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15 EU countries join legal case against Hungary’s anti-LGBT law

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15 EU countries join legal case against Hungary’s anti-LGBT law

A complete of 15 European Union nations have joined a authorized case towards Hungary’s Youngster Safety Regulation, broadly criticised as being anti-LGBT.

Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Eire, Denmark, Malta, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, France, Germany and Greece, along with the European Parliament, will act as third events within the lawsuit filed final 12 months by the European Fee.

The deadline to hitch the case ended on 6 April.

“We stand agency in our dedication to an inclusive society and equality for all,” said the Belgian Overseas Affairs Ministry, which had led the cost towards the controversial invoice.

The Hungarian regulation, authorised in June 2021, comprises one provision that prohibits or closely restricts depictions of homosexuality and gender reassignment in media content material and academic materials addressed to audiences underneath 18 years of age.

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This triggered a political backlash, with nations signing joint letters and prime ministers overtly voicing their discontent with their Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte went so far as suggesting that if Hungary moved forward with the plans “so far as I’m involved, then there’s nothing left for them within the EU”.

The laws additionally got here underneath hearth for conflating paedophilia with homosexuality, because the textual content’s acknowledged goal is to strengthen the safety of kids towards intercourse offenders.

This invoice ‘goes towards EU values’

The European Fee, which oversees the compatibility of nationwide regulation with EU guidelines, requested Hungary to elucidate why the ban on LGBT content material was needed to attain the regulation’s predominant goals.

Unconvinced by Budapest’s reasoning, the EU govt launched an infringement process, arguing the laws infringed upon basic rights and several other laws of the one market.

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“This Hungarian invoice is a disgrace,” European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned in 2021.

“This invoice clearly discriminates towards folks on the idea of their sexual orientation and it goes towards all the elemental values of the European Union: that is human dignity, it’s equality and it is the human basic rights. So we won’t compromise on these rules.”

As Hungary refused to again down, the Fee submitted in July final 12 months a authorized case earlier than the European Courtroom of Justice (ECJ), which has the facility to impose adjustments on nationwide laws.

“The Hungarian regulation violates EU regulation, basic rights and EU values. We referred Hungary to the ECJ and it’s now as much as the Courtroom to rule on the case,” a European Fee spokesperson informed Euronews.

Reacting to the information, Budapest remained defiant and vowed to push forward with the laws, citing a 2022 referendum that confirmed huge help for the federal government’s place however failed to achieve the required threshold of legitimate votes.

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“For us, the matter of kid safety is aware of no compromises, we are going to defend our kids,” Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s overseas affairs minister, mentioned this week.

“This isn’t a easy authorities determination, nor a parliamentary determination, however that is the need of the folks, because it was expressed in a referendum and we have no idea of a higher-level determination in a democracy. Subsequently, after all, we are going to stand by baby safety, by defending Hungarian kids, no matter what number of nations resolve to hitch the continuing lawsuit towards us.”

The checklist of nations that take part within the authorized case has a markedly Western part, reflecting a long-standing West-East hole in terms of the safety of LGBT+ rights in Europe.

Italy, Estonia, Latvia and Cyprus, whose leaders had in 2021 signed a collective letter denouncing the Hungarian regulation, didn’t add their names to the lawsuit.

Against this, Slovenia, which final 12 months turned the primary former Communist nation to permit same-sex {couples} to marry and undertake, opted on this time round.

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It is unclear if another member state can nonetheless develop into a part of the case after the expiration of the deadline, which had already been prolonged.

Nonetheless, the turnout of 15 nations is “ground-breaking,” says Katrin Hugendubel, advocacy director at ILGA-Europe, an umbrella NGO that encompasses over 600 entities throughout Europe and Central Asia.

“It clearly exhibits that almost all of EU nations want to actively take steps in direction of guaranteeing efficient respect for EU regulation, and the elemental rights of each citizen within the Union,” Hugendubel informed Euronews.

“Within the understanding that Hungary could ignore a profitable infringement, we are going to proceed to watch the implementation of the anti-LGBTI regulation to help the Hungarian group and doc their human rights violations.”

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Taking presidential debates out of commission's hands virtually guarantees fewer viewers

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Taking presidential debates out of commission's hands virtually guarantees fewer viewers

NEW YORK (AP) — The planned presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that were swiftly organized this week are a coup for CNN and ABC News — but a virtual guarantee they’ll be among the least-watched general election contests ever.

The two campaigns skirted the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized the events for 36 years with the goal of getting them before as many eyes as possible.

