Read up on two journalists who have been silenced by the government. Discuss the reason for the silence and evaluate whether the silence is appropriate.
Post your answer to the blog.Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist and human rights activist who reported on political events in Russia (Second Chechen War).
The reason that she had been silenced is that Politkovskaya had accused President Vladimir Putin of destroying Russia’s democracy by saying that critics faced “death, the bullet, poison or trial”. Politkovskaya wrote about Moscow's brutal wars in Chechnya by documenting the abuses by Russian forces. On October 7, 2006, she was shot four times at point-blank range but it is still unclear who ordered and planned the contract killing of this incident.
In my opinion, Anna Politkovskaya should not be silenced or even killed because of reporting the truth to the reader. This is because the people need to be knowing the truth and what happened in their country. We all know that every country has its own type of management or law, but the people have the right to know and the media or press has the responsibility to report it.
Allan Au
Allan Au is a veteran journalist and active columnist for outlets including Ming Pao and the now-shuttered Stand News. He is also a teacher in the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s journalism school.
In 2022, Hong Kong Police detained Allan Au on charges of sedition for authoring and disseminating articles titled "conspiracy to publish seditious materials that undermine national security." In this context, Allan Au has been viewed as one of the outliers to Beijing's censorship, which has led to him being viewed as a threat.
In my opinion, this action of silencing Allan is inappropriate because Allan had experience in the journalism field centered around media censorship and self-censorship. Other than that, the police did not disclose the specific reason for Allan’s arrest. The government can be silencing or strengthening the law for the journalist that report fake news but not that journalist that reports the truth the government also need to be truthful themselves that do not hide the truth from the people.
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