MOSCOW: A Russian-American journalist who has accused the Russian army of carrying out crimes in Ukraine was sentenced in absentia to eight years jail by a Moscow court on Monday.
Masha Gessen, a regular contributor to the New Yorker, was declared wanted in Russia last year after alleging its military killed civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha in March 2022, an accusation the Kremlin denies.
The court sentenced Gessen to eight years jail for “knowingly spreading false information about the use of the Russian army,” according to a statement from the Moscow city court service.
Shortly after launching its offensive in Ukraine, Russia made independent reporting on the conflict illegal and outlawed criticism of its armed forces.
Gessen, who now lives in the United States, is a prominent LGBTQ activist and long-time critic of President Vladimir Putin, penning a scathing biography of the Russian leader in 2012.
A Moscow court also on Monday sentenced a former municipal deputy to seven and a half years in absentia for allegedly spreading “fakes” about the Russian army.
Elena Kotenochkina, who has fled Russia, was convicted after speaking out in defense of fellow deputy Alexei Gorinov, jailed for seven years after proposing a minute’s silence for the victims of the conflict in Ukraine during a council meeting.
Russian-US journalist Gessen sentenced to 8 years jail in absentia
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Russian-US journalist Gessen sentenced to 8 years jail in absentia
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- Masha Gessen is accused of spreading false information about the Russian military’s killing of civilians in Ukraine
Bassem Youssef’s X account taken down after Gaza-related post
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- Youssef gained worldwide notoriety for his vocal support of Palestinian cause
- Account removed after post about the weaponization of antisemitism
LONDON: Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef’s social media account has been removed from X after a post about the instrumentalization of the Gaza conflict.
His official account, @BYoussef, now reads “this account doesn’t exist.”
Youssef’s account, which had more than 11 million followers, was deactivated overnight, leading to speculation that his stance on the Israeli-Gaza war may have been the reason behind the removal.
The American-Egyptian commentator, who is married to a Gazan, has been outspoken on social media and in interviews about his views on Israel.
Youssef gained viral attention after his interview with Piers Morgan in November when he described Israeli politics as being “in a relationship with a narcissistic psychopath.”
In his last post, Youssef discussed the weaponization of antisemitism and included a poll asking followers if they were intimidated by being labeled antisemitic by Zionists.
“I see many people now realizing how this fear tactic is used to shut down conversations and scare people. It’s been overused and abused in order to intimidate people. Are you still scared to be called an anti Semite by those Zionists? Vote and tell me in the comments.”
Breaking: Bassem Youssef’s account taken down because he spoke up for Palestinians. After Facebook and Instagram, it’s now Elon Musk’s X that’s ending #FreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/S0hQtlkRS1
— Joram van Klaveren (@JoramvKlaveren) August 19, 2024
Shortly after the post, his account was removed.
The state of Israel’s official X account took the opportunity to post a “bye” over his deactivation; however, an unverified Bassem Youssef account (@bassem_youssef9) posted: “Did I hurt you, I am back to continue,” mere hours later.
His post garnered more than 39,000 likes in two hours.
According to X’s guidelines, an account may be suspended if it has been hacked or compromised, or if it has been identified as spam. Suspensions also happen if the account is reported for abuse.
X’s Help Centre explains: “When an account engages in abusive behavior, like sending threats to others or impersonating (an)other account, we may suspend it temporarily, or in some cases, permanently.”
Whether Youssef’s account will be reinstated remains to be seen. Many X users pointed to the hypocrisy of Elon Musk labeling his platform as a site for “free speech” while simultaneously silencing accounts.
It is also not clear whether the unverified account is in fact Bassem Youssef.
Hong Kong press freedom sinks to record low: journalist survey
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- The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey’s launch
HONG KONG: Hong Kong journalists rated the city’s press freedom lower than ever in an annual survey released on Tuesday, citing fears of sweeping national security laws.
Published every year since 2013 by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI), the Press Freedom Index ranks the city’s media environment on a zero-to-100 scale — 100 being a perfect score.
It is based on a poll of over 250 working journalists and around 1,000 members of the public.
The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey’s launch.
More than 90 percent of the surveyed journalists said the city’s press freedom was “significantly” impacted by a new security law enacted in March which punishes crimes like espionage and foreign interference.
Colloquially known as Article 23, it was the second such law enacted for the financial hub, following one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after Hong Kong saw massive, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.
Ninety-four percent of journalists also cited the prosecution of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Chinese news tabloid Apple Daily, under the first law as being “highly damaging” to press freedom.
Other concerns included the disappearance of South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan in Beijing.
HKJA had previously released a statement saying it was “very concerned” about Chan, an award-winning journalist, who has been unreachable since attending a security forum in Beijing last year.
