The chair of the Scott Trust has offered to meet a consortium of press freedom groups which has raised concerns over the sale of The Observer.

The board of the Trust, a limited company which owns Guardian Media Group, was expected to meet on Monday 25 November, to discuss proposals to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

With Guardian and Observer journalists set to hold a 48-hour strike on 4 December in protest at the deal, the Trust is under pressure to make a decision.

The Scott Trust has received a letter co-signed by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute and OBC Transeuropa demanding answers to six key questions about the sale of The Observer.

Tortoise Media is believed to have funding of £20m to invest in turning The Observer into a stand-alone newspaper and paywalled website. According to the FT, The Scott Trust may also provide additional investment in the deal and the body has already said it plans to retain a stake in The Observer.

The letter sent by the press freedom groups to the Trust and Tortoise Media asks the following questions:

“The Observer is the leading liberal, progressive Sunday newspaper in the UK. Given the Scott Trust’s commitment to safeguarding freedom of the press and liberal journalism, what protections will be included in any deal to protect its editorial independence?

“What safeguards regarding future ownership will be written into the sale?”

The groups also asked a question about whether the Trust has properly vetted all the potential investors, including looking at foreign business links.

The letter says: “Individuals we spoke to described Tortoise’s business plan as ‘unconvincing’ and ‘seriously under-financed’. What is the Scott Trust’s responsibility if this plan fails? Are any safeguards being included in the deal?

“Why is the sale of The Observer being discussed only with one preferred bidder instead of through an open, transparent and fair process?

“Will you allow Observer and Guardian staff to speak out freely about the impact of the deal on press freedom and UK media plurality without fear of sanction or recrimination? At present, they report being unable to voice their opinions freely or have been warned against doing so.”

Scott Trust chair Ole Jacob Sunde has written back to the groups saying: “Thank you for your letter and the questions that you raise. We will happily respond to your points. Perhaps, in the first instance, we could arrange a call so I can better understand your concerns.

“As you will know, The Guardian has been a partner to your organisations on various vital journalistic endeavours – including the anti-SLAPPS coalition. We hope you know us to share values on many areas in the media landscape.

“We take our obligations to safeguarding the future of liberal journalism very seriously and would welcome you sharing more about where you believe there’s misalignment.”

Press Gazette understands the groups have asked for written answers and cannot offer a meeting until early December.

Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr has been told by Guardian management that her public statements about the proposed Observer deal may be in breach of her contract and has been ask to “desist” from saying anything publicly which brings Guardian News and Media “into disrepute”.

Cadwalladr was the keynote speaker on Friday 23 November at a Malta conference on media freedom run by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe during which she denounced the sale of The Observer to Tortoise as an “existential threat to our journalism”.

A spokesperson for Tortoise Media said: “We want to save The Observer, both for today’s readers and the generation to come. We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – and the people we bring with digital skills in podcasts, data journalism and newsletters, the investment that means new staff jobs, a much bigger editorial budget and a real plan for growth.

“We believe we can strengthen liberal journalism, adding to the range and reach of progressive voices; we can enable The Observer to reach new readers, as a Sunday newspaper with a digital life of its own; and we can renew the paper as a powerful voice in the world.”

On the subject of the letter, Tortoise said: “We have not received a letter from these bodies, but we are happy to provide assurances on editorial independence. All of our investors are fully committed to the robust principles of editorial freedom that are enshrined in our articles of association and overseen by an independent editorial board chaired by former FT editor Richard Lambert.”

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Essex Police has said it is investigating Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson under a possible breach of the Public Order Act over a year-old, now-deleted post on X.

The force has faced criticism that its tactics amounted to an attack on press freedom after officers visited Pearson at home on Remembrance Sunday. She said she was told officers could not tell her what the offending post was or who had made the complaint against her and was asked to attend a police station for a voluntary interview.

[Read more: Essex Police action against Allison Pearson is misguided and chills press freedom, writes media law expert David Banks]

But the force since said it has complained to press regulator the Independent Press Standards Organisation, claiming Pearson’s original claim in the Telegraph last week that she was visited over a “non-crime hate incident” was inaccurate.

On Saturday morning, 16 November, the force said it had shared a transcript of video footage with IPSO which includes an officer saying: “It’s gone down as an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online. That would be the offence.”

The force said: “A complaint of a possible criminal offence was made to the police and this is why we called; to arrange an interview”.

The Guardian reported on Friday that it had found the deleted message at the centre of the complaint and has spoken anonymously to the person who appears to be behind the Allison Pearson complaint.

Pearson is alleged to have re-posted a picture showing two police officers standing next to a group of people holding a flag associated with a mainstream Pakistani political party.

A deleted message, retrieved from online archives by Press Gazette, sent by Pearson on 16 November 2023 said: “How dare they @metpoliceuk. Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters.”

The message was viewed more than 400,000 times according to X. Context added to the message by other X users noted that the picture appeared to be from a protest which took place in August 2023 in Mancheseter relating to a Pakistani political party and said the event had no relation to Palestine, Israel or Hamas.

