News Round-Up: Hundreds of Jailed Journalists, Chinese Solar Power “Kill Switch”, and Pfizergate Verdict Blow To EU Commission

Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.

Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:

• Pfizergate verdict: court says von der Leyen’s vaccine deal messages with Pfizer CEO should have been public.

• Chinese “kill switch” found in US solar farms: rogue communicaton devices found that can physically destroy the grid.

• Report: hundreds of journalists jailed for their work in 2024.

• Swedes will soon need only a digital healthcare visit to ‘switch genders’.

• German wind speed drops to 50-year low: electricity production drops by a third.

Pfizergate verdict: court says von der Leyen’s vaccine deal messages with Pfizer CEO should have been public

The European Union's General Court has annulled a European Commission decision that denied a journalist from The New York Times daily access to text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Covid vaccine producer Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, DW reports. The verdict marks a significant legal and political blow to the EU's executive arm, raising fresh doubts about von der Leyen's leadership style and her handling of transparency obligations.

Called Pfizergate, the case involves messages that were exchanged during the EU's negotiation of a multibillion-euro Covid-19 vaccine contract with Pfizer during the Covid crisis. The existence of this private communication was first hinted at in a 2021 interview, sparking widespread concerns over opaque decision-making at the heart of the EU.

Later that year, New York Times journalist Matina Stevis-Gridneff submitted a request to access the messages, according to EU transparency laws, which the Commission rejected, claiming it did not possess them. That refusal prompted the US daily to challenge the decision before the General Court.

Text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Covid vaccine producer Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla (pictured) during the EU's negotiation of a multibillion-euro Covid-19 vaccine contract should be public, court says. Photo: Abhiram Juvvadi/Wikimedia Commons.

The court has now concluded that the Commission did not justify its claim that it did not possess the requested documents credibly and that it did not demonstrate it had made adequate efforts to locate or preserve them. The judges ruled that text messages sent in the context of public procurement should be treated as official EU documents.

The EU's main executive body can now appeal the ruling or comply by either releasing the messages – if they still exist – or providing a detailed account for their absence, including information about whether they were deleted and if so, under which circumstances.

"Von der Leyen has gathered more power than any other president before her, leading the Commission with a centralized and secretive approach – and this has clearly backfired," Olivier Hoedeman of Corporate Europe Observatory, a Brussel's based watchdog, told DW.

Chinese “kill switch” found at US solar farms: rogue communication devices found that can physically destroy the grid

Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps, and electric vehicle chargers.

While inverters are built to allow remote access for updates and maintenance, the utility companies that use them typically install firewalls to prevent direct communication back to China. However, rogue communication devices not listed in product documents were found in some of the Chinese solar power inverters when U.S experts stripped down the equipment hooked up to the grids in order to check for security issues, two sources have said, according to Reuters.

Rogue communication devices not listed in product documents were found in some of the Chinese solar power inverters when U.S experts stripped down the equipment hooked up to the grids in order to check for security issues. Photo: David Smith/Wikimedia Commons.

Over the past nine months, undocumented communication devices, including cellular radios, have also been found in batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers, stated one of the sources. The rogue components provide additional, undocumented communication channels that could allow firewalls to be circumvented remotely, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Using the rogue communication devices to skirt firewalls and switch off inverters remotely, or change their settings, could destabilise power grids, damage energy infrastructure, and trigger widespread blackouts, experts said. "That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid," one of the people said.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) told Reuters it continually assesses risks associated with emerging technologies and that there were significant challenges with manufacturers disclosing and documenting functionalities. "While this functionality may not have malicious intent, it is critical for those procuring to have a full understanding of the capabilities of the products received," a spokesperson said.

Report: hundreds of journalists jailed for their work in 2024

The number of journalists jailed worldwide reached a near all-time high in 2024, according to a report released at the beginning of the year by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and Russia.

A total of 361 journalists were behind bars on December 1, 2024, the second-highest number since the global record set in 2022, when CPJ documented at least 370 imprisonments following journalists’ work. The main drivers of journalist imprisonment in 2024 were ongoing authoritarian repression, war, and political or economic instability. Many countries, including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan, set new records for imprisonment.

