I usually enjoy getting responses to my articles. Most people who take the trouble to write are positive and have interesting insights to share. However, two weeks ago I wrote about Iran and its proxies, “Is Iran 100 Times Worse Than Israel,” so I braced myself for the other kind of responses.
Most of the threatening messages I received were too offensive or badly written to quote. But just as a brief window into their racist and brutal mindset, here is one: “Arabs are morons and everybody knows that. If you leave one Israeli person in a room with Arabs you will see that he will slaughter the whole of you and leave no survivors… get your hands off Iran because you guys are nothing but scumbags.”
I can laugh off the crazed language, but I have seen many valued colleagues who, after writing about such taboo subjects, have been threatened, assaulted or murdered.
The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate last week reported that 445 journalists had been killed in Iraq since 2003.
Iraqi journalist Afrah Shawqi, who has a track record of criticizing government corruption and militia violence, last week reported on an Interior Ministry official who beat up a teacher after the school refused to expel a girl who accidently bumped into his daughter at an event. Just days after writing about this incident, Shawqi’s home was raided and she was abducted. We can only pray that she is safely released.
Bravery in the face of adversity
I recently chaired a conference at the invitation of the Swedish foreign minister, focusing on hate speech against female journalists; a phenomenon which technology has exacerbated through Internet trolling, exposure of private data and the ability to reach people anywhere in the world. This bravery in the face of adversity was inspiring; women risking their lives to report from the most dangerous places on earth.
One of the issues the Swedish Institute conference highlighted was the challenge for journalism in Putin’s Russia where the authorities can act with impunity against anybody who speaks out. One participant in the conference was sacked along with dozens of other colleagues for criticizing the authorities, so she courageously set up her own news site from outside Russia. The fate of other Russian reporters has been far worse.
Other colleagues faced threats from far-right extremists in Sweden and other European cities, also from drug warlords in Mexico.
The Committee to Protect Journalists confirmed the cases of 56 journalists murdered in Russia since 1992. The widely reported 2006 assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya was only the tip of the iceberg.
Pro-Kremlin online trolls
Putin likes to show that he can reach beyond Russia’s borders. At the Sweden Institute conference, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro talked about her investigation of pro-Kremlin online trolls. She found herself the victim of death threats, false accusations and social media stalking; systematically attempting to destroy her reputation and intimidate her into silence. The campaign was clearly state-driven; mobilizing protests against her newspaper and exposing personal information gleaned from spying on her family. If such a campaign can be waged in Finland, then who is safe?
Some of the most terrifying testimonies came from those investigating corruption in high places. As soon as you throw the spotlight on powerful figures, then some people will stop at nothing to silence you and ruin your life. In my native Lebanon, freedom of speech has been constrained by intimidation and violence. The LBC television anchor May Chidiac faced an assassination attempt in 2005 simply for criticizing Syria’s meddling and discussing the investigation into the killing of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. When paramilitaries undermine the sovereignty of the state, then freedom of expression is one of the first liberties to suffer.
Female journalists facing intimidation
One of the dark sides of the so-called Arab Spring was the new opportunity to intimidate and marginalize women. In Egypt, so many incidents were cited of security forces and gangs of men surrounding women in public events and inflicting the worst forms of abuse. Lara Logan from CBS News was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square. Many other international and Egyptian journalists suffered the same fate.
In too many countries reporting on political unrest is a crime. Journalists were detained and tortured in the 2009 post-elections unrest in Iran. The Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi-Ahmadabadi in 2003 was raped, tortured and killed by Iranian officials after she covered opposition demonstrations.
If you are a journalist in Iraq, Iran, Russia and elsewhere, the moment you speak out, your life is worth nothing. You become a target to be silenced. It is one thing for me to write from the relative safety of my own home; it is entirely another thing for somebody like Afrah Shawqi to fearlessly write, knowing the consequences.
We in the media and civil society have an obligation to make as much noise as possible about such cases. The bravest people in our world today cannot be allowed to disappear, while we shrug our shoulders and say “What a tragic story!” By speaking out, drawing attention to those responsible and turning their courageous victims into household names, we create a world where there is less impunity and violence has real consequences.
Iran-sponsored militia groups in Iraq crave legitimacy. They want to sit in Parliament, run government ministries and hope that we do not see the blood pouring off their hands for past and present atrocities. Those who run death squads and conduct campaigns of sectarian cleansing, who murder those whom criticize them, cannot be allowed to enjoy a shred of international legitimacy; otherwise their crimes become normalized. How are such crimes normalized? When we remain silent and brush them under the carpet.
I became a journalist because I believed that journalism could be a force for good. I am still a passionate believer in this, but only if we use our voices to speak out against injustice and loudly defend our colleagues who have been abducted, tortured and harmed because they spoke with their consciences.
Journalists like Atwar Bahjat, Zahra Kazemi-Ahmadabadi and Anna Politkovskaya are the true martyrs and heroes of our age. If only one in a hundred people had their courage and dedication, then despotism, arbitrary violence, demagoguery and incitement of hatred would be consigned to the dustbin of history.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate, a foreign editor at Al-Hayat, and has interviewed numerous heads of state.