The complainant is not one of the people in the photograph. The person told The Guardian: “Each time an influential person makes negative comments about people of colour I, as a person of colour, see an uptick in racist abuse towards me and the days after that tweet are no different.”

Press Gazette reproduces the excerpt from the website archive.is below. The image has been altered by Press Gazette to obscure the faces of those appearing in it.

What is the Public Order Act and how can journalists breach it?

For an offence to be a committed under the Public Order Act 1986 the language used must be “threatening, abusive or insulting” and “intended to or likely in all the circumstances to stir up racial hatred”.

Journalists can fall foul of the act when reporting on extreme political statements.

Crown Prosecution Service guidance states: “In deciding upon the public interest of charging these offences it is essential that prosecutors keep in mind that in a free, democratic, and tolerant society people are able to robustly exchange views, even when these may cause offence. However, the rights of the individual to freedom of expression must be balanced against the duty of the state to act proportionately in the interests of public safety, to prevent disorder and crime, and to protect the rights of others.”

What does Allison Pearson have to say?

Writing on X on Saturday, in a post which has been viewed more than three million times, Pearson said:

“The story so far.

“1. I am not a racist.

“2. I didn’t post a racist tweet.

“3. My tweet did not incite violence against any protected characteristic.

“4. My fairly innocuous tweet was deleted a year ago.

“5. Senior lawyers say my tweet does ‘not come near the threshold for criminal prosecution’.

“6. But Essex Police upgraded the accusation from Non-Crime Hate Incident to offence under the Public order Act. Why?

“7. Essex Police visited my home but refused to specify either the accusation or the accuser.

“8. Under pressure, Essex Police deployed the terrorist-fighting Gold Command to investigate a solitary Welsh journalist 5ft 4 inches who still believes in freedom of speech. Weird, I know.

“9. This is all nonsense. Deeply sinister, frightening nonsense and wholly disproportionate police over-reach if you ask me.

“10. Last night, I realised I no longer feel safe in my own country.

“A terrible moment. As Elon Musk said, ‘This must stop.’ It really must.”

Non-crime hate incidents

Feminist Julie Bindel, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said she was also visited by police on a Sunday over an allegation of committing a “hate crime” over a message she had posted on X. She said she was given no further details and asked to attend a police station voluntarily to make a statement. Bindel refused and said she was told the investigation was being dropped.

Police forces around the UK are believed to be keeping records of thousands of “non-crime hate incidents” which are often based on social media posts and occur when no criminal offence has been committed but when a complainant believes a statement was motivated by hostility or prejudice.

Telegraph calls for change in the law

In a leader column The Sunday Telegraph warned that “overzealous police officers” are “choosing to focus their effort on policing thoughts and speech rather than cracking down on violent crime or theft”.

It said: “Many overseas are watching, and appear horrified that in a supposedly free and democratic society journalists and politicians can face criminal investigation for expressing strongly worded opinions…

“Until we get a government willing to change the law, a small minority of activists will retain the ability to comb wording for offence and abuse police procedure as a means to intimidate opponents.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was asked about the Pearson case yesterday. He said: “There is a review going on of this particular aspect but I think that as a general principle the police should concentrate on what matters most to their communities.”

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Sixty press freedom and journalist groups have signed an open letter urging the European Union to take action against Israel for violating media freedom.

The joint letter has been organised by the Committee to Protect Journalists and warns that Israel has killed more than 100 journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

The letter also accuses the Israel Defence Forces of deliberately targeting and killing at least five journalists, with another ten deaths under investigation.

And it condemns the ban on independent media accessing Gaza, warning that 49 journalists and media workers have been detained by Israel since 7 October.

‘The cumulative effect of these abuses is to create the conditions for an information void’

The letter accuses the Israeli government of censorship, internet shutdowns and of destroying or damaging more than 50 media offices in Gaza.

The CPJ has called for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (which underpins trade relations) and further targeted sanctions. And it has urged European leaders to publicly demand Israel stops attacks on the media.

The letter states: “Journalists play an indispensable role in documenting and reporting on war crimes and other human rights violations. The cumulative effect of these abuses is to create the conditions for an information void, as well as for propaganda and mis- and disinformation.

“While Israel contends that its actions are to keep its people safe, history shows that censorship and denial of the right to information is a flawed path to peace or security.”

Signatories to the CPJ letter include: Index on Censorship, Human Rights Watch, the Rory Peck Trust, Reporters Without Borders and numerous European journalist unions (though not the UK’s National Union of Journalists).

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A top media freedom lawyer said the UK press is facing “extreme legal hurdles”, pointing to reporting of allegations against Crispin Odey and Russell Brand.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in human rights, praised the “power of journalism here in the UK” seen in the past 12 to 18 months.

But she said this had not come easily. The Financial Times is now being sued for libel by former City banker Odey over the publication last year of allegations, alongside Tortoise, made by multiple women. The FT said it will “vigorously” defend its reporting.

Meanwhile last year The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches together published allegations brought against presenter and actor Brand (which he denies). Sunday Times media editor Rosamund Urwin had been investigating the allegations since 2019.

