WHAT HAPPENED? If You Find More On Death Of Journalist Marine Vlahovic, Let Me Know

I am struck by, and suspicious of the lack of follow-up reporting. A suspicion enhanced by some other reports on increasing media intimidation. Am I being a bit paranoid, or an observant realist?

Marine Vlahovic also assessed the situation in the Middle East for the French-speaking Swiss television station RTS.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (12/1/24)

Early this morning someone sent me a screen shot regarding the death of French journalist Marine Vlahovic, who had doggedly reported on the US/Isr*el genocide and reported from victims she had contact with in Gaza. From 2016-2019 she had reported from Ramallah in Palestine and moved to Marseille, France about four years ago.

She had done several documentaries on Lebanon and Cairo and won awards for podcasts. While in Cairo she repeatedly tried to enter Gaza to report and kept in contact with friends in the Isr*eli open air concentration camp and sent in replacement recording equipment to Gazan journalists.

She had reported for a variety of journalistic publications and platforms, including RTS, Le Soir, RFI, Radio France and Libération, among others.

She was not just another Substacker or podcaster, yet I had not heard anything about the case and began searching for stories.

First of all, there is no reporting that the 39 year-old was murdered, but I was struck by how little reporting had been done. She was found dead on an open roof terrace area — some reports said a balcony — of her apartment in Marseille, France on Monday, November 23rd.

One thing I didn’t include in the original of this post is friends found her after they had not heard from her or get responses to messages for two or three days. Could a body lay out on a balcony or open roof terrace in a crowded French city and not be spotted for that long?

The few stories I found were very short — three to five paragraphs — and used neutral language to describe her death, noting she was found: “without signs of life”; her “lifeless body was discovered by her friends” etc.

Police have made no comments regarding the cause of death other than to say they were investigating and an autopsy has been requested. One report noted police had said there was no “initial evidence a crime has been committed”.

None of the stories mentioned anything about the 39 year-old’s health history. No quotes from family and very few from colleagues.

Given the nature and scope of her journalistic work and the targeted assassination of Gazan journalists and often their families, this story should have gotten more coverage. Now, it looks like there has been a little more reporting in French media but I did not wade into that because of translation issues and cookies agreements. If there had been any big reveals in the French media one would assume — hope — as usual, at least other European media would pass it along. I could find nothing in the BBC.

I am struck by, and suspicious of the lack of follow-up reporting. A suspicion enhanced by some other reports on increasing media intimidation beyond Gaza.

Targeting journalists

As I was sorting through my search results other stories involving journalists popped up. In early August there was a fair amount of coverage when RT (Russia Today) journalist and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter’s home was raided by FBI agents. In addition to confiscating his passport just before a scheduled reporting trip to Russia, they hauled away Ritter’s computer and thousands of declassified documents from his time as a weapons inspector in Iraq. Ritter said the agents behaved “professionally”, though they did take material not included in the warrant.

Then in September there was this: RT Employee Beaten By FBI Agents During Raid In Miami. A report in Al Mayadeen English noted:

An employee of the Russian news outlet RT was assaulted by armed FBI agents during a raid on her Miami home, the broadcaster reported.

The woman, whose identity remains undisclosed for security reasons, was asleep when approximately 20 FBI agents entered her residence early in the morning to conduct a search.

According to RT’s report on Telegram, the woman was not permitted to dress before the search began and was subjected to physical assault.

She stated that FBI agents conducted a search of her body under a separate warrant.

Afterward, they interrogated her for nearly five hours, asking detailed questions about RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and other top executives.

They were also particularly interested in her knowledge of Scott Ritter’s work with RT.

Until today, I had heard nothing of this story and could find no follow-up reporting on the case, even in RT.

There were very disturbing details of the raid. She was not “permitted to dress” and they conducted a “body search”? Could it be that routine Isr*eli rape of detainees is now standard operating procedure for the FBI?

“Bandit-like intimidation”

Soon after the Ritter case, on August 13, the home of Russian expat and naturalized US citizen Dimitri Simes was raided. Simes, immigrated to the US in 1973 and was a one-time aide to Richard Nixon and a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Rand Paul. He is an author and has been critical of Joe Biden’s Ukraine and Russian policies. Simes’ son, Dimitri Simes Jr., described the federal raid in an online post as “a bandit-like intimidation attempt”.

Then there is a case from May 2023 where Florida freelance journalist Tim Burke was raided by the FBI and several computers, hard drives and cellphone were confiscated. The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported that what was revealed of the still not fully released indictment specified completely normal online research and reporting. Stuff, no doubt, even you do every day.

The apparent focus of the federal investigation — and perhaps the trigger — is interesting:

“What reportedly triggered the initial investigation into Burke was the leak of behind-the-scenes footage of an interview conducted by Tucker Carlson, then a Fox News host, in which Kanye West, the musician now known as Ye, made some anti-Semitic remarks. That footage was among the video streams that Burke downloaded from a server normally used by broadcasters to distribute streams of their shows to affiliates and other outlets.” — CJR

Are these isolated cases involving a few bullying unprofessional FBI agents or part of something larger; a plan of intimidation and suppression? Perhaps a major unspoken shift in policy coordinated with a certain foreign ally?

Am I being a bit paranoid, or an observant realist?

If the FBI is really concerned about journalists doing PR for a murderous, criminal, warmaking regime, how about getting to work rousting reporters from The New York Times and Washington Post out of bed in the middle of the night and do body cavity searches on them?

As a one-time print journalist, I just want to note that anyone can be a journalist. You don’t need a degree in journalism — I don’t have one. You don’t need a license or special permit that needs to be renewed like your drivers license. You don’t need the benediction of some bureaucrat or hands-on (ugh) blessing of some venal politician. As an American citizen you have the right of the First Amendment to speak, write, report and express opinions. Period. Anyone — law enforcement or other — who challenges that right is a traitor and coward.

Going back to the death of Marine Vlahovic, if anyone comes across more information on the case please let me know or add to the replies. Thanks.

Resist.
Persist.
Don’t be complicit.

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