grow. and we continue to call in the t purelife to withdraw from afar and um horror . that expansion of the war, however, is as predictable as it is unacceptable. given that the ethiopian government began cutting off humanitarian relief and commercial access to, to grow in june. which continues to this day despite horrifying conditions of reporting widespread famine in near famine conditions that have shocked the world. i so says it was behind an attack on cobbles, largest military hospital, at least 19 people had been killed and dozens more seriously injured. among those who died was the commander of the taliban. special forces was also in charge of cobbled security more than a 100 nations had pledged to reverse deforestation within the next decade at the un climate summit in glasgow. they also agreed to cut levels of methane emissions by 30 percent, but large meters, including china, russia and india hadn't signed up to the deal. you as president joe biden says, a program to vaccinate children will be fully up and running next week. it follows a final approval for pfizer vaccine for $5.00 to $11.00 euros. a smaller dose was recommended elections of taking place in parts of the united states a year ahead of crucial mid terms. voters are choosing mares and other local officials. they're also considering referendums. i'm state policies the most closely watched races are in virginia and new jersey to decide on who becomes governor in nigeria for members of staff and their children have been kidnapped from the university of a buddha. abductions from schools. further north have happened frequently, but kidnappings. in the capital, a rare so those were the headlines. the news continues, hey, on al jazeera, after inside story state you, and thanks for watching bye for now. ah . journalists around the world are frequently detained, kidnapped, and even killed for simply reporting the news. in the past 30 years, 1400 have died and most of those responsible for their deaths have gone free. so how can this be changed? well, a collective of advocacy groups has come together in the hague to raise awareness. but will it be enough to turn this around? this is inside story. ah, ah. hello, welcome to the program. i'm adrian finnegan. 3 press freedom group. so leading the fight to bring justice to journalists killed for simply doing their job. they've lost what they call the people's tribunal on the murder of journalists in the hague, to name and shame, offenders. it doesn't have the power to punish any one or to sentence perpetrators, but it does have the ability to raise public awareness and collect evidence to support investigations into abuses. it's legitimacy comes from the involvement of some of the world's top legal experts. journalists, survivors directly affected by the crimes, including relatives and colleagues of murdered journalists, will be given a platform to make their case. the people's tribunal on the murder of journalists will span a 6 month time frame. it will involve 5 hearings. the final one will be in may next year. panel consists of 9 judges, and the lead prosecutor is a renowned human rights lawyer and medina burner bow. an indictment contains charges against the governments of sri lanka, syria, and mexico, along with survivors of abuse. leaders in the fight for press freedom would also give their testimony, or some of those include this year's nobel peace prize laureate maria ressa. she'll speak about the threats that she's faced as a journalist in the philippines. so lots to discuss with our guests. but 1st a report from al jazeera step barson, who's been at that tribunal in the hague. the people scribe unit for the murder on journalists is held here in a church and they have, and this is a story close to a heart because many journalists know, a colleague, a friend who was killed on murder for doing their job. in my case, this is dutch journalists and the toner was murdered in 1000. $1009.00 and east timor and investigators found that the perpetrators belonged to the indonesian military. but nobody was ever brought to trial is just one example. and it said that 8 out of 10 cases are never being brought to justice. so the organizers of the tribunal, se killing a journalist is basically the safest crime. so to fight this appeal, impunity, they have organized this tribunal. it has no legal power. there will be no arrest florence, but the will be a judge will be prosecuted. there will be witnesses and this is very important for the cases, the so called cold cases for witnesses to be able to testify. in course, in this, in this room here for this story to be heard. so 3 cases are being focused on here during describe. you know, it's the murder of santa become a, my phone, got a 3 long can journalist who was murdered in 2009. we have not been shot by g. it's a syrian jonas who was killed in military detention in 2015. and me, greg on the low pass, he was murdered with his wife and his son in mexico. and mexico is seen as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. increasingly, journalists are being under attack in recent years. more crimes have been committed and it's not only in warfare actuation, but more and more investigative journalists being murdered for revealing corruption cases for doing anything that people empower, might not like. and that's also one of the reasons organize if this. impunity is continuing because salary often people part of the stays part of the government, part of the army who are responsible in total more than 1400 murder journalists, many of the cold cases are the test are recorded by the organ is organ. nice as of the tribunal, the tribunal will last around 6 months and the will be some kind of verdict at the end of it. step 5 and for insight story from the hake. ah, so let's bring it our guests for today's discussion from the hague, rejoined by leon wilkins, who's a director of free press unlimited, and found a safer world for the truth project that set behind the tribunal from the letter in malta, korean valor is the sister of daphne kajuana, galicia and member of the daphne kajuana galicia foundation and from oxford in the u. k. julie percetti, who is a global director of research at the