Coronavirus: MPs call on UK government to provide greater support for human rights activists amid pandemic

Exclusive: Politicians express concern over authoritarian regimes using Covid-19 crisis as pretext for targeting critics

A group of 36 cross-party MPs and peers have written to the government demanding greater protection for human rights activists, journalists and academics across the world amid fears of an authoritarian crackdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

The politicians, which include former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, have expressed concern that regimes with poor human rights records are using the Covid-19 crisis as a pretext for silencing opposition voices and consolidating their hold on power.

The group urged the UK government to “redouble” its efforts to protect those at risk in countries such as Hungary, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where critics have been targeted in recent months.

Last month, the Hungarian parliament legalised the imprisonment of journalists for spreading “false facts” that purportedly undermine the government’s response to Covid-19 and handed prime minister Viktor Orban sweeping new powers to deal with the spread of the virus, including the right to rule by decree.

The European Parliament later passed a resolution criticising the activities of the government as “totally incompatible with European values.”

Elsewhere, reporters in the Middle East and North Africa region have been reprimanded for challenging governments’ official Covid-19 figures and their handling of the pandemic.

In Egypt, authorities forced a Guardian journalist to leave the country after she reported on a scientific study that said the country was likely to have many more cases than had been officially confirmed. The New York Times’ Cairo bureau chief was also censured for sharing “incorrect data”.

Two medical schools in Iran have meanwhile filed criminal suits against at least two journalists over their coverage of the pandemic in the country, according to reports by the International Federation of Journalists and the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

“It is deeply concerning that journalists and human rights activists have been targeted in this way across the globe, including by countries the UK works closely with,” the letter sent to Downing Street reads.

“We believe that this behaviour breaks international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, it’s imperative that the UK Government condemns such reckless and rogue behaviour, urging any government engaged in these activities to stop and recommit to protecting the right of their citizens, activists and journalists.”

Foreign and domestic journalists in China have been similarly targeted during the pandemic. At least 13 American reporters, from the The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, were expelled last month – a move that Beijing called “self-defence” for restrictions placed on Chinese state media representatives in the US.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) condemned the decision, while Steven Butler, Asia programme coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), called it yet more proof that “press freedom is in jeopardy everywhere”.

MPs and peers who have urged the government to take greater action in supporting journalists and activists during the pandemic include Lord Kinnock, former Cabinet member Hilary Benn and the Liberal Democrats’ Layla Moran.

The campaign is spearheaded by International United Nations Watch (INTUNW), an NGO the focuses on the advance of human rights across the globe.

INTUNW warned that a number of countries “are using this unprecedented situation to further restrict human rights and eradicate opposition.”

Spokesperson Maya Garner said: “Foreign journalists have been expelled from a number of countries, dissidents targeted by state security services, while campaigners in the country have been largely silenced.

“To prevent this from happening it is vital that the prime minister and his government ensure that these brave campaigners are not abandoned by the Foreign Office.

“The foreign secretary and his officials must make clear that this mendacious power-grab will not be tolerated, including amongst those countries we see as our friends in the region and we expect all countries to respect the human rights of their citizens.”

Rebecca Vincent, the UK bureau director for Reporters Without Borders, told The Independent: “If the UK government is serious about its commitment to protect and promote media freedom globally, it is time to break the policy of silence when violations are committed by its allies.

“Despite claims that values matter in the UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia, very little has been done to secure justice for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi or the release of the more than 30 journalists unjustly jailed in the country – and the UK’s track record with the other Gulf states is shamefully similar.

“But journalists, human rights defenders, and others being targeted for reporting the truth deserve support and protection.”

Last week, RSF said that a free press in China could have prevented the coronavirus outbreak from turning into a global pandemic.

“Reporting the truth at the earliest possible moment would have allowed the rest of the world to react probably earlier and probably more seriously,” said Ms Vincent. “The consequences [of stifling media freedom] are actually deadly.”