At the end of April, national security officials in London and Washington said they believed China was underreporting the true levels of deaths from Covid-19. It followed after officials in Wuhan raised the death toll from Covid-19 by 50 per cent overnight on 17 April. They said the sharp increase reflected updated reporting and deaths outside hospitals, insisting there had been no cover-up. China is not the only one accused … Read more →
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Nearly 300 Rohingya refugees quarantined by the Bangladeshi government on a treacherous island
Nearly 300 Rohingya refugees have been sent to the island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal after they were found adrift in a small boat off the southern coast of Bangladesh. The decision by the Bangladesh government ignores warnings from the United Nations and human rights organisations about the island’s suitability to host refugees. Local government official Rezaul Karim confirmed on Friday (8 May 2020) that a naval … Read more →
Facebook dismantles disinformation networks relating to Iran, Russia and the US
Facebook has announced it has suspended hundreds of social media accounts for so-called “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. In its monthly report, Facebook said that more than half of the accounts were based in Russia, Iran and Georgia and it had removed a total of eight networks, including one with links to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB). The report suggests that the Iranian state broadcaster experimented with using fake … Read more →
Poland plans to go ahead with presidential election amid criticism
Polish citizens are set to vote in a presidential election on Sunday 10 May, but there is a serious risk that the balloting will be neither free nor fair. Today, 7 May, the final vote on the legislation that will decide whether the election will go ahead or not is expected, but the government is determined to proceed. As many as 52 countries have already decided to postpone national or … Read more →
Somalia: As Covid-19 cases increase, authorities intimidate journalists while Facebook silences them
Somali authorities have been stepping up their intimidation of journalists as the country faces a growing number of Covid-19 cases. Since mid-April 2020 alone, authorities arbitrarily detained three journalists, accused two of various crimes, and prohibited a local radio station from broadcasting in a local dialect and according to a new report from Amnesty, Facebook is also silencing Somali journalists. “Somalia has always been a hostile environment for journalists but … Read more →
To mark World Press Freedom Day, IOHR and ICFJ host panel on the “infodemic” of misinformation while the UN Secretary-General says journalists are the “antidote”
On 1 May to align with World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, the UN Secretary-General called for greater protection of journalists who are providing the “antidote” to what he has characterised as a pandemic of misinformation surrounding the Covid-19 crisis. A day before, the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR) hosted a webinar with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) on the ongoing “infodemic” and the role of journalists … Read more →