Speaking at the launch of the 27th edition of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists in London on Tuesday, Gallagher pointed to the then-Attorney General’s warning to media over the Brand story in September “despite there being no imminent threat of contempt of court and no active proceedings”.

Gallagher said “these are attacks which the media face every day. And I also see repeatedly in my international work that when journalism is denigrated by Western governments and Western politicians it has an impact across the world.

“So when Donald Trump referred to journalists as enemies of the people, I cannot tell you how often that phrase was repeated back in cases which involved deaths of journalists and cases which involved jailing of journalists.

“Here in the UK, we need to be proud of a long history of supporting journalists and supporting journalism, not only in order to protect journalists and journalism here in the UK, but also to protect journalists and journalism across the world.”

Gallagher’s work in media has included leading the legal teams for the family of murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, for jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, and for 152 BBC Persian journalists persecuted by Iran.

She said she spends most of her time acting in international cases “involving journalists being jailed for treading on powerful toes, or journalists being killed for treading on powerful toes”.

But she added that people often have a “perception somehow that international work is quite removed from the day to day work here in the UK. And it’s simply wrong”.

She highlighted, for example, the fact lawsuits deemed as SLAPPs (strategic litigation against public participation) are issued to journalists abroad by law firms in the UK.

“Daphne Caruana Galizia… was facing 47 lawsuits, many of which were without any proper basis. And many of which were issued from law firms here in London,” she said.

Gallagher also praised the work by Evening Standard courts correspondent Tristan Kirk on the single justice procedure and “conveyor belt justice” which just won him the Paul Foot Award for Investigative and Campaigning Journalism.

She described it as “groundbreaking and one of those key pieces of work which could only have been done by someone who is a court reporter day in day out and put time and resource and doggedness into chasing this up. Spotting the fact that 36 identical sentences were passed on the same day by an SJP magistrate without any reflection of the nuances of the individual case.”

She added that the investigation discovered “deep, deep flaws in the system and it’s positive to see that during the election campaign, both Labour and the Conservatives said it needs reform.

“That’s the power of journalism and the power of ensuring that you tread on powerful toes and you dig in to dark places.”

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The number of people that live in countries where they are not free to express opinions and beliefs or freely access information has surged in the last year, according to a new report.

Some 4.2 billion people – over half (53%) of the global population – live in 39 countries deemed to be facing a crisis of freedom of expression, meaning that they cannot freely express their views or access information without serious consequences, according to the annual Global Expression Report from human rights NGO, Article 19.

This is higher than during any time in the current century and up from 34% of people in 2022 – driven largely by the fall of India, the world’s most populous country, into the “crisis” category in 2023.

These 4.2 billion are among more than three quarters (77%) of the world's population – more than six billion people – who live in places where freedom of expression is considered to be "in crisis", "severely restricted" or "restricted", the worst three among the five possible categories designated by Article 19.

While the annual ranking looks at how much freedom of expression everyone has in society - and not just journalists - Article 19 executive director, Quinn McKew told Press Gazette that press freedom continues to suffer around the world.

McKew said: "In the past year, 29 countries declined on the indicators relating to media freedoms, with only 12 advancing. In the past decade, the discrepancy is even starker - 94 countries have seen a decline in media freedoms, while only 29 have seen an advance.

"We know media freedom is essential for a proper functioning of democracy. Too many leaders around the world see it as a threat to their entrenched power, and authorities are determined to silence the press. We’re seeing this every day in all the corners of the world - India where prime minister Modi and his followers routinely harass the media, particularly female journalists, force online platforms to block independent media content or even jail journalists too critical of the current regime; in Argentina where Javier Milei shut down the country’s biggest news agency; or in Tunisia, where a number of journalists have been detained in the latest wave of arrests of civil society, political opposition and the media.

"Even in the European Union, press freedom comes under attack: most recently in Italy, where Georgia Meloni attempts to turn the public broadcaster into a mouthpiece of her government."

Over the past decade, freedom of expression has deteriorated sharply. Some 6.2 billion people in 78 countries - over 80% of the global population - are less free to express their views and opinions now than ten years ago. In contrast, just one in 25 - or 303 million - people live in countries where the expression environment has improved since 2013. As a consequence, only one in four (23%) people today live in countries rated by Article 19 as "open" or "less restricted" - the highest among their five categories.

On a country-by-country level, the picture is similar. In 2023, just eight countries were considered to be "open" or "less restricted", down from 13 ten years ago.

Alongside a critical decline in media freedom, India is one of the countries that has seen the biggest declines in freedom of expression overall in the past decade. Its expression score (where 100 is the best score a country can be awarded) has plummeted 35 points since 2014 when current hardline Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi took office, forcing the country from the "severely restricted" to "crisis" category.

India is among nine countries including Ethiopia, Ecuador and Moldova that fell into a worse freedom of expression category in the last year,

McKew said: "This year’s Global Expression Report sounds a very loud alarm bell. At no point in the last 20 years have so many people been denied the benefits of open societies, like the ability to voice opinions, access a free media or participate in free and open elections.

