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Leftist Azeri Journalist and Activist Mammadli Tortured and Jailed
socialistmiddleeast.com/leftist-azeri-journalist-and-activist-mammadli-tortured-and-jailed
SocialistSocialist May 9, 2025 05:476
Leftist Azeri Journalist and Activist Mammadli Tortured and Jailed
In Azerbaijan, the Aliyev regime tortured and jailed Ahmet Mammadli, who is a leftist journalist, unionist, and human rights activist, on charges of “intentional injury” on May 7.
Mammadli had been under open and intense pressure for a long time. Mammadli’s family draws attention to the danger of being held in prison for a long time under the pretext of being tried in pretrial detention, as is the case with many dissidents, and reminds that Mammadli’s close comrade Afiaddin Mammadov was recently sentenced to 8 years in prison. The Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan employs tactics such as portraying opposition members as criminals for drug, extortion, and injury, thus both slandering and silencing their voices. Mammadli was also arrested on charges of “intentional injury.”
The decision to continue the detention of opposition leader Tofig Yagublu, who was sentenced to 9 years in prison and has been on hunger strike since April 1, was made at the hearing on May 6. It is known that Tofig Yagublu has been unable to even drink water recently. It is unclear whether Tofig Yagublu will survive until the next hearing on May 20. The government, which is extremely disturbed by Yagublu being on the public agenda, detained journalists Ahmed Mammadli and Ülviyye Ali late at night on May 6 after they went to the courthouse to follow Yagublu's hearing.
Ülviyye Ali, one of the last independent journalists in Azerbaijan who had not been arrested, was detained by the police under torture in the evening. The police searched Ülviyye Ali's house, severely damaging the belongings in the house and placing 6000 Manat in the house. This money was used against the journalist in court as evidence of smuggling. In the context of the pressures on the media that have been ongoing for about 2 years in Azerbaijan, journalists from independent media organizations such as Abzas Media, Meydan TV and Toplum TV were previously arrested on the same pretext. Ülviyye Ali was one of the important journalists who documented many actions and rights violations in Azerbaijan. The court ruled that Ülviyye Ali be held in pretrial detention for 2 months.
On the same day, another leftist activist and journalist, Ahmet Mammadli, was also detained under torture. Ahmet Mammadli has been an opposition figure who has been fighting for years in Azerbaijan, first with the student movement and then with workers' rights, and who became the general chairman of the D-18 party. He had also had his share of the increasing pressure in Azerbaijan for years, with bans on traveling abroad and detentions. The Aliyev regime, which has vowed not to leave any light in the country, is now trying Ahmet Mammadli for a serious crime. The crime of "intentional injury" was alleged regarding Mammadli, who was detained illegally by the police. It is alleged that Mammadli stabbed a person in the stomach because of a problem they had in a taxi. In addition, Ahmet Mammadli was tortured with electric shocks because they wanted to get his phone password, and was not given food for 3 days, his lawyer and family announced.
A 4-month detention decision was made for Ahmet Mammadli in court. This practice is a kind of psychological torture of the Aliyev regime. During the months of detention, the oppositionists who are brought to court have their trials postponed and are held without an indictment for months or even years.
image_750x_681e76f5a6310.jpgPreviously, Afiaddin Mammadov, one of the left leaders of the D-18 party, was also arrested with Ahmet Mammadli on charges of “stabbing.” After a similarly long detention since 2023, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison by court order. At the same time, the leading members of the "Work Table" union, which Ahmet Mammadli and Afiaddin Mammadov founded together, were also sentenced to 3 years in prison, along with Afiaddin Mammadov. The Work Table union organized motorcycle couriers in Azerbaijan and organized strikes. After this incident, the workers who were members of the union had detained on false pretexts. During the Karabakh war, Mammadov and Mammadli were kidnapped, detained, and imprisoned for opposing the Azerbaijani government's expulsion of the Armenian people from the region and chauvinist war policies.
Azerbaijan, which has returned to the Aliyev dynasty, can only govern with chauvinism and oppression. In the impoverished country where corruption is at its peak, the pressure on the opposition has increased significantly, especially since the Karabakh war in 2020. There are more than 350 political prisoners in the country. The regime, which has been conducting a serious witch hunt, especially against the press, in the last two years, has raided many independent media institutions and arrested many journalists and activists. At the same time, Aliyev, who has strengthened his relations with Erdoğan after the war, is also turning the country into a profiteering area for AKP's pro-government companies.
Leftist Azeri Journalist and Activist Mammadli Tortured and Jailed
socialistmiddleeast.com
In Azerbaijan, the Aliyev regime tortured and jailed Ahmet Mammadli, who is a leftist journalist, unionist, and human rights activist, on charges of “intentional injury” on May 7.
‘Who Killed Shireen?’
Zeteo uncovers the hidden identity – and fate – of the Israeli soldier who killed the famous Palestinian-American journalist in 2022.
zeteo.com/p/who-killed-shireen-abu-akleh
TEAM ZETEO
MAY 07, 2025
After a months-long investigation, Zeteo is finally releasing what is undeniably one of our most important works yet, supported and funded by you: our exclusive documentary, “Who Killed Shireen?”
