© Justin Maxon/Prospekt

The Magnum Foundation has announced the 2012 class of Emergency Fund grantees. The Emergency Fund supports photographers who are working on long-term documentary projects that address “critical global issues that have not received the attention they deserve, or budding crises that are still over the horizon,” according to the EF Web site.

This year’s grantees are:

Evgenia Arbugaeva, for her project “Tiksi, the Far North”; Rena Effendi, for “Capturing Coptic Life: Egypt’s Sectarian Struggle”; Eric Gottesman, for “Baalu Girma”; Sebastián Liste, for “The Brazilian Far West”; Benjamin Lowy, for “iLibya: Libya’s Growing Pains”; Justin Maxon,  for “Murder That Goes Unsolved and Unheard”; Donald Weber, for “War is Good*”; and Paolo Woods, for “Poor Rich.”

The Magnum Foundation, established by the cooperative photo agency to promote and finance independent documentary photography, began its Emergency Fund grants in 2010. Past grantees include Jonas Bendiksen, Tomas van Houtryve, Emily Schiffer, Larry Towell, Bruce Gilden and Krisanne Johnson.

Grantee candidates are nominated by an international committee and evaluated by a selection committee. This year the Emergency Fund received 93 nominations, and 76 photographers from 28 countries submitted proposals.

The Magnum Foundation also announced the its 2012 scholarships for the NYU/MF Photography and Human Rights program, a 5-week summer intensive at New York University that teaches photographers skills for creating documentary projects on human rights. This year’s scholarships went to: Poulomi Basu of India; Arthur Bondar, of Ukraine, Liu Jie of China; and Pooyan Tabatabaei of Iran.

The Swedish photographer and reporter sentenced to 11-year jail terms in Ethiopia  last month are serving “in a a violent, disease-ridden place” where the inmates fight and sometimes cough up blood, according to a noted New York Times columnist.

The columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, wrote about the plight of the two journalists over the weekend to draw attention to the tyranny and repression of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government. His report was based on an interview with the wife of the Swedish reporter, not his own first-hand account.

“[Reporter] Martin Schibbye, 31, and [photographer] Johan Persson, 29, share a narrow bed, one man’s head beside the other’s feet. Schibbye once woke up to find a rat mussing his hair,” Kristof wrote. “What was the two men’s crime? Their offense was courage. They sneaked into the Ogaden region to investigate reports of human rights abuses.”

The Ethiopian government has been battling insurgents in Ogaden, and has prohibited journalists from that region. Schibbye and Persson were caught traveling in the region last summer with opposition fighters. They were convicted at a show trial December 22 of supporting terrorism, and then sentenced to the long jail terms.

Kristof says Zenawi is making an example of the two Swedes to send a “Don’t you dare mess with me!” message to all foreign journalists.

“So the only proper response is a careful look at Meles’s worsening repression,” Kristof argues. “Sadly, this repression is abetted by acquiescence from Washington and by grants from aid organizations.”

He notes, however, that Schibbye and Persson are likely to be released “because of international pressure. But there will be no respite for the countless Ethiopians who face imprisonment, torture, and rape.”

Related:
Swedish Journalists Seek Pardon After Terrorism Conviction
Swedish Photographer, Reporter Convicted in Ethiopian Show Trial

Reporters Without Borders ranked the United States 47th on their 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index, down 27 places from the previous year, tied with Argentina and Romania.

“In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 [journalists] were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation,” Reporters Without Borders wrote in their report. The US “owed its fall” to arrests and harassment related to coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the non-profit reporters’ rights group said.

The drop saw the US ranked just above Latvia, and Trinidad and Tobago, which fell 20 places due to a scandal involving the government spying on journalists.

In a statement released along with the index today, Reporters Without Borders noted that “Many media [around the world] paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements…. Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011.”