"India’s decline has happened in plain sight, yet it’s a story not many want to talk about. The data is clear - the first signs of an erosion of democracy come from attacks on expression. Given that India touts itself as the ‘world’s largest democracy’, the silencing of voices should be of major global concern.

"But violations of freedoms happen every day and around the world, as leaders degrade our freedoms one by one. Many do so through subtle policy changes presented in the name of ‘public safety’, 'morality’ or ‘national security’ - tightening the net until there is no room left to breathe.

Five countries improve their category

While the general trajectory has been towards deterioration, Brazil is among five countries that bucked the downward trend. Following former Prime Minister Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in 2022, Brazil’s expression score increased by 26 points in the last year, bringing the country back into "open" category. The country had dropped into the "restricted" category in 2019, following Bolsonaro’s victory. Among the improvements seen in Brazil in the last year according to Article 19 has been less harassment of journalists.

UK freedom of expression: worse than its peers

Despite ranking as "open", the UK (rank 33) is below Belgium (4), Ireland (8), Germany (9) and France (22). It is one of several non-authoritarian states that has taken a hit to its freedom of expression in recent years, having lost seven expression points since 2000, declining from a score of 88 to 81 over this period. Last year McKew told Press Gazette that the 'war on woke', curbs on the rights to protest, and the push to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights as among negative developments pushing down the UK's score.

On press freedom, McKew said this year that the UK's anti-SLAPP bill was a "positive" development. The bill intended to protect those who speak out on matters of public interest against lawsuits meant to silence has government support and is currently working its way into legislation. She added however that "more needs to be done to strengthen it to ensure that it lives up to its promise of protecting journalists against vexatious lawsuits."

She added: "This year, we’ve seen worrying signs of authoritarian regimes being increasingly emboldened to target journalists outside of their borders - the attack on Pouria Zeraati, journalist at Iran International, was a shocking reminder of that.

"The UK government must take those attacks seriously and do more to help ensure that journalists in exile can still consider the UK a safe-haven where they can continue their important work.

"The ongoing imprisonment of Julian Assange is also an affront to press freedom in the UK - though [Monday's] court decision to grant him a right to appeal is a step in the positive direction."

Threat to press freedom in conflict contexts

Russia was among the countries singled out in the report last year for a serious decline in freedom of expression as the government forced hundreds of Russia journalists into exile amid its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia which remains in the crisis category saw a further deterioration in its score this year, falling from seven points in 2022 to four in 2023 as the conflict continues to stifle freedom of expression in and outside the country.

"Two years on, Putin’s regime continues to threaten and undermine those operating outside of Russia, while targeting those still in the country, persecuting voices critical of the war under spurious charges of ‘extremism’ or spreading ‘fake news’ about Russia's military," said McKew. "A bigger problem is the continued corrosive influence of Russia outside Russia as a key part of its war on western democracy. For example, the recent “foreign agent” legislation in Georgia took a page directly from the Kremlin."

Elsewhere, wars such as the ongoing conflict in Gaza have also led to attacks on freedom of the media. At least 105 journalists and media workers have been killed so far in the conflict which began on 7 October last year. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the conflict was a source of 75% of all journalist deaths worldwide in 2023 and Israel is now the sixth-worst jailer of journalists in the world. While it remains in the "less restricted category", Israel's expression score has fallen from 74 in 2022 to 69 in 2023.

McKew said: "Since 7 October, Israel has critically undermined press freedom and taken actions which inhibit vital, independent reporting on the conflict. Foreign media still face severe restrictions on access to Gaza, denying their audiences access to objective information about ongoing hostilities and human rights violations. The banning of Al Jazeera, one of the only international outlets operating from inside Gaza, at the start of May was another example of Israel’s dangerous attempts to control the narrative of the war and censor essential independent reporting about it."

Sudan meanwhile, another state in conflict, languishes in the crisis category for another year, having declined from 15 to 10 points.

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An Al Jazeera correspondent has argued efforts to enter the Gaza Strip by international journalists have not been enough.

Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed, who has been reporting from the strip since 7 October, made the comments at the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London on Wednesday.

Youmna El Sayed said: “International journalists have not fought for the right to enter the Gaza strip and to cover the war.

“They have abandoned the right; they have for many years lectured about the freedom of speech that they have let go when covering the war in the Gaza strip.”

El Sayed added: “They [international media] have used the excuse of ‘lack of information’ or ‘not enough Western journalists entering the Gaza strip’ for not covering the war like they should.”

International journalists have been banned from entering Gaza by Israel unless supervised by the Israeli Defence Force.

In early February, nine press freedom organisations wrote to Prime Minister Sunak, urging the government to do more to protects journalists in Gaza.

Later that month, more than 55 foreign correspondents led by Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford issued a plea to Israel and Egypt, requesting independent access to Gaza. Leaders of more than 30 international news organisations also published a similar letter.

Crawford told an event this month that a lack of apparent pressure from UK politicians to encourage Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza “seems really shocking and appalling and very hypocritical”.

In the first few months of the war, Crawford said, “I thought ‘maybe I’m not doing enough to get inside Gaza, maybe it’s just me that’s failing.’

