A free press is fundamental to prevent and expose government crime and abuse of power. However, Egypt is doing more and more to take away this freedom (which is not really surprising in a country with rampant human rights abuses, for example also against students who are protesting against the increasing draconian rule).

Read the letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists

UN peacekeepers are accused of sexually abusing children and the UN seems to have tried to cover it up. See the news report on Democracy Now. The suspended French soldiers are probably not the only cases in what is called pandemic. By the way, why are they only suspended and not arrested?

However, this is not only happening under the wings of the UN. From before, we know that impunity for perpetrators and ill-treatment of whistleblowers is in reality widespread among many nations. This culture of impunity is actually the root of so many of the human rights violations, wars and huge environmental problems.

For the UN to tackle its own culture of impunity would be a good start, but we must face that the problem is much bigger.

Sometimes, the press is remarkably quiet. So quiet, that we understand the subject is very important.

The Spiegel’s recent news about an attack on press freedom is a clear example. How come that so much of the other media, which are otherwise so keen to stand up for the freedom of the press, are not even reporting a single line about this? As Harold Pinter said before about similar matters related to the United States, it is as if it never happened.

Last week, news also emerged about the government surveillance of Amnesty International, by GCHQ, which is cooperating with the US. This has also been underreported in a remarkable way, for example in Sweden. Amnesty’s Swedish website had not even mentioned this news on their own website, at the time of writing this blog post.

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter instead praises the US for their defense of freedom, democracy and human rights. Read the editorial by Martin Liby Alonso and a comment by Anders Romelsjö (both in Swedish).