Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor about Russian strikes on four radio and TV towers in Ukraine since March 1 that constitute a war crime.

The strikes have prevented Ukrainian media from broadcasting. At least 32 TV channels and several dozen radio stations have been affected, reports the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, it has deliberately targeted TV antennae throughout the country.

Under international law, antennae used for broadcasting radio and TV signals cannot be regarded as legitimate military targets unless they are used by the armed forces, or are temporarily assigned to military use, or are used for both civilian and military purposes at the same time.

RSF’s complaint demonstrates that the TV towers were civilian in nature, and that Russia deliberately targeted Ukrainian media installations because, Russia said, these installations were participating in “information attacks”.

The complaint filed by RSF emphasises the intentional nature of these attacks, and the fact that they are being carried out on a large scale, which shows that they are part of a deliberate plan.

“Deliberately bombarding many media installations such as television antennae constitutes a war crime and demonstrates the scale of the offensive launched by Putin against the right to news and information,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

Plea on crimes against media
“These crimes are all the more serious for clearly being part of a plan, part of a policy, and for being carried out on a large scale. We call on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to put crimes against media and journalists at the heart of the investigation he opened on February 28.”

The ICC’s chief prosecutor announced on February 28 that he was opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine.

On March 2, 39 countries that are parties to the Rome Statute (the treaty establishing the ICC) formally referred the situation in Ukraine to the prosecutor.

These referrals allow him to begin his investigations at once, without having to seek authorisation from the court’s judges first.

After Kyiv being fired on by the Russian armed forces for the previous week, the city’s TV tower was hit by a precision strike on March 1 that abruptly terminated broadcasting by 32 TV channels and several dozen national radio stations.

This deliberate strike had been announced in advance by the Russian Defence Ministry. Under the guise of protecting civilians, the Defence Ministry issued a signed confession to its crimes.

The Kyiv TV tower — which had an adjoining technical building that was destroyed by the bombardment — had no military use and was used only by civilian TV and radio stations, such as the public TV channel UA Pershiy, the privately-owned TV channel 1+1 and the TV news channel Ukraine 24.

Broadcasts were cut short
The viewers and listeners of these media outlets, whose broadcasts were cut short by the Russian strike, had to switch to satellite operators or go online to access their programming until broadcasting was reinstated later in the day.

The Russian strike killed Evgeny Sakun, a cameraman working for the Kyiv Live local TV channel who was at the TV tower, and four other people.

Since that first major attack on an essential installation for accessing news and information, Russia has attacked other TV towers.

According to the information obtained by RSF and its local partner IMI, at least three other radio and TV towers, in Korosten, Lysychansk and Kharkiv, have been the targets of Russian strikes, and two radio antennae, in Melitopol and Kherson, stopped broadcasting after Russian soldiers took control of those cities.

Strikes targeted the TV tower in the city of Lysychansk (in the Luhansk region, whose independence Russia has recognised) late in the morning of March 2. The radio and TV tower in the northeastern city Kharkiv was targeted by two Russian missiles shortly before 1 pm, causing its broadcast to be suspended.

Later the same day, another strike destroyed the TV tower in the norther city of Korosten.

These strikes against telecommunications antennae show a clear intention by the Russian armed forces to prevent the dissemination of news and information. The warning issued shortly before the attacks makes it clear that Russian military want to end what they call “information attacks”.

This desire is confirmed by the fact that the Russian army has cut Ukrainian TV and radio signals in several cities after taking control of them. In the southern region that Russia has invaded from Crimea, the occupation forces have blocked Ukrainian TV and radio broadcasts from the telecommunication towers in the cities of Melitopol and Kherson.

Russian ‘fake news’ law cripples media
The equipment on these towers has been changed and they are now broadcasting the pro-Kremlin propaganda channel Russia 24.

The satellite signal of UA Pershiy, a TV channel owned by the Ukrainian public broadcasting corporation Suspline, is meanwhile being subjected to jamming attempts by Russia, and its website was hacked on March 1.

Meanwhile, RSF has called on the Russian authorities to immediately repeal a draconian law adopted on March 4 that makes the publication of “false” or “mendacious” information about the Russian armed forces punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

It leaves little hope for the future of the country’s few remaining independent media outlets.

Many leading foreign media — including the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg News, ABC, CBS News and Canada’s CBC/Radio-Canada — have decided to temporarily suspend broadcasting or news gathering in Russia since the amendment, which applies to foreign as well as Russian citizens, was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine is ranked 97th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index, while Russia is ranked 150th.

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The national news team of Papua New Guinea’s major television channel, EMTV, walked out last night in protest over a decision earlier this month to suspend head of news Sincha Dimara for alleged insubordination.

