Latest news with #HughWilliamson
Arab News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
EU, UK should not use Balkans as migrant ‘warehouse': rights group
BELGRADE: Britain and the European Union should stop trying to use the Balkans as a 'warehouse for migrants,' Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday, adding to debate over the use of third-country 'return hubs' for asylum seekers. The EU and UK have both made moves toward processing would-be immigrants outside their borders, seeking to deal with a surge in arrivals that has become a hot-button political issue. The EU moved in March to allow members to process migrants outside the 27-nation bloc's borders, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government had opened talks with multiple countries on setting up 'return hubs' for rejected asylum seekers to await deportation. He did not name the countries, but the Balkans look like a probable partner. Starmer made the announcement during a visit to Albania — which already hosts migrant return centers for Italy — and his government has recently unveiled a six-billion-euro investment package in North Macedonia. 'Instead of treating the Balkans as a warehouse for migrants, the EU and the UK could play an important role in supporting the development of functioning asylum systems and better frameworks for the protection of the rights of migrants,' HRW said. It cited the example of Bosnia, a country 'already being used as a dumping ground for people who happen to transit through it on their way to the EU,' according to Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director. 'Adding rejected asylum seekers from the UK, or potentially the EU, to Bosnia's already troubling detention system would only exacerbate existing issues and worsen abuses,' Williamson said in a statement, saying Bosnian prison inmates have limited access to lawyers and other basic rights. Bosnia granted refugee status to just four out of 147 applicants in 2023, and asylum seekers often wait months 'essentially without rights' for a decision, the group said.
Reuters
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Press freedom stifled in Greece, reforms needed, says Human Rights Watch
ATHENS, May 8 (Reuters) - Press freedom has been stifled in Greece since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservative government came to power in 2019, with phone malware and aggressive lawsuits used against journalists, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday. At least 15 journalists said they had at some point faced a lawsuit or legal threat for their reporting, the global rights group said in a 101-page report, opens new tab based on interviews with 34 journalists, academics, legal and media experts. It cited an annual index, opens new tab from Reporters without Borders giving Greece the lowest score in Europe. HRW said it is too easy under Greek law to restrict journalists through lawsuits know as SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), which are filed against reporters based on claims of defamation or breach of EU data protection. "The pervasive and deliberate constraints on journalism in Greece are creating an environment in which critical reporting is stifled and self-censorship becomes the norm," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. The government has publicly dismissed the allegations in the past and its spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said on Wednesday that Greece has made progress on media freedom, as reflected in the Commission's annual report, opens new tab on rule of law. The topic of press freedom in Greece hit the headlines in 2022 when a wiretapping scandal was revealed after a journalist said his phone had been infected by spyware. Traces of that spyware were later found in dozens of phones. HRW urged authorities to draft an action plan to include ensuring public media independence, adopting anti-SLAPPs legislation and shielding journalists from surveillance.
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Human Rights Watch says Greek state undermines media freedom
AP File Photo ATHENS: Human Rights Watch on Thursday criticised Greece's government for "state actions that undermine" the right to information, noting that press freedom in the country has seen "significant deterioration" since the conservatives came to power in a report titled "From Bad to Worse," the rights group highlighted intimidation and harassment of journalists, encouragement to self-censor, as well as increased control of the on 26 interviews with journalists and experts, the report said journalists "have become targets in various ways", including online harassment that is "often orchestrated or encouraged" by pro-government actors."Widespread and deliberate constraints against journalism in Greece create an environment where critical reporting is stifled and self-censorship becomes the norm," HRW's Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson said in a group has called for "stronger action" from the European pointed to a 2022 illegal phone tapping scandal in which journalists and politicians were targeted with spyware named Predator, a case that ultimately engulfed the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos report also highlighted what it deemed abusive lawsuits (SLAPP) by companies and politicians against journalists, noting the absence of anti-SLAPP legal measures in New Democracy government also used state advertising funds to favour pro-government media, the group watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Greece 89th out of 180 countries in its global press freedom index for the 27 EU member states, Greece came last for the fourth year in a European Parliament last year adopted a resolution expressing "serious concerns about the deterioration of the rule of law and media freedom in Greece".The Greek government subsequently dismissed these criticisms, calling them "exaggerated" and lacking concrete evidence.
