SRI LANKA: A giornalista tamil una vergognosa condanna a 20 anni di reclusione con l’accusa di terrorismo; RSF annuncia l’attribuzione a Tissainayagam di un nuovo premio per giornalisti che mostrano grande coraggio e integrità professionale nei paesi in cui la libertà di stampa non viene rispettata

Pubblicato il 31 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34343-529d8Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the “shameful” 20-year jail sentence which a Colombo high court passed today on journalist J.S. Tissainayagam on charges of supporting terrorism and inciting racial hatred in his articles.

“The imposition of this extremely severe sentence on Tissainayagam suggests that some Sri Lanka judges confuse justice with revenge,” Reporters Without Borders said. “With the help of confessions extracted by force and information that was false or distorted, the court has used an anti-terrorism law that was intended for terrorists, not for journalists and human rights activists.”

The press freedom organisation added: “We strongly hope that the appeal process adheres to the facts of the case and the spirit of the law. Meanwhile, until the appeal is heard, we urge the authorities to guarantee this journalist’s physical safety and health, which has deteriorated greatly while in detention.”

Global Media Forum and Reporters Without Borders have chosen to announce today that Tissainayagam will be the first winner of the Peter Mackler Prize, a newly-created award for journalists who display great courage and professional integrity in countries where press freedom is not respected.

The prize will be awarded at a ceremony presided over by Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli at the National Press Club in Washington on 2 October. The award honours the memory of veteran Agence France-Presse reporter and editor Peter Mackler, who died last year.

When a Reporters Without Borders representative met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse last October in Colombo, the president pledged to examine the Tissainayagam case.

Aged 45, Tissainayagam, wrote for the Colombo-based Sunday Times newspaper and editedOutreachsl.com, a website targeted at Sri Lanka’s Tamil population. The charges on which he was convicted include taking money from the Tamil Tiger rebels to fund the website. In fact, Reporters Without Borders established that the site was funded by a German aid project.

Tissainayagam has been detained since 7 March 2008, when he was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division. He spent his first five months in detention without any charges being brought against him. Judge repeatedly extended detention orders and rejected requests for his release on bail.

After five months in detention, during which many national and international press freedom organisations appealed for his release, he was suddenly transferred to Colombo’s Magazine prison, which is notorious for the physical mistreatment of Tamil detainees. It was reported at the time that he had been beaten.

During his initial period in detention, Tissainayagam was allowed only sporadic visits by his family and his lawyer and was denied the medicine he needs for tuberculosis and infections linked to the scabies that he contracted in prison.

Tissainayagam is the first Sri Lankan journalist to be convicted under the anti-terrorism law. In fact, he is one of the few journalists anywhere in the world to be accused of terrorism because of their reporting.

The origin of the charges against him boils down to two articles published in 2006 in North-Eastern, a magazine he edited that no longer exists. The magazine’s printer, Jasiharan, and his wife are also charged in connection with the case.

Tissainayagam’s family and lawyers have said he will appeal against his conviction.

Archiviato in: Sri Lanka | Commenti disabilitati

VIETNAM: Licenziato il reporter Huy Duc dal quotidiano governativo Sai Gon TIEP Thi per aver criticato sul suo blog personale l’Unione Sovietica durante la guerra fredda

Pubblicato il 31 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

b VietnamReporters Without Borders condemns reporter Huy Duc’s dismissal by the governmental daily Sai Gon Tiep Thi on 25 August for posting criticism of the Cold War-era Soviet Union on his personal blog.

“The sole aim of this arbitrary and ideological dismissal was to extend the reach of the censorship already exercised over all the governmental press”, Reporters Without Borders said. “We hope that news and information websites will continue to display their characteristic vitality and outspokenness and that their spirit of resistance will not be undermined.”

One of the newspaper’s editors, Tran Cong Khanh, said Huy Duc was fired because of what he had posted online. Huy Duc confirmed in his blog that he had been dismissed and, indicating that he encountered this kind of problem in the past, said he did not want to give up journalism.

In the offending entry in his blog (http://www.blogosin.org/) on 23 August, Huy Duc referred to the Berlin Wall as a “Wall of Shame,” condemned the former Soviet Union’s “purges” in East Germany, and called the Soviet Union “an occupation force (…) that deprived people of their basic rights.”

His blog, which is very popular in Vietnam, tackles sensitive issues with an openness that is extremely rare in a state media journalist and his firing is unquestionably part of a campaign to crackdown on blogs that criticise the government.

