Informed 11 International Time to make a stand


populist leaders echoing the language of Donald Trump who called journalists the enemy of the people and praised Greg Gianforte, the Montana congress member when he body slammed a Guardian reporter. Trump’s removal of Jim Acosta’s


White House press pass prompted the NUJ’s Brighton branch to make the CNN correspondent an honorary member. Branch secretary, Brian Williams, said: “What sort of president thinks it’s okayto call a correspondent a ‘rude, terrible person’ simply because he’s been asked a difficult question?” Te other “strongmen” mentioned were


Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán who have served up more chilling and deadly responses to journalists who cross them. Te NUJ has “adopted” Ayşe Düzkan, of Disk-Is, a Turkish sister union, who with four other journalists were sent to Bakırköy prison this week. Te other great threats to journalists


2018 proved a bloody year for journalism, says Frances Rafferty


“Tis year we are recognising four journalists and one news organisation who have paid a terrible price to seize the challenge of this moment,” said Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal as he announced his magazine’s choice of Person of the Year for 2018. Time ran four covers: of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post writer tortured and murdered in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul, reportedly at the behest of Saudi crown prince


Mohammed bin Salman; Maria Ressa, editor of Rappler, the Philippine news website known for its critical coverage of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte; Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar for their reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims; and journalists of Te Capital Gazete, the Maryland newspaper killed by a gunman, Jarrod Ramos. Journalists prefer not to be part of the


story, but Time wanted to mark a year in which, according to human rights group Article 19, journalism had become more dangerous than at any point in the past decade. Its report said hostility towards the media had become normalised, fuelled by an increase in “strongman”


have been the proliferation of legislation on surveillance, security and data rights that have undermined the rights of those gathering news. Te NUJ is supporting Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, whose film investigated the UVF massacre in Loughinisland, Co Down, in 1994. Tey are on bail until March aſter being arrested and having materials confiscated at raids on their homes. Te International Federation of Journalists’ (IFJ) “killing list” for 2018 recorded 94 deaths among media workers. Te NUJ works with the IFJ to publicise and lobby against threats to and violations of press freedom. Branches, such as Notingham, called on their local MP to raise the issue of the deaths of four journalists: Viktoria Marinova in Bulgaria, Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Kim Wall in Denmark and Ján Kuciak in Slovakia. Te Derry North West Ireland branch has long campaigned for the jailed Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi.


Mark Henson


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