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Vietnam arrests prominent journalist over Facebook posts

Vietnam arrests prominent journalist over Facebook posts
A photo taken on April 3, 2024 shows the logo of US online social media and social networking service Facebook on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. (AFP)
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Updated 08 June 2024
AFP
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Vietnam arrests prominent journalist over Facebook posts

Vietnam arrests prominent journalist over Facebook posts
Updated 08 June 2024
AFP
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BANGKOK: Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a leading independent journalist for “abusing democratic freedoms” to undermine the state by posting articles on Facebook, police announced on Saturday.
Huy Duc was detained for investigation for posts that “violate the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” the Ministry of Public Security said.
The 62-year-old former senior lieutenant worked for several influential newspapers in Vietnam before being fired in 2009 for criticizing the country’s former communist ally the Soviet Union.
Shortly before his arrest, Duc took aim at Vietnam’s new president To Lam, as well as Nguyen Phu Trong, the communist party general secretary and most powerful individual in the country’s political system.
Lawyer Tran Dinh Trien was held along with Duc on the same charges.
Communist one-party Vietnam has strict curbs on freedom of expression, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks it 174th out of 180 countries for press freedom, describing it as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists.
Duc’s blog, one of the most popular in authoritarian Vietnam, was highly critical of government responses on issues including control of the media, relations with China and corruption.
Duc, whose real name is Truong Huy San, spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship in 2012. During his time abroad, his account of life in Vietnam after the end of the war with the United States, “The Winning Side,” was published.
RSF called for his release.
“The articles of independent journalist Huy Duc are an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime,” RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Director Cedric Alviani said in a statement.
Rights campaigners say the government has in recent years stepped up a crackdown on civil society, while thousands of people, including several senior government and business leaders, have been caught up in a massive anti-graft campaign.
“No country can develop sustainably based on fear,” Duc wrote on Facebook in May.

Topics: Vietnam Facebook journalism

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AFP photographer wins top prize for Gaza coverage

AFP photographer wins top prize for Gaza coverage
Updated 08 September 2024
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AFP photographer wins top prize for Gaza coverage

AFP photographer wins top prize for Gaza coverage
Updated 08 September 2024
AFP

PERPIGNAN, France: Palestinian AFP photographer Mahmud Hams has won the prestigious Visa d’Or News prize for his coverage of the conflict in Gaza, the Visa pour l’Image Association announced Saturday.
The 44-year-old, who has worked for AFP in the Palestinian territory since 2003, thanked the jury for the award in a recorded video message aired at the ceremony in Perpignan, France.
In a statement issued by AFP, he denounced the targeting of journalists during the conflict.
“I spent my childhood in Gaza, and in 23 years of photojournalism, I have witnessed every war, every conflict there,” said Hams in the statement.
“But this war is unlike any other, without precedent from the very first day.
“My colleagues and I have had to face incredibly difficult conditions, with no red lines and no protections for anyone,” he added.
“There were even attacks targeting journalists’ offices, which are supposed to be off-limits in times of war.
“Many journalists have been killed; others wounded. I’ve also lost friends and loved ones. We struggled to keep our families safe,” he said.
Hams left Gaza with his family in February.
“I hope the photos we take show the world that this war, and the suffering, must end,” he added.
Eric Baradat, AFP’s Deputy News Director for Photo, Graphics, Data and Archives, paid tribute to his work.
“Mahmud and his colleagues, photographers and journalists from AFP in the Gaza Strip, have carried out extraordinary work in every respect, considering the conditions in which they lived with their families and loved ones,” he said.
“It is staggering and often unimaginable. Their testimony will be recorded in history,” he added.
After the deadly October 7 attack carried out by Hamas on Israel sparked the war, AFP relied on its Gaza bureau, staffed by nine journalists, to cover the conflict from within the besieged Palestinian territory.
On November 2, the office building, which had been evacuated a few days earlier, was badly damaged by a strike, probably caused by Israeli tank fire, according to an investigation conducted by AFP and several international media outlets.