Tran Cong Khanh denied that Huy Duc’s dismissal was the result of government pressure, but the Communist Party’s Propaganda and Education Committee had complained about a hundred or so articles published online and in Sai Gon Tiep Thi.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is one of the 12 countries that Reporters Without Borders has identified as “Enemies of the Internet.” It was ranked 168th out of 173 countries in the 2008 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Archiviato in: @ INTERNET, Vietnam | Commenti disabilitati

MAROCCO: Reporter Senza Frontiere è lieta di apprendere che le autorità marocchine hanno concesso il visto al cittadino egiziano Gamal Eid della rete araba per i diritti umani di informazione (ANHRI), che difende la libertà di espressione e la libertà di stampa, nonché i diritti umani in generale.

Pubblicato il 31 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

b Marocco

Archiviato in: Marocco | Commenti disabilitati

MONDO: Giornata internazionale degli scomparsi, troppi giornalisti scompaiono a causa dei nemici della libertà di stampa

Pubblicato il 29 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34333-5609eAs the world marks the 26th International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August, Reporters Without Borders has provided a grim reminder that nothing has been heard, sometimes for years, of scores of journalists, who have been kidnapped, arrested or simply kept “appointments” that turned out to be traps.

“Whether carried out by agents of the state or local criminals bent on settling scores, the many disappearances of journalists highlights the fact that the enemies of press freedom have no hesitation in using the most cowardly and despicable methods to gag journalists. We restate our support for the families of the disappeared and we share the pain they suffer in the waiting and uncertainty about their fate”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

“We urge the relevant authorities to systematically take these disappearances seriously and to open the badly-needed investigations to find these missing journalists and punish those responsible. It is moreover incredible that cases of ‘enforced disappearance’ implicating agents of the state or those acting with its support can still be going on around the world. We urge countries that have signed the International Convention for the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearance to ratify the law as quickly as possible so that it can be put into force”, it added.

Mexico, where eight journalists have disappeared since the year 2000, is the country most affected by this plague. Mauricio Estrada Zamora, journalist on the regional daily La Opinión de Apatzingán, has been missing since 12 February 2008 in Michoacan state in the south-west of the country, an area notorious for crime and the illegal drugs trade. The management of his newspaper said that three weeks before he went missing he wrote an article that enraged an agent of the Federal Investigation Agency. Also in Michoacan, the editor of the weekly Ecos de la Cuenca, José Antonio García Apac, went missing on 20 November 2006 after he keeping an appointment after he received a phone call at 7.15pm. His son got a call from his father at 7.30pm which was interrupted by voices telling him to switch off his mobile phone and to identify himself. Nothing more has been heard of him since.

A Reporters Without Borders’ delegation that visited Mexico in July 2009 met and talked to the families of these two journalists. .

In January 2009, The International Press Freedom Mission to Sri Lanka condemned the “culture of impunity and indifference” surrounding the disappearances of journalists in the country. Soldiers arrested Subramaniam Ramachandran, correspondent for Tamil dailies Thinakural and Valampuri, close to a military camp, Kalikai Junction, in the north of Jaffna, in the north of the country on 15 February 2007. His family has heard nothing of him since then. He had been reporting on the illegal trade in sand, implicating a businessman and members of the military. The Jaffna office of the Human Rights Commission handled the case and it was referred to the military authorities, including the commander in chief for the Jaffna region. But as lawyer Mudiyapu Remedias explained, in this type of case “everyone is afraid of challenging the army, which denied any involvement”.

Vadivel Nimalarajah, a sub-editor on the popular Tamil daily in Jaffna, Uthayan, which is highly critical of the government, has not been heard of since 17 November 2007 when, colleagues believe, he was abducted while cycling home after working overnight at the paper.

In Iran, Pirouz Davani, editor of the newspaper Pirouz, has not been seen or heard of since he left his home one day at the end of August 1998. The authorities have never shown any sign of wanting to solve the case. Those behind his disappearance have thus been ensured complete impunity. The newspaper Kar-e-Karagar reported rumours of his “execution” in its 28 November 1998 edition. Journalist Akbar Ganji, working for Sobh-e-Emrouz, confirmed these rumours at the end of November 2000 and accused the former intelligence minister and current prosecutor general, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, of involvement in the killing. No government officials have ever commented on this report. Davani’s family took their case to the UN Human Rights Commission in December 2002.

