Tom Levitt
26th October, 2009
(Posted by CAAI News Media)
Recent abductions and threats against activists trying to prevent logging in South-East Asia are part of a worrying trend of violence against those exposing environmental issues
After reporting on illegal logging in Cambodia, Radio Free Asia journalist Lem Piseth received an anonymous phone call.
‘You are insolent, do you want to die?’ said the caller.
‘Why are you insulting me like this?’ asked Piseth.
‘Because of the business of the forest and you should know that there will not be enough land to bury you,’ replied the caller.
Piseth fled across the border into Thailand. He was lucky. Others have not been: Uzbek journalist Solidzhan Abdurakhmanov has been given a 10-year jail sentence for exposing the ecological destruction of the Aral Sea; Mikhail Beketov ended up in a coma, and lost a leg and several fingers in an attack after criticising the construction of a motorway between Moscow and St. Petersburg that threatened the Khimki Forest; Filipino journalist Joey Estriber, who wrote about illegal logging, has been missing since 2006.
Dangers for activists
It reads like a roll call from warzone reporting. In fact, it is an accurate reflection of the current dangers of reporting on environmental issues.
The press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), has recently released a report entitled 'The dangers for journalists who expose environmental issues' in an attempt to bring attention to the worsening violence and intimidation.
It says that the companies, criminals and governments profiting from the destruction of the environment see activists and investigative journalists as, 'enemies to be physically eliminated'.
No comments:
Post a Comment