.

Because he was a child, Moses was the only one to survive. For the next 12 months, he was forced to serve the LRA as a soldier in the rebel group’s war against the Ugandan government.“In the first month when I joined [the LRA], I was not comfortable with the things that were going on, but then I reached a situation where everything became almost normal." -- Moses Otiti

“The reason why they didn’t kill me was because they were really [looking for] people who were young…they really wanted to groom them as soldiers who can fight the battle against the government,” Otiti told IPS.

Conflicts in the modern age are being fought less frequently between states, and more often within them. And with this shift, the use of children in combat has emerged as a striking trend.

Researchers and those who work on the issue of child soldiers say that in conflicts where the phenomenon is present, there is a greater likelihood that mass atrocities will be committed.

“Children don’t have the same capacity to make decisions or to understand what may be right or wrong, or they might not have the same level of life experience or education to determine some of the things that an adult can,” Shelly Whitman, director of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, told IPS.

“It is a time when they are very impressionable and they are still figuring out their identity and moral compass.

“Problems of economics, development and social dynamics [are important] to look at as well,” she added. “When we get down to that level, it shows you that there are a whole wider set of problems, it is possible that when that is allowed to happen the [societal] degradation can go further.”

The role of violence

Moses describes the centrality of violence to the recruitment process, explaining how the LRA soldiers threatened to kill him, just like his father, unless he joined their army.

“For them to recruit you, they would cane you until you are at the point where you are about to die, and if you survive that means you can be a soldier. But if you die, that means you would not make a very good soldier…and that would be the end of you,” Otiti told IPS.

A map of where in the world most child soldiers are located. Source: A Window to the World

Commanders like children because it is easier to manipulate their psychological capacity to participate in mass atrocities. For example, Cambodian child soldiers under the Khmer Rouge were, as a result of this malleability, more ruthless towards civilians than adult soldiers, state Jo Boyden and Sara Gibbs in their book “Children of War”.

“Children are particularly affected by excessive violence because it occurs at a crucial stage of a human being’s development,” Marie Lamensch, assistant to the director at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), told IPS.

“The environment in which a child grows up affects his cognitive and affective development. Child soldiers, whether they kill or not, are exposed to physical and verbal violence, they are subject to fear and helplessness,” she said. “That trauma will affect the way they react to their environment, now and in the future.”

This is not to say that children do not have morals.

“[Children forced into military service] have their moral compass in the first few weeks of being abducted, and they know what they are doing is wrong, but the more they kill people, the more they rape or do other things like that, their brain and moral compass switches off,” Moses Makasa, director of development for Watoto, a Ugandan organisation which helps to rehabilitate former child soldiers like Otiti, told IPS.

Otiti’s experience echoes this process. “In the first month when I joined them, I was not comfortable with the things that were going on, but then I reached a situation where everything became almost normal,” he said.

“When I joined them (the LRA), I really felt that what they were doing wasn’t right, but then that thought kept on fading away from my mind…[But] I never liked it.”

Moses explained how this fading distinction between right and wrong made life with the LRA easier to manage.

Past, present and future

Several current conflicts display the correlation between child soldiers and the potential for mass atrocities.

South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) are “two situations where grave violations of human rights are taking place and where there is a great danger of mass atrocities,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a meeting of the General Assembly on Jan. 17.

On Feb. 4, the UN also published a special report on children in Syria’s civil war, which indicated the use of children in combat.

In 2002 the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the 1998 Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, entered into force.

These outlawed the involvement of children under age 18 in hostilities and made the conscription, enlistment or use of children under age 15 in hostilities a war crime. In 2004, the U.N. Security Council also unanimously condemned the use of child soldiers.

Child soldiers are “the most easily identifiable warning tool” for mass atrocities, said Roméo Dallaire, U.N. commanding officer in the 1994 Rwandan peacekeeping mission, Canadian senator and founder of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, connecting the recruitment of child soldiers as both a precursor and “primary weapon” of the genocide in Rwanda and any potential future genocide.

Since Moses Otiti escaped from the LRA during a firefight with government forces, he has worked to rebuild his life, and is now studying hard to become a doctor.

“When I was still there, there were certain things they would do, like killing people, and that is how I used to understand things. But when I came home…my understanding of taking peoples lives for granted really changed,” he told IPS. “Every person is very important.”

“These children who are suffering so much today are the ones who will either repair those societies or repeat the violence of these societies in the next generation,” Anthony Lake, head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, said in February.

If the world does not seriously address the education and rehabilitation of these children, “we are going to lose generations,” he warned.