ABC, which has assigned David Muir and Linsey Davis as moderators for a debate scheduled for Sept. 10, has said it will make it available for simulcast on any U.S. television network or streaming service that wants it. CNN had not said by early Friday whether it will do the same for its debate, set for June 27 with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash as questioners.

A debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and whomever former President Trump chooses as his running mate is expected to air this summer on CBS.

Each of the two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020 were carried on at least 16 networks, according to the Nielsen company. The first was seen by 73.1 million viewers, the second by 63 million.

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Debates prior to a party’s nominating process, which Trump skipped this year, are usually organized and broadcast by individual media organizations. The tradition has been different for those organized by the commission during general election campaigns, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and member of a group of experts Annenberg organized a decade ago that explored ways to increase viewership.

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“It’s the public’s debate,” Jamieson said.

For CNN leaders, there’s a great temptation to keep it for themselves. It would likely be the most-watched event ever on a network that is struggling in ratings. CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, made a point in tying the debate to the brand on Wednesday when he announced the agreement to hold it during a sales presentation to advertisers in New York.

“When people have something important to say,” Thompson said, “they say it on CNN.”

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CNN said Wednesday the debate would also air live on its international and Spanish-speaking networks, and stream on CNN Max and CNN.com.

The pool of people available to watch on CNN’s main television network is dwindling due to cord-cutting of cable and satellite services. CNN was available in 71% of American homes with television in May 2020; this month it’s just under 54%, Nielsen said.

Keeping the debate on CNN alone would run up against stout criticism that it’s not the public-spirited thing to do, something ABC moved quickly to avoid.

Political polarization that has spread to the media would also likely cut into viewership if the event was not shared, Jamieson said. Would Fox News viewers, after years of hearing CNN criticized by some of their favorite politicians and media figures, turn to CNN for a debate or skip it entirely?

It’s still not certain how many other networks will carry the debates even with the opportunity. Only PBS has said that it would; other networks have yet to give a public commitment.

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Some of those executives would have to swallow hard to carry another network’s personalities on their air, with the risk some of their regular viewers might like them and switch allegiances. Pressure to carry the debates for public service reasons would be intense, though.

Despite worries about how many people will watch, Jamieson said there’s some irony in that there’s a lot to like about the proposed ground rules for the event. So far, the plans are to hold them in television studios without an audience.

That’s something the Annenberg group had proposed a decade ago, saying an audience that reacts to what the candidates are saying is often a distraction, and that audience is usually packed with partisans on both sides.

If the two campaigns agree to rules where one candidate’s microphone would be shut off while his opponent answers a question, it would go a long way to solving what has been a more frequent problem recently with politicians interrupting and talking over an opponent, she said.

“If someone had told me that there was going to be some good news about political discourse this year, I would have told them they were delusional,” she said.

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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.

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First brewery opens in Abu Dhabi as parts of UAE loosen alcohol laws

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First brewery opens in Abu Dhabi as parts of UAE loosen alcohol laws

In 2018, Chad McGehee opened Side Hustle Brews and Spirits, an Abu Dhabi-branded brewery and distillery with funky camels on its cans and playful names familiar to anyone living in the United Arab Emirates.

The only problem was it was illegal to produce alcohol in the country, so his company made its hoppy India pale ale in the United States and then imported it to the UAE for sale.

That’s all changed as Abu Dhabi has overhauled its laws to allow for the micro and craft breweries that have taken the rest of the world by storm, part of a wider reconsideration of alcohol policies in the Islamic nation increasingly drawing tourists. And McGehee’s dream of IPAs in Arabia became a reality — though it took hard work as they were the first to open.

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“The government had created a regulation around fermentation, but the steps of getting a permit, the steps of inspection, all of these things were not put on paper yet. So that had to be built out as we were going through this process,” McGehee said on a recent afternoon at his brew pub on Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island.

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Abu Dhabi has long been considered by those living in the UAE to be more buttoned-up than the rambunctious neighboring emirate of Dubai, home to nightclubs, beach bars and pubs drawing tourists and residents to imbibe. In the seven emirates of the UAE, Sharjah outright bans the sale and consumption of alcohol, like neighboring Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran and Kuwait.

But beginning in 2020, Abu Dhabi changed its policies. It eliminated its licensing system for alcohol purchases for drinkers to boost sales and tourism during the coronavirus pandemic. Eliminating the licenses allowed Muslims, if they chose, to drink, as well as decriminalized alcohol possession for those without a license.