international center for journalists, welcome to inside story. all of you, lee, and let's start with you. what is the point of this tribunal when it doesn't have the power to punish any one will hold to account and he perpetrator? i think that the people still be as good afternoon, by the way. the, the people's tribunal is an attempt to seek justice. more than 1400 journalists have been killed since 992. that means that 1400 stories have been killed. it means that 1400 relatives and family members have left have been left with a spot of emptiness into our soul. and we need to seek justice and the reason that we are doing this at the grassroots attempt at people's tribunal is basically because states are not living, update our responsibility to protect journalists and to investigate julie. what happens when a journalist is murdered? so it's really promoting a better standard for seeking justice, giving recommendations for better investigations and highlighting and documentation . some of the graphic cases of injustice that happened in the, in the past years. that is the objective and we believe it will have an impact you think. so you think that the, the states will feel pressured by this shamed into doing something about it? well, i think that one of the things we're hoping for is that the international years addiction is improved at a moment. we see that many of the cases of a journalist are prosecuted as the case of a normal matter, whereas it is our conviction. and actually the evidence that we are presenting to the people's tribunal judges is showing that in most cases, more than $95449.00. the cases journalist would actually killed for the stories that they were writing. this is neglected in most visual processes. so it has as much to improve and we believe that the recommendations will help. course, in the case of the syrian are a republic, one of the cases that we're bringing to highlight to the tribunal. we don't expect them to change the behavior, but he international jurisprudence, the quality, the best practices of prosecuting better investigations. that is what we can promote and we can actually show that it's possible to investigate these cases. that is what the save world for the truth is all about all about cream given what happened to your sister. why do you think this tribunal is so important? it's because they're good afternoon by the way. it is important for lots of reasons . lay on williams is that already explained. it raises awareness, it forces people to think it might not get face to do what they should be doing. but it is certainly focusing attention where it should be lay on, spoke about the number total number of genesis has been killed. when you look at it in detail, it's even more frightening every week. a john, this the scales every single week of the think of how many stories are lost, think of how many people are less than distress. think of how much is being come above. the important thing about the tribunal is it's of it's focusing responsibility. what should be? states should be protecting journalists. they should not be protecting the people who kill them as the situation in malta changed since daphne's murder could. what happened to daphne happen again? there nothing has been done to change the systems that fail her. so the situation now is a possibly even more precarious, and it was before me was killed because of daphne's murder. we knew that it was a possibility. now we know definitely that it can happen. julie, just to play devil's advocate for a moment, should journalists working in areas where international law and local legislation, if it even exists, is not implemented. should they understand that there is, is a risky profession, that if you're going to expose corruption, wrongdoing organized crime incompetence. you're going to upset people, you're going to make enemies. in fact, it's your job to speak truth to power. and inevitably, that results in making enemies, particularly if it's the case of investigative reporting into corruption in the organized crime, into environmental crimes. naturally, there is risk attached to this, and that's why i think, shining a lot on the motor of journalists with impunity and the general culture of impunity when it comes to attacks on journalists in an event like the one that is being staged in the hague is important because a large part of the battle is actually getting citizens around the world to recognize that when you kill or mute a journalist through attacks, you are killing stories and you are killing the public's right to know who is abusing power, who is stealing from the public purse, who is inflicting hom on others. and it's important for people to understand as, as liam began, that this is a freedom of expression crosses. it's not just about individuals being murdered or threatened, or harmed online or offline. it's actually about attempts to prevent us as citizens, knowing what we need to know to be able to make choices, whether it's about who to elect or how to protect ourselves from a pandemic jury where the dentist places in the world to be a journalist right now why is latin america, mexico so dangerous? and while latin america is certainly a focus, mexico and dave, places like the philippines, which remains one of the deadliest places on a practice journalist at the practice journalism. syria. indeed, the countries that are in focus in this tribunal hearing it's a combination of corrupt, corrupt power it's and in, in the age of this information. it's also a case of undermining public trust in journalism, in journalists from you take somebody like daphne in a place like monster, which we did not necessarily think was one of the places on us that it could be so dangerous to be a journalist. and we see in this era, as the world really does to back towards fascism, we see that threats to journalists not just happening in conflicts like syria. like i've got a son there happening in western europe. they're happening in countries that we previously considered to be safe to practice journalism. and the reason that's occurring is because there's been an enabling environment created by the rise of populism, by weaponized social media platforms and the general