World Watch Archive / March 2007
Afghanistan
U.S. military deleted photos after bombing
United States soldiers reportedly deleted several photos and video footage off the cameras of Associated Press and AP Television News on Sunday, March 4. The photographers took the photos and footage immediately after a suicide bombing attack on an Afghan highway in the Nanghar province. The circumstances surrounding the bombing and subsequent shooting of Afghan civilians by American military are currently being contested by various sources. The U.S. military claims that the civilians who were killed were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time while the coalition forces fought with militants involved in the attack. However, witnesses and Afghan civilians said that the suicide bomb was set off near a U.S. Marines convoy and that the soldiers were retaliating against Afghans walking or driving along the highway.
The photographers had taken pictures of three deceased Afghans in an SUV. They were told through the soldiers' translator that they were to “delete them, or we will delete you.” BBC News reported that The Associated Press is lodging a formal complaint against the U.S. military. One photographer for the AP, Rahmat Gul, said his pictures were deleted and then he received permission for photographs, which were then deleted again. After the second deletion, a soldier raised his arm as if to strike Gul. Other photographers also received terse orders to cease all photography.
New York Times
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/as-afghanistan-wobbles-no-pictures-please/
Committee to Protect Journalists
http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/asia/afghan05mar07na.html
Bangladesh
New regulations to ban political coverage
The Bangladeshi interim government announced new regulations in its Emergency Powers Rule of 2007 on Jan. 26 that will severely restrict news reporting. With penalties of up to five years, the law limits press coverage of any political news. These rules were imposed in response to a state of emergency triggered by the resignation of President Iajuddin Ahmed and the indefinite postponing of national elections. The new rules cover a range of political activities and allows the government to seize printed material and confiscate printing presses and broadcast equipment. Almost any form of political expression can be banned. The rules will remain in force until the government lifts the state of emergency, according to the announcement.
Dominican Republic
Drug traffickers threaten journalist
Manuel Vega, producer of “Atacando,” a program broadcast by the privately owned TV station Canal 10-Varo Visión and radio 95.5 FM he has received several anonymous death threats. One threat, pressured Vega to stop featuring stories on drug trafficking or he would be set on fire. Vega thinks the calls are coming from a Dominican incarcerated in the United States on drug trafficking charges. Vega is angered to the “indifference” of the authorities and said to Reporters Without Borders that he did not trust the regional police, which was “contaminated” by drug trafficking.
Englad
Freedom of Information under attack in England
National and regional editors of broadcast and print mediums have allied in universal opposition to information rights minister Catherine Ashton's proposed changes to Great Britain's freedom of information regulations. Sunday Times editor John Witherow, Sunday Telegraph editor Patience Wheatcroft, London Evening Standard managing editor Doug Willis and others met with Ashton to personally lobby against the proposed changes. The proposal would aggregate the number of requests made by any person or organization and severely limit the number of requests allowed. Ashton rejected proposals to exempt journalists from the rule changes because she felt this would be problematic when trying to define who exactly is a journalist. The Department of Constitutional Affairs hopes the restrictions will save the government 10 million pounds by rejecting requests that would cost the government in excess of 600 pounds. A compromise has yet to be reached, and the media has until March 8 to raise any further objections.
Guatemala
Correspondent attacked
Wilder Jordan, correspondent for Nuestro Diario in Guatemala City, was attacked early this month. An unidentified person on a motorcycle shot several times into Jordan's unoccupied car in his parents' neighborhood. Jordan was approaching his car after leaving his parents' home when he heard gunfire and ran back into the house. According to CPJ, he thinks the attack could be in response to a Jan. 15 article on the death of a local man in a car accident. Four of the victim's family members approached Jordan to write a correction to his piece saying the man died of a heart attack instead. He was threatened that he would face consequences if he didn't comply, according to CPJ. Jordan filed an official complain on Feb. 3 and has left his home in the Zacapa for his own safety. http://www.cpj.org/cases07/americas_cases_07/guatemala03feb07ca.html
Panama
Journalists protest reforms in Panama City
In a massive protest against the National Assembly of Deputies on Feb. 14, journalists objected to articles 187 and 189 in the upcoming election. Protestors say these articles, which will soon be voted on, will threaten journalism. In addition, they want article 422 to be modified. Article 422 states that any civil employee to regular person could blame a journalist for using information that he or she deems “reserved”. This means that a journalist can't write or say anything about a third person without his or her consent. In conjunction with Article 422, articles 187 and 189 punish spreading of “reserved” material with imprisonment. The journalists feel that if these articles are added to the Panama Penal Code, it would be a serious detriment to their freedom of expression.
Russia
Second Klebnikov murder trial begins Friday
The retrial of two Chechen men for the 2004 murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov begins Friday in Moscow. A Moscow city court acquitted Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev on May 5, 2006, who are believed to have killed Klebnikov in a contract-style killing, one of 13 such murders since Russian President Vladimir Putin took office in 2000. The 4-month trial was closed off to the public and all of the participants, including the 12 jurors, were silenced by a gag order. Court officials said that classified evidence and the safety of the participants were the main reasons for closing the trail. According to CPJ, some of the defense representatives made threatening statements that may have affected the jury, along with other allegations that cast the trial's outcome in unfavorable light. After the verdict in May, the Klebnikov family attempted to get the trial's transcripts, which are the only available documents that detail the proceedings, but were blocked and unable to begin the appeal process. Russian law states that access to the transcripts are to be given to plaintiffs within three days. The Klebnikov family received the documents in September, four months after requesting them. On November 9, 2006, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial of the two men. The jury selection will commence Friday. Paul Klebnikov, the 41-year-old U.S. journalist, was shot outside of his Moscow office on July 9, 2004.
