World Watch Archive / November 2007
Argentina
Media bias tied to advertising dollar
Leading up to Oct. 28 legislative elections and the presidential election of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, previously a senator and first lady, The Commitee to Protect Journatlists issued a speical report that questioned the lack of regulation over government advertising spending in Argentina.
CPJ criticized the free daily El Periodico Austral in Santa Cruz, the home of the former president Nestor Kirchner, for serving as the government's “mega phone,” and for promoting the campaign fo the current president.
Nestor Kirchner's former chauffer and advisor, Rudy Ulloa Igor, owns El Periodico Austral along with a radio station, two television stations and two production companies. In 2006, Ulloa's media holdings received 3 million pesos (US$960,000) from the goverment, CPJ reported. “Without state advertising it is almost impossible to survive,” Daniel Gatti told CPJ. Gatti is a radio host on FM Abril. FM Abril is among the Santa Cruz competitors for government media spending
However in one of Kirchner's first interview after the election, the president accused daily papers in Santa Cruz of combative coverage of her campaign. A prime example of the government's impact on media through advertising spending occurred in 2002. The provincial government of Neuquen province withdrew all advertising fro the province's Rio Negro after the daily paper implicated the governor of Neuquen in a bribery scandal.
The paper had received an injunction from the Supreme Court that forced the province to resume partial advertising, and in September of this year, Argentina's Supreme Court made landmark legislation in September by ruling that the government had indirectly censored Rio Negro.
Azerbaijan
Azeri Editor Sentenced
On Oct. 31, the Azeri Court for Grave Crimes sentenced Eynulla Fatullayev, editor and founder of Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, to an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence for threatening terror and inciting hatred through his journalistic work. In particular, the courts cite his March 30, 2007, story abou the dangers Azerbaijan would face if the U.S. and Iran went to war, as evidence. He wrote the story under a pseudonym.
Fatullayev has already been serving a two-and-one-half year sentence since April of this year for libel. The Azeri courts claimed that the article in question defamed Azerbaijan's army because it talked about the mass killing of civilians in a separatist war in the early 1990s, Reuters reports.
In May 2007, shortly after his arrest, Fatullayev's newspapers were shut down and all the computers were confiscated.
The International Press Institute (IPI) reports that this sentence is the longest such sentence for a journalist in the new republic's 16-year history. IPI also notes that Azerbijan has the most imprisoned journalists, incarcerated for their work, of any European and Central Asian countries.
Harassment Continues for Journalist and Family
Hakim Eldostu Mehdiyev and his family continue to struggle after Mehdiyev was beaten and imprisoned last month by law enforcement officers for his journalistic work, and his family's businesse were demolished.
On Oct. 23, Elkhan Mehdiyev, his brother, traveled to Turkey by car. In Turkey, Sadarak Customs Checkpoint officials searched his car for narcotics. After the hour-long search netted nothing, the officals apologized and told E. Mehdiyev that their Azeri border colleagues informed them he had narcotics in his car. This happened after his car was searched in Azerbaijan and nothing was found, the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) reports.
The Mehdiyev family continues to be threatened and have little means to survive. H. Mehdiyev has already appealed to the government to stop this treatment, but nothing has happened. He stated that he will appeal once again, but through the press this time, and if nothing transpires he will be forced to renounce his citizenship and leave the country.
Stay tuned for te next issue of Global Journalist for a personal account from H. Mehdiyev.
Bahrain
"The Kingdom" banned in Bahrain
Bahraini authorities have banned the Hollywood film, “The Kingdom,” a fictional story set in Saudi Arabia. The film focuses on the “war on terror” and an FBI investigation of terrorist bombing attacks that took place in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh in May 2003 and in Al-Khobar in June 1996, during which over 100 people of different nationalities were killed, according to the International Freedom of Expression exchange.
This is not the first case of movie censorship, which has included the religious film “The Passion of the Christ.” Mel Gibson's blockbuster film was banned in 2006 on the basis that it was against Islam because it depicted prophet (Jesus).
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expressed its concerns at how freedom of expression is being targeted and curtailed.
Journalists conviced of smear and defamation.
Journalist Hesham Al-Zayani and the editor in chief of the Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper were convicted by the Bahrain Supreme Court of Appeal for smear and defamation against the President of Arabian University, Dr. Rafia Ghabbash. They were fined US$2,650, according to the International Freedom of Expression of Exchange.
On the same day, another journalist's case, that against Jaffar Al-jamry of Al-wasat newspaper, was postponed until December, on the accusation of smeal and contempt by a female official of the Ministry of Health.
According to the IFEX, president of the Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA) said that the number of cases brought against journalists this year is 25. Their statistics show that in 2006, the total number of cases brought against journalists was 27, of which only 7 (26%) were adopted by the Public Prosecution (PP). In 207 the number of cases against journalists is 32 of which 12 (38%) have been moved by the PP. BJA tend to play a role of mediator in persuading government officials to drop their cases. The role played by the BJA, however, has not reduced the number of cases brought against journalists.