“And then I realised that every single other foreign correspondent in the world is also, apparently, failing. And that cannot be possible – we’re all being blocked. And that is extremely alarming because we’re not getting the right picture.”

El Sayed, who was speaking alongside Al Jazeera Gaza producer colleague Safwat Kahlout, has worked in the strip for different international news outlets for the past eight years.

Referencing the death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City after she and her family apparently came under fire from Israeli tanks, El Sayed also said: “There is no excuse for those international journalists who have changed the terms and uses of words when they speak about certain incidents.

“When you call a six-year-old who was killed in her car a young woman, that is complete misconception.”

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Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford has said press freedom speeches given by the Prime Minister and Culture Secretary this week amounted to “empty words” in light of the ongoing Israeli ban on journalists entering Gaza.

Crawford, who in February organised an open letter from 55 foreign correspondents pleading for the Israeli government to allow some international journalists into Gaza, said “there is no freedom of information” when reporters cannot get on the ground.

Crawford was speaking on Friday as part of a launch event for the 2024 World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

[Read more: RSF Press Freedom Index 2024 — UK and US scores hit by widespread job cuts]

Alex Crawford: ‘There is no political pressure from key allies of Israel to try and get foreign journalists in’

On Tuesday Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Society of Editors conference that the UK Government is “acting to protect a free press” because “it strengthens democracy and enriches society”.

In a speech later the same day Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said the Conservatives would “always ensure that the press is free to speak the truth”.

But Crawford, who was also at the Tuesday event, dismissed the remarks.

“Listening to Rishi Sunak and the Culture Secretary doing stirring speeches about how they’re defending media freedom, [how] we’re so important as journalists… those are empty words without any action. They’re really empty.

“There is no question of defending media freedom where the most current, obvious, live-streamed war going on shows an absolutely complete and utter disregard for journalists — complete and utter disregard for the whole aspect of freedom of information.”

She added: “We should be really worried about the lack of access to Gaza right now… There is no political pressure from key allies of Israel to try and get foreign journalists in.”

Crawford questioned whether Foreign Secretary David Cameron had “mentioned how there is a lack of foreign access” to Gaza during diplomatic trips to Israel, and said a lack of apparent pressure “seems really shocking and appalling and very hypocritical”.

“You can’t be complaining about other countries, as [the Government] do very, very regularly… for not being honest with the media — but then be part of this system which is keeping everyone out.”

Crawford argued that allowing journalists to embed with the Israeli military was insufficient.

“The idea that embedding with the Israeli military is somehow enough really doesn’t seem to understand the way these embeds work. They choose who goes in and who becomes part of them…

“They decide the route, they decide where you go and they decide how long you’re there… None of the journalists who got hand-picked got to talk to anyone apart from Israeli soldiers.”

In the first few months of the war, Crawford said, “I thought ‘maybe I’m not doing enough to get inside Gaza, maybe it’s just me that’s failing.’

“And then I realised that every single other foreign correspondent in the world is also, apparently, failing. And that cannot be possible – we’re all being blocked. And that is extremely alarming because we’re not getting the right picture.”

Crawford also criticised scrutiny that has been directed toward the impartiality of Palestinian journalists, saying: “I don’t think we can rely on Palestinian journalists and then question whether they’re accurate or not… They are our colleagues that we’ve worked with a number of years.

“They’re not comfortable with being named, they’re not comfortable with being on screen because of the massive danger and risk that that puts on not just them but their children, their partners and everyone that’s connected with them.

“They ask to be anonymous, therefore we then become the faces or the voices of their work. But am I now going to question the veracity of everything they’re telling me? They’re the same people that I’ve known for 15, 20 years — so there’s no question that they’re suddenly now not going to be acting honourably as journalists.

“We all make mistakes, and we might occasionally get things wrong — more than occasionally. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be trusted as fellow journalists.”

RSF director of campaigns Rebecca Vincent added that, as well as getting journalists entry into Gaza, “there’s also still an urgent need for evacuations of journalists that are trying to get out”.

And Fiona O’Brien, the organisation’s London bureau chief, said: “The international community has shown again and again this year that it’s not willing to use international humanitarian law that already exists, press freedom laws that exist and they promised to abide by, to enforce, to protect journalists around the world.”

Approached for comment about Crawford’s remarks, a Government spokesperson said: “Both the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary raised the plight of journalists reporting from war zones in their speeches at the Society of Editors, and praised them for their bravery.

“Reporters covering conflicts are afforded protection under international humanitarian law. Israel must ensure its campaign is targeted at Hamas leaders and operatives and ensure journalists can carry out their work safely.”

Eritrean and Hong Kong journalists on challenges reporting on some of lowest-ranked countries for press freedom

Both Israel and Palestine slid down the Press Freedom Index this year amid a broader deterioration in global freedom of expression. Political threats to press freedom drove much of the decline, RSF said.

Jessie Lau, a Hong Kong journalist based in London, told the RSF event that reporting on China (ranked 172 out of 180) had “deteriorated” significantly in recent years.

She attributed the worsening situation to factors including the advanced tracking of users on social media and an expansion in what subjects are considered sensitive to report on, for example feminism and gender, which she said were “increasingly seen as a threat” to the Chinese Communist Party.

