LONDON: Russia declared opposition media outlet SOTA “undesirable” on Thursday, a move that could criminalize the sharing of its content and put its reporters at risk of arrest.
Authorities in Russia have declared dozens of news outlets, think tanks and non-profit organizations “undesirable” since 2015, a label rights groups say is designed to deter dissent.
In a statement, Russia’s Prosecutor General accused SOTA of “frank attempts to destabilize the socio-political situation in Russia” and “create tension and irritation in society.”
“Such activities, obviously encouraged by so-called Western inspirers, have the goal of undermining the spiritual and moral foundations of Russian society,” it said.
It also accused SOTA of co-operating with TV Rain and The Insider, two other independent Russian-language outlets based outside of the country that are linked to the opposition.
SOTA Project, which covers opposition protests and has been fiercely critical of the Kremlin, denied it had anything to do with TV Rain and The Insider and rejected the claims.
But it advised its followers in Russia to “remove reposts and links” to its materials to avoid the risk of prosecution. SOTA’s Telegram channel has around 137,000 subscribers.
“Law enforcement and courts consider publishing online to be a continuing offense. This means that you can be prosecuted for reposts from 2023, 2022, 2021,” it said.
SOTA Project was born out of a split with a separate news outlet called SOTAvision, which still covers the opposition but distanced itself from the prosecutors’ ruling on Thursday.
Since launching its offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that rights groups have likened to Soviet-era mass repression.
Among other organizations labelled as “undesirable” in Russia are the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Transparency International and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Russia outlaws SOTA opposition news outlet
https://arab.news/ch9u8
Russia outlaws SOTA opposition news outlet
- Authorities said outlet tries to destabilize the socio-political situation in Russia
- Move could criminalize SOTA content and puts its reporters at risk of arrest
Meta’s Oversight Board seeks public comments on hate speech moderation
STOCKHOLM: Facebook owner Meta’s Oversight Board on Thursday invited comments from the public on the posting of immigration-related content that may be harmful to immigrants and shared two cases that Facebook moderators decided to keep on the platform.
The board plans to assess whether Meta’s decision to only protect refugees, migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers from the most severe attacks on its social media platforms under its hate speech policy is adequate.
The board is funded by the social media giant but operates independently. After gathering public comments, it can issue non-binding policy recommendations to Meta.
The first case the board shared relates to a Facebook page of a Polish far-right coalition party that posted a meme in May using a term for Black people widely considered to be offensive and derogatory in Poland, the board said.
The post was viewed over 150,000 times, shared over 400 times, has more than 250 comments and was reported 15 times by users for hate speech but was left on Facebook following a human review by Meta, it said.
In the second case, a German Facebook page in June uploaded a picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman holding up her hand in a stop gesture, with text saying that people should no longer come to Germany as they don’t need any more “gang rape specialists.”
Meta decided to leave up the image after human review.
After the Oversight Board raised the issue, Meta’s policy subject matter experts reviewed both posts again but confirmed its original decisions were correct.
“These symbolic cases from Germany and Poland will help us determine whether Meta should be doing more and whether it is doing enough to prioritize this critical issue that matters to so many around the world,” board co-chair and former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said.
Tech firms remove social media posts from a Russian drone factory after an AP investigation
- Lured to a work-study program in Russia in areas like hospitality and catering, the young women, mostly Africans, ended up toiling in a factory to assemble Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine
Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media posts from a industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Accounts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under US and British sanctions.
Videos and other posts on the social media platforms promised the young women, who are largely from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month following their recruitment via the program called “Alabuga Start.”
But instead of a work-study program in areas like hospitality and catering, some of them said they learned only arriving in the Tatarstan region that they would be toiling in a factory to make weapons of war, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with AP, some of the women who worked in the complex complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. AP did not identify them by name or nationality out of concern for their safety.
The tech companies also removed accounts for Alabuga Polytechnic, a vocational boarding school for Russians age 16-18 and Central Asians age 18-22 that bills its graduates as experts in drone production.