Asia remained the region with the highest number of journalists behind bars in 2024, accounting for more than 30% (111) of the global total. In addition to the leading jailers – China, Myanmar, and Vietnam – journalists were also behind bars in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines.

Pervasive censorship in China, for years one of the world’s top jailers of journalists, makes it notoriously difficult to determine the exact number of journalists jailed there. However, jailings are not limited to the mainland, traditionally considered highly repressive. Those jailed include the British citizen and Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, who has been held in solitary confinement in Hong Kong since 2020 and is currently on trial on retaliatory charges of collusion with foreign forces.

Number of jailed journalists between 2014-2024. Source: statista.

A total of 108 journalists were imprisoned in the Middle East and North Africa, almost half of those detained by Israel. Last year, U.N. legal experts determined that Israel violated international law in its detention of three Palestinian journalists. CPJ has previously called on Israel to investigate the cases of these and other journalists held in Israeli custody for lengthy periods without charge, to hold accountable those responsible for these rights violations, and to provide compensation to journalists who have been arbitrarily detained.

Outside of Belarus (31) and Russia (30), Azerbaijan’s (13) continued crackdown on independent media made it one of the leading jailers of journalists in Europe and Central Asia in 2024. Turkey (11) is no longer among the top jailers of journalists, but pressure on independent media remains high.

This is also the case in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, where the number of jailings is lower than in other regions, but where threats against journalism persist. Mexico, for example, has no journalists in jail but is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist outside a war zone. In Nigeria, with four journalists behind bars on December 1, dozens of journalists were attacked and detained as they sought to cover protests and civil unrest. Senegal, which held one journalist in prison on the 2024 census date, also arrested and assaulted journalists covering political protests.

Globally, CPJ found that more than 60% – 228 – of the imprisoned journalists faced broad anti-state charges, including often vague charges of terrorism or extremism in countries including Myanmar, Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, India, and Bahrain. These accusations were commonly levelled against reporters from marginalized ethnic groups whose work focused on their communities.

Swedes will soon need no more than a digital healthcare visit to ‘switch genders’

Gender Reassignment Act (Könsbyteslagen) comes into force on July 1 in Sweden – and it is clear that, in most cases, a single digital healthcare visit will then be enough to ‘change’ legal gender, The Nordic Times reports.

A diagnosis of transsexualism will no longer be required to ‘change’ one’s legal gender – only a ‘simpler medical examination’. ‘Assessments’ will not only be carried out by psychologists or psychotherapists, but also by health care counselors. According to the guidelines by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, in most cases, a single online medical visit will be sufficient to obtain a certificate that can then be used to change a person’s gender in the national register.

“It’s important to remember that this is a regulation that is largely based on the individual’s own self-determination and where the process should also be simple,” Pär Ödman, chief legal adviser at the National Board of Health and Welfare, said to the state radio SR.

Another major change will be that one will no longer need to be an adult to undergo ‘sex change’ – as long as you have parental consent, this process can be carried out as early as the age of 16.

German wind speed drops to 50-year low: electricity production drops by a third

The wind speed average dropped below less than 5.5 meters per second in the first quarter of 2025 in Germany, according to the country’s Meteorological Service (DWD). The last time the country saw such low speeds was in 1972 and 1973, and before that, in 1963, Remix News reports.

There was 31 percent less electricity generated nationwide in the first quarter of the year in Germany than in the same period last year due to a drop in wind speed. Photo: Spielvogel/Wikimedia Commons.

Wind energy producers have been hit hard. For example, PNE, a wind farm operator in Coxhaven, showed a revenue drop from €31.4 million to €27.9 million in a year. It went from an operating profit of €1.1 million in the first quarter to a loss of €7.1 million, according to Welt.

The company indicated that there was 31 percent less electricity generated nationwide in the first quarter of the year than in the same period last year, according to the data from the German Energy and Water Industry Association (BDEW).

However, it should be noted that April 2024 and 2022 saw much higher wind speeds than previous years, so comparing 2024 to 2025 makes this drop look even more extreme.