In Gambia, “Chief” Ebrima Manneh, a journalist on the privately-owned The Daily Observer, has been missing since 7 July 2006, when he was arrested by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for an unknown reason shortly after the closure of the African Union summit of heads of state and government which was held in the Gambian capital Banjul. The Gambian government has since then refused to reveal any information about his fate. Justice Minister, Marie Saine Firdaus, said on 6 April 2009 that the journalist had never been held in a Gambian prison. However, one week later, a police officer from Mile Two prison in Banjul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had seen the journalist for the last time inside the prison, in 2008, before he was taken away in the middle of the night by a police officer in plain clothes. “Chief” Ebrima Manneh has never been seen since.

On the other side of the African continent, in Eritrea, scores of journalists have been arrested since September 2001 and most of them have disappeared into the country’s jails without their families knowing where they are. The authorities in the capital Asmara have remained completely silent about their fate.

This list of disappeared journalists is far from exhaustive.

Archiviato in: - Mondo | Commenti disabilitati

MESSICO: Assassinato mentre indaga sulla morte di un giornalista assassinato a Ciudad Juárez il 18 novembre del 2008

Pubblicato il 28 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34330-a7de9Reporters Without Borders said today it was deeply shocked by the murder in Ciudad Juárez, northern Mexico of an official heading the investigation into the murder of journalist Armando Rodríguez, who was shot dead on 13 November 2008..

Pablo Pasillas, aged 33, who worked for the prosecutor’s office, had taken over the case from his superior officer who was himself murdered on 27 July this year.

The bullet-riddled body of Pasillas was found on 26 August in the border city of Ciudad Juárez where he had since 27 July been investigating the murder of Rodríguez, of the local newspaper El Diario, after his predecessor was shot dead at his home.

Police have said they have not determined if the three deaths are linked, Associated Press (AP) said. Reporters Without Borders had publicly called on the federal justice minister to explain the delay in the investigation into the journalist’s death.

“We offer our sympathy to the family and friends of Pablo Pasillas. This murder is yet another blow to the struggle against impunity in a region mired in drug trafficking,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

“It is now urgent that every possible means are used to quickly identify those responsible for these murders and to ensure the safety of investigators so that they can do their job without falling victim to the climate of terror. The situation in Ciudad Juárez is extremely disturbing for journalists and for the entire population”, the organisation said.

The war between the cartels that plagues the border city has not spared the media. Of the 50 journalists who have been killed in Mexico since the start of 2000, six were working in Ciudad Juárez. With 30 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2008, Ciudad Juárez is considered to be the world’s most dangerous city by Mexico’s Citizen’s Council for Public Security (CCSP) which groups representatives of a number of organisations. Some 1,600 murders were recorded in the city in 2008 and 13 people were killed during the night of 26-27 August alone.

Archiviato in: Messico | Commenti disabilitati

OLANDA: Tribunale condanna l’agenzia Associated Press di violazione della privacy della famiglia reale

Pubblicato il 28 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34332-59168Reporters Without Borders is outraged by an Amsterdam court’s ruling today that the Associated Press violated the Dutch royal family’s privacy by distributing photos of them in an Argentina ski resort. The court ordered the news agency to pay 1,000 euros for each further publication of the photos up to a ceiling of 50,000 euros.
“We are shocked and disappointed by the court’s decision,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Presidents and monarchs all of the world who like to take great care of their image will now be able to refer to this decision to justify lawsuits against news media that dare to use photos that have not been cleared by their public relations departments.
“It is disgraceful that such an example has been given by a European Union country that is usually praised for its commitment to free expression,” the press freedom organisation continued.
“The existence of a ‘media code’ in the Netherlands governing relations between the press and the royal family is a violation of freedom of information that is unacceptable in the European Union. Some media may freely choose to stick to ‘approved’ coverage of the royal family, but other media have every right to be more critical in their coverage. The system established by this code reduces the media to PR agencies.
“We are furthermore surprised to see this code – which has no legal basis and only concerns the Dutch news media – being applied to photos that were taken outside the Netherlands. Does it mean that the sovereign or president of a foreign country who is photographed without permission while in Europe will be able to sue the news media for breaking the laws or codes of his own country?”
Reporters Without Borders added: “The royal family’s privacy must clearly be protected but, at the same time, the royal family has an interest in having the media to cover its activities. The photos that were taken in the ski resort did not in any way reflect badly on any of the royal family’s members and were very similar to the many official portraits of them with their children.”