Mitchell Dougherty, the brewmaster at Side Hustle Brews and Spirits, pours a pint of beer at his brew pub in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Malak Harb)

“I think progression in this country is par for the course, they’re always moving things forward,” said Nadeem Selbak, one of the partners at Craft, which is Side Hustle’s brew pub.

The Emirates still maintains a strict no-tolerance policy on drunken driving and public intoxication. Islam also considers alcohol consumption as “haram,” or forbidden.

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But alcohol sales long have been a major driver of tax revenue and a moneymaker for the UAE. Dubai Duty Free, for instance, sold 6 million cans of beer last year, as well as 3.8 million bottles of liquor and 2.3 million bottles of whiskey for thirsty travelers.

But despite that demand, there was no local equipment available to open a brewery in the UAE. McGehee ended up importing almost everything for the brewery, nearly all of it coming from the U.S.

Abu Dhabi represents a completely untapped market for Side Hustle.

“The idea for me was like going back in time, when I started almost 20 years ago,” said Mitchell Dougherty, Side Hustle’s brewmaster.

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At any given point, Craft has 14 beers on tap. So far this year they have brewed 34 and aim to reach up to 100 by the end of the year. The names of the beers include some winking reminders of life in the UAE, including one called “Massage Card Ninja” — a nod to business cards showing scantily clad women that appear under car windshield wipers in some Dubai neighborhoods.

McGehee said the different types of beers include ingredients from the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Japan and the U.S., covering a variety of palates for their international customers.

“If you look at Abu Dhabi, you have people from almost 200 countries,” he said. “They all have their own definition of what beer is, what craft beer is, or what lager is, or what IPA is, so we’re trying to cater to as many of them as possible.”

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Tunisian lawyers defiant as government cracks down on all voices

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Tunisian lawyers defiant as government cracks down on all voices

Tunis, Tunisia – Hundreds of black-clad lawyers filled the narrow Boulevard Ben Bnet outside Tunis’s bar association headquarters as they protested the arrests of two of their own.

Thursday was the second day of strikes in a dark week for Tunisian civil society as security forces swept up journalists and activists in what rights groups have characterised as a further crackdown on dissent.

“The regime’s machinery is operating very efficiently, meaning it devours anyone who has a critical perspective on the situation, … lawyers, journalists, bloggers, citizens or associations,” Romdhane Ben Amor of the Ligue Tunisienne pour la defense des droits de l’homme (LTDH, the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights) said.

Ben Amor said President Kais Saied, like populists the world over, sides with those he sees as the people against the elites, encouraging them to blame others for their difficulties.

“So, of course, Kais Saied from now until the elections [scheduled for November] has a long list of individuals, associations, parties and journalists whom he will gradually criminalise to always maintain the sympathy of his electoral base,” Ben Amor said.

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Lawyers protest outside the central court in Tunis [Al Jazeera]

The purge

Saied, a former law professor elected in 2019, swept to power on widespread Tunisian anger and frustration over politics regarded as corrupt and self-serving.

After dismissing parliament in July 2021, Saied began rebuilding Tunisia according to his design, ignoring the acute, unresolved financial crisis that led to its 2011 revolution. He blamed “international plots against Tunisia”, rewrote the constitution and purged his critics in politics and the media.

He oversaw the arrest of leaders of the self-styled Muslim Democratic Ennahdha party, including former parliamentary Speaker Rached Ghannouchi as well as the party’s archrival, Abir Moussi.

He weakened the previously vibrant media, introducing Decree 54, criminalising the publication or broadcast of any information the state subsequently deems false.  And he has battled the judiciary, restructuring it to his own design.

In the protesting throng on Thursday was Lamine Benghazi of Avocats Sans Frontiers (Lawyers Without Borders).

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“The wave of repression we witnessed this week clearly marks a new threshold for Saied and Tunisia,” Benghazi said as the noise of the crowd almost drowned him out.

“Those parts of civil society that avoided the repression that followed the [July 2021 events] now seem to be the primary targets of the authorities. Arrests, raids and investigations on NGOs working on migrant rights have all multiplied over the last few weeks.”

The outlook for Tunisia’s civil society, whose leads were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, is grim, he said.

“Our fear is this crackdown will broaden to other groups, especially those working on democracy and rule of law and who are critical of the direction Tunisia is taking. The fact the discussions over the decree governing associations have resumed as civil society is under attack is no coincidence,” he said.

Benghazi referred to a law that parliament – now in a vastly weakened state – has long been discussing. If passed, it would force civil society groups to seek permission from authorities to operate, Amnesty International said in October.