After journalist's death, questions remain
Questions remain after the mysterious March 2 death of Russian journalist Ivan Safronov. Safronov died after he fell from a stairwell window in his apartment building. Safronov was a correspondent for the independent business daily Kommersant, which said Safronov had been working on a piece covering Russian arms deliveries to the Middle East. Safronov informed his colleagues that during his reporting on the piece he had been warned that he might face criminal investigation for revealing state secrets in the information he planned to publish. After that warning, Safronov decided not to write the story. He had reportedly been questioned by Russian security services before his death, according to a press release by the International Press institute. Three days after Safronov's death was classified as a suicide, Taganka interdistrict prosecutor's office in Moscow started investigating the possibility that someone might have forced him to jump. Friends and colleagues said he was not suicidal and no suicide note was found. The Russian Union of Journalists plans to initiate an investigation into his death. Although the possibility of suicide has not been excluded, police are checking other motives.
Somalia
Radio journalist, union activist murdered
Ali Mohammed Omar of Radio Warsan was murdered on Feb. 16 in Baidoa in southwestern Somalia. Three unidentified assailants ordered Omar to stop on his walk home and shot him in the head when he attempted to flee. Omar was a newscaster and a technician for privately-owned Radio Warsan, one of the most independent stations in the region. The government has closed Radio Warsan several times in the recent past.
Four journalists sentenced despite protective law
The regional court of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, passed prison sentences on the publisher of the privately owned daily Haatuf and three of its journalists on March 5. They were sentenced for allegedly defaming the government, the president and his family in a series of articles about corruption and nepotism. Haatuf publisher Yusuf Abdi Gabobe faces two years in prison. The three others, editor Ali Abdi Dini, investigative reporter Muhammad-Rashid Farah and correspondent Muhammad Omar Sheekh, were each sentenced to two years and five months.
Somaliland's 2004 Press Law bans prison sentences for press offenses, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The regional court instead tried the four journalists under Somalia's 1962 Penal Code, a decision upheld by the Somaliland's Supreme Court. The court also ordered the closure of the paper and fined Haatuf Media Network. Despite the order, the paper continues to operate.
Sri Lanka
Journalists abducted in capital
Three journalists were abducted from their homes and offices in Colombo during the first week of February. Nihal Serasinghe, Lalith Seneviratne and Sisira Priyankara, trade union activists affiliated with the Sri Lanka Railway Trade Union, worked for the trade union monthly Akuna. They were taken from different locations between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. in the capital city on February 5, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. On Feb. 6 an army spokesman showed journalists at a press conference video in which each of the missing journalists confessed to planning terrorist acts and receiving military training with rebel guerilla fighters the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or “Tamil Tigers.” The Tamil Tigers are regarded as a terrorist group by many countries. The army spokesman then told the press that the journalists were being held by the Criminal Investigation Department. Reporters Without Borders urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to see that the journalists are released unharmed. “Confessions recorded in an unknown place by unknown people after arrests that look more like kidnapping have no legal validity,” said Reporters Without Borders. “Police must immediately bring the three journalists before a judge so their testimony can be heard in normal conditions. If the three men are genuinely implicated in the planning of terrorist attacks, they should be tried under the law. If they have been forced to confess under threat, they should immediately be released,” the organization added. Neither the families nor the employers of the three journalists have been able to discover their location, the Asian Human Rights Commission reports. This incident comes after a group of militants headed by Mervyn Silva, deputy minister of labor, attacked a peaceful rally in Colombo in January. The BBC reported that a BBC correspondent and other journalists covering the rally were assaulted during the attack. Another journalist, Munusamy Parameshawary, has been held under the country's anti-terror law for more than 60 days without evidence of her guilt, according to Reporters without Borders.
Sweden
Unaccredited photographer arrested
Swedish freelance photographer Lars Bjork was expelled and arrested for photographing demonstrators without accreditation, according to Reporters Without Borders. Bjork was arrested and spent February 19 in an El Aalun jail.
Thailand
Only independent station shuts down
Thailand's only independent TV station, iTV, was shut down March 7 by the military government, which ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup last September. The government announced it would pull the station off the air after it failed to pay broadcasting license fees that has been reported to near $3 billion, according to a report in the Taipei Times. iTV has been at the center of controversy since going on the air in 1992. The station was initially government-owned before it was sold to Shin Corp in 2001. Shin Corp sold the station to a Singapore telecommunications company in January 2006, but was overtaken by the new military-installed government. “My intention is to have free media but if it has legal ramifications then we'll have to do what's right,” Thailand's new Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters.
Tunisia
French media censored by authorities
The French media are being censored in Tunisia because of some harsh criticism of the Tunisian authorities like President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The once silent Tunisian journalist, Taoufik Ben Brik, has published articles in French publications that include the daily Le Monde, the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur and the paper and website of Liberation. Brik's criticism has been banned on Tunisian newsstands, says Reporters Without Borders. The February 23 issue of Le Monde was pulled from distribution because of an article headlined “Who still writes in Tunis?” A total of 12 Le Monde publications have been censored by Tunisian authorities in 2006. Liberation's website has been blocked in Tunisia since February 21, the same day it published a portrait of President Ben Ali done by Brik with the text “I will vote for Ben Ali in 2009.” Controversial issues have been banned by Tunisian authorities for several years.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21119