STOCKHOLM: A Swedish-Eritrean journalist held incommunicado without charge in Eritrea for more than 23 years won a Swedish rights prize on Monday for his fight for freedom of expression, the jury said.
Dawit Isaak was among a group of around two dozen people, including senior cabinet ministers, members of parliament and independent journalists, who were seized in a purge in September 2001.
He was awarded the Edelstam Prize “for his outstanding contribution and exceptional courage in standing up for freedom of expression, one’s beliefs, and in the defense of human rights,” the Edelstam Foundation said in a statement.
Amnesty International considers Isaak a prisoner of conscience, and press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says he and his colleagues detained at the same time are the longest-held journalists in the world.
UN rights experts have demanded Asmara immediately release him.
Eritrea has provided no news about him, and there are fears he may no longer even be alive. He would be 60 years old.
His daughter Betlehem Isaak will accept the award on his behalf in Stockholm on November 19.
Isaak fled to Sweden in 1987 during Eritrea’s struggle against Ethiopia which eventually led to independence in 1993.
After obtaining Swedish citizenship, he returned to Eritrea in 2001 to help shape the media landscape, and co-founded Setit, the country’s first independent newspaper.
He was arrested shortly after the paper published articles demanding political reforms.
Asmara has not provided any information about his whereabouts or health over the years, which UN experts in 2021 deemed “extremely concerning.”
But they said a credible source had indicated Isaak was still alive in September 2020.
The Edelstam Prize is awarded in memory of Swedish diplomat Harald Edelstam, who as ambassador to Chile at the time of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 military coup granted thousands of Chileans and other Latin Americans safe conduct to, and political asylum in, Sweden.
Jailed Swedish-Eritrean journalist wins rights prize
https://arab.news/26und
Jailed Swedish-Eritrean journalist wins rights prize
- Dawit Isaak has been held incommunicado without charge in Eritrea for more than 23 years
TikTok calls report of possible sale to Musk’s X ‘pure fiction’
- Rumors circulated Monday that TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is considering selling the platform’s US operations to Elon Musk’s social media platform, X
- Congress legislation could force TikTok to divest its US operations, requiring its parent company, ByteDance, to either sell the platform or shut it down
Citing anonymous people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Chinese officials were considering selling the company’s US operations to Musk’s social media platform X.
The report outlined one scenario being discussed in Beijing where X would purchase TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance and combine it with the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson told AFP.
The report estimated the value of TikTok’s US operations at between $40 billion and $50 billion.
Although Musk is currently ranked as the world’s wealthiest person, Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk could execute the transaction, or if he would need to sell other assets.
The US Congress passed a law last year that requires ByteDance to either sell its wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect on Sunday — a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The US government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.
TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.
At the hearing, a majority of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member bench appeared skeptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok that forcing a sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.
Bloomberg characterized Beijing’s consideration of a possible Musk transaction as “still preliminary,” noting that Chinese officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.
Musk is a close ally of Trump and is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.
He also runs electric car company Tesla, which has a major factory in China and counts the country as one of the automaker’s biggest markets.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to enact new tariffs on Chinese goods, which would expand a trade war begun in his first term and which was largely upheld, and in some cases supplemented, by outgoing President Joe Biden.
Indonesia plans minimum age for social media use
- Minister Meutya Hafid said plans will “protect children in digital space,” did not specify minimum age
JAKARTA: Indonesia plans to issue a regulation to set a minimum age for users of social media, a move aimed at protecting children, its communications minister has said.
The plans follows Australia’s decision to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, with fines for tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok if they failed to prevent children accessing their platforms.
Minister Meutya Hafid did not say what the minimum age would be in Indonesia. Her remarks, made late on Monday, came after Meutya discussed the plan with President Prabowo Subianto.
“We discussed how to protect children in digital space,” she said in a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of the president’s office.
“The president said to carry on with this plan. He is very supportive on how this kind of child protection will be done in our digital space,” she said.
Internet penetration in Indonesia, a country of about 280 million people, reached 79.5 percent last year, according to a survey of 8,700 people by the Indonesia Internet service providers’ association.
The survey showed 48 percent of children under 12 had access to the Internet, with some respondents of that age group using Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The survey showed Internet penetration was 87 percent among “Gen Z” users, or those age 12 to 27.
Saudi Arabia chairs Arab media talks in Tunisia
- Mohammed bin Fahad Al-Harthi highlighted the importance of enhancing Arab media cooperation to address development issues and convey the voice of Arab people globally
- Meeting was a key step toward unifying media efforts among member states, with a strategic vision focused on promoting Arab identity
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia chaired the 112th executive council meeting of the Arab States Broadcasting Union in Hammamet, Tunisia, on Tuesday, with the presence of member states and the union’s president, Mohammed bin Fahad Al-Harthi.
Al-Harthi highlighted the importance of enhancing Arab media cooperation to address development issues and convey the voice of Arab people globally, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The meeting was a key step toward unifying media efforts among member states, with a strategic vision focused on promoting Arab identity, shared values and keeping pace with global media developments in line with the needs of Arab societies, he said.
Al-Harthi also highlighted investment projects to provide the union with sustainable financial resources, ensuring its flexibility and continuity, including the creation of a company to serve as the union’s investment arm.
The meeting reviewed the union’s achievements over the past year, discussed challenges facing Arab media and explored investment opportunities to support media integration.
It also covered preparations for the Arab Media Conference, expected to be held in Iraq later this year, which will serve as a platform for exchanging expertise and fostering media collaboration among member states.
The meeting concluded by stressing the importance of continued joint efforts to achieve the union’s objectives, elevate Arab media’s global status and present a positive, comprehensive image of the Arab world.