 

Topics: Palestine Gaza US Palestinian AFP photographer Mahmud Hams

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Brazil’s X ban drives outraged Bolsonaro supporters to rally for ‘free speech’

Brazil’s X ban drives outraged Bolsonaro supporters to rally for ‘free speech’
Updated 08 September 2024
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Brazil’s X ban drives outraged Bolsonaro supporters to rally for ‘free speech’

Brazil’s X ban drives outraged Bolsonaro supporters to rally for ‘free speech’
  • The former president has urged his loyalists to stay away from official independence day parades and instead join him in Sao Paulo
  • X platform owner Elon Musk has also urged Brazilians to turn out in droves for the rally as he hit back against a judicial order banning X
  • Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered X banned in the country for refusing to block accounts that were being used to undermine Brazilian democracy
Updated 08 September 2024
AP

SAO PAULO: Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began flooding Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally Saturday, buoyed by the government’s blocking of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution.
A few thousand demonstrators, clad in the yellow-and-green colors of Brazil’s flag, poured onto Av. Paulista. References to the ban on X and images of Musk abounded.
“Thank you for defending our freedom,” read one banner praising the tech entrepreneur.
Saturday’s march is a test of Bolsonaro’s capacity to mobilize turnout ahead of the October municipal elections, even though Brazil’s electoral court has barred him from running for office until 2030. It’s also something of a referendum on X, whose suspension has raised eyebrows even among some of Bolsonaro’s opponents all the while stoking the flames of Brazil’s deep-seated political polarization.
“A country without liberty can’t celebrate anything this day,” Bolsonaro wrote on his Instagram account Sept 4., urging Brazilians to stay away from official independence day parades and instead join him in Sao Paulo.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X’s nationwide ban on Aug. 30 after months of feuding with Musk over the limits of free speech. The powerful judge has spearheaded efforts to ban far-right users from spreading misinformation on social media, and he ramped up his clampdown after die-hard Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and the presidential palace on Jan. 8, 2023, in an attempt to overturn Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential election.
The ban is red meat to Bolsonaro’s allies, who have accused the judiciary and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government of colluding to silence their movement.
“Elon Musk has been a warrior for freedom of speech,” staunch Bolsonaro ally and lawmaker Bia Kicis said in an interview. “The right is being oppressed, massacred, because the left doesn’t want the right to exist.”
“Our liberties are in danger, we need to make our voices heard. De Moraes is a tyrant, he should be impeached, and people on the streets is the only thing that will convince politicians to do it,” added retiree Amaro Santos as he walked down the thoroughfare Saturday,
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has also urged Brazilians to turn out in droves for the rally, resharing someone else’s post claiming that X’s ban had awakened people “to the fact that freedom isn’t free and needs to be fought for.” He’s also created an X account, named for the controversial jurist, to publish sealed court orders directing X to shut down accounts deemed unlawful.
But De Moraes’ decision to ban X was far from arbitrary, having been upheld by fellow Supreme Court justices. And while expression, online and elsewhere, is more easily censored under Brazil’s laws than it is in the US, Musk has emerged as both a cause célèbre and a mouthpiece for unrestricted free speech.
Since 2019, X has shut down 226 accounts of far-right activities accused of undermining Brazil’s democracy, including those of lawmakers affiliated with Bolsonaro’s party, according to court records.
But when it refused to take action on some accounts, de Moraes warned last month that its legal representative could be arrested, prompting X to disband its local office. The US-based company refused to name a new representative — as required in order to receive court notices — and de Moraes ordered its nationwide suspension until it did so.
A Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld de Moraes’ decision to block X days later, undermining Musk’s efforts to cast him as an authoritarian bent on censoring political speech.
The more controversial component of his ruling was the levy of a whopping $9,000 daily fine for regular Brazilians using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X.
“Some of these measures that have been adopted by the Supreme Court appear to be quite onerous and abusive,” said Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel.
In the lead-up to Saturday’s protest, some right-wing politicians defied de Moraes’ ban and brazenly used a VPN to publish posts on X, calling for people to partake in the protests.
The march in Sao Paulo is organized in parallel to official events to celebrate Brazil’s anniversary of independence from Portugal. Commemorations have been fraught with tension in recent years, as Bolsonaro used them while in office to rally supporters and show political strength.
Three years ago, he threatened to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis when he declared he would no longer abide de Moraes’ rulings. He has since toned down the attacks — a reflection of his own delicate legal situation.
Bolsonaro has been indicted twice since his term ended in 2022, most recently for alleged money laundering in connection with undeclared diamonds from Saudi Arabia. De Moraes is overseeing an investigation into the Jan. 8 riot, including whether Bolsonaro had a role in inciting it.
 