The accounts collectively had at least 53,144 followers.
In a statement, YouTube said its parent company Google is committed to sanctions and trade compliance and “after review and consistent with our policies, we terminated channels associated with Alabuga Special Economic Zone.”
Meta said it removed accounts on Facebook and Instagram that “violate our policies.” The company said it was committed to complying with sanctions laws and said it recognized that human exploitation is a serious problem which required a multifaceted approach, including at Meta.
It said it had teams dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts and aimed to remove those seeking to abuse its platforms.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment but appeared to have removed accounts run by Alabuga with about 35,000 followers.
The women aged 18-22 were recruited to fill an urgent labor shortage in wartime Russia. They are from places like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive also is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.
Accounts affiliated to Alabuga with tens of thousands of followers are still accessible on Telegram, which did not reply to a request for comment. The plant’s management also did not respond to AP.
The Alabuga Start recruiting drive used a robust social media campaign of slickly edited videos with upbeat music that show African women smiling while cleaning floors, wearing hard hats while directing cranes, and donning protective equipment to apply paint or chemicals.
Videos also showed them enjoying Tatarstan’s cultural sites or playing sports. None of the videos made it clear the women would be working in a drone manufacturing complex.
Online, Alabuga promoted visits to the industrial area by foreign dignitaries, including some from Brazil, Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, a Turkish diplomat who visited the plant had compared Alabuga Polytechnic to colleges in Turkiye and pronounced it “much more developed and high-tech.”
According to Russian investigative outlets Protokol and Razvorot, some pupils at Alabuga Polytechnic are as young as 15 and have complained of poor working conditions.
Videos previously on the platforms showed the vocational school students in team-building exercises such as “military-patriotic” paintball matches and recreating historic Soviet battles while wearing camouflage.
Last month, Alabuga Start said on Telegram its “audience has grown significantly!”
That could be due to its hiring of influencers, who promoted the site on TikTok and Instagram as an easy way for young women to make money after leaving school.
TikTok removed two videos promoting Alabuga after publication of the AP investigation.
Experts told AP that about 90 percent of the women recruited via the Alabuga Start program work in drone manufacturing.
Israel urged to evacuate injured Al Jazeera journalists from Gaza
- Ali Al-Attar and Fadi Al-Wahidi were hurt in two separate incidents requiring urgent medical assistance
- Media watchdogs say their public plea follows ‘unsuccessful diplomatic efforts and direct appeals’ to Israeli authorities
LONDON: Media watchdogs have called on Israeli authorities to evacuate two injured Al Jazeera journalists from Gaza who are in urgent need of lifesaving medical treatment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, Free Press Unlimited and Reporters Without Borders issued a joint appeal on Tuesday urging the Israeli military office responsible for humanitarian coordination — known as COGAT — to authorize the evacuation.
“The Israeli military’s duty under international humanitarian law is to protect civilians, including journalists, and to ensure the wounded receive timely medical assistance,” said the organizations.
“We respectfully ask for your immediate intervention to facilitate the necessary permissions for this evacuation.”
Gaza-based cameramen Ali Al-Attar and Fadi Al-Wahidi were injured in two separate incidents while covering the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Oct. 8, Al-Attar was wounded during a strike on Deir Al-Balah, while Al-Wahidi was shot by a sniper in Jabalia a day later.
Both journalists are currently in a critical condition in hospital and in need of medical assistance beyond the capacity of Gaza’s war-ravaged health system.
The organizations emphasized that the public plea follows unsuccessful diplomatic efforts and direct appeals to COGAT, which has yet to respond to the evacuation requests.
They urged Israeli authorities to expedite approval for the journalists’ transfer to Jordan or Qatar for treatment and said the US, French and German governments, as well as the UN, had been asked to help secure safe passage.
The group said they “hold the Israeli government responsible for any deterioration of their conditions caused by this prolonged delay.”