Watch the 40-minute film above, about Israel’s shocking killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in 2022, and be one of the first people to see and hear the ground-breaking revelations from our award-winning team of journalists.
In this investigative documentary, Zeteo, for the first time, identifies the Israeli soldier who killed the famous reporter – a closely guarded secret up until now, as Israel had refused to divulge his name even to top American officials, according to our sources.
The documentary also reveals a shocking Biden administration cover-up, with former US officials divulging exclusive new information and telling us that the Biden administration “failed” Shireen in order to maintain its relationship with the Israeli government.
The film features exclusive interviews not just with former US officials but also former top Israeli officials and soldiers, as well as journalists who knew Shireen personally.
This is an eye-opening investigation that only Zeteo was prepared to fund and has only been possible because of the financial support of our paid subscribers. No corporations. No sponsors. Nothing else.
Paid subscribers to Zeteo can watch the full film above. Free subscribers can watch an 8-minute preview. If you would like to watch the full documentary, and support this type of journalism and the work we’re doing at Zeteo, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Your small contribution goes a long way toward supporting accountability journalism like this… the kind that other outlets are still afraid to take on.
Should you want to help expensive, ambitious, and important journalistic projects like this even further, you can always donate to us here.
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“Who Killed Shireen?” is an investigation for Zeteo led by an award-winning team of journalists and District Bear Media:
Dion Nissenbaum
Dion is an award-winning journalist who has spent more than two decades working as a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and McClatchy Newspapers. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in international reporting, Dion has been based in Kabul, where he covered the US war in Afghanistan, Jerusalem, where he reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Istanbul, Beirut, and Washington.
Fatima AbdulKarim
Fatima is currently a journalist for the New York Times, reporting from the Occupied West Bank. Born in Jerusalem, and raised between Amman and Sharjah, UAE, Fatima is a journalist with 18 years of experience reporting from the front lines in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and working with other major news outlets such as the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, and +972 Magazine. Fatima was a friend and colleague of Shireen in the tight-knit Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist circle.
Conor Powell
Conor is a podcast host, multimedia producer, and veteran TV journalist with more than a decade of experience covering major news stories, including wars and conflicts in the Middle East. Conor runs District Bear Media with Atia Abawi and also hosted and wrote the award-winning podcast “The Lords of Soccer: How FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game” for iHeartRadio.
EXCLUSIVE: Watch Our Explosive New Documentary, ‘Who Killed Shireen?’
zeteo.com
Zeteo uncovers the hidden identity – and fate – of the Israeli soldier who killed the famous Palestinian-American journalist in 2022.
The Turkish government’s grip on journalism is tightening
With 90% of the country’s media now controlled by the state, it is becoming harder and harder to report independently
www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/05/turkish-governments-grip-journalism-tightening-media/?fbclid=Iw…
By Kaya Genç
08 May 25
Europe and Central Asia | News and features | Turkey
Prior to his arrest, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu meets with the public in February 2024 ahead of local elections in Istanbul and across Turkey. Photo by Tolga Ildun / ZUMA Press WiZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Live News
The alarming escalation in the persecution of Turkey’s media workers is part of a calculated strategy. With the detention of Istanbul’s democratically elected mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on 19 March, the Turkish government has sent a chilling message to the public: nobody is safe, anyone can be arrested, so everybody should take caution.
Journalists make up a significant sum among the more than 1,879 detained in last month’s protests, 260 of whom were formally arrested. A further 382 people were reportedly arrested in Istanbul last week for “non-authorised demonstrations”.
Photographers, reporters, videographers, YouTubers, and social media commentators have been detained. Many have been taken into custody following dawn raids. Wearing visible press badges hasn’t helped reporters and videographers who filmed scenes of clashes outside the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality building in Saraçhane, where the opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), had organised week-long protest rallies. Covering the events became a crime as government officials warned that TV networks that gave airtime to these events would be shut down.
This was not an empty threat. On 24 March, 11 journalists were arrested in one day, including Yasin Akgül of the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Bülent Kılıç, a World Press Photo award winner and one of Turkey’s most accomplished photographers. BBC’s long-time Istanbul correspondent, Mark Lowen, was taken from his hotel in Istanbul on 26 March, held for 17 hours, and expelled from the country where he had lived for five years.
Arbitrary releases have followed the arbitrary arrests. After being released, the AFP photographer Akgül and his colleagues were reportedly re-arrested the same day, before being re-released a few days later.
Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) and Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) have used these arbitrary shock-and-awe tactics over the past weeks.
On the day of İmamoğlu’s detention, BTK imposed widespread restrictions on social media and messaging platforms in Istanbul, including YouTube, Instagram, X, and TikTok.
Because of the restrictions, neither locals nor tourists could use messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal for days. The impact was significant, given that Istanbul has a population of more than 15 million residents, making it the most populous and wealthiest city in Turkey.
BTK achieved the digital shutdown through bandwidth throttling, which significantly slows down internet access. The global internet censorship watchdog NetBlocks confirmed the use of bandwidth throttling.
The government, meanwhile, neither accepted nor denied throttling the internet for more than 15 million citizens, adding an air of mystery to the technical operation. Imposing restrictions without any announcement or explanation is part of the same political strategy that placed İmamoğlu behind bars.
