We, the undersigned journalists, editors, and media
organisations, issue this collective statement to register
our absolute condemnation of the politically motivated
arrests of internationalist activists Asier and Youssef. On
16 June, Spanish police launched a coordinated operation
under the sweeping guise of anti-terrorism laws, targeting
the pair entirely for their administration of @Frontflict –
a Telegram news channel dedicated to providing journalistic
updates on the Middle East. These absurd charges are
trumped-up accusations designed to exploit longstanding
political prejudices against Basque activists and
manufacture a narrative of guilt before trial.
Let us
be completely unambiguous: @Frontflict is a news outlet, and
documenting conflicts is the core function of journalism,
not terrorism. Even Spanish National Court Judge José Luis
Calama initially pushed back on the police files, describing
them as a collection of “hypotheses and assumptions without
objective basis”. This overreach is part of a calculated
pattern of state-sponsored intimidation, where more and more
governments are weaponising legal networks to shield the
perpetrators of war crimes and silence those documenting the
ongoing genocide in Gaza.
To criminalise
anti-Zionist reporting and public opposition to genocide is
an existential threat to independent journalism globally as
well as to free speech.
We stand unyielding
in solidarity with Asier and Youssef, and we demand the
immediate drop of all provisional charges and their total
acquittal. We call on independent journalists, press freedom
advocates, and media collectives globally to resist this
flagrant abuse of power by co-signing this statement,
republishing it on their platforms and continuing to protect
independent information channels that dare to expose the
truth.
Co-signed by:
Unbanned
Archive
[Co-Signed by members of the Khaybar News
Network, Fajr Network, Global News Network and Al Waad Al
Sadiq
Network]
#FreeAsierAndYoussef
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