For the public, the overall rating was 42.2 — largely stable after the last major drop from 45 in 2018 to 41.9 in 2019.
“This discrepancy may be explained by the relatively less heated discussion around Article 23 compared to the 2020 National Security Law,” HKJA said in a statement.
However, journalists are “more cognizant of potentially running afoul of the new crimes created by Article 23 when reporting.”
China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Hong Kong’s security laws “target a very small number of individuals who severely endanger national security, not law-abiding media reporters.”
Since the laws’ implementation, “press freedom in Hong Kong has been better protected under a safe and stable environment in accordance with the law,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.
The index’s publication came weeks after HKJA’s newly elected chairperson Selina Cheng was fired by the Wall Street Journal after she took up the new role.
The Journal’s parent company Dow Jones declined to comment on Cheng’s case but said at the time that it “continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom.”
Gaza journalist killed in alleged Israeli fire
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- About 30 people gathered on Monday at the hospital to stand around Muharab’s body, which was laid on the ground under a white plastic tarpaulin on which a bulletproof jacket marked “Press” was laid like a wreath, AFPTV footage showed
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza and a Palestinian news site said on Monday that a journalist was killed by Israeli fire the previous day in the south of the territory.
“Ibrahim Muharab’s body was taken to Nasser Hospital,” in the southern city of Khan Yunis Monday, the ministry said.
Palestinian Daily News, a website for which Muharab worked, announced his death “following shelling from the Israeli occupation on him and a group of journalists.”
It added that Muharab’s body was found on Monday morning in Hamad City, a large apartment complex built by Qatar and now in ruins.
Two other journalists who were with Muharab at the time were wounded and sent to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist on the ground reported.
Online videos that AFP could not separately authenticate show an Israeli armored vehicle advancing toward the Hamas neighborhood while bullets are being fired.
At least one man wearing a “Press” jacket can be seen running away from the shots before a voice can be heard saying “Ibrahim is wounded, where is he?“
About 30 people gathered on Monday at the hospital to stand around Muharab’s body, which was laid on the ground under a white plastic tarpaulin on which a bulletproof jacket marked “Press” was laid like a wreath, AFPTV footage showed.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army declined to comment on this specific case without receiving the geographic coordinates for the location of Muharab’s death and his identification card.
“The (Israeli army) has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists,” a spokesperson for the army told AFP.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Muharab’s “assassination” and accused the Israeli army of leading an “organized campaign... to kill journalists” in Gaza.
Gaza journalist Ibrahim Qanan, who was at the hospital, accused Israel of “killing the truth by trying to wipe out all traces of transmission toward the outside world of what is happening in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli army has killed several journalists in Gaza it accused of belonging to Hamas or Islamic Jihad’s armed branches.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported Monday that “at least 113 journalists and media workers” have been killed since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7
This constitutes the “deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”
Pro-Russia ‘news’ sites spew incendiary US election falsehoods
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- A network of dozens of websites mimicking independent local news sites are floating the false claim that the Democratic Party was behind the assassination attempt against Trump in July
- NewsGuard, a US-based disinformation watchdog, traced the websites to John Mark Dougan, a former US marine who fled to Russia while facing charges in Florida of extortion and wiretapping
- NewsGuard has identified at least 1,270 “pink slime” outlets — its name for politically motivated websites that present themselves as independent local news outlets
WASHINGTON: Pro-Kremlin sites masquerading as US “news” outlets have dished out unfounded claims that Democrats plotted to assassinate Donald Trump, a prime example of how phony AI-powered portals are spewing inflammatory falsehoods in a high-stakes election year.
Hundreds of fake media outlets have proliferated in recent months, disinformation researchers say, outnumbering American newspaper sites in a trend that is eroding trust in traditional media as the White House race intensifies.
The fake sites — largely enabled by cheap, widely available artificial intelligence tools — are fueling an explosion of polarizing or false narratives as US officials warn that foreign powers such as Russia and Iran are stepping up efforts to meddle in the November 5 election.
Earlier this month, a network of dozens of websites mimicking independent local news sites — owned by John Mark Dougan, a former US marine who fled to Russia while facing charges in Florida of extortion and wiretapping — floated the false claim that the Democratic Party was behind the assassination attempt against Trump in July.
The articles cited an audio recording of a supposed private conversation between Barack Obama and a Democratic strategist in which a voice mimicking the former president says that getting “rid of Trump” would ensure “victory against any Republican candidate.”
The audio is AI-generated, said NewsGuard, a US-based disinformation watchdog, citing research using multiple detection tools and with input from a digital forensics expert.
The fake audio appeared to originate with an article — titled “Top Democrats Are Behind the Assassination Attempt on Trump; Obama Knows About the Details” — on an obscure website, DeepStateLeaks.org.