With the referendum on Crimea only days away, the sense of emergency at the United Nations, over the impact a vote could have on the already volatile crisis in Ukraine, has continued to rise.

“I am increasingly alarmed by the developments in Ukraine. Since the beginning of this crisis, I have appealed to all parties to de-escalate tensions and to engage in direct and constructive dialogue in order to forge a peaceful way forward,” U.N. Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released Monday.

“Recent events in Crimea in particular have only served to deepen the crisis. As tensions and mistrust are growing, I urge all sides to refrain from hasty actions and provocative rhetoric.”

This statement came three days after U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters that the referendum announced for March 16 by the Crimean authorities is a “worrying and serious development,” and articulated that “all concerned should think about the implications of any hasty actions or decisions taken in the heat of the moment.”

On March 10, 2014, the U.N. Security Council met on Ukraine for the fifth time in the last ten days.

“The situation is worsening by the day,” stated Gérard Araud, French ambassador to the U.N. “The Russian army is reinforcing its presence in Crimea…and now we have this referendum which is organised, actually, by Russia.”

“If this referendum is held, there could be a sort of inner logic with the Duma, with the public opinion in Russia, that suddenly we could face the situation of the annexation,” Araud continued. “Russia is ready to recognise the results of the referendum, so it’s very, very, very dangerous.”

“The Russians are not showing any signal that they are listening to us…[there is] a sense of emergency among the members of the council.”

The Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N. has repeatedly expressed the Ukrainian government’s position that a referendum in Crimea would violate the constitution of Ukraine and current Ukrainian legislation.
“Any vote that goes ahead on March 16 cannot be considered a legitimate reflection of the wishes of the people of Crimea or the people of the Ukraine,” stated Mark Lyall Grant, ambassador of the United Kingdom to the U.N. “A free and fair referendum cannot take place while Crimea is under the illegal control of Russian troops and armed militias who are denying access to international monitors.”

The referendum, set to take place in Crimea on March 16th, will ask residents to choose between joining Russia and staying as part of Ukraine.

Responding to questions at a press briefing last week, Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the U.N. did not confirm Russian support or responsibility for the organisation of the referendum.

The referendum in Crimea follows an increase of Russian troop levels into Crimea, beyond the numbers permitted by their base agreement with Ukraine. Russian authorities have cited the need to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine after the violence and political turmoil, which began in November 2013.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonovic, is currently in Ukraine assessing the human rights situation and will remain there until March 15. He will visit Crimea later in the week.

Tensions over the Ukraine crisis dampened the positive brief on the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, made to the UN Security Council by Sigrid Kaag, the Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“These last few days there has been an acceleration and intensification of effort by the Syrian Arab Republic. A revised timeline has been submitted by the authorities, looking at implementation between the middle and end of April, in time, should all go well, to meet the overall deadline of June 30, 2014,” Kaag told reporters Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Martin Nesirky, Spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, verified that two consignments of chemicals had left the Syrian port of Latakia, including a quantity of mustard gas — a priority 1 chemical. Following the additional consignment expected to leave later this week, a total of six chemical weapons shipments will have left the Syrian Arab Republic.

“If we combine removal and destruction, the mission has concluded now that about one-third of Syria’s chemical weapons material has been removed or destroyed,” stated Kaag. “In the next few days we expect to reach 40 to 41 percent.”

International cooperation has been essential to the success of the removal effort, especially between the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United States, UK, China, Russia and France.

Regarding the impact of the Ukraine crisis on US-Russian cooperation, Kaag stated, “the unity of purpose and voice of the Security Council was once more very clear [in their support for the work of the OPCW]…and I think we are very fortunate to have this.”

Briefing reporters in Brussels, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), stated that in light of Russia’s continued violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia would not be involved in the maritime escort for the US ship, Cape Ray, transporting Syrian chemical weapon materials. Rasmussen also affirmed that this would not affect the removal of the materials.

Kaag said: “We look forward to see continued progress, but it remains hard work, a lot of dedication, and of course continued commitment to implementation.”

The deadline for the completion of the process has been set as June 30, 2014, but there have been a number of proposed schedules to reach this goal.

“A group of member states initially had proposed a 35 day timeline. The Syrian authorities themselves looked at a larger framework. Ultimately there has been an acceptance of about a 60 day plan, with a further intention to increase the ambition level further, to look at further reductions against the timeline,” Kaag explained.

Last September, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2118, “requiring the expeditious and verifiable destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.”

This resolution came in response to a chemical weapons attack near the Syrian capital of Damascus last August. which killed hundreds of people. Both sides of the Syrian conflict have indicated their opponent as the perpetrator. Kaag did not comment on questions regarding responsibility for the attack.

