Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Facebook to restore a video honouring the winners of the International Press Freedom Awards (IPFA) at CPJ’s annual awards ceremony held on November 18 and streamed on social media during the event.

Less than an hour after the stream ended, Facebook notified CPJ that the video had been withheld worldwide because of a “copyright match” to a 13-second clip owned by i-Cable News, a Hong Kong-based Cantonese-language cable news channel, reports CPJ.

CPJ emailed i-Cable Communications Limited on November 24 requesting details but received no immediate reply.

• READ MORE: Hong Kong media freedom

The clip, featuring Jimmy Lai taking a bite from an apple, was taken from an advertisement for the now-shuttered Apple Daily dating from the 1990s when he founded the newspaper.

Currently imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Lai has become a powerful symbol of press freedom as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to gain control over Hong Kong’s media and was honoured during CPJ’s award ceremony for his work.

It is not clear if Facebook applied the action automatically, or whether i-Cable News complained in an attempt to suppress the video.

The news group, i-Cable, signed an agreement in 2018 with China Mobile Limited, a state-owned telecommunication company, allowing China Mobile to use its content for the next 20 years.

“It is beyond ironic that a platform which trumpets its commitment to freedom of speech should block a video celebrating journalists who risk their lives and liberty defending it,” CPJ deputy executive director Robert Mahoney said.

“Facebook must restore the video immediately and provide a clear and timely explanation of why it was censored in the first place.”

A lawyer at Donaldson and Callif, which vetted the IPFA video for Culture House, the production house that cut the video, told CPJ in an email that the firm was of the opinion that the clip of Lai “constitutes a fair use as used in this IPFA video”.

The full awards video — and its comments, views and share — remains unavailable to Facebook users worldwide. The IPFA video is still available on YouTube and Twitter.

CPJ contacted Facebook on November 19 and again on November 22 outlining CPJ’s concerns about the video’s removal but has yet to receive an explanation for the action by the company.

CPJ has documented examples of US copyright laws being used to censor journalism globally.

The press freedom organisation has held IPFA award ceremonies since 1991 as a way to honour at-risk journalists around the globe and highlight erosions of press freedom.

Republished from Committee to Protect Journalists.

By Bea Cupin in Manila

A ceasefire between Philippines government forces and communist rebels could be in place by the end of the month, if the Duterte administration responds favourably to a new statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

“To further support peace negotiations, the CPP is willing to issue a unilateral ceasefire declaration separately but simultaneously with the Duterte government on August 20. The time-frame can be determined through negotiations,” the CPP’s Central Committee said in a statement yesterday.

The statement comes a day after Duterte took back a “unilateral ceasefire” against communist rebels barely a week after it was announced during his first State of the Nation Address.

“As earlier planned, the negotiating panels of the NDFP [National Democratic Front of the Philippines] and GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] can thereafter exchange these declarations in order to discuss points for cooperation and coordination and determine ways of preventing armed skirmishes, misunderstandings, and miscommunications during the course of the peace talks,” added the CPP, referring to the planned talks between the two sides beginning August 20 in Oslo, Norway.

On July 25, while addressing Congress in his first State of the Nation Address, Duterte announced the ceasefire “to immediately stop violence on the ground, restore peace in the communities, and provide enabling environment conducive to the resumption of the peace talks.”

Police and military units on the ground were ordered to stop all offensive operations against the communist rebels.

But things went awry when NPA fighters supposedly attacked government militia in Davao del Norte.

Duterte gave the communist groups until July 28 to explain the clash. The next day, he called on the NDF to issue is own unilateral ceasefire and gave a deadline: July 30, 5 pm. By July 30 in the evening, Duterte revoked the truce, and military and police units returned to status quo.

Government attack?
The CPP, however, contested the government’s narration of events.

“In its report, the NPA unit pointed to how they were provoked to carry out the ambush as part of its active defence in the face of an imminent armed encounter with the operating armed troops and auxilliary forces of the 72nd IB of the AFP,” it said.

The NPA unit merely “carried out counter-maneouvers” in response to movements by the AFP and government militia.

“NPA Red fighters immediately disengaged after disabling the enemy unit from carrying out further offensive action,” the CPP said of the operation, which claimed the life of at least one government militiaman.

The CPP also noted that a truce with the government was “non-existent” because a “mutually signed ceasefire agreement” had yet to be inked.

Still, the CPP said it “has long expressed willingness to engage in a ceasefire for as long as there are peace negotiations.” It noted that since June, it has been preparing a “draft for a unilateral ceasefire” ahead of peace talks with the Duterte administration.

“It was a different situation, however, when GRP President Duterte unilaterally declared a ceasefire even before it could fulfill its promises to release NDFP consultants and political prisoners,” said the CPP, referring to one of the key points it wants to discuss during negotiations.

The CPP also insisted that despite pronouncements from the President, the military showed no signs of “letting up in their search-and-destroy operations and frenzied offensives that terrorise civilian communities.”

Bea Cupin is a journalist with Rappler Philippines.