Prosecution of investigative journalists in Finland, an EU country, is “unacceptable,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Friday.

The comments from the CPJ came amid ongoing press freedom controversy in Finland as three investigative journalists have been facing a court case for “revealing state secrets” in an article published in local daily The Helsingin Sanomat in 2017.

Reiterating that the CPJ is “closely monitoring this case”, its Europe Director Attila Mong said: “It is unacceptable that investigative journalists in an EU country could face prison sentences for their work.”

Mong told Anadolu Agency the CPJ thinks that “prosecuting these journalists will have a chilling effect on national security reporting in Finland.”

“The Finnish journalists' reporting was in the public interest, they provided context and background to national security policies and decisions, prosecuting them sends a wrong message to other journalists working on similar topics," he added.

The charges stem from a Dec. 16, 2017 article on the activities of the Finnish Intelligence Research Center, a unit that conducts military intelligence operations, according to the indictment.

In a press release in November 2021, the CPJ’s Gulnoza Said said: “Finnish authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists at Helsingin Sanomat, who were simply doing their jobs by covering matters of national importance.”

Helsingin Sanomat said in October last year that “the journalists did not disclose state secrets and it was in the public interest to publish the 2017 article.”

Mong also added that the US case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, which has attracted worldwide attention as an extradition appeal case continues in the UK, was different than the case of Finnish journalists.

"Assange's case and the charges brought against him are different from the ones against the Finnish journalists,” he said, adding that the cases can be connected in terms of reporting on national security.

“What connects them is that both cases affect reporting on the topic of national security, which is a highly sensitive topic,” Mong said.

“Reporters covering these issues often work with whistle blowers and sensitive documents leaked to them. In general, CPJ thinks that reporters covering national security issues must be able to report on these issues without fear of reprisal."

The trial against two reporters, Laura Halminen and Tuomo Pietilainen, and political editor Kalle Silfverberg continued on Thursday and if found guilty, the three journalists will be given at least 18-month suspended sentences.

The journalists are expected to appear in court in a November hearing.

AA

British health officials have confirmed that a new strain of monkeypox has been discovered in the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency said on Thursday that a person who had recently travelled to West Africa was diagnosed with a monkeypox strain that was different from the one currently circulating in the UK.

The person, who remains unnamed, is now at the High Consequence Infectious Disease unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

The British health agency said that no other cases had been identified as of Thursday, and that contact tracing is currently being carried out.

Sophia Maki, incident director of the UK Health Security Agency, said: “We are working to contact the individuals who had close contact with the case prior to confirmation of their infection, to assess them as necessary and provide advice.”

She added that the risk to the public was still “very low” due to infection control procedures.

AA

Almost 2 million tons of agricultural products have been shipped from Ukraine since the signing of the Türkiye-brokered Russia-Ukraine grain corridor deal, Türkiye's Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said Friday.

"As part of the 'Grain Corridor Agreement' over 1.6 million tons of goods were carried in one month," it said on Twitter.

Türkiye, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed the agreement in Istanbul on July 22 to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February.

Twenty-six of 69 ships docked at Ukrainian ports were either Turkish-flagged or owned and 27 with more than 378,000 tons set sail from Ukraine for Türkiye, it noted.

It said the other ships departed from Ukrainian ports for Germany, Djibouti, China, France, South Korea, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Iran, Ireland, Spain, Israel, Italy, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Romania, Somalia, Sudan and Greece.

Ten different types of loads – sunflower seeds, sunflower meal, sunflower oil, barley, wheat, corn, soybean, sugar beets, peas and canola seeds – were carried on the ships.

The ships carrying peas, corn, sunflower meal, wheat, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil have docked at Turkish ports, it added.

Of the 69 ships, 22 have been stranded since Feb. 24. Other ships set sail for Ukraine after the opening of the grain corridor.

So far, a total of 86 ships, which will go to the Yuzhne, Chernomorsk and Odessa ports in Ukraine for the first time after the opening of the grain corridor, have been inspected or are planned to be inspected by the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul.

Thirty-five of 86 ships are Turkish flagged, owned or operated by Turkish businesses.