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 5 2014 (IPS)

Despite the absence of access in recent days, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) continues to press for a security agreement in Yarmouk, which would support more comprehensive aid distribution to the starving population.

In the last 21 days, UNRWA has been permitted access only on four occasions to the largely Palestinian Yarmouk camp outside Damascus. Three of these occasions came between February 26 and 28, 2014, following a 16-day period during which aid was only permitted on February 20th.

On both February 27 and 28, UNRWA’s distribution process was cut short by security concerns, limiting the number of aid packages the organisation was able to supply.

The ability for UNWRA to deliver assistance to the people of Yarmouk still appears to be on a “convoy to convoy, day to day basis” Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesperson, told IPS last month.
“Concerned parties informed the UNRWA team that humanitarian access would be permitted to resume in the coming days, pending implementation of the recent security agreement in Yarmouk,” Gunness explained. But, it appears that five days later, while clashes did not occur on March 4, this agreement has not been reached.

“UNRWA remains deeply concerned about the desperate humanitarian situation in Yarmouk and the fact that increasing tensions and resort to armed force have disrupted its efforts to alleviate the desperate plight of civilians.”

Last week, Gunness described the scene of distribution within Yarmouk as “apocalyptic,” where “huge crowds gather…in a ‘no man’s land’ defined by opposing sniper positions.”

To date, UNRWA has distributed 7,708 food parcels to a population of at least 18,000 Palestinians and an unknown number of Syrians.

“We need to also eventually restore our services, our clinics, our schools. To do that, all the military apparatus has to go away.”

Let me also add, if I may, that we are grateful to the parties to the conflict for having agreed to let this happen. It shows that if there is a will there is a possibility to deliver assistance,” said Filippo Grandi, UNRWA Commissioner-General, during his visit to Yarmouk” end February.

On February 22, 2014, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted Security Council Resolution 2139, which states that all parties must “take all appropriate steps to facilitate the efforts of the United Nations, its specialised agencies, and all humanitarian actors engaged in humanitarian relief activities.”

This was meant to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the affected people in Syria, including by promptly facilitating safe and unhindered humanitarian access to populations in need of assistance in all areas under their control.

The resolution also reaffirmed that “depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supply and access, can constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.”

Responsibility for the restricted access to the Yarmouk population has been almost exclusively directed toward the Syrian government, whose forces control the periphery of the Opposition controlled area.

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 4 2014 (IPS)

The United States and Russia openly clashed at a Security Council meeting Monday focusing on the ongoing crisis in politically-troubled Ukraine.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, sought to “explain, as fully as possible, [the Russian] position on the current situation in Ukraine.”
Churkin defined the current situation as a “crisis provoked by a state coup in Kiev,” which seeks to “trample the basic rights and freedoms of people,” specifically Russian speakers in southeast Ukraine, notably Crimea.

The Russian envoy also brandished a document, written by former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, appealing to Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to intervene militarily in Ukraine in order to save it from “chaos and anarchy.”

Following Churkin’s statement, the remaining 14 members of the Security Council stated their support for Ukraine’s right to independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the promotion of a political solution through dialogue and within a legal framework.

While China did not identify Russia as the aggressor in the same manner as other nations, it did condemn the violence in Ukraine.

“The central issue is whether the recent change in government in Ukraine constitutes a danger to Russia’s legitimate interests, of such a nature and extent that Russia is justified in intervening militarily in Ukraine,” Ambassador Samantha Power, the Permanent Representative of the United States, told delegates.

“The answer, of course, is no.”
France, UK and the US, three veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, stressed the absence of evidence for the Russian claim of security risks facing Russian-speaking peoples in Ukraine, and called for the return of Russian forces to their bases and to their permitted numbers.

The other two permanent members are Russia and China.

Monday’s meeting followed a similar emergency meeting of the Council which took place Saturday.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the importance of de-escalating the situation.

Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson is currently in Kiev to assess the situation and hold consultations with the interim President and acting Foreign Minister of Ukraine.

Ukraine, particularly the capital, Kiev, has been wrought with intense and increasingly violent protests since late November, when the Ukrainian president decided, under heavy Russian pressure, not to sign a trade and cooperation agreement that would have increased Ukrainian integration into the European Union (EU) at the expense of economic cooperation with Russia.

Experts have indicated that the rising tensions between the United States and Russia may jeopardise cooperation on Syria, Iran and North Korea.

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Wednesday adopted a resolution that expresses its support for Yemen’s movement toward a political transition and threatens sanctions against any actor which seeks to obstruct or undermine the process.

