United Kingdom

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that the U.K. government should take action to secure the release of Jimmy Lai and other imprisoned journalists based on the report of Britain’s All-Party Parliamentary Group about Hong Kong media freedom.

Tech firms and privacy groups say the bill represents a threat to encryption and secure communication. Rights groups are worried that the outsourcing of decisions on illegal content to private platforms could incentivise the over-removal of legitimate content.

“Whilst we understand the UK government’s aim to update its espionage laws to protect national security, the draft Bill contains broad and vague definitions that we believe will, even if unintentionally, impact on legitimate whistleblowers and public interest journalism.”

“The threat these days doesn’t come just from repressive governments like those in Russia or Turkey. Nor it is even confined to democratic states on the road to authoritarianism like Hungary and Poland. It now also comes from elected governments in states whose democracies appear in better health, such as France, Greece, Italy, and the UK.”

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has sent a model anti-SLAPP law to the UK Secretary of State for Justice. The model law outlines how best the UK Government can make good on its commitment to reform the law to introduce robust anti-SLAPP measures and protect those holding the powerful to account.

In Spain, two journalists were arrested while filming an action by Futuro Vegetal activists at the Prado Museum in Madrid; in the UK, three journalists were arrested while covering Just Stop Oil protests on the M25 motorway in Hertfordshire.

Rather than strengthening rights, the UK has proposed repealing and replacing the Human Rights Act, and its new home secretary has previously called for withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. There are also deep concerns over the government’s approach to refugees and gender and reproductive rights.

The prominent activist has entered a full hunger strike in protest of his unjust detention as Egypt hosts the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

In a joint letter to the UK Foreign Secretary, rights groups raise the draconian sentences handed to Salma al-Shehab and several others who have been imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

Investigative journalist Scott Stedman, his US media company Forensic News, and three of his colleagues, are facing legal proceedings over their reporting on a British-Israeli businessman summoned by the US Senate Intelligence Committee. The case is expected to go to trial before the end of 2022.

Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on charges linked to Wikileaks’s publication of information in the public interest.

CPJ is deeply saddened by reports that indicate that Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were killed while working in the Amazon, and urges Brazilian authorities to ensure a timely forensic analysis and, if their deaths are confirmed, to thoroughly investigate their deaths and bring all those responsible to justice.

Authorities lost precious time after Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips went missing. More than 30 hours later, the army command for the Amazon region – which has significant resources in the area – said it was still waiting for the order to join the search.

When the UK granted Alaa Abd El-Fattah citizenship in April, it took responsibility for upholding his rights. Civil society organisations, IFEX among them, urge the UK Foreign Office to act now to save his life.

“We ask you, Home Secretary, to honour the UK government’s commitment to protecting and promoting media freedom and reject the US extradition request. We ask you to release Mr Assange from Belmarsh prison and allow him to return to his young family after many years of isolation.”

So long as the US and UK governments are content to ignore the torture, unfair trials, and killing of protesters and government critics, Bahrain’s monarchy will feel at ease to continue its policy of systematic repression.