A few days later, RTÜK issued a 10-day broadcast suspension for the leading opposition network, Sözcü TV. The TV channel’s coverage of protests “incited hatred and enmity among the public”, according to RTÜK.
Officials from the board continue to threaten the opposition media by revoking their licences. This means they could be shut down for good if network editors don’t abide by the government’s rules.
“Let’s see what will happen tomorrow morning,” mused Fatih Portakal, the Sözcü TV anchor, during a news bulletin shortly following the announcement of the 10-day suspension. Portakal told viewers his channel would go dark and display RTÜK’s decision for ten days. Sözcü continued its YouTube broadcasts and is now back on air on cable television.
The Turkish government already controls 90% of the media. From TV channel CNN Turk to newspaper Hurriyet, once respected mainstream media brands now operate as government mouthpieces. The government’s biggest concern is the remaining pockets of free expression: media outlets such as Bianet, Agos, Açık Radyo, and Medyascope have been demonised by the right-wing press, charged with serving foreign interests. In response, readers and viewers have been supporting these publications through donations.
But the level of government oppression has reached new heights, even by Turkey’s standards. In March, after the opposition party CHP launched a boycott campaign against firms with links to the government’s financial networks, a court shut down BoykotYap.com, the website containing the list of boycotted firms.
Hours later, the CHP launched a new website with an altered web address, BoykotYap.net. “Transform your consumption power into resistance. We will not see those who do not see the people!” CHP MP Pınar Uzun Okakın posted on X after announcing the new website’s URL.
In the eyes of the government, the unrest that followed the jailing of Istanbul’s democratically elected mayor is an opportunity. RTÜK recently announced that it would require two YouTube channels to register with the government to continue their streams, or their accounts would be blocked. Neither channel has applied for a licence and RTÜK hasn’t yet closed them down.
Fatih Altaylı, one of the targeted journalists, has nearly 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube, several times larger than pro-government channels like Yeni Şafak (712,000) and Sabah (373,000). The move follows RTÜK announcing last September that, under new regulation, YouTubers would need to obtain a licence in order to broadcast news. While the law is yet to be fully implemented, it is clearly already being used as a threat, and licenses can already be obtained. In the ideal world of the Turkish government, its bureaucrats would be permitted to censor content about Turkey regardless of platform.
The reaction to this vision of opacity and widespread censorship has been immense. Mass street protests and social media campaigns included a boycott against government-controlled media channels CNN Türk, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), and the news agency Demirören News Agency (DHA).
As government intimidation continues to increase, Turkey’s media workers will likely develop new outlets: YouTube channels, Substacks, websites, anything that allows them to reach a growing audience hungry for objective news that is produced by reporters on the ground, despite all dangers.
The Turkish government’s grip on journalism is tightening – Index on Censorship
www.indexoncensorship.org
With 90% of the country’s media now controlled by the state, it is becoming harder and harder to report independently
New Film Names Soldier in Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Shooting
After Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the West Bank in 2022, the Israeli military never revealed the identity of the soldier who fired at her. A documentary said it had confirmed his name.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/world/middleeast/israel-soldier-shireen-abu-akleh-palestinian-american…
Banners with a woman’s face are affixed to low walls amid a row of trees.
The site of Shireen Abu Akleh’s fatal shooting in Jenin, the West Bank, in 2022. The killing of the U.S. citizen prompted the Biden administration to push Israel to more rigorously investigate her death. Credit…Samar Hazboun for The New York Times
Patrick Kingsley.png
By Patrick Kingsley
Reporting from Jerusalem
May 8, 2025, 6:59 a.m. ET
When Shireen Abu Akleh, a renowned Palestinian American broadcaster, was shot and killed in 2022 in the northern West Bank, Israeli officials initially suggested that she may have been hit by a Palestinian militant. Months later, the military changed its account, acknowledging that she most likely was shot by an Israeli soldier — whom it declined to identify.
Three years later, a new documentary has identified and named an Israeli soldier as the shooter, apparently solving a mystery that was a major focus at the time of the incident.
Zeteo News, a left-leaning online news outlet, named the shooter as Capt. Alon Scagio, then a 20-year-old marksman in an elite commando unit, citing another soldier in his squad.
Two Israeli military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, confirmed the documentary’s conclusions to The New York Times. Asked by The Times to confirm the identity of the soldier, the Israeli military said it had made “no definitive determination regarding the identity of the individual responsible for the shooting.” At the same time, it passed along a message from the Scagio family requesting that journalists avoid publishing the captain’s name.
Ms. Abu Akleh, a veteran reporter for Al Jazeera, was a household name in the Middle East. Her death set off mourning across the region and prompted greater global scrutiny of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Her U.S. citizenship also prompted unusual concern from the Biden administration, leading to friction between the American and Israeli governments.
Image
Demonstrators at a rally hold pictures of a woman journalist who had been shot dead in the West Bank..webp
Demonstrators hold pictures of Ms. Abu Akleh during a rally in Brooklyn in 2022.Credit…Mostafa Bassim for The New York Times
According to a biography posted on the Israeli Defense Ministry’s website, Captain Scagio was a career soldier who trained as an elite sniper and fought in the West Bank for eight months in 2022. Later, he served in Gaza, following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, before being transferred back to the West Bank, the biography said.
