Janiot Izava

**Janiot Saoli Izava** (born 25 April, 1963) is an Alconbrian politician and retired journalist currently serving as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembléia Legislativa. She had previously served as the Minister of Broadcasting and Communication from 2007 till 2018. Her controversial tenure as communications minister saw widespread government takeover of private media houses and a heavy decrease in media freedom.

Izava started her career as a journalist and later became a news anchor in the ABC in the 1986. She rose to prominence in the 1990s, and her show *Jozno with Janiot* became the most watched news and interview program in the 1990s, and attracted a following with the rising Alconacioists. She was famous for her verbose yet aggressive interviewing style, and gained national prominence after President Paul del Santé walked out of one of her interviews in 1998. She is also credited with introducing future Alconacioist politicians Ernesto Titeriez and Augustin Voimer to the public through her show. She became Alconbria's most influential journalist in 1998, and was noted for her warmongering rhetoric during the Milven War. Due to her vocal opposition to President del Santé, she was sacked from the ABC in 1999. She joined YTV as an executive and launched her popular program *Janiot Analysis*.

She continued to support the Alconbria People's Party during the Alconbrian Crisis, and was instrumental in the APP's disinformation campaign against their opponents. She was banned for life from the JAA for her extensive role in the APP disinformation campaign. She supported the government during the 2005 Alconbrian constitutional crisis, and was one of the few journalists who were not banned from reporting from the newly formed Constituent National Assembly of Alconbria.

She was elected into the Constituent National Assembly in the 2007 Alconbrian by-elections, and was appointed as the Minister of Broadcasting and Communication by incoming President Augustin Voimer. As Broadcasting minister, she created the controversial media regulatary organization NAMERA intended to curb media freedoms. She also passed the Law on Social Responsibility on Mass Media which allowed for self-censorship and increased government interferenece on radio, television, internet and other forms of mass communication. The law paved way for the so-called "War on Journalism", which led to persecution of journalists by unauthorized detention, forced disappearances, smear campaigns and assassinations. The government also began shutting down radio and TV stations unfriendly to the regime. The Broadcasting ministry also began banning foreign media channels, and started to deny licenses and equipment subsidies to TV channels not supportive to the government; while increasing subsidies and assistance to channels friendly to government interests. Inside Alconbria investigations revealed that Izava, along with members of other political families including Zervana Voimer established front companies to pucrhase struggling media outlets for cheap, and turned them into pro-government mouthpieces. Press freedom fell from "Satisfactory" to "Problematic" during her tenure. Alconbria was listed as an enemy of the internet in 2010.

The Alconbrian Supreme Court in exile in Altivebrio charged her with crimes against humanity when she used the Social Responsibility Laws to detain journalists who reported about the 2009 Alconbrian humanitarian crisis. Despite the government acknowledging the crisis a year later, the arrest journalists were not released and hundreds are still missing as of 2020.