“Today the Security Council sends a clear and strong message to Yemenis,” said  Jamal Benomar, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Yemen. “With this resolution, the Council is supporting the legitimate aspirations of the Yemenis, including the youth, who fought and continue to fight for deep and meaningful change.”

Since February 2012, when the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, resigned under pressure from widespread protests, Yemen has been undergoing a political transition. Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference, which began on March 18, 2013 and lasted until its successful conclusion in late January 2014, brought political and social actors together to construct a new constitution. Yemen is the only nation of those involved in the “Arab Spring” to have completed such a process.

“What does it mean, then, to organise elections or have any political process if people are still suffering from humanitarian needs?” said Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, at a press conference in early February.

Political stability must go hand in hand with development, Ahmed emphasised. In order to avoid jeopardising the gains made so far in the Yemeni political process, they must be translated into changes in the lives of Yemen’s population, and the international community must provide its support.

As of early February, the UN has identified 25 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 13 million who do not have access to safe drinking water, and nearly 250,000 registered refugees, as well as almost 400,000 internally displaced persons, issues over which Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), has stated deep concern.

Additionally, in recent months, as the Yemeni National Dialogue concluded, political success has been marred by reports of attacks by Yemen’s armed forces in Al Dhale Governorate, which have reportedly killed more than 40 persons since December, including at least 6 children.

Pillay, has also expressed concern over these attacks, the most recent of which occurred on February 18, 2014, leaving seven dead and eight injured.

“Claims by Yemen’s armed forces that they were fired upon by armed groups or that their bases were attacked can never justify the use of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks,” stated Pillay.

“The Secretary General believes strongly that there should be no place for violence by any side in resolving political differences and disputes,” UN  Spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters Wednesday, referring to the escalating political crisis in Thailand.

“He strongly urges the parties to engage as soon as possible in meaningful and inclusive dialogue toward ending the crisis and advancing genuine reform.”

Ban Ki-moon also expressed his “readiness to assist the parties and the Thai people in any way possible,” following a telephone conversation with the Thai foreign minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul.

The possibility for UN involvement in the solution “depends on the opposition, and the government requesting assistance and then it would need to be looked at very carefully what form that assistance could take,”  Nesirky, told IPS.

As of February 24, 2014, the day after a bomb blast near an anti-government rally killed one woman and two children and injured over twenty people, BBC reported that at least twenty people have died in the protests since November. Both sides have accused the other of responsibility for the blast.

Since November 24, 2013, protests have swept across Thailand, sparked by the Thai lower house’s passing of a bill that would grant amnesty to former leader and brother of current Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin has been living in exile since the 2006 military coup when he was ousted over corruption charges.

While the Thai Senate eventually rejected the amnesty bill, the protests continued, now calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck and the implementation of anti-corruption reforms.

As with the series of political crises since 2006, Thailand has been divided between the anti-government urban middle-class, and the pro-government rural population, often referred to as Red Shirts.

On the same day as the UNSG’s statement, Yingluck also publically endorsed the Thai army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha’s statement, which said, “No dialogue between the conflicting sides would lead to a civil war.”

“Love, unity and peacefulness of the country were and have been the Government’s intent since taking the office,” stated a report on the Royal Thai Government website. “[Yingluck] reaffirmed that the Government did not agree with violence and forcefulness.”

The Thai government report also indicated that Yingluck has publically acknowledged her summons by the Thai Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) regarding the Thai rice-pledging scheme.

Additionally, the US State Department has similarly condemned the violent confrontations in Thailand and called for restraint by both parties.

Graffiti in Cairo showing police brutality. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS

By Jonathan Rozen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 2014 (IPS)

On Dec. 29, 2013, just over a month before the third anniversary of the start of the Egyptian revolution that ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, three high-profile journalists for Al Jazeera English were arrested in their hotel suite in Cairo.

Despite international condemnation, the Egyptian government has moved ahead with a trial, now set to resume Mar. 5. Altogether, nine Al Jazeera journalists and 11 others have been charged with conspiring with terrorists, undermining national unity and social peace and broadcasting false information, for their coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood.“They are basically trying to go after high-profile people and use that as a way to intimidate others." -- Joe Stork

A history of control

Media censorship in Egypt is not new, but advocates say the political transitions of the past three years have brought additional challenges for free expression.

“A combination of legal and illegal ways are used by the government to punish, intimidate and threaten independent and critical voices, including journalists,” Sherif Mansour, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division, told IPS.

Source: CPJ

Since 2011, when the political turmoil in Egypt began, advocates say there have not been large differences in media censorship between each of the political transitions. While the targets of silencing efforts have shifted depending on who is in power, the legal apparatus that is used to censor undesirable voices has remained the same.