Captain Scagio was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin last June, age 22, after his convoy was hit by a roadside explosive, the biography said.
Zeteo’s documentary concluded that Captain Scagio had fired on Ms. Abu Akleh in the same city more than two years earlier. She had been covering an Israeli military raid and clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. The Zeteo team was led by a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, Dion Nissenbaum, and included a regular freelance contributor to The New York Times,
Wearing protective gear marked with the word “press,” Ms. Abu Akleh was hit while walking with a group of similarly dressed journalists toward a small convoy of Israeli military jeeps. An investigation by The Times in 2022 found that the bullet that killed Ms. Abu Akleh was fired from the approximate location of the Israeli military convoy, most likely by a soldier from an elite unit.
The evidence reviewed by The Times showed that there were no armed Palestinians near her when she was shot. It contradicted Israeli claims that, if a soldier had mistakenly killed her, it was because he had been shooting at a Palestinian gunman.
Image Investigators’ yellow tape is seen on a tree around bullet holes..webp
Investigators’ tape on a tree marks holes from the bullets fired toward Ms. Abu Akleh in 2022. She was wearing protective gear marked with the word “press.”Credit…Samar Hazboun for The New York Times
As an American citizen, Ms. Abu Akleh’s killing prompted the Biden administration to push Israel to more rigorously investigate her death. Later, the Biden administration was itself accused of downplaying Israeli culpability, a charge dismissed by the State Department, which concluded that while Israeli soldiers may have killed the journalist, they did not target her intentionally.
The Zeteo documentary, citing an anonymous source, said that U.S. officials had initially decided after a site visit that Ms. Abu Akleh had been deliberately targeted, before changing their conclusions in the final version of the report to avoid upsetting Israel.
A senior U.S. official familiar with the report said its conclusions were never altered and no draft version had ever concluded that Ms. Abu Akleh had been intentionally killed. The official also said that the American officers who visited the site of the shooting were unable to reach a definitive conclusion on the soldier’s exact line of sight, let alone the shooter’s intention, because the Americans did not assess the site from within an Israeli military vehicle.
The Times investigation was also unable to determine the shooter’s exact field of vision or intention.
The Office of the Security Coordinator — the unit of the State Department that investigated the incident — declined to comment.
Ms. Abu Akleh’s funeral attracted global outcry after Israeli police officers assaulted mourners carrying her coffin, causing them to drop it.
Documentary Identifies Israeli Soldier as Shooter of Palestinian American Journalist
www.nytimes.com
After Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the West Bank in 2022, the Israeli military never revealed the identity of the soldier who fired at her. A documentary said it had confirmed his name.
EFF Installs Border Technology Exhibit at Angel Island Immigration Station
www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-installs-border-technology-exhibit-angel-island-immigration-station
Exhibit Encourages Visitors to Consider the Past and Present of U.S. Border Policy
PRESS RELEASE
MARCH 31, 2025
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SAN FRANCISCO—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has installed a photographic and informational exhibit on border surveillance technology for public viewing at Angel Island State Park—the first such display ever in a California State Park and a National Historic Landmark.
The “Border Surveillance: Places, People, and Technology” exhibit—launching Wednesday, April 2 and open through late May in cooperation with the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) and California State Parks—explores the “virtual wall” that the U.S. government has built along the U.S.-Mexico border, affecting people’s civil rights on both sides.
“There are few better places than Angel Island, where U.S. policy enabled the persecution of thousands of Asian immigrants, for an exhibition on the tools used today to conduct warrantless spying on people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border,” said EFF Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Matthew Guariglia. “We hope that as people visit Angel Island to reflect upon America’s immigration policies of the past, this exhibit will help them reflect on how we deal with our borders—and the people who live and travel there—now and in the future.”
EFF for years has been amassing data and images about the massive increase in surveillance technology infrastructure at the U.S.-Mexico border. EFF staff members have made a series of trips all along the U.S.-Mexico border, from the California coast to the tip of Texas, to learn from communities on both sides of the border, interview journalists, aid workers and activists, and map and document the technology installed there.
The exhibit consists of eight large panels of images and text describing various technologies including aerostats, drones, fixed and mobile cameras, ground sensors, and more. Some panels also discuss the history of border surveillance, and possible future technology deployments including augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
The U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island, is a National Historic Landmark located within Angel Island State Park in California’s San Francisco Bay. From 1910 to 1940, the station processed nearly a million immigrants from more than 80 countries. While often called “the Ellis Island of the West,” Angel Island was in fact quite different. Arrivals at Ellis Island were welcomed to this country by the Statue of Liberty, screened primarily for medical reasons, and usually released within hours of arriving; at Angel Island, the objective was to exclude many new arrivals, often under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Most of the 175,000 Chinese immigrants who arrived at Angel Island were detained for a few weeks—some were detained up to 90 days and a few for almost two years—while their applications were considered. Many detainees expressed their anxiety and despair by writing and carving on the wooden barracks walls; some wrote poignant poems, still legible today.
