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New report lists 142 serious attacks on journalists in 2019

In a statement issued ahead of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejinovi Buri calls on governments to avoid unduly restricting media freedom during the COVID-19 crisis.

Governments are facing unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, but the situation must not be used to silence or hinder journalists, said the Secretary General. Media must be free to report on all aspects of the crisis. Journalists have a key role and a special responsibility for providing timely, accurate and reliable information to the public. They must be able to scrutinise the decisions of authorities in response to the pandemic. Through responsible reporting, journalists can also help prevent panic from spreading and highlight positive examples of solidarity in our societies. I have been personally impressed and encouraged by the many media reports I have seen of citizens helping each other and of carers, nurses, doctors and other heroes on the frontline of this crisis.

The Secretary General also expressed her concern at the findings of the annual report of the Council of Europes Platform for the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists, compiled by 14 media freedom NGOs, highlighting a trend of violence and intimidation against journalists over the last year.

Unfortunately, the worrying trend of violence and intimidation against journalists observed in recent years continues. Too many journalists are in prison and there are too many cases of impunity for the killing of journalists. I am also aware of the difficult economic situation that many journalists find themselves in today", she said.

The Secretary General encouraged member states to protect the role of journalists as watchdogs and as an important part of the necessary checks and balances in democratic societies. The 2020 annual report of the Platform for the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists, published yesterday by 14 international NGOs, lists 142 serious threats to journalists in the 47 Council of Europe member states. This includes 33 physical attacks against journalists, 17 new cases of detention and imprisonment, 43 cases of harassment and intimidation and two new cases of impunity for murder. The NGOs express concern over a total of 22 pending cases of impunity for the killing of journalists and state that at least 105 journalists were in prison by the end of 2019.

Press releaseSecretary General: Governments must protect the essential role of journalists in democracy, especially in times of crisis

Statement by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Statement by David Zalkaliani, President of the Committee of Ministers

Link:
Secretary General: Governments must protect essential role of journalists in democracy, especially in times of crisis - Council of Europe

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

Our world faces a common enemy: COVID-19, United Nations Secretary General Antnio Guterres said on March 23rd. The virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all, relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the worldThe fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.

Guterres ceasefire plea has yielded some positive results. By April 3rd, he reported ceasefires in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Burma/Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Actual ceasefires are hard to document, as the so-called fog of war clouds attempts to wage peace. To silence the guns, he added, we must raise the voices for peace.

Guterres makes a vital point: the novel coronavirus is a common enemy, capable, as we have painfully learned, of killing huge numbers, regardless of the flag one flies. As the outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated, even staying aboard a $5 billion nuclear naval vessel offers no protection. And COVID-19s extreme contagiousness will certainly be on the mind of close to 1,000 West Point cadets, the newest of the U.S. Armys elite officer corps. They vacated their historic campus in March, when the Army declared a public health emergency. They are now being forced back to campus in June, after President Donald Trump abruptly announced that he would be delivering the commencement address at their previously-cancelled graduation ceremony.

Antnio Guterres noted in his ceasefire plea, The most vulnerable women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and the displaced pay the highest price.

Refugees from conflicts across the world are often held in camps that are crowded and lack proper sanitation a breeding ground for COVID-19. At a sprawling refugee camp on the island of Chios, in Greece, long described as a hellhole, occupants recently protested the death of an Iraqi woman there, after she suffered a fever. Camp residents believed the death was due to COVID-19, and that she suffered, as they all do there, from dismal medical treatment. On either side of the U.S/Mexico border, asylum seekers face the threat of infection, either in squalid camps that have sprung up in Mexican border cities as a result of the Trump administrations remain in Mexico policy, or in immigration jails like the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego a private prison run by CoreCivic where prisoners have been pepper sprayed and attacked by guards for demanding access to protective face masks.

Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and Lebanon also suffer heightened risks of COVID-19 infection, exacerbated by many decades of systemic impoverishment, poor sanitation, and the denial of access to medical care.

COVID-19 has prompted a look back at previous pandemics, including the 1918 flu that swept the planet, killing an estimated 50-100 million people. It may even have hastened the end World War I, wiping out thousands of soldiers on both sides. The illness has long been called The Spanish Flu, a misnomer, as it almost certainly did not originate in Spain. News was censored in the warring countries of France, Britain and Germany, but not in Spain, which became the key source of European pandemic news, hence the name. An outbreak in Kansas led to infection of thousands of U.S. soldiers bound for the war in Europe, which added to the deadly flus global spread.