Archiviato in: Olanda | Commenti disabilitati

SENEGAL: Raid della polizia all’alba per chiudere un gruppo radio-televisivo per un “mancato pagamento di royalties”

Pubblicato il 28 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34325-63f89Reporters Without Borders today voiced dismay at brutal methods used yesterday by police in Dakar who mounted a dawn raid to shut down the broadcast group Walfadjri.

The security forces intervention, in which broadcast equipment was forcibly seized, was ordered by the courts over a failure to pay royalties.

“If there is a dispute between the Senegalese royalties’ bureau (BSDA) and the Walfadjri media group, it should be resolved by other means,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “Nothing can justify the use of force and seizure of equipment. The outright suspension of broadcasts has the chief effect of depriving a section of the population of access to news”, it added.

Uniformed police made a 6am raid on the broadcast group’s offices in the Kébé building in Dakar city centre, violently seizing equipment and cutting aerials, abruptly ending broadcasts.

The BSDA lodged two cases against the Walfadjri group at the special court in Dakar and a judge ruled in its favour after studying the initial complaint on 6 August 2009. This decision was notified to the chairman of the media group, Sidy Lamine Niasse, on 13 August.

The court ruled that all programmes put out on radio and television Walfadjri FM with content to which royalties applied should be temporarily suspended until completion of the legal procedure and payment in full of the royalties owed – 50 million CFA francs (76,225 euros). Lamine Diasse had refused to accept the court decision.

Archiviato in: Senegal | Commenti disabilitati

GABON: La copertura mediatica delle elezioni presidenziali fortemente limitata

Pubblicato il 28 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34329-bf44dReporters Without Borders firmly condemns the array of restrictions that the Gabonese authorities have imposed on journalists in the run-up to the 30 August presidential election. Communications minister Laure Olga Gondjout today nonetheless tried to defuse tension and concerns by spelling out the rules for journalists on voting day.

The election is to choose a successor to President Omar Bongo Ondimba, who died in June after 41 years in power.

“What with restricted media access to polling stations, harsh warnings, intimidation and refusal to issue some foreign media with accreditation, the government is using all available means to keep news and information under tight control,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It should understand that such behaviour will just fuel concern that the elections will not be free and fair.”

The press freedom organisation added: “We take note of the communication minister’s promises and we hope that journalists are able to work freely and without impediment on Sunday. If they are not, it will cast a long shadow on what should be an historic election.”

Media not welcome in polling stations

In a communiqué drawn up at a cabinet meeting and in news conferences held by interior minister Jean-François Ndongou and National Communications Council chairman Emmanuel Ondo Methogo, the government announced yesterday that journalists would only be able to make “brief” visits to voting stations when public figures were casting their ballots, and would not be allowed to “stay there permanently.”

The authorities also announced that: “Only the state media will be allowed to officially communicate the results on the basis of data provided by the interior minister.” The vote counting will be public but journalists will only be able to attend by staying outside the voting stations. Elections results will not be posted.

A foreign journalist told Reporters Without Borders: “We have been notified that any comment on the results that does not come from the interior ministry will be regarded a projection or a poll, and will automatically result in our being deported from Gabon.”

The Gabonese Media Observatory (OGAM), a self-regulatory entity formed by all the leading Gabonese media, condemned the government’s “iniquitous” decisions and accused the authorities of “flouting press freedom and gagging the people’s right to information.”

Hand-picked foreign journalists

Journalists Virginie Herz and Nicolas Germain of the French 24-hour news channel France 24,Gervais Nitcheu of the TV news agency AITV/RFO and Vincent Hugeux of the French weeklyL’Express will not be able to cover the election because their requests for accreditation have been turned down.

“This is a sovereign decision that we do not have to explain,” Gondjout, the communication minister, told L’Express editor Christophe Barbier. In a blog entry on Nomades Express, Hugeux said he thought his application was rejected because an ironic report he wrote about the late President Bongo’s election campaign in November 2005 “did not find favour in high places.” Poisonous climate and partisan press

The climate in the run-up to the election is widely regarded as worrying. Reporters Without Borders was separately told by several sources which it prefers not to identify that intimidation and telephone threats are common.

The campaign of former minister André Mba Obame, who is running as an independent candidate, reported on 23 August that its website had been blocked by hackers for 48 hours. Distribution of the fortnightly Tango was banned on the orders of the communications ministry chief of staff at the start of August because of a series of articles critical of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).