In North African and Middle East, the Arab uprisings greatly affected the rankings of several nations. In Tunisia and Libya rose in the index as censorious regimes were deposed. Egypt, however, fell 39 places in the index due in part to “The hounding of foreign journalists for three days at the start of February, the interrogations, arrests and convictions of journalists and bloggers by military courts, and the searches without warrants,” the report said.

Syria and Yemen were already lowly ranked, so their crackdowns on demonstrations and journalists only caused them to sink a bit lower. Iran fell in the rankings to 175. China, “which has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country,” the report notes, also ranked near the bottom of the index at 174.

Eritrea was the worst nation in the ranking for a fifth straight year, and its Horn of Africa neighbors Somalia and Sudan also received low rankings as part of an East African region where journalists are regularly subjected to violence, censorship and lengthy prison sentences served in awful conditions.

The Press Freedom Index is calculated using a scoring system based on a questionnaire distributed to partner organizations, a network of 150 correspondents around the world, and to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists.

For the full report and more on the creation of the index, see the full Reporters Without Borders release.

Related: New York Times Photographer Blocked by NYPD
Photogs Arrested in Raid on Occupy Protest at Zuccotti Park

Two Swedish journalists convicted in Ethiopia last month of supporting terrorism have decided not to appeal the decision, but ask instead for a pardon from the Ethiopian government.

Photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye were given 11-year jail sentences for December 27, several days after an Ethiopian judge declared them “guilty as charged.”

According to CNN International, the two journalists issued a statement that said: “There is a tradition of mercy and forgiveness in Ethiopia and we choose to rely on this tradition.”

Schibbye’s mother reportedly told CNN that the two journalists decided to seek a pardon on the advice of unnamed “experts.” They also felt their defense had fallen on deaf ears at trial, so they were not optimistic that an appeal would succeed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says on its Web site that “numerous accusatory public statements by state media and top government officials, including [Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles] Zenawi, appeared to predetermine the outcome of the trial.” CPJ has called for the release of the two journalists.

The Swedish government has also pressed Ethiopia to release the journalists. A Swedish government spokesman said that the journalists’ decision to seek a pardon “does not mean any change in our view that they were there working as journalists and that they should be released as soon as possible,” CNN also reports.

The two journalists were arrested last July in the contested Ogaden region of Ethiopia, where the government is fighting rebels–and restricting access by journalists. The journalists gained access with the help of the rebels, and were with them at the time of their arrest. The Ethiopian government classifies the rebels as terrorists.

The journalists admitted at their trial that they had entered the country illegally, but denied that they were aiding the rebels.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said on its Web site that Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government “is silencing news coverage through use of a far-reaching terrorism law.” Several other journalists have been jailed–three of them on “unsubstantiated terror charges,” CPJ says– attempting to cover the uprising in Ogaden, an oil-rich part of the country.

Related:
Swedish Photographer, Reporter Convicted in Ethiopian Show Trial

On balance, not so much.

That was the consensus of the women photojournalists who participated in the panel discussion “Groundbreaking Women in Photography,” organized by the International Center of Photography in New York on January 10. The first in a series of annual “Spotlight” events ICP will hold to raise funds for its programs, the panel was made up of photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Gillian Laub, Samantha Appleton, Stephanie Sinclair and The New York Times Magazine director of photography, Kathy Ryan. NBC anchor Ann Curry moderated the discussion.

Photo © ICP. Left to right: Mary Ellen Mark, Stephanie Sinclair, moderator Ann Curry.

Gillian Laub, who has photographed intimate portraits of young people on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian divide, noted that being a woman has often helped her gain access to people’s homes. “I’m not an intimidating person,” she noted. When she enters strangers’ homes, “People feel comfortable with me” in a way that they may not if she were a man.  Being a woman can be an “asset, depending on the kind of work you want to do,” said Stephanie Sinclair, who has photographed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon and covered gender issues such as female circumcision and the problems faced by child brides. Luckily, Sinclair said, “I like to do intimate work.”