Much earlier in WWI, long before the scourge of the flu, a remarkable, albeit short-lived, ceasefire occurred. On Christmas Eve 1914, along the Western Front, German soldiers sang carols from their trenches, and soon British and French troops followed suit. By daybreak, an informal ceasefire had taken hold. Soldiers left their trenches, embracing their enemies in No Mans Land, playing pickup soccer games and sharing champagne and cigarettes.

That pandemic, that war, and the Christmas Truce are distant memories now. Have we learned anything? How we confront the coronavirus as a global community will tell. UN Secretary General Antnio Guterres concluded his ceasefire call last March 23rd, when the number of confirmed cases globally was only 300,000 it has since grown to over 3 million: End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world. It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere. Now.

Read more from the original source:
The Fury of the Virus, the Folly of War - Democracy Now!

The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, on April 29, 2020.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

They gather in small groups in the cloak room. They huddle in the marble corridors. Their aides lean over their shoulders at hearings. They whisper confidences on the floor. They crowd into the Members Only elevators to reach the chamber. They march shoulder to shoulder out of the building to return to their suites. They greet their constituents in tiny vestibules. They share bourbon and bonhomie in tucked-away retreats known as hideaways like the one, nicknamed The Board of Education, where in 1945 Harry Truman learned he had become president after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died.

There may be no more dangerous occupation in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic than caregiver or lawmaker.

Which is why a branch of the U.S. government built on up-close-and-personal interchanges an institution the 19th-century statesman Daniel Webster called a hall for mutual consultation and discussion is embroiled in one of its most intense debates of the new century: Can an exclusive club where the most damaging epithet hurled at its members is a charge of being remote operate remotely in an emergency? Can a national capital where personal capital is built by being in the room convene in lawmakers living rooms dispersed across a continent?

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Those questions are roiling an institution so marinated in tradition that former senator Robert Byrds lectures on Senate customs and folklore fill 724 pages of an oversized bound volume and still omits the past 31 years of debates, dithering and delays. Indeed, before the Senate agreed to broadcast its proceedings, it took 64 years of sober contemplation and devout protests that the character of the body would be compromised. The Senate has been contemplating the nature of the filibuster for 179 years and is still unresolved over the issue.

For just as long, the movement of legislation onto the House floor has been regulated by the rules committee, which meets in a tiny room in the Capitol with only 13 seats. Thats by design," said Sarah Binder, a George Washington University congressional scholar. You actually have to be in the room to get your amendment on the floor. These guys exploit small spaces.

Now the coronavirus has made meeting in small spaces unacceptable and technological advances have made the notion of remote sessions more acceptable than after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks on Congress that followed.

We have so much to do and were not engaged," Republican Senator Rob Portman said in an interview. It is possible to do remote meetings and do them securely. Its like doing a financial transaction. You have a code for each transaction. If it isnt smart to be in Washington, we still have responsibilities. We are spending billions and have to be involved.

The Capitols attending physician advised this week that it was too dangerous for lawmakers the average age of the Senate is 61.8 years, and the two top House leaders are both 80 to gather on Capitol Hill. The Democratic-controlled House followed his recommendation. The Republican-controlled Senate, with barbed asides suggesting House members were cowards and sissies, is resisting doctors orders and will meet next week.

But the question of remote sessions is in the air, as it has been for two centuries.

It first surfaced in 1814, when British troops invaded Washington in revenge for the American burning of York, later known as Toronto. They ignited the Executive Mansion (later the White House) and set fire to the Capitol, destroying its interior and its furnishings and prompting debate about moving Congress to Philadelphia. Instead, lawmakers met in Blodgetts Hotel and then in temporary quarters called the Brick Capitol, situated where the Supreme Court stands today.

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There was no technology for remote sessions during the 1918 influenza pandemic that claimed three House members and was so virulent that 1,130 people died in a two-week period in Washington. Congressional galleries were closed for a month.

Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reluctant to contemplate remote sessions and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who built his power base in intimate personal entreaties, is resistant.

But Congress has held hearings around the country, on environmental issues in Colorado, for example, and on financial issues in New York. This week Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested remote hearings on coronavirus testing.

Last month, Democratic Representative Katie Porter began a push to hold House sessions remotely. But her allies thought she was a problematic advocate as a single mother of three living where there are no non-stop flights to Washington. It looked too much like a matter of convenience for her.

