1 big reason all Americans can be thankful

Given the rancor in our country, it is hard to remember in this Christmas season that we have much to be thankful for.

This year, 2017, I had a visitor from Africa, and the visitor was shocked when they heard me on radio saying not-so-great things about the president. They could never do that in their county and escaped arrest for saying such things. We hear about those arrests and imprisonment all over the world. I am on the American advisory board of Reporters Without Borders and would like to share with you some of what we know happens in places other than that United States.

Here is what Reporters Without Borders has said about detained journalists:

Employed as a producer in Doha by Qatari TV news broadcaster Al Jazeera, Hussein was arrested on December 23, 2016, after returning to Egypt to spend the holidays with relatives still living in Cairo.

For no apparent reason, the Egyptian authorities detained him, searched and filmed his family's home, and interrogated his relatives. He spent several months in solitary confinement after his arrest, and his health has deteriorated in prison. There are no grounds for the charges brought against him – "publishing false information," "receiving foreign funding" and "belonging to a banned group" – and his trial has still not begun.

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Radio France Internationale's Hausa-language correspondent, Abba was arrested in July 2015 in Maroua, in Cameroon's Far North region, after covering the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram. As he has been held for 29 months, he should qualify for immediate release.

After his arrest, Abba was held incommunicado for nearly three months and was tortured by the intelligence services. He then faced the possibility of being sentenced to death by court martial.

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A military court finally sentenced him in April to ten years in prison on charges of "failing to report acts of terrorism to the authorities" and "laundering the proceeds of an act of terrorism."
The military appeal court has quashed his conviction on the first charge but upheld his conviction on the second one.

Authorities arrested Hua last week and carried on with the evictions although yesterday was International Migrants Day, the day chosen by the United Nations to draw the world's attention to the plight of those who are driven from their homes by war, hunger or climate change.
Hua, 48, began filming the evictions in November when he saw the police driving tens of thousands of migrant workers from their homes on the outskirts of Beijing in freezing temperatures so that their homes could be demolished.

Suspecting that the Chinese media would censor these scenes of destruction, he posted his videos and interviews on YouTube and the Chinese social network WeChat. Feeling threatened, he finally fled to the northeastern city of Tianjin, where he was arrested on December 15 and was released on bail yesterday.

"The citizen-journalist Hua Yong simply posted videos of what anyone who was there could see, and no Chinese law bans you from filming what you see in the street," said Cédric Alviani, the head of RSF's East Asia desk. "He is nonetheless now the subject of a criminal investigation. This is unacceptable."

Tension over the delegation rose yesterday when the South Korean journalists accompanying President Moon found themselves being kept away from the rest of the delegation by Chinese plainclothes security officials.

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When two South Korean photojournalists began to complain, they were punched and kicked by security agents. The journalists, who work for Korea Times and Mail, had to be hospitalized with blood on their faces and, for one of them, a serious injury to the right eye. All this took place in public and was filmed by South Korean public TV broadcaster KBS, which broadcast footage of the assault in South Korea, causing an outcry there.

The South Korean government has requested an official apology, and the request has received the support of many organizations including RSF, the International Federation of Journalists, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, the Korean Press Photographers Association and the Journalists Association of Korea.

Two of these reports are from African countries and two from China.

Assaults on freedom of the press are everywhere, but we know that these places are some of the worst. There are so many divides in our country, but we are still free to say what we think and feel.

President Trump can call it "fake news," but we have the freedom to make it fake or real.

Our First Amendment, which gives us press freedom, is what we can all be thankful for this Christmas!

Media wishing to interview Ellen Ratner, please contact [email protected].