Samantha Appleton, who covered the war in Iraq, said that early in her career covering conflict, “I worked hard not to be classified as a woman photographer. I fought to be one of the boys.” Over time she’s let go of that battle. “There are a thousand things in your personality that affect how you tell a story. Being a woman is a part of it.” Ryan concurred. While noting that in certain countries or political situations, sending a woman photographer can be risky, Ryan said that when she has to choose the right photographer for an assignment, she first considers their vision and eye, then she considers their personality and what it might add to the assignment.  “Some women are forceful, some are quiet,” she noted.
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The Committee to Protect Journalists says Mohamed Shaglouf, the driver hired by The New York Times who went missing in Libya last March, is dead. (Update: the CPJ informs PDN that it first reported Shaglouf’s death in early November.)

CPJ lists Shaglouf among 5 media workers killed on the job during 2011. In addition, CPJ says a total of 80 journalists died last year–45 of them killed in crossfire or in retribution for their reporting, and another 35 for whom the motives of their deaths have not been confirmed.

Shaglouf was working for four Times journalists, including photographers Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks, who were arrested at a checkpoint by fighters loyal to former Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. They reported after their release six days later that they had lost sight of Shaglouf at the time of their arrest.

CPJ says it was told by the Times on November 7 that Shaglouf was killed at the checkpoint, according to information the Times attributed to Shaglouf’s brother.

Reporter Anthony Shadid, who was one of the four Times journalists detained at the checkpoint, also recently acknowledged during a radio interview with Terry Gross of WHYY in Philadelphia that Shaglouf was killed.

Last spring, before Shaglouf’s fate was known, Times editor Bill Keller angrily defended the paper’s treatment of fixers in the wake of accusations that the Times–and other major news organizations–don’t do enough to take care of “local hires” who are hurt, killed, or captured on the job.

“We fulfill our obligation to employees, including  local hires, who are hurt or killed in the line of duty, and to their  families in the case of death. (Yes, this includes Mohamed Shaglouf.)” Keller told the Poynter Institute last May.

The Times did not respond to PDN’s request in September for information about Shaglouf’s fate, or about any compensation that the paper might be providing to his family.

Among the 45 journalists who died in 2011 because of their work, CPJ lists 6 photographers: Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, who died while covering the fighting in Libya last April 20; Anton Hemmerl, who died April 5, also while covering the fighting in Libya; Jamal al-Sharaabi, a photojournalist for the independent weekly Al-Masdar, who died while covering Arab Spring demonstrations in Yemen on March 18; Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, killed January 17 while covering the uprising in Tunisia; and Luis Emanuel Ruiz Carillo, a photographer for La Prensa in Monclova, Mexico who was abducted and shot by unknown assailants on March 25.

Related stories:

Talking About the Deaths We Don’t Talk About
What To Expect from Clients If You’re Injured on Assignment
Libya Says it Will Release Times Journalists Today

Photographer Guy Martin, who survived an April rocket attack in Misrata, Libya that killed colleagues Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, will hold an exhibition of his images from the “Arab Spring” next week.

The exhibition, which is being presented at the Poly Arts Center in Falmouth, UK, by University College Falmouth, will be on view from January 10–January 14, 2012, and includes photographs Martin made in Egypt and Libya between January and April 2011. Titled “Shifting Sands,” the show will also feature a conversation between Martin and Julian Rodriguez, head of the department of media at University College Falmouth.

Martin was with Hetherington, Hondros and Michael Christopher Brown on April 20 in Misrata when the photographers were hit by rocket fire. Hetherington and Hondros died of their injuries. Martin, who was severely injured, and Brown, who suffered multiple shrapnel wounds, were operated on at a hospital in Misrata and then evacuated to Malta.

“They say if the rocket’s really close you never hear anything,” Martin told the BBC for an article about his exhibition. “I didn’t hear anything. I just remember falling to the ground and then waking up in hospital.”

