Kosovo to shelter 20 Ukrainian journalists working remotely

A general view shows the city of Pristina, Kosovo (Reuters)
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Updated 01 March 2022
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Kosovo to shelter 20 Ukrainian journalists working remotely

  • The government will initially allocate 150,000 euros to pay for their living costs, wages and offices
  • There was no indication when the journalists would arrive in Kosovo

PRISTINA: Kosovo plans to offer shelter for up to six months to 20 Ukrainian journalists forced to leave their country following the invasion by Russia, according to a government document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The document says priority will be given to female journalists who will be chosen by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).
The government will initially allocate 150,000 euros to pay for their living costs, wages and offices for a period of up to six months, to enable them to work remotely.
There was no indication when the journalists would arrive in Kosovo, which is neither a NATO nor an EU member but has joined other Western countries in introducing sanctions on Russia.
Last August Kosovo also agreed to temporarily host about 2,000 Afghans seeking visas to enter the United States. Most of them have already left although some are still waiting for their paperwork.
Ukraine does not recognize Kosovo’s independence but it has 40 troops serving as peacekeepers in the country under a NATO mission.


Evacuation packages out of Lebanon advertised on social media

Updated 07 October 2024
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Evacuation packages out of Lebanon advertised on social media

  • Evacuation packages by plane, boat or bus to neighboring countries have been widely promoted on social media
  • Ranging from $100 to $35,000 per package, inflated service has sparked criticisms for profiteering during the crisis

LONDON: Companies in Lebanon are advertising evacuation packages on social media, offering escape routes to neighboring countries amid growing unrest, Arab News has learned.

Dozens of businesses have taken to platforms like Instagram to promote evacuation services via bus, taxi, boat, and plane.

One such service, Beirut-based Private Routes Flight Dispatchers, offers on-demand charter evacuation flights for up to seven people from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport.

According to a post on their Instagram page, destinations include Egypt, Bangui M’poko International Airport in the Central African Republic, and Entebbe International Airport in Uganda.

PRFD informed Arab News that charter prices vary depending on the client’s budget and the safety of the chosen route.

For instance, a charter flight to Larnaca, Cyprus costs $25,000, but if visas are not available, flights to Amman or Istanbul rise to $36,000. Flights to Egypt are priced at $31,000.

A PRFD representative explained that, under normal circumstances, they would offer charters to Europe or the Gulf, but due to the high demand for evacuations, they are sticking to shorter routes to accommodate everyone.

PRFD’s website states they provide “urgent flight services,” leveraging 15 years of experience to ensure “smooth, efficient, and timely operations.” Their flight dispatchers use state-of-the-art technology for flight planning, the website noted.

Another travel company, Traveo Agency, which appears to have been launched in early September, offers bus journeys to Amman, Jordan for $100 per ticket, and boat trips to Ayia Napa, Cyprus for $995 per person. A post on their Instagram reads, “Canceled Flight? Travel from Beirut to Ayia Napa by boat,” promising departures within five days.

Arab News reached out to Traveo Agency for further details but received no response at the time of publication.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Traveo (@traveo.agency)

Instagram has been inundated with similar evacuation offers.

Byblos Rent A Boat, a yacht rental service in Beirut, posted a video offering private boat trips to Cyprus. The video, accompanied by a computer-generated voice, claims the journey takes five to six hours with a professional crew ensuring safety. Prices were not disclosed, though users commented that the cost ranged between $2,000 and $2,500, sparking criticism for profiteering during the crisis.

Lebanon has been hit by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks, pushing the country further into what international observers have called a “systematic socio-economic and humanitarian failure.”

The crisis has deepened the already stark social and economic divide, with wealthier Lebanese able to flee the escalating violence, leaving many behind. This growing wealth gap has sparked public anger, as ordinary citizens face increasingly dire conditions while those with means secure safe passage out of the country.

As the conflict widens, both Lebanese citizens and foreign nationals are scrambling to leave, with governments urging them to get out of the country immediately. With most commercial flights suspended, options for fleeing are limited. While some countries have arranged air evacuations, many are resorting to overcrowded ferries or smaller vessels as bombs continue to strike central Beirut.

Opportunistic business practices during crises, often referred to as “disaster profiteering,” are not new to Lebanon. In past conflicts, businesses have adapted to meet wartime demands, with some smuggling essential goods or profiting from the black market.

Following the collapse of the Lebanese lira in 2019 and the ensuing economic meltdown — exacerbated by corruption, a dysfunctional government, and crumbling institutions — the black market, reportedly controlled by Hezbollah, flourished. This illicit network, which capitalized on Lebanon’s reliance on remittances as a lifeline, has enabled Hezbollah to build a sophisticated financial system, profiting off the country’s widespread suffering.


One Year of War in Gaza: Deadliest conflict for reporters

Updated 07 October 2024
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One Year of War in Gaza: Deadliest conflict for reporters

  • Past year has been the deadliest on record for reporters, watchdog says
  • Journalists globally fear erosion of protections

BEIRUT: Palestinian journalist Islam Al-Zaanoun was so determined to cover the war in Gaza that she went back to work two months after giving birth. But, like all journalists in Gaza, she wasn’t just covering the story — she was living it.
The 34-year-old, who works for Palestine TV, gave birth to a girl in Gaza city a few weeks after the beginning of the Israeli offensive last October.
She had to have a Caesarean section as Israeli airstrikes pounded the strip. Her doctors performed the operation in the dark with only the lights on their cellphones to guide them.
The next day she went home but the day after that she had to flee the fighting, driving further south with her three children. Nine days after giving birth, she was forced to abandon her car and continue on foot.
“I had to walk eight km (five miles) to get to the south with my children,” she said. “There were bodies and corpses everywhere, horrifying sight. I felt my heart was going to stop from the fear.”
Just 60 days later, she got back in front of the camera to report on the war, joining the ranks of Palestinian journalists who have provided the world’s only window on the conflict in the absence of international media, who have not been granted free access by Israeli authorities.
“Correspondents have reporting in their blood, they don’t learn it, so they cannot be far from the coverage too long,” Al-Zaanoun told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As of Oct. 4, at least 127 journalists and media workers had been killed since the conflict began, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
This has made the past year the deadliest period on record for journalists since the press watchdog started keeping records in 1992.
Press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has recorded more than 130 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza in the past year, including at least 32 media workers who it says were directly targeted by Israel.
To date, CPJ has determined that at least five journalists were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders.
They include Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, who was killed by an Israeli tank crew in southern Lebanon last October, a Reuters investigation has found.
CPJ is still researching the details for confirmation in at least 10 other cases that indicate possible targeting.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, the Israel Defense Forces’ international spokesman, said at the time of Abdallah’s killing: “We don’t target journalists.” He did not provide further comment.
More than 41,600 people have been killed in Gaza and almost 100,000 have been wounded since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

’WHERE IS THE INTERNATIONAL LAW?’
For journalists like Al-Zaanoun, the challenges are not limited to staying safe while reporting. Like the rest of the 2.3 million people in the strip, media workers have been displaced multiple times, gone hungry, lacked water and shelter and mourned dead neighbors and friends.
Food is scarce, diapers are expensive, and medicine is lacking, Al-Zaanoun said. As well as her professional desire to keep reporting, she needs to put food on the table because her husband has not been able to work since the war started.
“If I don’t work, my kids will go hungry,” she said.
Like all Gazans, she fears for her safety and does not dare defy Israeli evacuation orders.
“We had no protection really. Had we decided to stay in the northern areas that would have definitely cost us a very high price and that is what happened to our friends,” she said.
The Israel-Hamas war falls under a complex international system of justice that has emerged since World War Two, much of it aimed at protecting civilians. Even if states say they are acting in self-defense, international rules regarding armed conflict apply to all participants in a war.
Article 79 of the Geneva Conventions treats journalists working in conflict settings as protected civilians if they don’t engage in the fighting.
In March, senior leaders at multiple global media outlets signed a letter urging Israeli authorities to protect journalists in Gaza, saying reporters have been working in unprecedented conditions and faced “grave personal risk.”
What CPJ has called “the most dangerous” war for journalists has reverberated across the world, striking fear into reporters who are concerned about the setting of deadly precedents.
Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, a veteran freelance reporter and the secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate, said he had experienced violence before but was shocked by what was happening in Gaza.
“I have been targeted personally myself. I have been detained, I have been unjustly kidnapped several times,” he said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I know all these things, but I haven’t witnessed the kind of brutality that the journalists in Gaza have been going through.”
Since 1992, 18 of Mumin’s friends and colleagues have been killed in Somalia, where first warlords and later Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militants have caused years of conflict.
“I’m scared of being a journalist … because of the failure of the international protection mechanisms, the failure of the international community,” he said. “Where is the international law? Where is the international humanitarian law?“


Israeli strike kills teen Palestinian journalist as Gaza marks Oct. 7 anniversary

Updated 07 October 2024
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Israeli strike kills teen Palestinian journalist as Gaza marks Oct. 7 anniversary

  • Hassan Hamad was killed in a strike in his home at the Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza
  • His colleagues reported that he had received multiple threats from Israeli officers, warning him to stop filming the attacks

LONDON: Palestinian journalist Hassan Hamad, 19, was killed in his home at the Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza during an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, according to local media reports.

Hamad was caught in the heavy bombardment as Israeli forces continued strikes on Jabalia and other areas including Rafah and Al-Zawaida.

On Monday, Gaza marked the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack that has since plunged the Strip, Lebanon, and other regional players into a widening conflict, escalating tensions across the region.

“With great sadness and pain, I mourn the journalist Hassan Hammad … the journalist who was not yet 20 years old, resisted for a whole year in his own special way, and stayed on his own, away from family so they would not be targeted,” a friend posted on his X account, confirming the young man’s death.