"The historic detention of immigrants at Angel Island is interconnected with surveillance efforts along the U.S. southern border," noted AIISF Executive Director Edward Tepporn. "Just as Angel Island was built primarily to process and detain Asians and Pacific Islanders, early border surveillance efforts focused on Chinese immigrants. Surveillance technology has evolved over the years, and this exhibit provides visitors a chance to contemplate the intersections of safety and privacy at the personal, community, and national levels."
In conjunction with the Angel Island exhibit, EFF will host two free panel discussions—one livestreamed, one in person—about border surveillance technology:
Thursday, April 3, 1-2 p.m. PDT: “Life and Migration Under Surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico Border” livestream (RSVP at www.eff.org/livestream-border) featuring:
Petra Molnar, co-director of the Refugee Law Lab and the Migration and Technology Monitor, faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and author of “The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”
Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S./Mexico Border Program, steering committee member for the Southern Border Communities Coalition, and board member for the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Todd Miller, journalist at The Border Chronicle and author of “Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders”
Dave Maass, EFF Director of Investigations
Dr. Matthew Guariglia, EFF Senior Policy Analyst (moderator)
Wednesday, April 9, 6-8 p.m. PDT: "Tracking and Documenting Surveillance at the U.S.-Mexico Border” live in-person discussion at the Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave., San Francisco, CA 94118 (RSVP at www.eff.org/borderevent) featuring:
Lauren Markham, award-winning author, essayist and journalist
Daniel Werner, Senior Staff Attorney at Just Futures Law
Alex Mensing, longtime border activist and Communications Manager at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice
Saira Hussain, EFF Senior Staff Attorney
Hannah Zhao, EFF Senior Staff Attorney (moderator)
For more on EFF’s border surveillance work: www.eff.org/issues/border-surveillance-technology
For EFF’s 2024 ‘zine guide to border surveillance technology (in English): www.eff.org/files/2024/05/06/borderzine-2024-5-6-en.pdf
For EFF’s 2024 ‘zine guide to border surveillance technology (in Spanish): www.eff.org/files/2024/05/06/borderzine-2024-5-6-es.pdf
CONTACT:
Matthew Guariglia
International community notes U.S. press freedoms in decline
U.S. drops behind Sierra Leone in world rankings
betty699.substack.com/p/international-community-notes-us
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE
MAY 5
International observers now consider press freedom in the U.S. to be “problematic,” as America continues its downward slide in the world rankings compiled each year by Reporters Without Borders. Since 2013, the U.S. has dropped from a world ranking of 32, or “satisfactory,” to 57 this year, putting it behind Romania, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The news comes as UNESCO marked World Press Freedom Day on Saturday, www.unesco.org/en, reporting that the past few years have been particularly deadly for journalists. Nearly 200 have been killed in Gaza alone.
Journalists and others working in the media expected America’s poor performance on the world stage, as fresh levels of harassment began following the inauguration of the new administration, including pulling Voice of America off the air, going after individual reporters and public media, and the ongoing scrutiny of the major news networks (with the notable exception of Fox News) by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
Voice of America’s status unclear
Two months ago, the president ordered the Voice of American off the air after a VOA reporter asked a question that angered him, a move that landed yet another one of his executive orders in court. Late Saturday, a federal appeals court paused a plan to relaunch broadcasts, halting what was already expected to be a Herculean effort to restore the international news network.
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Coming for your notebook
On Thursday, the New York Times (paywall) reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi reversed a previous DOJ decision to refrain from going after reporter notebooks, and will again subpoena reporters, a major threat to press freedom.
CPB executive order finally drops
Although the threat has been known ever since Project 2025 became public last year, the president signed, on Thursday, the long-expected executive order to end federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Here is the CPB’s response.
It took generations to build public media to its current capacity, including the capacity of some, such as KERA in Dallas, to merge with smaller news outlets around them that would otherwise have been lost. Perhaps this is why some politicians suddenly find public media threatening, and also perhaps why there has been a broad response even though many media watchers knew it was coming.
Here’s part of a recent blog summary from Muck Rack, which focuses on highlighting the work of specific journalists:
NPR’s David Folkenflik notes that the order cites “biased and partisan” coverage as justification, accusing both broadcasters of failing to deliver “a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events.” On social media, Trump called NPR and PBS “radical left ‘monsters.’”
As reported by Qasim Nauman at The New York Times, CPB is funded two years in advance to protect it from political interference — and the immediate legal standing of Trump’s order remains unclear. Nevertheless, the administration has also asked Congress to rescind over $1 billion in allocated funding and recently attempted to remove three CPB board members, prompting the organization to sue.
Frances Vinall at The Washington Post adds that Trump’s directive goes further by requiring the CPB to ensure local stations, which rely heavily on CPB grants, don’t use federal dollars to buy programming from NPR or PBS. Both networks testified before Congress in March at a hearing led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene titled “Anti-American Airwaves,” where they were challenged on perceived political bias.
Rebecca Falconer at Axios points out that while NPR receives only about 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, local member stations get up to 10% via CPB. For PBS, about 15% of funding comes from federal sources. Both networks emphasized that any rollback in public funding would disproportionately hurt local stations — particularly in underserved areas that rely on them for emergency alerts, educational content, and public safety information.