A screening of “Restrepo,” the Afghanistan war documentary by Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will also take place. Proceeds from the exhibition and events will benefit The Rory Peck Trust, an organization dedicated to the safety and welfare of freelance newsgatherers and their families. The proceeds will be donated to the Rory Peck Trust in Hetherington’s and Hondros’s names.

For more visit: http://bit.ly/x2QzpG

An Ethiopian court has declared Swedish photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye guilty of supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally, according to an AFP report.

“Guilty as charged, period, unanimous vote,” the judge declared, according to the AFP story. The judge added that just because Persson and Schibbye are journalists doesn’t mean they didn’t engage in “criminal acts.”

“They have not been able to prove that they did not support terrorism,” the judge reportedly said.

Prosecutors are calling for 18-year jail terms, and sentencing is scheduled for December 27. (Editor’s note: See update, below.)

Persson and Schibye were arrested last July in the Ogaden region of the country. Ethiopian troops are currently fighting rebels in the oil-rich region and the government has barred journalists from the area. Schibbye and Persson, who is represented by the Swedish photo agency Kontinent, gained access to Ogaden with the help of a group of rebels that the Ethiopian government classifies as terrorists. Persson and Schibbye admitted at trial they had entered the country illegally, but vehemently denied they were aiding the rebels.

The ruling against them was handed down despite the evidence they presented to establish their bona fides as journalists, and despite prosecutors’ admission that video footage used against the journalists had been doctored (the footage reportedly was altered to make the journalists look as if they had been engaged in military training with the rebels).

Calling on Ethiopian authorities to release the journalists, Tom Rhodes, an East Africa consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), says Persson and Schibbye were just doing their jobs. “Their trial is politicized and designed to curb any reporting on the sensitive Ogaden area.”

Amnesty International and the Swedish government have also called upon Ethiopian authorities to release the two journalists.

CPJ says Persson and Schibbye aren’t the only journalists to be charged by the Ethiopian government with serving as messengers for “terrorist” groups. A total of ten journalists have been charged  “with trumped up terrorism charges” since June 2011, according CPJ.

Update: A court in Ethiopia sentence Persson and Schibbye to 11 years in prison on December 27, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced. Though the sentence was lighter than the 18-year sentence the prosecutor had sought, a spokesperson maintained the innocence of the journalists. “It is not fair that they are sentenced since they are journalists on a journalistic mission.”

Prosecutors have decided not to “issue any tickets” against a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photographer arrested while covering an Occupy protest near the University of Wisconsin last month, the newspaper has reported.

It is unclear from the report what grounds prosecutors may have had–if any–for issuing tickets.

The photographer, Kristyna Wentz-Graff, was arrested while photographing the protest November 2, and taken to a police station in downtown Milwaukee. The Journal Sentinel reported at the time that she was arrested “without warning [and] without being told why she was being arrested.”

In video footage that circulated online showing a police officer grabbing Wentz-Graff and handcuffing her, the photographer’s press credentials were clearly visible, and she was carrying two cameras–one with a very large lens. (A still photo of her arrest can be seen here.) Bystanders also reportedly told police she was a working journalist as they arrested her.

Under criticism for the arrest, and protest from the Journal Sentinel, police said at the time they had no idea she was a journalist until after they arrived with Wentz-Graff at the police station.

The mayor of Milwaukee reportedly said shortly after the arrest that it was clear to him from the video footage that Wentz-Graff was a journalist, and he added, “I very much support her First Amendment right to be there.”

Related: Pictures of Photog’s Arrest Force Police Accountability

Over on PDNOnline we’ve gathered together the biggest photography news stories of 2011, a year marked infringements on the rights of photographers, by sticky legal cases whose results will be felt long into the future, and by tragedy. The 15 stories we highlighted were the most-read news articles and blog posts on PDNOnline and PDN Pulse this year.

Which of these stories do you think was the most important news story of the year? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.