Louie Palu, an international photojournalist, has covered war a dozen times and keeps going back.
Palu has met members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Guantánamo Bay and received threats while covering the drug war in Mexico. He believes that terrorism and fear mongering are very real concerns.
“Journalists are definitely in the top list of people they want to kidnap and kill,” said Louie Palu.
The kill rate for journalists is at an all-time high, stated a report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). It indicates that 2014 had the highest amount of targeted killings to international journalists due to conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Diane Partenio, an editor of Freedom House’s 2015 Freedom of the Press report, says this is a global trend that has been on the rise since 9/11.
“Since 9/11, [there’s been] broad restrictions on anything that can incite terror. Pinning journalists as ‘critical terrorists’’ to throw them in the courts,” said Diane Partenio.
Politics, war and human rights were among the top issues targeting international journalists. “The past three years are the most deadly period recorded,” stated CPJ.
Freedom of the Press in 2014 was reported as being at the lowest level in a decade. According to FreedomHouse.org, the 2013 analysis found that only 14 per cent of the world’s population live in a country with a free press, 42 per cent have a partly free press and 44 per cent of the population live in a not free environment.
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These numbers indicate that nearly half of the world’s population have limited access to crucial information.
“The control of information has really tightened. They’ve made it more difficult for foreign press to operate,” said Partenio.
Paul Fernares immigrated to Canada about 20 years ago from India and feels the media is controlled by censorship. “Anything you write is under strict scrutiny,” said Fernares. He says there’s no freedom of the press, especially in Canada and America. “That’s why I go on the internet to get my news, so I can choose what I want,” he said.
Journalists are more easily tracked and targeted because of the internet, but it’s also made all kinds of information more accessible.
“What the internet has done is redistribute the power,” said Partenio,
“It’s less easy to control online. The internet has made [the World] more democratic. The more that you can control [information], the more power you have,” she said.
Surveillance of individuals is easy for governments and organized crime groups with the internet. “Doesn’t matter what country you live in, we’re being spied on,” said Palu.
Journalists are the gatekeepers to information. “We need the people who protect us, the mediators, to report freely and be the watchdogs of corporations and governments,” said Partenio.
“I am against any form of control that prevents us from having a free and open society,” said Palu. “Everybody should try to pursue the liberty of freedoms that we all want.”
Photo by, FreedomHouse.org