The crackdown on domestic public media is unfolding alongside escalating efforts to dismantle U.S.-funded international outlets. As CNN’s Brian Stelter reports, Radio Free Asia laid off most of its staff on Friday and is suspending broadcasts after the Trump administration withheld its congressionally approved funding.
Carr’s bully pulpit at the FCC
Curiously, the three primary goals for the Federal Communications Commission in Project 2025, written last year by now-FCC Chairman Carr,languish as the administration harasses the media. Those goals include revisiting the legislation that protects online/social media platforms from ways that legacy media outlets were not, protecting Americans from Chinese artificial intelligence maneuvers, and updating satellite policies.
Wired magazine, which has expertly reported on Elon Musk’s government data harvesting in recent months, turned its attention toward Carr and, in a recent profile, explains why he may have pivoted to censor-in-chief. (Paywall advisory: Wired lets readers sample up to four stories before erecting its paywall, so if you haven’t read many Wired stories, you should be able to access it.)
Two special updates
The CBS 60 Minutes segment with Kamala Harris that so angered the president has been nominated for an Emmy. Among the many advocacy efforts for public media, WNYC offers its listeners several strategies to Stand Together.
This FCC Actions Alert is produced by the volunteers at the Community Media Assistance Project. We monitor many sources of information about the Federal Communications Commission, federal communications law, and community developments important to your station and your community. The information provided in this newsletter is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on the content herein. If you have a news tip, please email us at betty@c-map.org.
Communications Act of 1934, Sect. 326.
Nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.
UNESCO : Building Peace through Education, Science and Culture, communication and information
www.unesco.org
Learn more about UNESCO’s role, vision and results. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Our aim is to promote peace and security through international coope…Workers of the World, Unite, because your solidarity is needed now more than ever.
Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records
'Doomloop Dispatch' podcast co-host says he’s been targeted by serial harasser
eastbayexpress.com/oakland-journalist-reports-threats-after-sharing-public-records/
By D. Scot Miller
Apr 22, 2025
Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records
VAN JONES Journalist Kevin Jones says he found his van’s tires slashed, a threatening note left behind and a sock stuffed into its gas tank on March 1. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Jones)
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Kevin Jones and I have hosted the Doomloop Dispatch podcast for nearly a year now. Last week, we reached our 50th episode, with an interview with journalist Eric K. Arnold. Our episodes generally focus on being counter-narratives to what has been termed “the doom loop,” a catch-all phrase for a consistent campaign on social media and some legacy news outlets that focuses on what they interpret as a decline of a quality of life in Oakland and San Francisco.
While those outlets draw attention to often-exaggerated stories about crime, drug addiction and homelessness, Jones and I report on and interview activists, organizations and public figures who contribute positive actions to address those issues and ways our listeners can engage with them to help everyone in our communities thrive and prosper.
The Doomloop Dispatch hosts are not “shock jocks” in the tradition of Joe Rogan or Howard Stern. The primary focuses of our podcast are education and hyper-local community engagement, not confrontation. Which is why we were both surprised to find ourselves at the center of a controversial, and often frightening, campaign of terror and intimidation that made several headlines in the local press.
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In late February of this year, Jones, a veteran Oakland journalist who has worked and written for KPIX, KTVU and theSan Francisco Chronicle used his journalistic skills to help an ally with a restraining order against Omar Ward, also known as “JJ Smith” on X/Twitter. Through a public records search, Jones found Ward’s criminal record, which turned out to be extensive, and shared it on the social media platform. Ward was somehow notified of Jones’ findings, and though the records were public, objected to their disclosure.
According to a March 7 article by The San Francisco Standard, Ward is “a felon, convicted in a 2006 federal case for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Although some two dozen documents pertaining to the case have been sealed, his criminal record earned him the designation of ‘career offender,’ according to records that remain public. The court determined that Ward fell into ‘Criminal History Category VI,’ the highest category, and had an offense level of 34 (the highest possible is 43), indicating that he had numerous prior convictions. Ward was also arrested in 1998 during a domestic disturbance call, according to court records, and was convicted of possession of a controlled substance.” Though Jones told the person on whose behalf he was researching to proceed with caution, he thought his reporting would be the end of his involvement.
On March 1, Jones, also a musician, while waiting for a parking space and leaning on his Toyota Sienna in front of Oakland’s Thee Stork Club in order to unload his equipment, received a strange text message from a friend. The text included a video of him leaning against his van only a few minutes prior. When he saw that the video was posted under the “JJ Smith” handle on Twitter/X, Jones became concerned.
According to San Francisco’s The Phoenix Project in the article “JJ Smith and the Astroturf Network,” “JJ Smith became a local internet star by posting videos of drug users in the city’s long-troubled Tenderloin neighborhood. Smith’s videos became fodder for members of the Astroturf Network as it attacked progressive elected officials including former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Supervisors Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin and Dean Preston.”
The article goes on to say that, “Smith liked to think of himself as a political activist, a truth-teller shining a light on human misery to grab the attention of elected officials.” However, his doom loop “porn” videos have been criticized by long-time homeless activists like Sara Shortt. “Even if you believe this is a means to an end, using vulnerable people as fodder in that battle is inexcusable, frankly,” Shortt said.
