Repression, threat an conflicts: Journalists have left their home countries

In the past few years many journalists have had to leave their home lands. The reason behind this action is to escape political oppression, save themselves from different crimes and also avoid conflict. Despite all of this their safety is still in threat , also their online work is not safe.  Irene Khan told the UN General Assembly that more journalists have left their countries. This is because there are fewer chances for independent and critical media in democratic countries where authoritarian leaders are gaining power.

In today’s age, the media has not any freedom to support democracy and keep powerful people accountable. And this fact is true for more than a third of the world’s nations, where most of the world’s population lives. One of the UN investigators on freedom of speech said that many journalists leave their country because they want to cover the real news without any fear. 

Khan, one of the Bangladeshi lawyers that was the head of Amnesty International, believes that journalists who leave their countries are still in danger. their home countries might threaten them and their families, and they might not have legal protection. They also have not enough help to keep working in the country they’ve escaped to.

“Fearing for their own safety or that of their families back home and struggling to survive financially and overcome the many challenges of living in a foreign country, many journalists eventually abandon their profession,” she said.

In order to shut down critical voices, journalists left their home countries. It is the form of censorship against the press. According to Khan, it is important for international law to protect journalists in exile, whether they’re full-time professionals or bloggers. According to her the main issue is that countries aren’t following their duties under international law.

According to Khan, Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Sudan, Somalia, Turkey, and Ukraine are the countries from which many journalists fled. 

“In addition, smaller numbers have fled from a range of other countries including Burundi, Guatemala, India, Pakistan and Tajikistan, to name just a few,” she said.

There is not enough data on human rights abuses committed by countries outside their borders. However, there’s anecdotal evidence from victims, scholarly research, and civil society organizations suggesting that such transnational repression often targets exiled journalists and media outlets.

Khan also highlighted the recent example of translational repression is the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 

The murder of Kashoggi is really sad. He went into the consulate in February 2018 to get the documents of this marriage and never came out. 

She also highlighted that Turkey has kidnapped over 100 Turkish people, including reporters, from other countries, and Iran has attacked journalists who are outside Iran and working for BBC Persian-language service.

Furthermore, she also pointed out one of the Iranian journalists, Rana Rahimpour. She received death threats against her family in February 2020.  In 2021, Belarus used a false bomb threat to divert a plane and arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich, who was later pardoned. The United Nation rapporteur highlighted increased efforts to intimidate journalists and promote self-censorship online.

So, different statements of Khan suggest that some people attack journalists illegally. They used unfair tactics to make their reporting look bad. It involves the usage of fake accounts and computers to spread bad comments about journalists. They also stop people from seeing news websites or listening to broadcasts that have been banned. They even spy on people online to see what they’re doing.

According to Khan, there is a huge increase in the online attacks such as death threats, rape threats and smear compains from last ten years. She further added that many illegal softwares works to secretly access journalists’ cell phones and other devices. 

Khan noted that exiled journalists often face two main legal threats from their home countries: being investigated, prosecuted, and punished in absentia, and the risk of extradition on fabricated criminal charges.

According to Khan, Hong Kong’s new National Security Law, along with the Safeguarding 

National Security Ordnance, makes it illegal to do things like try to break away, challenge the government, commit terrorism, or even work with foreign groups. These rules are very vast and everyone should follow them, even outside Hong Kong. 

Additionally, it’s been used a lot against journalists who work independently in Hong Kong. Furthermore, it also made it really hard for journalists to leave Hong Kong and do their job without any restriction.  

Journalists need safety for different types of online and physical attacks. They also need companies to make sure the tools they use for their work aren’t messed with or used against them, Khan said.