threats. journalists, whose job is to ensure that we have access to treat as become that much more difficult in the team. and i was ation. and the criminalization of journalism has courts and escalation of these threats. so it's no longer just about conflict and it's no longer just about understanding the threat being elsewhere in the context of despotic states or countries that have been set by organized crime. it's increasingly a case of emboldened political leaders and corporations and corporate actors. feeling safe to talk to us about, we have to change your re some extremely interesting points. i will come back to you, judy, talk more about that in just a few moments. but the 1st at leon, tell us more about the 3 cases in particular that this tribunal, i know it, i know it's, it's, it's very broad. it's not just going to take in these 3 cases, but it is focusing on 3 cases. in particular, tell us more about those. oh, today we are hearing graphic evidence from a number of celebrity cases. but for us, the objective was also to look at places far away that normally don't have the public eye. so one of the cases where bringing to the judges is the case of santa rica, my tune there. it's a journalist who was heading media outlet in sri lanka. and it was during the civil war that he was one of the critics of the government policy that was leading to the killing of innocent citizens. and because of that social media campaign and threats were made by government officials, and one of them graphically is the brother of the current president of sri lanka. so we have dis selected this case because there's really no chance that there will be a real trial happening and too long today. that is why we bring it to this international forum. similarly, in the case of now below chabarise, you, one of the founders of i know body sons of the, of the village, a very important syrian media outlet, independent media outlet was killed in custody in syria, in 2015 after 2 years of back and forth in prison, he was tortured. one of the important aspects of the international covenant for civil and political rights to human rights charter that we know is that people should be protected from torture. in this case, clearly it has been torture. moreover, the syrian authorities have failed to respond to any kind of accusation that was made against him. so clearly and not a case where you cannot expect local justice to happen. the last case that we are investigating is miguel law school. he was a journalist in vera cruz, mexico, and uncovering drug related crime in which in mexico, one of problems is especially in vera cruise. one of the most deadliest provinces of mexico miguel was investigating crimes of drugs, a mafia which was connected to the let's say the, the upper world. so people indicted or not indicted, but people that he blamed for being complicit in the criminal acts of the drugs mafia were connected to the local government high officials. so again, although we believe that there may be an object for bringing it to the federal prosecutorial level, we do not expect that in mexico, this case will be further processed, right? so apart from that, so these are the 3 cases where it's clear that the level of impunity we cannot expect to have more local action on this in fact, and save a world for the truth. we've also investigated 10 other cases in which there is a possibility for local action. for example, we investigated the death of zine, which i hate in pakistan. and we found in our investigation new evidence which has allowed the family and lawyers to reopen the case in time. so what we trying to do is use every avenue to create justice because in the end of the day, all these people deserve that day in court. they deserve to be heard something that is not happening today. cream, where are you on the road to justice for, for daphne. one man has been has been sentenced to prison. at least here. we have had a case brought to court after pleading guilty of involvement. but what's, what's happening now? but 7 people have admitted to that ladder or are being processed because, you know, on charges is that you said one being the president because he pled guilty to others resisting trial by putting spokesman when a fed pass and his being accused of commissioning fascinating, loud. i have seen indicted to me and to further people have been arraigned, say all feeding innocence as well. say all used all supplying the western public. inquire into the mud and the circumstances of daphne's blood, clo recommendations, but 3 months later, i was still waiting to see any action taken towards, you know, addressing the baron clearly problem. when in stage institutions, there was found to be held responsible for duffy's mother, even though it was found to be guilty of commissioning the letter. but those failures the famous letter that these mother have not seen redress were still looking towards what is the, what is the state saying when, when, when that is raised with them, what, why is it taking so long? i would imagine i'm taking a guess. yeah, i would imagine that the larger principal is being subordinated to political expediency. any political decisions that has to be taken to, to fix things that rotate for so long on necessarily going to upset a lot of people seem to be inconvenient. i would imagine that if the problem by the urgency remains, you know, international engineers are literally only a case. there was a mission here on the full time. in fact, the 1st year of the mission met with the head of police, met with the head of government met with john this and then they recognize the situation. what it is that remains problematic. julie coming back to what you were saying of a few moments ago, we live in an era of dis, information, and fake news. to what extent are online platforms aiding and abetting violence against journalists moment? it's a very significant function that they are playing and facts to facilitate or to be victors for violence against journalists. the most stock example i can give you, illustrate this point is not. it was only a couple of weeks ago that facebook decided that it was not ok to threaten to murder a journalist on the platform, which is