Smith has been a willing tool for the Astroturf Network. Susan Dyer Reynolds, former Marina Times editor, featured Smith in a YouTube series in 2021 designed to “hold the District Attorney accountable.” Part of the money for the series came from the $200,000 Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the political organization founded by right-wing Republican William Oberndorf, paid to Reynolds and her colleague Stanley Roberts in 2021.
As of March 1, Jones wasn’t aware of Smith’s involvement with the very narrative our podcast was dedicated to countering.
“Omar started threatening me, so I blocked him on X and put him out of my memory,” Jones told The Standard, “but apparently he posted a video of me just leaning on my van, looking at my phone for 19 seconds.” Due to his lack of awareness of Ward’s involvement with the doom loop campaigns in SF, Jones dismissed the video and went inside for his gig. Around midnight, as he tells it, he returned to his van and found all of his tires slashed, a threatening note on his windshield and a sock stuffed into the gas tank. The sock appeared burned, as if someone had tried to light it on fire.
On March 2, I woke up to a text from Jones telling me about the vandalism. Having had similar experiences, though not as extreme, as a veteran journalist myself, I told him to preserve and record everything and contact the police as soon as possible. I also said it was fortunate that a note had been left behind because handwriting analysis could help confirm the identity of the responsible party. He sent me a photo of the note, which read:
“Have you ever seen a cheetah hunt it’s [sic] prey a cheetah is camouflage by there [sic] spots so there [sic] prey don’t see them then they move in at the right time.”
After we covered the incident in an episode of our podcast, citizen journalists like Sad Francisco and the nonprofit The Phoenix Project did small pieces on it, but it wasn’t until The Standard and SFist covered it that Ward admitted to writing the note that Jones found on his windshield but denied slashing his tires.
Before Jones and I became aware of Ward’s involvement with the doom loop and what The Phoenix Project has dubbed the Astroturf Network, which can be defined as organized activity intended to create a false impression of a widespread, spontaneously arising, grassroots political movement, we both assumed Ward had a personal vendetta against Jones for sharing his information. But when we learned of possible ideological intent behind the actions, the implications became more stark.
In the time since the publication of these articles, several other people have reached out to us saying they’ve experienced similar harassment and intimidation due to their activism and journalism. The investigation is ongoing, and there’s still time for more voices to tell their stories.
Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records
eastbayexpress.com
Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records—’Doomloop Dispatch’ podcaster says he’s been targeted by serial harasser.
Reporting in Hostile Times: SPJ Region 11 Conference
spjnorcal.org/conference/
May 2, 2025 @ 2:00PM — May 3, 2025 @ 5:00PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
University of San Francisco: 2130 Fulton St San Francisco, CA 94117
Register
FRIDAY 5/2
DAY & TIME WORKSHOP 1 WORKSHOP 2 WORKSHOP 3
FRIDAY
1PM
CHECK IN OPENS
FRIDAY
2:15-3.15PM AI Ethics and Literacy for Journalists
Dorothy Kidd, USF Media Studies professor (moderator)
Andy Lee Roth, researcher with the Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists project through the Reynolds
Journalism Institute
avram anderson, researcher with the Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists project through the Reynolds
Journalism Institute Keeping the Lights On: Nonprofit Journalism in Tough Times
Ashley McBride, Oaklandside education reporter (moderator)
Tasneem Raja, Oaklandside editor-in-chief
Victoria Añíbarro, Mission Local donor relations lead
Madeleine Bair, El Tímpano founder
FRIDAY
3:30-4.30PM Google tools training
Workshop by Jordan Wirfs-Brock, assistant professor of computer science at Whitman College
Sponsored by Society of Professional Journalists and Google News Initiative
*laptop required How to Learn More About Your Audiences’ Needs and Curiosities – Then Serve Them Through Explanatory Journalism
Workshop by Carly Severn, KQED’s senior editor of audience news Publishing insights: Turning your reporting into a book
Gina Baleria, Associate Professor
Department of Communication & Media Studies
Faculty Advisor, KSUN Radio (moderator)
Miranda Spivack, journalist and author of the forthcoming book Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back
Kevin Fagan, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee, former SF Chronicle reporter, author of The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family and Second Chances
TBA
FRIDAY
5:15-6:30PM
KEYNOTE PROGRAM: Free Press Under Fire
First Amendment advocates and news leaders will unpack the rising threats to a free press and discuss ways working journalists and allies can work together to stand up for the First Amendment and access to information in hostile times.