But if you wait and wait on this there may be some time they cant come back at all and will wish they had addressed this, said Norman Ornstein, a political scientist with the American Enterprise Institute. Its possible the House physician may say they shouldnt come back until summertime.

Still, remote sessions would alter the character of an institution where senator Barry Goldwater said of Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, known for nose-to-nose confrontations with colleagues, When hed talk to you hed breathe in your mouth. The Johnson Treatment, as it was known, would be condemned in the coronavirus era.

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Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives will not return to Washington next week as planned, due to the continuing risk of coronavirus infection, Democratic leaders said on Tuesday. Reuters

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See the article here:
Can U.S. lawmakers live with remote democracy in the age of COVID-19? - The Globe and Mail

Editor:

Governor Jay Inslee of the state of Washington recently referred to some of President Donald Trumps comments as unhinged rantings." An examination of the presidents statements during the week of April 12-18 not only confirms Governor Inslees opinion, it also gives credence to the opinion of those who feel Donald Trump may be a threat to democracy.

At a White House Coronavirus briefing that week, Trump said, When somebodys the president of the United States, the authority is total and thats the way its got to be. Two days later he encouraged people to protest against the policies of some governors regarding the coronavirus pandemic. He did this by tweeting, Liberate Michigan and Liberate Minnesota. He went one step further regarding the state of Virginia by tweeting, Liberate Virginia and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege.

His words sound like those of an authoritarian dictator who advocates violence in order to achieve his goals. They should be of grave concern to us all.

Gordon Mulligan

Englewood

Read more:
LETTER: Trump becoming threat to democracy | Letters To Editor - yoursun.com

Griffiths is a contributor to Independent Voter News, where an earlier version of this piece first appeared.

Michigan's Justin Amash has a storied history as a political outsider in Washington. Although he's won five terms in Congress with an "R" next to his name, he often bucked the establishment and party line on issues such as spending, war, government surveillance and marijuana legalization.

He quit the Republican Party 10 months ago and is the only member listed as an independent on the official House roster. And on Tuesday he announced he would explore a run for the Libertarian Party's nomination for president which would mean putting his rebellious streak on the national line by mounting a longshot challenge to the flawed ways the two major parties monopolize our democratic system.

Here is a little background: Amash was the only GOP member of the House to come out in favor of impeaching President Trump, almost a year ago. By then he had established a reputation as one of the few Republicans to consistently speak out against the president.

Amash's support for impeachment drew the ire of the group in which he was once a prominent figure: the House Freedom Caucus. It was a decision that also put a major target on his back.

On the Republican side, the party would no doubt run well-funded challengers to oust him in the primary. On the other side, Democrats saw an opportunity to flip his seat. So, Amash was feeling pressure from both parties to get out of Congress.

Instead, he dropped the GOP party label last July and declared himself an independent, which made his path to reelection much more challenging given how the current system emphasizes a limited choice for voters red or blue, Republican or Democrat.

Now, Amash looks to be headed up or out. He announced in April that he had stopped actively campaigning for reelection although he still remains in the race. And on Tuesday night he went onTwitter to unveil a new website, "Amash for America," that strongly signaled his intent to run for president.

"We're ready," the homepage says, for "an end to cronyism" and "an honest, principled president who will defend the Constitution and put individuals first."

A third party contender who has built the sort of public profile Amash has could shake up the race drawing votes from both sides of the aisle and bringing in independents. However, this means he would immediately be scapegoated as a spoiler. And, no matter the outcome, he would be blamed by the losing major party for its defeat in November.

Kurt Couchman, who used to work in Amash's Washington congressional office, penned an op-ed for CNN.com in July 2019 describing how Amash could change the electoral landscape in 2020. But he also noted that, to avoid the spoiler effect, presidential elections needed a reform such as ranked-choice voting.

"To ensure that the ultimate victor has a mandate Congress and the States should enact ranked-choice voting without delay," he wrote. "The stakes for 2020 are incredibly high, and the American people need clear outcomes."

But, to the potential benefit of those who want pro-voter reform, the choose-one voting method is not the only flaw in our current system that would be brought front and center should Amash run.

He would also raise awareness to the fact that:

A high-profile independent or third party presidential campaign, whether people support it or not, would provide pro-voter reformers further evidence why the United States desperately needs to rethink its political system and transform its electoral process nationwide.

It could build on the tremendous momentum the reform community continues to see.

Visit IVN.us for more coverage from Independent Voter News.

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How a Justin Amash presidential bid could help the cause of democracy reform - The Fulcrum