Most of the threatening messages I received were too offensive or badly written to quote. But just as a brief window into their racist and brutal mindset, here is one: “Arabs are morons and everybody knows that. If you leave one Israeli person in a room with Arabs you will see that he will slaughter the whole of you and leave no survivors… get your hands off Iran because you guys are nothing but scumbags.”
I can laugh off the crazed language, but I have seen many valued colleagues who, after writing about such taboo subjects, have been threatened, assaulted or murdered.
The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate last week reported that 445 journalists had been killed in Iraq since 2003.
Iraqi journalist Afrah Shawqi, who has a track record of criticizing government corruption and militia violence, last week reported on an Interior Ministry official who beat up a teacher after the school refused to expel a girl who accidently bumped into his daughter at an event. Just days after writing about this incident, Shawqi’s home was raided and she was abducted. We can only pray that she is safely released.
Bravery in the face of adversity
I recently chaired a conference at the invitation of the Swedish foreign minister, focusing on hate speech against female journalists; a phenomenon which technology has exacerbated through Internet trolling, exposure of private data and the ability to reach people anywhere in the world. This bravery in the face of adversity was inspiring; women risking their lives to report from the most dangerous places on earth.
One of the issues the Swedish Institute conference highlighted was the challenge for journalism in Putin’s Russia where the authorities can act with impunity against anybody who speaks out. One participant in the conference was sacked along with dozens of other colleagues for criticizing the authorities, so she courageously set up her own news site from outside Russia. The fate of other Russian reporters has been far worse.
Other colleagues faced threats from far-right extremists in Sweden and other European cities, also from drug warlords in Mexico.
The Committee to Protect Journalists confirmed the cases of 56 journalists murdered in Russia since 1992. The widely reported 2006 assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya was only the tip of the iceberg.
Pro-Kremlin online trolls
Putin likes to show that he can reach beyond Russia’s borders. At the Sweden Institute conference, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro talked about her investigation of pro-Kremlin online trolls. She found herself the victim of death threats, false accusations and social media stalking; systematically attempting to destroy her reputation and intimidate her into silence. The campaign was clearly state-driven; mobilizing protests against her newspaper and exposing personal information gleaned from spying on her family. If such a campaign can be waged in Finland, then who is safe?
Some of the most terrifying testimonies came from those investigating corruption in high places. As soon as you throw the spotlight on powerful figures, then some people will stop at nothing to silence you and ruin your life. In my native Lebanon, freedom of speech has been constrained by intimidation and violence. The LBC television anchor May Chidiac faced an assassination attempt in 2005 simply for criticizing Syria’s meddling and discussing the investigation into the killing of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. When paramilitaries undermine the sovereignty of the state, then freedom of expression is one of the first liberties to suffer.
Female journalists facing intimidation
One of the dark sides of the so-called Arab Spring was the new opportunity to intimidate and marginalize women. In Egypt, so many incidents were cited of security forces and gangs of men surrounding women in public events and inflicting the worst forms of abuse. Lara Logan from CBS News was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square. Many other international and Egyptian journalists suffered the same fate.
In too many countries reporting on political unrest is a crime. Journalists were detained and tortured in the 2009 post-elections unrest in Iran. The Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi-Ahmadabadi in 2003 was raped, tortured and killed by Iranian officials after she covered opposition demonstrations.
If you are a journalist in Iraq, Iran, Russia and elsewhere, the moment you speak out, your life is worth nothing. You become a target to be silenced. It is one thing for me to write from the relative safety of my own home; it is entirely another thing for somebody like Afrah Shawqi to fearlessly write, knowing the consequences.
We in the media and civil society have an obligation to make as much noise as possible about such cases. The bravest people in our world today cannot be allowed to disappear, while we shrug our shoulders and say “What a tragic story!” By speaking out, drawing attention to those responsible and turning their courageous victims into household names, we create a world where there is less impunity and violence has real consequences.
Iran-sponsored militia groups in Iraq crave legitimacy. They want to sit in Parliament, run government ministries and hope that we do not see the blood pouring off their hands for past and present atrocities. Those who run death squads and conduct campaigns of sectarian cleansing, who murder those whom criticize them, cannot be allowed to enjoy a shred of international legitimacy; otherwise their crimes become normalized. How are such crimes normalized? When we remain silent and brush them under the carpet.
I became a journalist because I believed that journalism could be a force for good. I am still a passionate believer in this, but only if we use our voices to speak out against injustice and loudly defend our colleagues who have been abducted, tortured and harmed because they spoke with their consciences.
Journalists like Atwar Bahjat, Zahra Kazemi-Ahmadabadi and Anna Politkovskaya are the true martyrs and heroes of our age. If only one in a hundred people had their courage and dedication, then despotism, arbitrary violence, demagoguery and incitement of hatred would be consigned to the dustbin of history.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate, a foreign editor at Al-Hayat, and has interviewed numerous heads of state.