Moderated by Heather Knight, New York Times San Francisco bureau chief
David Greene, Civil Liberties Director & Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Thomas Peele, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist & Co-Chair of SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee
Ginny LaRoe, Advocacy Director, First Amendment Coalition
@ The Internet Archive headquarters
300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118
FRIDAY
6:30-8:30PM
NETWORKING RECEPTION
@ The Internet Archive headquarters
300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118
Sponsored by the Asian American Journalists Association San Francisco Bay Area
SATURDAY 5/3
DAY & TIME WORKSHOP 1 WORKSHOP 2 WORKSHOP 3
SATURDAY
9-10AM
CHECK IN & NETWORKING
Light breakfast and coffee provided
SATURDAY
10-11AM OSINT: Cutting-edge tools for digital sleuthing and visual investigations (Part 1)
Workshop by Kevin Reyes, senior OSINT specialist at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and professor at the University of Southern California
*laptop required Harnessing AI innovations in newsrooms
Brett Oppegaard, journalism professor at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (moderator)
Derrick Ho, editorial director of AI initiatives for Hearst Newspapers
Kat Rowlands, Bay City News owner and publisher
Ryan Sabalow, CalMatters
Digital Democracy reporter Telling true immigration stories in an age of fast news and misinformation
Victor Tafoya Rodríguez, at-large board member for National Association of Hispanic Journalists Bay Area chapter, independent journalist and contributor to Building Justice podcast from CSU, Sacramento (moderator)
María Antonieta Mejía, journalist for Univision 14 in the Bay Area
Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration reporter for El Tímpano
Ximena Loeza, Central and East Contra Costa County reporter, El Tímpano
Ankita M. Kumar, award-winning trilingual journalist and documentary filmmaker, SPJ Region 11 coordinator, Sunshine Ordinance Task Force member
SATURDAY
11:15AM-12:15PM OSINT: Cutting-edge tools for digital sleuthing and visual investigations (Part 2)
Workshop by Kevin Reyes, senior OSINT specialist at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and professor at the University of Southern California
*laptop required Thriving as a Freelance Journalist
Laura Wenus, independent multimedia journalist and editor, SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee co-chair (moderator)
Emma Silvers, independent writer and editor
Camille Cohen, freelance photographer
Cecilia Lei, KQED contributor Signal and secrets: encrypting your communications in hostile times
Workshop by Martin Shelton, deputy director of digital security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation
SATURDAY
12:15-1:15PM LUNCH & NETWORKING
Lunch provided
Crowdsourcing: Help build out the Bay Area Journalism Directory (and Graveyard) First 10 helpers get a gift card!
SATURDAY
1:15-2:15PM Watchdog Workshop: Secrets of Public Records Sleuths
Ginny LaRoe, First Amendment Coalition advocacy director (moderator)
Lisa Pickoff-White, director of research, California Reporting Project, based at UC Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Project
Byrhonda Lyons, investigative reporter, CalMatters
Thomas Peele, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, EdSource
*laptop required Reporting on Crisis: Covering Fires and Disasters
Laura Moorhead, San Francisco State University journalism professor, SPJ NorCal board member (moderator)
Boone Ashworth, Wired
Joanne Derbort, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism faculty
Dani Anguiano, The Guardian reporter, co-author of Fire in Paradise
Stephen Lam, SF Chronicle photographer and Pulitzer finalist Incorporating Inequality into Your Reporting
Tim Redmond, 48 Hills editor and founder, University of San Francisco instructor (moderator)
Rahsaan “New York” Thomas, executive director of Empowerment Avenue, co-host of Pulitzer Prize finalist ‘Ear Hustle’
Tsanavi Spoonhunter, Northern Arapaho and Northern Paiute nonfiction storyteller
Raheem Hosseini, SF Chroniclereporter, former race and equity editor
Todd Oppenheimer, journalist and member of Patriotic Millionaires
SATURDAY
2:30-3:30PM Breaking down doors: The art of tough reporting
Thomas Peele, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, EdSource(moderator)
Elizabeth Wilson, Mustang News of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Lance Williams, investigative reporter, George Polk Award winner
Michael Barba, SF Chronicle accountability and public safety reporter
Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters higher education reporter Rise of independent journalism: Reporting that cuts against the grain
Nuala Bishari, former SF Chronicle opinion writer (moderator)
se smith, cofounder of feminist media collective The Flytrap Media
Erika Carlos, El Tecolote editor in chief
Jaime Omar Yassin, Oakland Observer
Kevin Epps, SF Bayview National Black Newspaper Ensuring diversity in journalism — without paying lip service
Supriya Yelimeli, former Berkeleyside reporter (moderator)
Yesica Prado, Type Media Center investigative reporter
Martin Reynolds, Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Cecilia Lei, KQED contributor and former AAJA-SF president
Journalists today face unprecedented challenges—press freedom is under attack, misinformation is rampant, and the media industry is evolving at a rapid pace. The SPJ Region 11 Conference, hosted by SPJ NorCal and the University of San Francisco’s Media Studies Department, brings together journalists, editors, media professionals, and students for two days of insightful discussions, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities.
Join us as we tackle critical issues in journalism, including the future of the attention economy and misinformation, immigration reporting, the latest investigative tools, and the rise of independent journalism. Whether you’re a veteran journalist, mid-career or just starting out, this conference offers invaluable insights and connections to help navigate the ever-changing media landscape. This conference is also made possible by our partners at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Bay Area and the Asian American Journalists Association San Francisco Bay Area.
Schedule subject to change.
spjnorcal.org
Journalists today face unprecedented challenges—press freedom is under attack, misinformation is rampant, and the media industry is evolving at a rapid pace. The SPJ Region 11 Conference, hosted by …