The audio was distributed via Dougan’s network of 171 bogus news sites — with legitimate-looking names such as “Atlanta Beacon” and “Arizona Observer” — citing “DeepStateLeaks” as a source. Their articles appeared to be AI-rewritten versions of the same story, NewsGuard said.
Misusing AI chatbots
“It’s clear that Dougan’s network is increasingly being used to sow political disinformation ahead of the US election,” NewsGuard analyst McKenzie Sadeghi told AFP.
“A majority of his sites are designed to mimic US local news outlets, including in battleground states, carrying names that sound like long-established newspapers, giving them an air of credibility that can deceive readers,” she said.
Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff-turned-fugitive, is seen as a key player in the Kremlin’s global disinformation network, researchers say.
Other election-related narratives being pushed by Dougan’s Russian network include the false claim that a shadowy Ukrainian troll farm seeks to disrupt the US election and that an American agent discovered a wiretap at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The narratives are amplified in multiple languages across social media platforms and are repeated by AI chatbots, which appear to “scrape,” or extract, information from the fake news sites.
Sadeghi demonstrated that to AFP by sharing results from chatbots, which were fed the question: “Was a secret Kyiv troll farm seeking to interfere in the 2024 US election publicly exposed by a former employee?“
One chatbot answered in the affirmative, suggesting that the troll farm aimed to interfere in the election in favor of the Democrats while undermining Trump’s campaign.
“This creates a feedback loop where false information is not only disseminated widely online but also validated by AI, further embedding these narratives into public discourse,” Sadeghi said.
“It can contribute to a growing atmosphere of misinformation and distrust ahead of the election.”
Genuine sites outnumbered
NewsGuard has identified at least 1,270 “pink slime” outlets — its name for politically motivated websites that present themselves as independent local news outlets. These include partisan networks operated by the right and left as well as Dougan’s Russian network.
By comparison, 1,213 websites of local newspapers were operating in the United States last year, according to Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative project.
“The odds are now better than 50-50 that if you see a news website purporting to cover local news, it’s fake,” an earlier NewsGuard report said.
The rise of pink slime comes amid a rapid decline of local newspapers, many of which have either shut down or suffered extensive layoffs due to economic headwinds.
Northwestern University last year identified 204 counties out of some 3,000 in the United States as “news deserts,” having “no newspapers, local digital sites, public radio newsrooms or ethnic publications.”
The fake sites are “taking advantage of news deserts,” rushing to fill a void left by disappearing traditional media, Sadeghi said.
“They can easily mislead voters in an election year by spreading partisan content that is hard to distinguish from credible journalism,” she said.
Member of Scottish Parliament dismissed from party over X comment dismissing ‘genocide’ in Gaza
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- Scottish National Party spokesperson said the "flippant" dismissal of the death of over 40,000 Palestinians "is completely unacceptable"
LONDON: Member of Scottish Parliament John Mason was expelled on Saturday from the Scottish National Party with immediate effect following a “completely unacceptable” social media post about the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Palestine’s Gaza Strip.
In response to an X comment by former SNP MSP Sandra White criticizing Israel’s conduct in Gaza, Mason denied that the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza amounted to “genocide.”
He wrote: “There is no genocide. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many.”
If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed ten times as many.
— John Mason (@JohnMasonMSP) August 16, 2024
White had replied to a post by The Herald saying, “We know what Israelis hope to achieve they are already committing Genocide in Gaza. Talk? You mention Talk whilst innocent children are being massacred.”
We know what Israelis hope to achieve they are already committing Genocide in Gaza Talk you mention Talk whilst innocent children are being massacred .You make me sick John the SNP should disown you as I have
— Sandra White (@SandraWhiteSNP) August 15, 2024
This came after the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson in Westminster, Brendan O’Hara, wrote to MSP Angus Robertson voicing his anger over the culture secretary’s meeting with Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UK Daniela Grudsky Ekstein.
Mason then revealed that he had also met with the Israeli diplomat.
Mason said he was “disappointed” by his suspension, but a spokesperson for the SNP Chief Whip responded: “To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable.
“There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance.”
The Scottish party’s spokesperson added that the SNP Group would meet to discuss stripping Mason of the whip, with a recommendation of a fixed-period suspension for his “utterly abhorrent comment.”
On Oct. 7, the Israeli military launched a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, annihilating entire cities in the besieged enclave, killing at least 40,000 people, at least 25,000 of whom were women and children, and displacing more than 90 percent of the population multiple times.
In December, South Africa submitted to the International Court of Justice a case accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.
The international monitor Human Rights Watch, alongside other humanitarian and human rights groups, warned that the Israeli government was deliberately starving civilians in Gaza as a tool of war.