Reporters Without Borders regards the ban not only as violation of free expression but also as an abuse of authority as, in Gabon, only the National Communications Council is empowered to issue warnings to publications or suspend them.

Reporters Without Borders added: “While journalists are above all victims of restrictions imposed by the authorities, the Gabonese media’s behaviour is not always beyond reproach. Journalists, especially those working for privately-owned media, often let themselves be used as the mouthpieces of particular candidates, to the detriment of impartial and independent reporting. We remind journalists of their duty to be objective and respect professional ethics.”

Archiviato in: Gabon | Commenti disabilitati

UCRAINA: Gli esperti ucraini affermano che il teschio trovato è di un giornalista assassinato nel 2000

Pubblicato il 28 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

arton34319-3a546Ukrainian forensic experts have concluded that the skull that was found with the help of Gen. Olexy Pukach, a former interior ministry intelligence officer who was arrested on 21 July, is that of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist who was murdered in September 2000.

This was announced at a news conference today by Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer of Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava Gongadze.

“We take note of the results of the forensic examination and we await the continuation of the investigation,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is vital that a DNA test should be now be carried out abroad, so that it should be above all suspicion and so that the Ukrainian judicial system can move forward on this case.”

This is what Reporters Without Borders requested in a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general on 10 August.

“If this finding is confirmed, we could soon see a final outcome to case that rightly shook Ukrainian society,” the press freedom organisation added.

Telychenko said today: “A part of the expert evaluation has been finished. It has already been confirmed that the skull is Georgy Gongadze’s. The next step will be a DNA examination, which must be carried out by a foreign institution with Ukrainian forensic experts in attendance. Most probably, the DNA examination will be carried out in the United States.”

Archiviato in: Ucraina | Commenti disabilitati

NEPAL: Aumento delle minacce e delle aggressioni contro giornalisti e mass-media nel mese di agosto

Pubblicato il 27 agosto 2009 da RSF Italia

b NepalReporters Without Borders is alarmed by a recent increase in press freedom violations, including the torching of thousands of newspapers and physical attacks on journalists by demonstrators, officials and police. In one case this week, a journalist was beaten by police and detained for 48 hours.

“We are disturbed to see that the media have continued to be subjected to physical attacks, threats and harassment since the international fact-finding mission to Nepal in February,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The leading political parties gave clear undertakings in February to respect journalists’ freedom and safety, but none of the pledges have been kept and the parties are paying little heed to journalists. Nepal’s political leaders and the ruling Maoist Party in particular must repudiate such actions and ensure they are punished.”

Police violence

Bimal Bista, a reporter for the newspaper Samacharpatra, was covering a dispute between residents in Dipayal, in the western district of Doti on 23 August, when he was arrested and bundled into a police vehicle. After being beaten by police officers in the vehicle, he was detained for 48 hours without charge.

Jaya Narayan Yadav, the treasurer of the Bara chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), andSagarmatha Television reporter Ramesh Subedi were verbally abused and forcibly ejected by deputy police superintendent Ram Prasad Das when they went to his office in the southern city of Birgunj on 16 August seeking an interview. Das accused Yadav of writing reports that put him in a bad light.

Violence by political parties

Members of Madhes Tarai Forum (MTF), a Tarai-based political party, intercepted a vehicle belonging to Kantipur Publications on 23 August in Rajbiraj, the capital of the southeastern district of Saptari, removed the 15,000 copies of three Nepali-language newspapers it was carrying – The Kathmandu Post, Kantipur and Nepal Weekly – and burned them in the street.

The head of the local MTF branch, Shyam Narayan Yadav, took responsibility for the torching of the newspapers and accused them of ignored his group’s demands, local press reports said. According to theHimalayan Times, Yadav wants Hindi to be adopted as the official language in the Tarai region.

Journalists Prakash Chandra Pariyar, Aneel Kshetri and Bhuwan KC of Kantipur TV were manhandled by members of the Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) and forced to leave while covering scuffling between party members and youth and sports minister Ganesh Nepali on 11 August. Videotape was taken from a camera.

Members of the local branch of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) forcibly prevented more than a dozen journalists from covering a training session for party members in the northern district of Makawanpur on 1 August although the media had been invited to attend.

Hardly a day goes by without an attack on the media in Nepal. The FNJ says there were 342 press freedom violations in 2008, with a significant increase in physical attacks on journalists and media premises.

Archiviato in: Nepal | Commenti disabilitati

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