Israel has faced accusations of targeting journalists and other protected groups such as medical personnel, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
According to CPJ, at least 128 media workers — the majority of them Palestinian — have been killed since the conflict began, the highest tally in over 30 years of record-keeping.
The letter from the CPJ, FPU and RSF called on Israeli authorities to respect international humanitarian law, arguing that obstructing medical assistance for injured journalists constituted a breach.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera says Beirut office evacuated after warnings
- The broadcaster did not say who issued the warnings
- Norwegian embassy has also been evacuated in what is believed to be a related development
LONDON: Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV said on Thursday its office in Beirut had been evacuated after the building received several warnings.
The broadcaster did not say who issued the warnings.
In a related development, Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that its embassy was also evacuated due to a potential bomb threat.
The ministry assured that all embassy staff were safe, stating in an email to Reuters: “Everyone at the embassy is safe and sound.”
The Associated Press reported that both the Norwegian embassy and Al Jazeera’s office share the same premises in Lebanon’s capital.
With agencies
Journalists’ group urges Houthis to rescind death sentence against Yemeni media worker
- Militia issued ruling against Taha Ahmed Rashid Al-Maamari last month
- International Federation of Journalists says it condemns ‘arbitrary sentencing’
AL-MUKALLA: The International Federation of Journalists on Tuesday demanded that the Houthis reverse the death sentence issued against a Yemeni media worker and stop harassing journalists in areas under their control.
The federation said the militia sentenced Taha Ahmed Rashid Al-Maamari, the owner of Yemen Digital Media and Yemen Live for Media Production and Satellite Broadcasting, to death and confiscated his property. It also accused it of using the judiciary to harass journalists and media workers both inside and outside the country.
“We condemn the tactics carried out by the de facto authorities in Sanaa, including the arbitrary sentencing against our colleague Al-Maamari, which only seeks to prevent journalists from doing their jobs and to discourage media owners from investing in the media industry in Yemen,” IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said in a statement.
Last month, a Houthi court in Sanaa sentenced Al-Maamari to death and ordered the confiscation of his property, including a house and media company, on charges of collaborating with Houthi opponents. The decision was condemned by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Yemeni government officials and activists.
Bellanger urged the Houthis to rescind the sentence and return Al-Maamari’s property. He also issued an appeal to the global community.
“We call on the international community and journalists’ groups across the world to advocate for overturning the unjust ruling and campaigning for the release of all imprisoned journalists in the country,” he said.
Al-Maamari, who has lived in Spain since 2015, has repeatedly denied the Houthis’ accusations, which began in 2018 when the group raided his company’s offices and seized equipment.
Since seizing power in Yemen a decade ago, the Houthis have shut down dozens of media outlets, abducted journalists, tried and sentenced some to death, and forced many others to flee areas under their control.
The militia recently abducted hundreds of Yemenis, including several journalists, for celebrating the 1962 revolution online or waving the Yemeni flag in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled cities.
On Tuesday, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate said the Houthis were still holding 10 journalists. It demanded their release and urged the militia to stop leveling “fabricated” charges against journalists.
Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Wednesday that the expected reopening of the Russian Embassy in the southern city of Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, would boost the country’s decades-long relationship with Russia, according to news agency SABA.
During a meeting with Alexander Kinshak, director of the Middle East and North Africa at the Russian Foreign Ministry, who is currently visiting Aden, Al-Alimi expressed his hope that reopening the embassy would help calm hostilities, strengthen Yemen’s relations with Russia, unite the international community behind the Yemeni government and help confront Houthi attacks on ships.
Yemeni officials said Russia planned to open an embassy in Aden early next year.
The news came as foreign diplomatic delegations from Russia, the EU and Norway were visiting Aden to meet Al-Alimi, his government and members of the public.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government has urged countries to reopen their embassies and diplomatic missions in Aden, saying that its military and security forces have restored peace and security to the city after years of insecurity, explosions and assassinations.