Lau added that the Chinese government had “really ramped up its propaganda surrounding national security” so that critical reporting is often characterised as foreign espionage.

A journalist she spoke with in Beijing, Lau said, had told her “it’s so heartbreaking to be trying your best to cover a story on the ground only for your sources to be accusing you of being a foreign spy — even if you are Chinese”.

Vanessa Tsehaye, an Eritrean filmmaker also based in London, explained that her country was bottom of RSF’s list this year because there is “absolutely nothing” in the way of on the ground journalism in the country, calling it “a complete black hole when it comes to journalism”.

A group of at least 11 independent Eritrean journalists were detained without arrest in 2001, among them Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, and they remain imprisoned with their whereabouts unknown. RSF describes them as “the longest-detained journalists in the world”.

“By disappearing them and by completely erasing them from the public consciousness they are succeeding in doing what they wanted to do, which is to silence them,” Tsehaye said. “What we need to do is continue speaking about them — as individuals, not just as numbers.”

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The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index scores for both the UK and US have dropped, driven in part by financial difficulties resulting in widespread job cuts.

The UK’s score was largely flat compared to 2023, but it suffered a five-point drop to 69.4 out of 100 in its economic indicator, which moved from a “satisfactory” to a “problematic” classification. The UK’s overall classification remained “satisfactory”.

The UK improved by three places in the 2024 ranking to 23rd of 180 countries, despite losing one point, because other countries’ scores declined more steeply. This put the UK just behind Samoa and ahead of Jamaica.

RSF UK bureau director Fiona O’Brien told Press Gazette: “While overall, the ability of journalists to work freely in the UK remains stable, it is worrying to see the economic indicator slip into the ‘problematic’ zone, reflecting a challenging economic environment.

“This has been a tough year for the industry in the UK, with mass redundancies at major employers and a number of smaller or regional platforms forced to close.

“Such extensive cuts, combined with a challenging economic climate more broadly, have a clear impact on the ability of newsrooms to continue providing a quality service, as well as on the well-being of the journalists involved.”

Similarly the US dropped almost nine points on its economic indicator to 61 — the largest decline in any of its individual scores.

The US fell ten spots on the ranking to 55th, with its overall press freedom situation classed as “problematic”.

RSF said the decline was “at least in part fuelled by open antagonism from political officials, including calls to jail journalists” and police actions against journalists and newsrooms in the past year.

O’Brien added that in the US, “anti-media policies are gaining in prevalence, especially at the local level, and there have been significant layoffs and media closures, impacting the economic context score.

“The safety ranking has declined sharply in the last two years, reflecting the killings of two journalists – Jeff German in 2022 and Dylan Lyons in 2023 – and a number of acts of violence against journalists and arrests. Trust in media also continues to decline, a trend encouraged by political actors seeking to vilify the press”.

Across the world however it is political pressure on journalism that has increased the most, according to RSF, with the average political indicator score among all countries declining 7.6 points.

Only a quarter of countries’ press freedom now deemed ‘satisfactory’ by RSF

The overall picture was one of deterioration, with the percentage of countries classed as overall “good” or “satisfactory” for press freedom declining from 29% in 2023 to 25% in 2024.

The number of countries in the lowest category, “very serious”, rose from 31 to 36, representing half the global population.

Enough countries saw large declines that several others rose up the charts despite drops in their scores. They include Russia, which rose two spots to 162 despite its ongoing imprisonment of journalists, and India, which rose two spots to 159 despite losing points for “adopting more draconian laws”.

Hong Kong too rose five places despite losing points “due to an increase in the persecution of journalists under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020”.

In Europe Germany jumped 11 places into the top ten after “a decline in attacks on journalists by far-right groups”.

Ireland meanwhile dropped from second place to eighth, which RSF blamed on politicians who had “subjected media outlets to judicial intimidation”.

Israel drops down press freedom charts

Scores in more than half of North and South American countries fell, which RSF said was “particularly due to the fall in the political indicator”. Canada, at 14, is the highest-ranked nation in the Americas, followed by Jamaica (24), Trinidad and Tobago (25) and Costa Rica (26).

Israel has dropped to 101st and so lost its top spot in the Middle East and Maghreb region to Qatar, which ranks 84th.

RSF said that since 7 October Israel “has been trying to suppress the reporting coming out of the besieged enclave [Gaza] while disinformation infiltrates its own media ecosystem”, resulting in its overall press freedom situation being classed down from “problematic” to “difficult”.

Palestine ranked lower still, at 157, in significant part because of the large number of journalists killed in Gaza during Israel’s siege of the strip.

The only country in the region that saw its political score improve was Morocco, which RSF was “due to the absence of new arrests. The scale of the persecution of journalists, especially judicial persecution, continues unchanged in Morocco.”

The post RSF Press Freedom Index 2024: UK and US scores hit by widespread job cuts appeared first on Press Gazette.

Update 8 April 2024: Charges against a press photographer arrested while covering a police incident in Swansea last year have been dropped one day before a jury trial was due to begin.