Pressure mounting on police to reverse ban on pro-Palestine march at BBC
- London’s Met Police banned rally amid concern over “serious disruption” to nearby synagogue
- Organizers pledge to hold Jan. 18 march following widespread backlash
LONDON: Calls are growing for London’s Metropolitan Police to reverse their decision to ban a planned pro-Palestine demonstration that was set to take place on Saturday outside the BBC headquarters.
The march’s organizers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and its coalition partners, issued a joint statement on Monday urging the police to reconsider their decision.
They also highlighted their commitment to proceeding with the protest, albeit along a revised route, following widespread backlash.
“PSC are calling on all those who support an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as everyone who believes in the democratic right to protest, to join us in London at 12 p.m. on Jan. 18,” the group said.
“We will assemble in Whitehall, which will allow us to form up in massive numbers in an orderly fashion, and we will march toward the BBC.”
In a statement sent to Arab News on Monday evening, Met spokesperson Chris Humphreys said that authorities were aware of the proposed new route and would meet with PSC representatives on Tuesday to discuss the matter further.
“The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has announced a new route for its march this Saturday. This route is a reversal of the original one that had been advertised,” said Humphreys.
“It is not one we have agreed and it would breach the conditions that have been imposed under the Public Order Act.
“We imposed those conditions because we were satisfied, after carefully considering the evidence, that a demonstration forming up in the vicinity of a synagogue on a Saturday, when congregants would be attending Shabbat services, would cause serious disruption. Our assessment is that a demonstration ending and dispersing from the same place would have the same impact.”
The decision to ban the march, announced last week, came amid concerns about potential “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue.
The police invoked the Public Order Act to prevent the rally — initially agreed upon in November — from gathering at the BBC’s headquarters.
The Metropolitan Police said that their decision followed consultations with local community and business representatives, including members of the synagogue’s congregation located “very close” to the rally’s proposed starting point.
The PSC has rejected claims that the march poses a threat to Jewish communities.
In a previous statement, the group said: “There has not been a single documented case of a threat or incident at a synagogue in relation to the national Palestine marches that have taken place over the last 15 months of the Gaza genocide.”
Ben Jamal, the PSC’s director, said on Monday: “Hundreds of thousands of people wish to continue to protest at our government’s ongoing complicity with Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
“They also wish to protest at the complicity of the BBC, which has failed to report the facts of this genocide, as revealed in recent investigations. There are no legitimate grounds for the police to impede our proposal to march from Whitehall to the BBC, finishing with a rally outside its HQ. We call upon the Met Police to make clear they will drop any conditions which will deny the right to protest as planned.”
Over the weekend, hundreds of political, social and cultural figures voiced their support for the right to demonstrate in solidarity with Palestine.
A letter organized by a Jewish bloc that regularly takes part in Palestine marches was signed by more than 700 members of the Jewish community.
Among the signatories were Holocaust survivors and their descendants, who also penned a public letter supporting the rally.
The PSC said that they have written to the police requesting a meeting about the march.
The PSC have been contacted for comment.
BBC editor ‘considering’ legal action against Owen Jones over Israeli bias claims
- Jones published a report accusing Raffi Berg and the BBC of ‘watering down everything that’s too critical of Israel’
- Investigation sparked wave of death threats against Berg via social media and email
LONDON: BBC Middle East online editor Raffi Berg is reportedly considering legal action against British journalist Owen Jones, following accusations in an investigative article that claimed Berg exhibited bias in favor of Israel.
The allegations have allegedly triggered a wave of online abuse and threats directed at the editor.
The 9,000-word article, titled “The BBC’s Civil War Over Gaza,” was published earlier in December by Drop Site, an investigative news platform.
In the report, Jones accused the BBC and its Middle East editor of favoring Israeli narratives in their coverage of the Gaza conflict and alleged that internal objections raised by staff were repeatedly dismissed.
According to The Times, the report has led to “a torrent of antisemitic abuse” against Berg, which BBC sources described as “the worst case of targeted abuse” they had seen at the organization.
Police are now investigating death threats made against Berg via social media and email.
Mark Lewis, a partner at the legal firm Patron Law, confirmed that he had been instructed to explore legal action on behalf of Berg.
In the article, Jones cited interviews with 13 current and former BBC staffers, who alleged that Berg “sets the tone for the BBC’s digital output on Israel and Palestine.”
One former journalist was quoted as saying: “This guy’s (Berg’s) entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel.”
Jones also claimed that internal complaints about the network’s Gaza coverage were “brushed aside” and that Berg had been given months to respond to the allegations but had not done so.
The BBC rejected the allegations, describing Berg’s role as “fundamentally mis-described.” It also denied claims that the organization had taken a lenient stance toward Israel during its coverage of the conflict in Gaza, where Israel’s war has now lasted 15 months.
The investigation has sparked significant public debate about the BBC’s impartiality in its reporting on the Gaza conflict.
While critics of the network, including Jones, have accused it of pro-Israel bias, others argue that the backlash against the BBC has fueled antisemitic rhetoric.
Jake Wallis Simons, writing in The Telegraph, criticized Jones and his supporters: “Brave Owen Jones has revealed that the corporation is actually the broadcasting equivalent of Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Moshe Dayan rolled into one. Phew! How typical of those cunning Jews to make everyone believe the opposite.”
A petition calling for Berg’s suspension has garnered 8,000 signatures, while another demands the resignation of Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News.
The controversy has coincided with the police banning a planned pro-Palestinian march near the BBC headquarters in London earlier this month.
The protest, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), cited Jones’s article in its criticism of the BBC.
In a statement, the PSC rejected any implication that its demonstrations posed a threat to Jewish communities: “The Palestine coalition rejects the implication that our marches are somehow hostile to or a threat to Jewish people.”