They have condemned the political “endless intimidation” of the news service which has led to the suspension or sacking of three news managers in the past five years.

The news team has vowed to not return until the “wrongs have been righted” by the EMTV management with Dimara, a journalist of 30 years experience, being reinstated, and acting CEO Lesieli Vete being “sidelined and investigated for putting EMTV News into disrepute”.

In a statement signed by the “Newsroom 2022” team made public tonight, the team apologised to viewers for not broadcasting last night’s news bulletin.

“With all that has happened in the last eight days, the EMTV News team has decided to walk off producing EMTV News for tonight, Thursday, 17th February 2022,” the statement said.

“We, therefore demand that Ms Dimara be reinstated and for interim CEO Lesieli Vete to be sidelined and investigated for putting EMTV News into disrepute.

“We no longer have confidence in her leadership.

Apology to viewers
“The EMTV Newsroom would like to apologise to our viewers for not bringing you tonight’s news bulletin. We will return when the wrongs have been righted.”

The controversy arose over a series of news stories about Australian hotel businessman Jamie Pang and his court cases.

According to the newsroom statement, on Monday, 7 February 2022, “a fraction of the EMTV News team was verbally notified of a decision made by EMTV management to suspend EMTV’s head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara for a 21-day period”.

The statement said the decision had been based on two grounds:

“Purported insubordination over a series of news stories relating to Jamie Pang and his associates and damaging the reputation of EMTV, which the interim CEO claims EMTV received negative comments from the public on the airing of Jamie Pang’s stories.”

The news team said the issue could have been “handled better” by the interim CEO Vete who “lacked a demonstration of leadership”.

“We are dismayed at the extreme harsh treatment of our head of news and the continuous interferences from outside the newsroom,” the statement said.

Third suspension in five years
“This is the third time in a space of five years for an EMTV news manager to be suspended due to external influence.”

• Scott Waide was the first manager suspended in 2018 over a story aired during the 2018 APEC meeting.
• Neville Choi was terminated in August 2019, also on grounds of “insubordination”.
• And now Sincha Dimara was placed in a similar situation.

On Wednesday, 9 February 2022, the news team wrote a letter to Vete expressing concern on the suspension of Dimara.

According to the news team, Vete queried the letter demanding to know which staff members were involved in sending out the letter.

The same day, Thursday, 10 February 2022, the entire news team expressed their concern in another letter with signatures from all individual members to support the call to re-instate Dimara.

“We are certain that the manner and approach taken by the interim CEO over the suspension of Ms Dimara is not right,” said the news team.

“We consider the grounds of suspension to be shallow, contradictory and irrelevant.

News reports ‘unbiased and factual’
“The news team strongly believes that the stories that ran on the nightly news relating to Jamie Pang were unbiased and reported with facts and did not impede on any of the current laws nor did not implicate anyone.”

On Thursday, 10 February 2022, the EMTV management team, acting CEO of Telikom – the owners of EMTV’s parent company Media Niugini Limited (MNL)  — and few senior officers met with the news team and explained their decision to suspend Dimara.

The management team initiated an audit investigation into the situation to determine what went wrong. That investigation is still continuing.

After that meeting, the news team wrote another letter addressed to Telikom acting CEO, Amos Tepi and copied in the chairman of Telikom, Johnson Pundari which was sent to both Tepi and Pundari yesterday – February 17.

“The decision to suspend Dimara is wrong as it breaches the Media Code of Ethics which is to report without fear or favour,” the news team said.

The team also said it was standing up against continuous intimidation from the interim CEO.

‘Endless intimidation’
“We condemn the endless direct or indirect intimidation which includes:

• Threats of terminating news members for not putting together a news bulletin;
• Micromanaging daily news production by being present in the master control room during live news;
• Forcing the news team to sign a recently drafted news manual through the HR Department; and
• Attempts to single out individual staff and asking if they have read the news manual or finding out if they have completed a degree or diploma in their respective fields.

Under Dimara’s leadership, EMTV News has won the award for AVN Outstanding Reporting from the Pacific category for a well-documented series, Last Man Standing, which covered the political life of a founding father of Papua New Guinea, Sir Julius Chan.

Dimara was planning the coverage of Papua New Guinea’s 2022 National Elections and the news team insist they need her leadership.

There was no immediate public response from the EMTV management to the news team’s walkout protest last night, nor was there any mention of the absence of the nightly bulletin on the new channel’s website.

Several media freedom monitoring organisations have made statements with the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemning the “unacceptable political meddling” and calling for immediate reinstatement of Sincha Dimara.

The Paris-based International Federation of Journalists also condemned Dimara’s suspension and urged the company to immediately reinstate her.  Pacific Media Watch reported on the ongoing intimidation of EMTV editorial staff.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz