Kiersten Hening, a former US collegiate football player with Virginia Tech, has been awarded a $100,000 settlement after claiming she was discriminated against for refusing to kneel before a game as part of a social justice demonstration on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Hening will receive the sum for agreeing to drop a federal lawsuit against Virginia Tech coach Charles Adair, which claimed that her First Amendment right to freedom of speech under the US Constitution was being breached, according to a report by the Roanoke Times.

Under the terms of the settlement, neither Adair nor Hening admit to any wrongdoing, which comes after Hening claims she was dropped from the team after Adair became frustrated over her political views, which included an outright refusal to take part in the social justice demonstration which swept through many global sports from 2020 onwards.

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https://www.rt.com/sport/569602-football-blm-kneel-lawsuit/

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Richard Bell, Emory Douglas ‘We can be heroes’ 2014. (PICTURE by Gus Leonisky)

GUSNOTE: SEE ANTIGONE KNEELING IN THE PICTURE AT TOP.....

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by Pierre Rimbert

Good news at last ! In the latest world ranking of press freedom 2023, published on May 3 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Ukraine made a prodigious jump of 27 places, moving from 106th to 79th position out of 180 countries studied. “Despite the disorganization of the newsrooms and the difficulties associated with covering a country at war, as well as reporting restrictions, generally proportionate to the situation, journalists enjoy greater freedom, explains the association. The war and the spirit of national unity have reduced the hold of the oligarchs on the media and the pressures due to divisions”.

This fairy tale amazed the American organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). The critical media observatory recalls1 that, on December 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new law which, at any other latitude, would have terrified RSF and caused the country to drop in the rankings. The text grants the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council – the Ukrainian media regulatory body – the power to impose fines, close down, revoke licenses without judgment or block any title, antenna , social media or platform. However, the authorities tightly control this council since Zelensky appoints four of the eight members and Parliament four others.

The two main Ukrainian journalists' unions are fighting this measure. "Through the media they control, government officials have launched a campaign to discredit those who constructively criticize aspects of the law», explains Serhiy Chtourkhetskyy, president of the Syndicate of independent media of Ukraine. This makes us fear what awaits us after the full implementation of the text: “members of the government will equate those who do not share their vision with enemies of the country or foreign agents…For her part, the president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) believes that “press freedom and pluralism threatened in Ukraine by new media law(press release, January 17, 2023). RSF, she haswelcomedthe text on the grounds that certain provisions harmonize national audiovisual legislation with European standards – reason enough to outclass the country on the scale of freedom. Discreet on the draconian side of the reform, the organization chaired by Pierre Haski, columnist of France Inter, believes that the government will be able to “complete” the system once the war is over (press release, January 11, 2023).

In the meantime, the XNUMX journalists accredited by kyiv since the start of the conflict faithfully relay the regime's press releases which "fight for our values". Witness, this unreal dialogue, in duplex, on May 18, between the presenter of Cable News Network (CNN) Brianna Keilar and Special Envoy Sam Kiley:

– Ukraine announced that it had intercepted twenty-nine of the thirty missiles fired in a night bombardment over the whole country. (…) Sam, Russia claimed to have hit a Ukrainian arms depot, is that really true?

- It's possible ; but if so, we would not be allowed to say so.

We bet that next year Ukraine will follow the United States, 45th in the RSF ranking...

source: Diplomatic World via Jacques Henry

Note from yours truly (Pierre Rimbert). One of the founders of RSF is a defector from Le Canard Enchainé (Chained Duck), son of a journalist, and like him a convinced follower of the progressive left, this explains it.

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GUSNOTE: AUSTRALIAN FREEDOM OF THE MEDIA IS SLIPPING FROM WHATEVER ZERO TO NON-EXISTENT, UNDER THE COVER OF VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS SUCH AS THE SMH, THE GUARDIAN AND THE ABC. THE PENTAGONIC PROPAGANDA IS AT FULL SWING DOWN UNDER. fortunately, this gloriousunsung site promotes the truth....

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The European Media Freedom Act envisages installing spyware on journalists' phones for the sake of "national security". Sputnik sat down with some international observers to discuss how the provision correlates with the act's name and basic European principles.

"There is no legitimate reason to spy on journalists," Lucy Komisar, an investigative journalist based in New York, told Sputnik.

"Remember, this law targets people identified as journalists, not as spies or terrorists or criminals. Journalism is not a crime, unless Julian Assange does it. The real reason is to protect government officials from journalists reporting on officials’ misguided policies, abuses and corruption. It’s quite ironic in view of the EU’s self-congratulatory rules trumpeted as protecting peoples’ data from tech companies. Stealing data when a company does it is bad, stealing audio and written text when a government does it is just fine."

Tightening Screws on Free Press

The bloc's new media regulation was proposed by the European Commission (EC) in September 2022. The initial draft stipulated that European governments could deploy spyware on journalists' devices "on a case-by-case basis" to ensure national security or to investigate "serious crimes," such as terrorism, human or weapons trafficking, exploitation of children, murder or rape.

However, in May 2023, Politico obtained a document penned by French policy-makers who called to narrow journalists' immunity under the new EU rules and strike what they called "a fair balance between the need to protect the confidentiality of journalists' sources and the need to protect citizens and the state against serious threats."

According to the media, Paris' argument was accepted by the EC. As a result, the draft legislation was amended to loosen safeguards for the journalists' immunity. The EC's original list of "serious crimes" allowing surveillance on reporters was replaced by a broader 2002's Council Framework Decision of the European arrest warrant consisting of 32 offenses.

The development triggered a storm of criticism from European journalist organizations, NGOs and activist groups. In particular, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), representing over 300,000 members, denounced the EU's move as a "blow to media freedom". The EFJ warned that empowering EU governments to install spyware on journalists’ devices under the guise of "national security" would in particular have a "chilling effect on whistleblowers" and confidential sources.

"Since the eighteenth century when newspapers began to circulate, the secrecy of sources has been sacrosanct," Professor Ellis Cashmore, the author of Screen Society and an independent media analyst, told Sputnik. "Journalists have, over generations, respected this and steadfastly refused to reveal sources. As recently as 2005, Judith Miller, a New York Times journalist, was sentenced to prison for not revealing sources. So, it is an extremely important principle in the media."

For their part, the British media warned that despite the UK leaving the EU, the bloc's legislation in its current form poses a surveillance risk to British journalists residing in the EU. European Digital Rights (EDRi), a network of digital rights advocates, urged the European Council to reconsider the legislation's spyware provisions.

The proposed legislation will not only infringe the freedom of press but contribute to the further erosion of the public trust in the Western mainstream media which is increasingly merging with the government and elitist structures, according to Sputnik's interlocutors.

"The two cataclysmic events of the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine conflict have changed the media's relationships with governments," explained Cashmore. "One important effect is what we might call a neutering of the media. I mean by this that news organizations are now so reliant on governments for intel that they have been deterred from being critical of administrations. In the West, the phrase is 'do not bite the hand that feeds you'."

One shouldn't delude oneself into believing that those proposing the spyware provision are really concerned about "national interests," echoed Lucy Komisar: "The security they are protecting is not that of European nations but of themselves," she pointed out.

According to Komisar, much of the Western media "already walks in lock-step with their governments." The newly proposed bill "aims at the few courageous ones left, to keep the public from finding out about officials’ abuses and lies" and "to intimidate the few Julian Assanges who are left in European media that reach the broad public."

Once the legislation is passed "real journalists will have to do what other critics of repressive governments do: user burner phones, have computers not connected to the internet, have secret meetings with brave sources," the investigative journalist projected.

"Democracy is distorted when citizens are prevented from getting the information they need for informed choices," Komisar warned.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230626/journalism-is-not-a-crime-experts-lambast-eu-media-freedom-act-1111478605.html

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