Swansea Crown Court heard the Crown Prosecution Service was no longer offering evidence against Dimitris Legakis on a charge of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to the incident, according to Wales Online. It was reported that the arresting officer’s original evidence about what happened did not align with a statement he later made.

Judge Geraint Walters was reported to have told the court on Monday that, having read documents in the case, it appeared to him the case was about a police office taking “offence” to a photographer taking pictures.

James Hartson, representing Legakis, said his client was a “well-known professional photographer” and his case raised “legitimate questions about the freedom of the press”.

A public order offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour was dropped at an earlier stage while the prosecution said on Monday it would not be in the public interest to pursue the remaining charge of obstructing or resisting a police officer.

Legakis told Press Gazette the case is still impacting his mental health and his camera equipment was seized and kept for more than two months meaning he “had to notify clients of mine of the ongoing legal process which caused me immense embarrassment”.

He now plans to make formal complaints to South Wales Police, the CPS and the relevant fire service which was also present at the incident.

Original story 4 October 2023: A Swansea-based press photographer has been charged with assaulting and obstructing a police officer following an incident in which he says he was stopped from doing his job.

Dimitris Legakis, a member of the British Press Photographers’ Association, told Press Gazette the incident on 22 September has impacted his mental health, leaving him struggling to sleep.

He has also had to spend about £2,500 on equipment in order to be able to continue doing his job as police have not returned equipment worth around £6,000 that was seized, including two DSLR cameras, a wide angle lens, a drone, memory cards and his mobile phone.

Legakis, who runs Athena Picture Agency who are the official photographers for Swansea City FC, said: “I’ve been having nightmares ever since. I hardly sleep. I do suffer with my mental health. That has made it ten times worse. I’m often very unmotivated, on the verge of, if you like, almost scared to go out to work. I’m trying to fight against that.”

Legakis received a tip-off from a friend at around 8.20am on Friday 22 September that a car was on fire. A 77-year-old woman subsequently died in hospital and her husband has been charged with murder.

Legakis was in custody at Swansea Central Police Station for about 15 hours, from around 9am until midnight.

His equipment was seized, seemingly without the required judicial approval under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

As a result Legakis has been forced to buy a new camera, lens, mobile phone and memory card, spending around £2,500 so he can keep working.

A South Wales Police spokesperson told Press Gazette: “Emergency services were called to the scene of a car fire in Sketty Lane, Swansea at just after 8.20am on Friday 22nd September.

“A man and woman were taken to hospital with burns. 77-year-old Helen Clarke died on the Sunday evening in Morriston Hospital. 80-year-old David Clarke was subsequently charged with murder and has appeared at court.

“While officers were setting up a crime scene cordon a 47-year-old man was arrested.

“Dimitris Legakis, of Swansea, has been charged with assaulting an emergency worker, a public order offence and obstructing a police constable in the execution of their duty.

“He will appear at Swansea Magistrates Court on 15th November.”.

Press ‘should not be prevented’ from filming at scene of an incident

Legakis has been a photographer for two decades but said incidents involving both police and members of the public trying to stop him from doing his job have significantly worsened in the past few years.

On Christmas Day last year he was at the scene near where a car plunged into a river in Swansea, killing two people. According to his videos and a complaint he made to South Wales Police, seen by Press Gazette, multiple police officers attempted to block his camera and said things like “I’m asking you to show some decency”, “I’m asking you to show some respect to the people involved and stop recording”, “you are actually impeding the investigation”, and “are you very proud of what you do?”

He said the officers’ actions breached his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and he is considering taking legal action against police in relation to both these incidents.

College of Policing guidelines state: “Reporting or filming from the scene of an incident is part of the media’s role and they should not be prevented from doing so from a public place. Police have no power or moral responsibility to stop the filming or photographing of incidents or police personnel. It is for the media to determine what is published or broadcast, not the police.

“Once an image has been recorded, the police have no power to seize equipment, or delete or confiscate images or footage, without a court order.”

Legakis said: “The problem I’m having is this: if a member of the public complains to the police that I’m taking pictures and the police turn up, when the police ask me to leave the member of the public obviously thinks that what I’m doing is wrong. And that spoils it for me and that spoils it for other newsgatherers that might turn up.”

Photographer Andy Aitchison eventually secured compensation and an apology from Kent Police after being arrested at his home and held for seven hours on suspicion of criminal damage for taking photos of a protest outside a Covid-hit asylum centre in January 2021.

Last summer My London reporter Callum Cuddeford was arrested and also spent about seven hours in police custody after covering Just Stop Oil action and being mistaken for one of the protesters.

And months later three journalists – two photographers and one LBC reporter – were arrested and detained for covering Just Stop Oil protests on the M25. Hertfordshire Police’s chief constable Charlie Hall “personally apologised” following an uproar.

The post Case dropped against press photographer after altercation with police officer at scene of fatal car fire appeared first on Press Gazette.

The Metropolitan Police has settled with three journalists detained and stopped from covering a Black Lives Matter protest in London in 2014.