Topics: Brazil Jair Bolsonaro X platform

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Telegram chief Durov announces ‘new features’ to combat illicit content

Telegram chief Durov announces ‘new features’ to combat illicit content
Updated 07 September 2024
AFP
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Telegram chief Durov announces ‘new features’ to combat illicit content

Telegram chief Durov announces ‘new features’ to combat illicit content
  • Durov said Telegram had removed the “people nearby” feature, which allowed users to locate other Telegram users but he said “was used by less than 0.1 percent of Telegram users, but had issues with bots and scammers”
Updated 07 September 2024
AFP

PARIS: Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov on Friday announced a range of new features aimed at combating illicit content, bots and scammers, a week after he was arrested and charged by French authorities over violations on the messaging app.
Durov had on Thursday broken his silence with his first public comments following his arrest, which he slammed as “misguided” and “surprising.”
But he had also acknowledged that Telegram was “not perfect” and would take more action against illegal content which he argues comes from a tiny proportion of its 950 million users.
“While 99.999 percent of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001 percent involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” he wrote in his new statement on Telegram Friday.
“That’s why this year we are committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise,” he added.
Durov said Telegram had removed the “people nearby” feature, which allowed users to locate other Telegram users but he said “was used by less than 0.1 percent of Telegram users, but had issues with bots and scammers.”
In its place, Telegram is launching “businesses nearby” to showcase “legitimate, verified businesses.”
He said Telegram had also disabled new media uploads to Telegraph, its standalone blogging tool, “which seems to have been misused by anonymous actors,” he said.
Following four days of detention, Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on Telegram.
He had been arrested August 24 at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after arriving aboard a private jet and was questioned in the subsequent days by investigators.
Durov was granted bail of five million euros ($5.5 million) on the condition that he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remain in France.
On Thursday, he defiantly said that France was wrong to hold him accountable for “crimes committed by third parties on the platform.”
An enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public, Durov is a citizen of Russia, France and the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is based.
Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion, though he proudly promotes the virtues of an ascetic life that includes ice baths and not drinking alcohol or coffee.
 

 

Topics: Telegram app Pavel Durov

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Telegram boss Pavel Durov describes French arrest as ‘misguided’

Telegram boss Pavel Durov describes French arrest as ‘misguided’
Updated 06 September 2024
Arab News
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Telegram boss Pavel Durov describes French arrest as ‘misguided’

Telegram boss Pavel Durov describes French arrest as ‘misguided’
  • Platform not an ‘anarchic paradise,’ Dubai-based entrepreneur says
  • Durov is accused of allowing Telegram to be used for criminal activities
Updated 06 September 2024
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LONDON: Telegram boss Pavel Durov has publicly addressed what he calls the “misguided” charges brought against him by French authorities, defending his platform and leadership in his first comments since his arrest.

In a social media post on Thursday, Durov criticized the judicial inquiry that led to preliminary charges and accused him of allowing Telegram to be used for criminal activities.

Those charges came as part of an investigation into the platform’s alleged complicity in the publication of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.

Durov, who holds UAE, French and Russian citizenship, said the legal case should target the platform, not its CEO.

“Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he said.

“Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.”

While acknowledging that Telegram faced challenges due to its rapid growth, Durov said it was not “some sort of anarchic paradise” and that the company’s efforts to moderate harmful content included removing millions of posts daily and publishing transparency reports.

The platform was working with NGOs to address urgent moderation issues, which had become a “personal goal,” and more updates would be published soon, he said.

Durov was detained by French authorities at Le Bourget airport in Paris last month and questioned for four days.

He was released on €5 million ($5.55 million) bail but is required to report to a police station twice a week. The UAE government has engaged with French authorities on the matter.

Durov said that while in police detention he “was told I may be personally responsible for other people’s illegal use of Telegram, because the French authorities didn’t receive responses from Telegram. This was surprising for several reasons.”

The platform had an official representative in the European Union who replied to EU requests and had a public email address, he said.

“Authorities had numerous ways to reach me for assistance.”

He continued: “As a French citizen, I was a frequent guest at the French consulate in Dubai. A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.”

He acknowledged the challenge of creating “a consistent global process” and said that finding the right balance between privacy and security had been difficult due to varying legislation.

“We’ve been committed to engaging with regulators to find the right balance … All of that does not mean Telegram is perfect … But we’ve always been open to dialogue.”

With AP

Topics: Telegram Pavel Durov France UAE

Khaleej Times appoints Charles Yardley as new CEO

Khaleej Times appoints Charles Yardley as new CEO
Updated 06 September 2024
Arab News
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Khaleej Times appoints Charles Yardley as new CEO

Khaleej Times appoints Charles Yardley as new CEO
  • Former Evening Standard boss to oversee all operations and company’s strategic direction
Updated 06 September 2024
Arab News

LONDON: Khaleej Times has announced the appointment of Charles Yardley as its new CEO.

Yardley joins the Dubai-based publication after serving four years as CEO of the London Evening Standard.

The Khaleej Times said in a press release that Yardley will oversee all operations and strategic direction of the business as it continues its transformation from a legacy print newspaper to a digital-first, multichannel editorial brand.

Established in 1978, Khaleej Times is the UAE’s longest-running English daily, with a circulation of 80,000 and 6.5 million monthly users.

Topics: Khaleej times UAE Charles Yardley

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