“The press law or penal code form the Mubarak era has not been replaced,” Soazig Drollet, head of the MENA division at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told IPS.

“All the regimes since the uprising in 2011 have used their power to repress media for their own sake…we saw it with the supreme council of Armed Forces in 2011, we saw it with the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012, and now we see it with [Field Marshall Abdul Fattah al-] Sisi,” she said. “There is the same will to control the media and not respect the principles of pluralism.”

Under the current military government, a combination of legal and extra-legal methods are used to pressure and censor the media. Presently, the primary focus of these efforts has been directed against any discussion of the former ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since their fall from power in 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood has been labelled a terrorist organisation by the current leadership and their existence completely discredited.

“If you support the Muslim Brothers…you are in trouble,” Nader Gohar, chairman of the Cairo News Company (CNC), an Egyptian news station with a main office in Tahrir Square, told IPS.

While the Al Jazeera case represents just a fraction of the journalists imprisoned by the military regime, it also indicates a new logic behind its repressive tactics.

“They are basically trying to go after high-profile people and use that as a way to intimidate others who might have some critical thoughts,” Joe Stork, deputy director for MENA at Human Rights Watch, told IPS. “The Al Jazeera journalists fall into this category.”

Many governments have increasingly used “anti-terror” charges, like the ones against the Al Jazeera journalists, as a justification for censorship, something that has contributed to the degradation of global press freedom, said Joel Simon, executive director of CPJ.

In January 2014, a new provisional constitution was passed in Egypt.

“Parts of the constitution look a little bit better [for media freedom] than the one by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Drollet told IPS. But “if you really look at the text carefully, they say many things that are really concerning…mainly when it comes to this possibility of censorship when there is wartime and a state of emergency.”

But the constitution is not the only factor in assessing the legal apparatus surrounding Egyptian media freedom.

“The problem isn’t so much the constitution, the problem is the actual laws that are used,” said Stork. “We’re talking now not about the constitution, but about the penal code.”

In 2013, for the first time, CPJ ranked Egypt among the top 10 jailers of journalists in the world, while RSF ranked Egypt in the lowest section of its press freedom index, at 158th out of 179 countries.

Self-censorship

For Gohar and the Cairo News Company, the current military regime has not been as bad as the conditions under the Muslim Brotherhood. That is, as long as they avoid covering the Muslim Brothers in a positive light.

“When we started to have the Muslim Brothers’ [government], they were a threat, they have a kind of militia who bothered us,” he said. “They were like a censorship beside the regular government censorship.”

Nevertheless, the current regime has also affected the way the CNC operates. Since the fall of President Mohamed Morsi, the military government and the Ministry of Communication have not permitted the renewal of the CNC’s press certification.

“It’s kind of like a precaution, like, lets wait and see,” said Gohar. “The officials don’t want to give permission, in case we do something wrong.”

Media licences have been heavily restricted for almost three years, since the revolution in 2011, essentially forcing many media outlets to break the law to continue operations.

The authorities want to see what is going to be published, explained Gohar. “If someone is not behaving, they can stop them easily.”

Self-censorship is “always the first consequence when you have a crackdown on news media and journalists,” Delphine Halgand, U.S. director for RSF, told IPS. “Arrests, imprisonment, charges and an increase in prosecution are having a major deterrent effect on journalists.”

A polarised population

The increasingly polarised and politicised population has also had an impact on media freedom in Egypt. Currently, a vast majority strongly supports the military government and al-Sisi, who is expected to win the presidency by a landslide.

For Egyptian journalists, this means that repercussions for criticism of the government will just as likely come from the people as from the government.

“You will be treated like a traitor,” said Gohar. “This is new, that there is harassment from the public toward the media.”

While the United Nations has expressed its concern over the “increasingly severe clampdown and physical attacks” on media in Egypt, human rights organisation say that publicising the lack of media freedom is likely the best way to apply pressure on the Egyptian government to relax censorship and release imprisoned journalists.

“They really have gone too far,” said Drollet, referring to the military government’s policy. “They have lost any credibility. They are not even hiding that they just want to have one kind of media exist in Egypt.”

The hashtag FreeAJStaff (#FreeAJStaff), often accompanied with a picture of the tweet’s author with a piece of tape over their mouth, is just one of these efforts to increase awareness about the situation, specifically pertaining to the Al Jazeera journalists, in Egypt.

“I would say the situation today is worse that it was,” declared Stork, “this is pretty serious.”

“The media should just tell the facts, to say what is going on the ground with factual events, with objectivity and independence,” said Drollet. “How can a democracy emerge and exist in such a situation?”