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Arrests denounced

Anger was tangible among the protesters outside the imposing colonial courthouse. Slogans from the 2011 revolution rang out – “The people want to topple the regime” – as demonstrators denounced the treatment of their colleagues.

Sonia Dahmani was seized at the bar association on Saturday by masked police who stormed the building in front of television cameras to arrest her, reportedly in connection to a passing quip she had made about Tunisia on a television programme.

Lawyer Mehdi Zagrouba was taken on Monday after an initial national strike by lawyers to protest Dahmani’s arrest. Witnesses said police again violently entered the bar association, breaking windows and doors before detaining Zagrouba.

Zagrouba had been with Dahmani during her court appearance that day and active in the strike. The Ministry of the Interior charged him with verbally and physically attacking the police, which his defence denied.

Video of Zagrouba’s late-night arrest shows him being taken on a stretcher from the bar association, and sources told Al Jazeera that a photographer covering the event had his camera seized.

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On Wednesday, Zagrouba’s lawyers told a court he had been tortured before he collapsed and was taken to hospital, forcing the hearing’s postponement.

According to the Tunisian bar association, Zagrouba had “traces of physical violence on different parts of his body, which were examined by the investigating judge, confirming that he was tortured during his detention”.

“The Tunisian authorities have managed to subordinate the judiciary … and to effectively turn courts and the prosecutor’s office into tools of oppression,” Said Benarbia, director of the Middle East-North Africa programme at the International Commission of Jurists, told Al Jazeera.

“By targeting independent lawyers, the authorities are dismantling the remaining pillar on which the fair administration of justice stands, …. part of a wider campaign to intimidate and silence the legal profession, one of the last lines of defence against the government’s crackdown,” he added.

In a statement to local radio, the Interior Ministry denied that Zagrouba had been assaulted at any point and threatened to prosecute anyone sharing false information.

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Crackdown after crackdown

On the same evening as Dahmani’s arrest, TV and radio presenter Borhen Bsaies and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were also arrested under an “anti-fake news” cybercrime law. Bsaies’s lawyer said no proper evidence had been offered to show his client had violated the law.

A judge ruled on Wednesday that both would be held until May 22 on charges of having breached Decree 54.

Bssais and Zeghidi are the latest in a long line of journalists accused of breaching Decree 54 or similar charges.

According to Zied Dabbar, head of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, at least 60 journalists and commentators have so far been summoned under the law.

Among them is radio host Haythem El Mekki, who is being pursued after saying in April last year that the Sfax morgue was unable to cope with the number of refugee bodies it was receiving.

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Those found guilty of having breached Decree 54 face a fine of 50,000 dinars ($16,000) and a prison sentence of five years. The prison sentence could double to 10 years if the offence involves a public official.

“Tunisian authorities must urgently reverse this significant backsliding on human rights,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. “They must cease this judicial harassment and release all those detained solely for the exercise of their freedom of expression and freedom of association.”

Tunisia is also witnessing an influx of sub-Saharan Africans who arrive hoping to catch a boat to Europe – and a purge of groups defending them.

On May 6, Saied repeated claims, without evidence, to his security council of “plots against Tunisia” pertaining to the presence of sub-Saharan Africans.

On the same day, Saadia Mosbah, president of the anti-racism organisation Mnemty (My Dream) and Mnemty programme coordinator Zied Rouin were jailed on “terrorism” and money laundering charges.

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The following day, Human Rights Watch said, the president and vice president of the United Nations-partnered Tunisian Refugee Council were arrested after inviting Tunisian hotels to bid to accommodate refugees.

This crackdown on their advocates comes as police persecution of the thousands of Black refugees and migrants in Tunisia increases, including deporting them to Libya, which Saied confirmed.

Mosbah remains in custody. Rouin was released shortly after his arrest.

European backing

As Tunisia retreats from the democratic gains of its revolution, it may have lost some of its sheen, but its status as a transit point for tens of thousands of sub-Saharan African refugees means it will remain a priority for European politicians who fear arrivals from “the south” on their shores.

Far-right ItalianPrime Minister Giorgia Meloni has visited Tunisia many times, most recently in April, to meet with Saied to discuss stemming migration in Tunisia before it proceeds north.

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Meloni’s eagerness to support Saied is matched only by that of the European Union, which has made millions of euros in financial aid available to help shore up Tunisia’s economy and border security despite rights abuses by the government being well documented.

Nevertheless, both the EU and the United States Department of State have expressed concern over these latest purges with State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel saying the raids are “inconsistent with what we think are universal rights that are explicitly guaranteed in the Tunisian Constitution and we have been clear about at all levels”.

No mention has been made of any further action.

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