Video journalist Jason N Parkinson, photographer Jess Hurd and another unnamed photojournalist, all members of the National Union of Journalists, have accepted an apology and out-of-court settlement from the police force.

But they criticised the fact key evidence was seemingly lost meaning the case took more than nine years to settle and noted that UK police have issued many such apologies after hindering the work of journalists.

Hundreds of people took part in a protest at the Westfield shopping centre in London’s Shepherd’s Bush on 10 December 2014 in honour of Eric Garner who was killed by a police officer’s chokehold in July that year. Garner’s last words were “I can’t breathe” and inspired hundreds of protests in the US and Europe, of which this was the first of its kind in the UK.

The journalists were confined along with protesters and filmed as they read out details from their press cards and were released. They were then told to leave the area, preventing them from reporting on the subsequent arrests of 76 protesters.

Hurd reported that she was hit in the face by a police officer in the events leading up to the detention.

According to Rachel Harger of Bindmans Solicitors, who acted on behalf of the journalists, the Met has now accepted that the three NUJ members felt they were “subjected to state surveillance for reporting on political protest”.

A Met spokesperson said: “The Met absolutely recognises the rights of the media and has worked hard over many years with members of the NUJ to establish mutual professional working arrangements through agreed protocols and guidelines. These materials include training videos and briefings for officers at the beginning of their career, and throughout, on the role of the media and the UKPCA press card. We continue to value our ongoing discussions with the NUJ and their members.”

‘Journalists should be able to work without fear of violence’

Hurd said: “This was not the first time that I have been assaulted by a police officer while working as a press photographer. I thought my case would be clear cut because I was assaulted by one of two evidence gatherers, both recording with body-cams and a videocamera.

“It seems impossible to me that all the footage of our illegal detention, from which we were filmed with our press cards when leaving, and my assault both went missing.

“We will not have access to justice until the police are accountable for their actions. This means not losing key evidence.

“Whilst I welcome the apology from the Metropolitan Police, it reads just the same as all other apologies. Journalists should be able to work without fear of violence and targeting by the police.”

Parkinson also welcomed the settlement and apology but shared similar concerns about the footage and the length of time the case has taken.

“We repeatedly requested all the footage of the police evidence gatherers and body-cams from that night and yet none was ever released,” he said.

“Then towards the end of the case in September 2023 we were told the MPS had discovered new footage and would release it after it was reviewed. Two months later we were told there was no new footage. Our lawyer said either ‘they haven’t properly retained it or it’s been lost.’

“The Met Police were also repeatedly asked to explain the whereabouts of the footage and why it was not properly retained back in 2016. No response was ever given.

“How is it possible that vital evidence is not retained or lost in such a huge case surrounding 76 people being mass arrested?

“This apology is nothing that we have not seen many times before, the same words and the same assurances. Yet we have seen more journalists arrested while doing their jobs in the last year than I have witnessed in my entire 20-year career. We are 26th on the World Press Freedom Index, below South Africa. That is not a good position to be in for a so-called democracy.”

Hurd and Parkinson are also both part of an ongoing legal action by six journalists against the Met for holding surveillance information about them on a national “domestic extremism” database. That legal challenge was launched in November 2014, before the Black Lives Matter protest.

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “While we are pleased this has been resolved and the police have apologised, the fact that it has taken so long to get to this stage is wholly unacceptable.

“Journalists must be allowed to do their job without any police interference and without their safety being compromised. The NUJ will continue to make this abundantly clear to the Metropolitan Police Service and other forces, and will carry on representing and supporting members who have been treated unfairly.”

Black Lives Matter and Just Stop Oil protests arrests of journalists

Journalists were arrested and even assaulted at numerous protests in the US relating to the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Wednesday it was announced two Los Angeles Times journalists had settled with the Minnesota state for $1.2m after being “cornered and attacked” during a protest over the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

In September last year five press photographers, including British journalist Adam Gray working for SWNS, achieved a settlement with the New York Police Department after they were each assaulted and/or arrested covering protests in the summer of 2020.

The settlement meant the NYPD was obligated to implement policies and training to ensure members of the press are free from the threat of wrongful arrest and harassment.

In May 2021 photojournalist Nick Stern, originally from the UK, alleged police officers “assaulted, battered and shot” him with rubber bullets as he tried to cover protests in Los Angeles.

In the UK there has been a spate of arrests of journalists especially at the scenes of environmental protests.

Photographer Peter Macdiarmid received a payout from Surrey Police last month after he was handcuffed and detained for several hours while covering a Just Stop Oil protest at an M25 petrol station in August 2022.

A MyLondon reporter spent seven hours in police custody two days later after being arrested covering a petrol station protest in Hammersmith.

In November that year four journalists – LBC reporter Charlotte Lynch, documentary maker Rich Felgate and photographers Tom Bowles and Ben Cawthra – were arrested in the space of two days by Hertfordshire Police while covering protests on the M25. A review found their arrests may have constituted “unlawful interference” in their freedom of expression.

MPs later added greater protections for journalists covering protests to the Public Order Bill.

The post Met Police issues apology nearly ten years after detaining journalists at protest appeared first on Press Gazette.