The JCC with officials from the three countries and the U.N. has been set up in Istanbul to jointly oversee the shipments.

agencies

It has been seven years since the lifeless body of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi washed ashore on Türkiye’s Aegean beaches, but the crisis prevails as migrants continue to set sail seeking a better life in Europe 

Three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi became a posthumous poster child of the plight of thousands of migrants making their way to Europe under constant danger. Today, the beach where his body was found is largely clear of migrants, though people like his family still pursue their Europe dreams, despite more challenges along the way.

When Kurdi died in a sinking boat on Sept. 2, 2015, a rough sea and unsafe dinghies were the only dangers migrants faced. Now, Greece pushing back migrants add to their woes.

Kurdi was the youngest victim among five others, including his elder brother and mother who died aboard the sunken dinghy.

Thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the European Union head to Greece every year from Türkiye, which hosts about 4 million refugees. Most then try to move on to Europe's more prosperous heartland.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 8,000 people have reached Greece so far this year. Most set off from Türkiye. Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Türkiye saved the lives of 41,000 people “who were left to die by Greece in the last two years” thanks to the efforts of the Coast Guard units, who prevented deaths in the Aegean. Erdoğan said the overall number of irregular migrants apprehended by the Turkish Coast Guard has reached 245,000, adding the gendarmerie continues its fight against irregular migration and human traffickers.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for asylum-seekers aiming to cross into Europe but Greece’s illegal practice of “pushback” aggravated the risks migrants faced, while Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned the practice, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children.

Other than pushbacks, few things have changed for migrants since Kurdi’s death. War in Syria which forced his parents still rages on. Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. U.N. estimates show that more than 8 million Syrians have either been internally displaced or become refugees in other countries since 2011. The wave of migration from Türkiye faded in the past two years, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and for Syrians, the relative safety in northern parts of their homeland thanks to Türkiye-backed counterterrorism operations. Nowadays, the plight of migrants is overshadowed by the crisis in Ukraine, where another war has been raging since February.

But Alan Kurdi’s death remains a grim reminder of little action other countries did to stamp out the causes of mass migration to Europe. Though European Union poured millions into addressing the needs of migrants, it is largely confined to the care of migrants in countries they first take shelter, in this case, Türkiye. Most has limited admission of migrants fleeing wars and poverty.

“It was the shame of humanity that washed ashore on this beach,” Ömer Sarıkaya, who was among the activists gathered on the Fenerburnu coast in Bodrum to commemorate Kurdi, told Anadolu Agency (AA). Sarıkya, who directed a film on the short life of Kurdi, joined others as they all lay on the beach, wearing red t-shirts like Kurdi did, next to the flowers they laid in his memory. “The biggest part of this shame falls on the United Nations,” Sarıkaya said, criticizing the international community for failing to tackle the migrant crisis.

AGENCIES 

Another 19 people, including nine children, lost their lives in rain and flood-related mishaps across Pakistan in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall grim tally to over 1,200, according to official statistics released on Friday.

Twelve deaths were reported in southern Sindh, four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and three in Balochistan provinces.

A total of 1,208 people have died, including 416 children, and 6,082 have been injured since mid-June, when the country was hit hard by heavy rains and subsequent flooding, said the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Torrential rainfall and flooding have affected over 33 million people in 80 districts across the country, the NDMA said.

Constant rains and raging floods have already destroyed a large chunk of infrastructure and agricultural lands across the country, including tens of thousands of houses, roads, and bridges, as well as washing away nearly a million animals.

According to the NDMA, 472,313 people have been shifted to shelter camps, and 121,630 people have been evacuated from most affected areas.

The heavy floods also caused damage to over 1.17 million homes, with 436,307 completely destroyed. 733,488 animals were also killed.

Meanwhile, humanitarian assistance to Pakistan in the aftermath of the devastating floods has continued.

Another Turkish flight carrying relief supplies landed at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport on Thursday night.

This is the 10th of such flights from Türkiye carrying tents, food parcels, baby food, blankets and other relief goods.

"Pakistan is thankful to the government and people of Türkiye for this valuable support in times of unprecedented catastrophe," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The country has also received humanitarian assistance from the UAE, Qatar and Uzbekistan.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum also arrived in Islamabad on Friday morning to meet with their counterparts.

Soylu and Kurum were welcomed by Pakistani Federal Ministers Rana Sanaullah, Sherry Rehman, Ahsan Iqbal, and Türkiye Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Mehmet Pacaci, according to the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad.

AA