Latest news with #ForbiddenStories
France 24
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
‘The Baku Connection': FRANCE 24 and RFI among winners of European Press Prize award
'The Baku Connection', a sprawling investigation of abuse and impunity in President Ilham Aliyev's Azerbaijan, picked up the Special Award at the annual European Press Press awards ceremony in Bari on Wednesday. Coordinated by Forbidden Stories, the investigation involved 40 journalists from 15 media outlets including FRANCE 24 and RFI. It pursued the work of reporters from Azerbaijan's Abzas Media, who have been in jail since November 2023. Journalists involved included Karina Chabour and Roméo Langlois for FRANCE 24's investigation bureau, Corentin Bainier and Ershad Alijani of the FRANCE 24 Observers, Sébastian Seibt from FRANCE 24's digital newsroom, and RFI's Daniel Vallot. Since its launch in 2017, Forbidden Stories has brought together more than 150 journalists from 60 media outlets, investigating drug cartels, cybersurveillance and environmental damage by the mining industry, among other subjects. Its mission is to continue the work of fellow journalists around the world who have been jailed, murdered or otherwise silenced, thereby ensuring their investigations are pursued and published. The European Press Prize has been awarded annually since 2021, in five different categories. Its aim is to promote high-quality European journalism and to support journalists who face obstacles, threats and attempts to silence them.
Economist
15-05-2025
- Economist
China and Russia are deploying powerful new weapons: ideas
SIXTY LUCKY students got the chance to train as journalists last year at African Initiative, a new press agency in Bamako, Mali's capital. Trainees were given online and in-person lessons in reporting, with the promise that three of them would eventually be hired as full-time staff at the agency. The catch, as reported by Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists, was that African Initiative is run by Russian intelligence.
France 24
01-05-2025
- Health
- France 24
RFK Jr alarms medical experts with vaccine 'placebo testing' plans
There is lots of scrutiny around renewable energies after the shock nationwide power outage that hit Spain and Portugal earlier this week. Spanish daily La Vanguardia asks that very question on the front page of its website: Who is to Blame for the Great Blackout? Was it a photovoltaic plant that shut down, a French disconnection, a poorly designed IT system or overconfidence in the system's infallibility? We still don't know what caused the blackout, but many have been quick to blame renewable energy for the system's failure. But in the same edition, La Vanguardia interviews the head of an energy research group, Jose Luis Dominguez, who says that Spain needs to continue investing in renewable energy. He concedes, though, that the blackout highlights the need for adjustments in regulation and oversight of companies. And that the low inertia of solar and wind energy requires more investment and innovation in reacting to unforeseen circumstances. That's the message echoed in an article from Reuters entitled "Don't blame renewables for Spain's power outage". Instead, the news agency says, Monday's blackout should be a warning to governments that investment in power storage and grid upgrades are just as important as expanding renewable energy projects. The US department of health is planning to change the way vaccines are tested and critics say the move could undermine public trust in immunisation. The Washington Post reports that Robert F. Kennedy Jnr wants to impose placebo testing in all new vaccines, in which people receive either the vaccine or an inert substance like a saline shot. Placebo testing is commonplace for new pathogens but not for well-researched diseases like measles and polio. Medical experts say this could be unethical because the placebo group would not receive a known effective intervention to a potentially deadly disease. The Post says the health department wants to increase transparency. Since Kennedy Jnr's appointment as head of health, the US top vaccine regulator Peter Marks has resigned under pressure, while Kennedy Jnr has continued to express his scepticism around vaccines amid an ongoing deadly measles outbreak in the US. The investigative journalism nonprofit collective Forbidden Stories has released a new report detailing the shocking treatment of Ukrainians in a Russian prison. Forbidden Stories is a collective which aims to continue the investigative reporting of journalists who have been silenced. Their Victoriia Project is named for Ukrainian journalist Victoriia Roshchyna's efforts to document the war in Ukraine. On her fourth trip in 2023, however, she never came back. Earlier this year, what has been identified as her body was delivered to Ukraine. Forbidden Stories details the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of wars and in some cases, civilians at the notorious Taganrog prison. This is where Victoriia ended up. The articles describes the prison as "synonymous with the most violent types of treatment imaginable, reminiscent of the worst Soviet gulags". According to former inmates, beatings, unimaginable torture and food deprivation were routine occurrences at the prison. They also faced punishment for speaking Ukrainian and some inmates ended up committing suicide as a result of the torture. In cinema news, Steven Spielberg has revealed what he thinks is the greatest film of all time. Screen Rant reports that the legendary director sys Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film "The Godfather" was the greatest movie of all time. In fact, it was so good that it shook his confidence as a director and almost made him not want to become one, according to Spielberg. A few years later though, "Jaws" came out and Spielberg's career took off. He, like Coppola, is part of the New Hollywood group of directors who brought filmmaking into the modern era. Finally, a pair of tennis fans have got engaged in the stands before Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti's Round of 16 match in the Madrid Open. It brings a whole new meaning to "love game"!
France 24
01-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
War in Ukraine: Investigating Russia's arbitrary detentions of civilians
Europe 06:29 Issued on: From the show Since the start of the war in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014, the Russian-installed regime there has been arbitrarily detaining civilians on a massive scale. Journalists, activists, local politicians: just about anyone the occupation authorities take a dislike to is in danger of being taken prisoner and tortured. Some are held for a few days, others for years. FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg investigates, with a consortium of media under the "Forbidden Stories" umbrella.
The Age
01-05-2025
- The Age
‘She knew the risks. She did it anyway': The brutal detention and death of a young Ukrainian journalist
Warning: Graphic content London: A Ukrainian journalist was tortured and killed while in Russian custody, according to a damning investigation, marking the first confirmed death of a Ukrainian reporter in Russian hands since its full-scale invasion began in 2022. The body of 27-year-old Viktoriia Roshchyna was returned to Ukraine in February, nearly five months after Russian authorities said she had died during a prison transfer. A forensic examination found signs of brutal torture and mutilation, raising fresh accusations of war crimes by Russian forces occupying parts of south-eastern Ukraine. Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 after travelling to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region to investigate the detention and torture of civilians. A joint report by Paris-based Forbidden Stories and 12 international media partners, released on Tuesday, found that the young journalist had been held in at least two notorious detention facilities – Berdiansk Penal Colony No. 77 and Taganrog Detention Centre No. 2 – both linked to systemic abuse. Ukrainian prosecutors said her body bore signs of severe mistreatment, including abrasions, haemorrhages, a broken rib, injuries to her neck and suspected electric burns on her feet. 'The body also showed evidence of an autopsy conducted prior to its return, and multiple internal organs were missing,' Yuriy Belousov, head of the War Crimes Unit at Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, said. 'This suggests a possible attempt to obscure the real cause of death and cover up a war crime.' The official Russian explanation, communicated in a letter to Roshchyna's parents, claimed she died on September 19, 2024, while being transferred from Taganrog to Moscow. No independent verification of that account has been made. Russia's Defence Ministry, Federal Penitentiary Service and FSB did not respond to requests for comment.
