With elections looming, Modi and Erdogan are going after fake news
IN GLOBAL NEWS
Indian officials searched BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai earlier this week, seizing journalists’ mobile phones and other devices as part of an alleged investigation into tax evasion. This is just the latest in a series of threats against media that have played out in India in recent years. For its part, BBC has been in the crosshairs since the airing of a documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 riots in Gujarat, that resulted in the killing of a thousand people, most of them Muslim. As we reported last month, officials did all they could to bar people from seeing the film in India. But the BBC is just one among many media outlets that have become targets of the regime because of their reporting. More on this below.
Turkish President Erdogan seems concerned as ever about his public image following last week’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people in Turkey and Syria. He put the public on notice, warning in a speech that authorities are “closely monitoring those who are trying to polarize the nation through fake news and distortions.” Indeed, publicly reporting on or criticizing the state’s response has become a risky move for journalists and anyone on social media. State security authorities tweeted that they had identified hundreds of social media accounts for sharing “provocative posts about the earthquake on social media platforms” or posts that aimed to “spread fear or panic among the public.” Officials said 47 account holders had been either detained or arrested, and reports of journalists being investigated or barred from covering the quake continue to roll in. The government also has swiftly rolled out a “Disinformation Reporting Service” app where anyone can file reports about “manipulative” information in the news or on social media. For more, I recommend Arzu Geybullayeva’s coverage of media repression in Turkey for Global Voices.
Social media users are under fire in Peru after two months of intense protests and deadly confrontations between security forces and demonstrators. Authorities have paved the way for members of the public to report social media users suspected of supporting or inciting “acts of terrorism” through a public web portal. This is a direct reference to the protests themselves, which have raged since authorities arrested president Pedro Castillo for attempting to dissolve congress leading up to an impeachment vote. A leftist and relative newcomer to Peru’s political sphere, Castillo has broad support among working class people. Vice President Dina Boluarte has since taken office and become the country’s sixth president in just five years. She appears to have aligned herself with far-right politicians who characterize protesters as “terrorists,” a practice known as “terruqueo” in Peru.
Amnesty International’s Peru office called the portal a tool for “harassment and criminalization in the current context of socio-political crisis in which social protests are strongly repressed and critical positions towards the government are loaded with accusations of ‘terruqueo.’