extraordinary. up until that point to reflect what they was saying earlier about the motor of journalists with impunity being a special case. the justification facebook gave failing to act in such cases was that journalist draw attention to them. so they're public figures and therefore they should expect to be abused. well, online violence, which is particularly violence against women journalists. well, you see a blend of networked massage in a and viral this information and, and other forms of have speech such as racism, intersecting on a platform like facebook or any number of other digital platforms. you see that that creates an enabling environment. it aids and bits, crimes against journalists because it creates almost as a sort of tides of abuse which can be triggered by political actors. but it's been fueled by political actors. but it also is amplified via algorithmic abuse, if you like, in such a way that it can embolden those who whoa threats and whoa, sexist abuse against women. not definite car. want to see it was herself brucely trolls and threatened with murder and sexual violence before her death. these are real threat. they're also part of the impunity. so what, what needs to happen to stamp it out? well, i mean, the 1st thing is i think where there are laws against hate speech that can be used against women journalists only if massage money is recognized as a hate crime or a form of hate speech. so that's really important. secondly, was when it comes to the platforms, as we've recommended myself and colleagues for searching online violence for unesco and the national center for journalists. looking at cases such as maria records, for example, the nobel peace prize winner. we have recommended that the owner needs to be shifted from the women being attacked to the platforms, facilitating the abuse and the perpetrators. and so that needs to be much more stringent action taken. and perhaps this should be an active in reference to one of our other findings, which is that from a survey of women, journalists, 20 percent had experienced offline attacks and abuse and harassment that they linked to online violence episodes. so there's a direct correlation between online attacks and offline attacks, and that is extremely disturbing in an environment such as the one where, inhabiting liam, when so many have literally got away with murder for so long. why should anything change now, particularly when so many governments around the world still see journalists as a problem? i think that we have to realize as a general public, but also as journalist working together. that the reason why journalist are more and more talkative is because our institutions are weakening. we see a decline of the independence of the additional parentis around the world. president politicians are taking charge of the issue system. so we need to stand up towards that. we believe that the fact that journalist are targeted more and more and more is partly because their last resort for investigating crimes that are happening. journalists perform an extremely important public function because they uncover with their stories the wrong doing that is happening in all of our societies left, right and centre. and because journalist is not about pleasing, but asking questions that are critical. that is a role that journalist have traditionally, and we need that institution to be protected by the institutions that are guaranteeing us independence. so for me, the question is not about whether or not journalists should ask these questions. the questions is, why do we allow as a public, as a general public, we allow ourselves to be involved in this. the spheres where a journalist are criticized, et cetera, rather than supported. so we believe that solidarity is extremely important. we had free pass and limited received more than $600.00 requests for journalist in danger last year. that was a duplication of the number the year before this year. we have a guest on burma, nicaragua, we cannot just go on to protect and present. we have to get to prosecution, we have to strengthen our independent judiciary that i'm afraid we're gonna have to leave it. but many thanks indeed to all of you. leon williams are korean vela and julie persetti of being with us today. thank you for watching. don't forget, you can see the program again at any time just by going to the website of al jazeera dot com for further discussion. join us at our facebook page on facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. and you can join the conversation on twitter handle at ha, inside story from me. adrian finnegan on the whole team here in doha, thanks for being with us. will see you again. bye. for now ah ah, life is never scripted. never foretold. it's never known. no matter what happiness never stole open you read between the lines. listen, always listen, never stop asking, never stop questioning. wanting to know will discover the unknown. here the human story be impartial, be courageous. finding the untold story. celebrate excellence. keep alive the pioneering spirit. never stop. we haven't for 25 years, we've never stopped on our journey, never stops when our commitment to you al jazeera, 25 years, a unique path. a lot of the stories that we cover a highly complex, so it's very important that we make them as understandable as we can as al jazeera correspondence. that's what we strive to do. we understand the differences americans have content across the lounge. so no matter how you take it out here, we're bringing the news and current to fast cut metal loo, county air. ah, a hello, i'm down jordan tow the top stories here on al jazeera ethiopians. government has declared a state of emergency after a sharp escalation and fighting in the north. it's been a year since that launched a crackdown on the 2 gray region rebels. their say they've taken 2 key towns on the road to the capital at isabella, but that's been disputed by the federal government. the prime minister abbey armored as called an all ethiopians to take up arms against to grind fighters, rank butcher reports, a new frontier in a few p. r swore rebels antigua i see the advancing further south.

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