“He resisted while trying to find internet signal and would sit for hours on the roof of his home to publish videos. Yesterday, from 10pm, he was travelling between bombed areas and returning home to get internet signal then going back to cover what had remained from the bombing,” the post continued.

Hamad was reportedly injured in the leg but continued documenting the assaults, sending his final video at 6 a.m. on Sunday before being killed. His body was later found in pieces, gathered in a box by those on the scene.

Hamad became well-known for documenting Israeli strikes and their impact on Gaza’s residents, including the devastation caused by bombings, siege conditions, and resource shortages.

According to reports, he had received multiple threats from Israeli officers instructing him to stop filming the attacks.

“Listen, if you continue spreading lies about Israel, we’ll come for you next and turn your family into (...) This is your last warning,” read a message allegedly sent to Hamad via WhatsApp from an Israeli officer, a warning that was shared on social media.

In one of his last posts, Hamad reported on Israeli airstrikes in Beit Lahia and the bombardment of Jabalia. Just days earlier, he and fellow journalist Moamen Abu Awda survived a drone attack in the Jabalia camp.

Since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed, all but five of them Palestinian. The true death toll is feared to be much higher.

The ongoing conflict has pushed Gaza into a deep humanitarian crisis. Local authorities report that more than a third of the Strip’s buildings have been destroyed, with the death toll nearing 42,000 and over 91,000 injured.


Facebook seeks to attract young adults with new community, video features

Updated 04 October 2024
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Facebook seeks to attract young adults with new community, video features

  • Facebook announced two new tabs called Local and Explore that would help people expand their networks and make new connections

AUSTIN: Facebook, one of the original social media networks, has become known as the platform of parents and grandparents, while young adults take up photo and video apps like Instagram and TikTok.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, is setting out to change that.
While Facebook was originally centered on helping users stay in touch with family and friends, the future lies in helping people expand their networks and make new connections, which lines up with how younger generations use the service, said Tom Alison, head of Facebook at Meta.
“We see young adults turn to Facebook when they make a transition in life. When they move to a new city, they’re using Marketplace to furnish their apartments. When they become parents, they’re joining parenting groups,” Alison said during an interview in Austin, Texas, ahead of an event on Friday with content creators.
During the event, Facebook announced two new tabs called Local and Explore, currently being tested in select cities and markets and which aggregate content from across the platform. The Local tab shows users nearby events, community groups and local items for sale, and the Explore tab recommends content based on a user’s interests.
An increased focus on young adults will be key to bringing in new users as Facebook faces vast competition for their attention. Short-form video app TikTok has 150 million users in the US and is wildly popular among Gen Z, prompting Meta to introduce its copycat product called Reels in 2021.
Young adults on Facebook spend 60 percent of their time watching videos and more than half watch Reels daily. The company said it would also roll out an updated video tab in coming weeks that collects short-form, live and longer videos in one place.
Facebook’s dating feature, launched in 2019 and which lets users flip through suggested profiles, has seen a 24 percent year-over-year increase in conversations started among young adults in the US and Canada, the company said.
At the pop-up event in Austin, a small booklet summed up the platform’s positioning for the future: “Not your mom’s (Facebook),” the title read.


British regulator upholds complaint against The Telegraph for labeling Muslim organization ‘extremist’

Updated 04 October 2024
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British regulator upholds complaint against The Telegraph for labeling Muslim organization ‘extremist’

  • Newspaper inaccurately called Muslim Association of Britain ‘extremist’ following a remark by then minister Michael Gove
  • In response to complaints, The Telegraph issued a correction and attributed mistake to ‘human error’

LONDON: The Independent Press Standards Organisation has upheld a complaint filed by the Muslim Association of Britain against The Telegraph for inaccurately labeling the organization as “extremist.”

The decision, announced on Thursday, followed a seven-month investigation into an article published in March, which wrongly described MAB as extremists.

“IPSO has upheld our complaint against The Telegraph for falsely labelling us as an extremist organisation, after Michael Gove’s abused parliamentary privilege in promoting a discredited and politicised definition of extremism,” said MAB in a post on X.

The regulator concluded that the newspaper violated the Editors’ Code of Practice by “failing to take care not to publish inaccurate information” and “for failing to offer a correction to a significant inaccuracy with sufficient promptness.”

The article, written by right-wing commentator Nick Timothy, claimed MAB was “one of several organizations declared extremist by Michael Gove in Parliament.” However, Gove had actually stated that MAB raised concerns due to its “Islamist orientation” and that the government would assess whether it met the definition of extremism.

In response to the complaint, The Telegraph issued a correction on its Corrections and Clarifications page, attributing the error to “human error.”

“While the correction is welcome, we urge the media to reflect on their responsibility to report facts and avoid spreading harmful falsehoods,” said MAB.

The decision comes at a critical moment, with British media facing accusations of bias in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, further complicating discussions on Islamophobia and antisemitism and highlighting ongoing challenges for Muslim organizations in the press, particularly in the context of extremism.