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Associated Press

Two Turkish journalists face possible life sentences on charges they sent “subliminal messages” on television encouraging a government coup.
In Hungary, oligarchs loyal to the prime minister have gained control of much of the media after the leading independent newspaper was shut down.
In Poland, a reporter is being threatened with a military trial for writing a book critical of the defence minister.
Family members of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar have said the pair had told them they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some documents by policemen they had gone to meet.
Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were arrested on December 12 on suspicion of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.
The Ministry of Information has cited the police as saying they were “arrested for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces”.
In Mexico, journalists are being shot dead.
These are trying and dangerous times for the media in countries that until recently had begun embracing democratic norms of free expression.
News organisations are under attack in dramatic ways, as elected governments turn public outlets into their mouthpieces and try to silence critical voices.

Michael Abramowitz, president of democracy watchdog Freedom House, said whether governments imprison journalists or flood the public sphere with misinformation, their goal is the same, “to ensure that negative coverage about the regime is marginalised and positive coverage dominates, especially for the plurality of citizens whose support you need to continue to rule.”
In undermining free expression, some of these governments have portrayed the press not as a pillar of a democratic society but as a threat to it.
It is an issue of growing interest in the US, where President Donald Trump condemns unfavourable coverage as “fake news” and brands journalists “enemies of the people.”

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017

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Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Centre at the Newseum Institute in Washington, said the threat in the US is not that First Amendment press protections will be directly overturned, but that the administration’s continued attacks could sow so much distrust that attempts to undermine the media will become accepted.
She cited Trump’s suggestion earlier this year that the government could challenge NBC’s broadcast license, after he was angered by a national security story.
“I think some of what Trump says is just bluster,” Nott said. “But there are some times where it becomes a tangible threat, and that’s what I worry about.”
In theory, Turkey, Hungary and Poland also guarantee freedom of speech and of the press. The principles were enshrined in the Polish and Hungarian constitutions following the collapse of communism in 1989, and in Turkey’s constitution decades earlier.
Despite those protections, many reporters in Turkey were jailed amid a crackdown following a military coup in 1980.
In the 1990s, as Turkish forces clashed with Kurdish fighters, the government barred the media from criticising its actions or producing stories deemed sympathetic to the Kurds. State security forces also killed several reporters covering the conflict.
Some progress came in the early 2000s when Turkey embraced reforms in the hope of joining the European Union, but matters deteriorated dramatically under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The July 2016 overthrow attempt intensified repression of journalists and was part of a broader purge by Erdogan that has targeted tens of thousands of people. More than 150 media organisations have been closed down.
Hungary slams US intervention by offering to fund ‘objective media’ in upcoming elections
Erol Onderoglu, a representative of Reporters Without Borders in Turkey, said 122 reporters, writers and other media professionals are behind bars, many held in pretrial detention for more than a year.
“From day one, the government has used the coup attempt to go after its critics, and the spectrum of repression has gone well beyond the real suspects,” said Johann Bihr, also with Reporters Without Borders.


In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been in power since 2010, building what he calls an “illiberal state” modelled on Russia and Turkey.
The main independent newspaper, Nepszabadsag, closed last year under political pressure, and most surviving media groups are now controlled by Orban allies.
There are apparent attempts to intimidate reporters working for international outlets who have reported on a state-sponsored campaign against Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist George Soros.
Orban opposes immigration, particularly by Muslims, and claims that Soros wants to flood Europe with migrants.
Soros, a Holocaust survivor, has long promoted what he calls an “open society” and supports controlled migration. He funds a university in Budapest and civic organisations, including some seen as critical of Orban.
A pro-government website recently published a list of eight journalists working for the news outlets Politico, Bloomberg and Reuters whom it called “propagandists” for Soros.
Orban also asked the country’s spy agencies to investigate journalists and others involved in what he calls a “Soros network.”
Poland could face unprecedented EU sanctions designed to uphold rule of law
Poland’s right-wing populist government, in power for two years, has been repeatedly condemned by the European Union and others for eroding judicial independence.
It also has taken firm control of the public media, purging journalists seen as too liberal or as opposing the government.
The public media now operates as a propaganda tool for the ruling right-wing party. The head of state television defends its approach, saying it’s just acting as a “counterweight” to the critical coverage of the privately run stations.
The future for Poland’s private media companies is unclear, given signs that the ruling party hopes to reduce foreign ownership or weaken independent outlets enough so the government can take control.
A reporter for the country’s leading newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has been threatened with a trial by military court – and up to three years in prison – for writing a book alleging that associates of the defence minister have links to Russian agents and mobsters.
The paper’s deputy editor, Piotr Stasinski, said the government’s steps are adding to the newspaper’s problems as it struggles with declining print sales in the digital age.
But he vowed to keep holding authorities to account as long as possible.
“We are going to be very critical of a government that destroys the constitutional system,” Stasinski said. “All we can do is speak truth to lies.”

Indonesian rights body says soldiers killed 12 civilians in Papua. Military denies claim

Cambodian man sent to African prison by Trump administration,  after finishing US jail term

UK’s counterterror police probe another London arson attack

Myanmar frees Win Myint, cuts Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison term in broad-ranging amnesty deal

Human rights

Around the world, journalists besieged as countries reverse free expression, seeing it as a threat

Protesters hold placards with images of jailed journalists and words which translate as “You are not alone” during a demonstration in front of a courthouse in Istanbul on Christmas Day. Turkey is one of several countries that is restricting press freedoms. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this May 16, 2017, file photo, a woman places a candle in front of pictures of murdered journalists Miroslava Breach, left, and Javier Valdez during a demonstration against the killing of journalists, outside the Interior Ministry in Mexico City. Mexican authorities have arrested a man suspected of ordering the March killing of journalist Breach. The National Security Commission said in a statement that the suspect was detained along with two others Monday, Dec. 25, in the town of Bacobampo, Sonora state. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

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