Bangladesh
Journalist beaten while in custody
Jahangir Alam Akash, a Bangladeshi journalist arrested on extortion charges, was beaten while in custody, his wife said.
Akash works for the Bengali-language daily Dainik Sangbad. He was taken from his home by Rapid Action Battalion, an elite anti crime and anti terrorism government force on Oct. 23. He was sent to the hospital on Oct. 25 with leg injuries, his wife told local journalist Shahriar Kabir and press freedom advocate Mainul Islam Khan.
Local press freedom groups say authorities are targeting Akash in reprisal for his reporting. Prior to the arrest, Akash told Committee to Protect Journalists that he had been charged on a separate extortion allegation.
About 50 local journalists expressed their concern over the earlier charge in a statement issued on Monday, according to The Daily Star.
Akash was still in hospital on Oct. 26 and had not yet appeared in court.
Chad
Photographer and aid workers held
French photographers and reporters Marc Garmirian, of the Capa news agency, and Jean-Daniel Guillou, of the Synchro X agency, along with members of Arche de Zoe, the French charity, were formally charged October 29 with “kidnapping minors” and “fraud.”
Garmirian and Guillou were covering Arche de Zoe while it was in Chad. According to the International Frederation of Journalists, Arche de Zoe told the press it wanted to help the 103 children they were flying to France to live with host families, not abduct them.
A third journalist, Marie-Agnes Peleran of the France 3 Mediteraanee TV station, who was with the group for personal reasons, is also being charged.
IFJ reports that the French government has condemned the operation and its ambassador said those involved would face the Chadian justice system.
Along with Reporters Without Borders and IFJ and their French affiliates SNJ and SNJ-CGT have issued statements saying the journalists covering Arche de Zoe are protected under international law and should be released.
China
Detained journalist beaten in prison
Qi Chonghua, a detained journalist in Tengzhou, a city in the eastern province of Shandong, was interrogated and beaten while in police custody, according to Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect Journalist. Qi's lawyer told Agence France-Presse: “The police have slapped him in the face more than 20 times…they told him they could hit him as much as they liked and could disguise his death as suicide.” Qi was arrested, with his colleague, Ma Shiping, this June for writing stories on corruption in local administration as well as sensitive topics such as displacement of peasents and environment problems. “The accusations of extortion are inadmissible as all he did was report on corruption,” his wife, Jiao Xia, told AFP. Qi and Ma have no been brought before a judge, so their detention lasts longer than what the law lasts. They are now waiting for trial. Both charges can put them into jail for at least a three-year sentence in China.
Croatia
Journalist arrested because of blog
Croatian journalist, Zeljko Peratovic was arrested on Oct. 18, a day after Police searched his home in Zahreb, and seized his files and computers.
Peratovic was arrested because of his blog posts (peratovic.net and peratovic.blog.hr) relating to war crimes in the village of Gospic in the 1990s. and was accused of revealing a state secret, the AP reported.
Senior Croatian officials met on Oct. 22 to discuss his case, including the Croatian Journalists' Union, the Croatian Helskinki Committee and the opposition Social Democrats, according to Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.
In one of his posts, Peratovic accused former defense minister Gojko Susak (now deceased) and a leader of the ruling Democratic Union Party (HDZ), Darko Milinovic, of being responsible for the atrocities. Milinovic headss the HDZ's candidate list for the Nov. 25 parliamentary elections, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Peratovic previously wrote for the daily Vjesnik. Because of his work, he has lost his job, has been physically attacked and seen as a traitor by Croatians who refuse to believe that Croats could have commmitted war crimes. He previously reported on death of Milan Levar, an International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia protected witness whose identity was revealed by the police. Levar was killed by a car bomb in August 2000 in Gospic.
Cyprus
Protesters gather outside newspaper office
The newspaper Africa based in the northern Cyprus, was attacked by protesters claiming the media outlet supported terrorism. The right-wing group Grey Wolves and Turkish settlers demonstrated outside Africa's offices protesting “terrorism” by Kurdish rebels in Turkey and threatened the newspapers journalists, according to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.
The Union of Cyprus Journalists condemed the protest, stating that it believes that “this is another attack against press freedom and freedom of expression in the northern part of Cyprus by the fascists and the Grey Wolves,” that is being tolerated by the regime.
Democratic Republic of Congo
Information minister bans news organizations
Information Minister Tousssaint Tshilombo Send annouced on October 20 a ban on approximately 22 private television channels and 16 radio stations for alleged regulatory noncompliance.
“This measure aims to clean up the airwaves in Democratic Republic of Congo and leave theme to the real professionals,” Send was quoted saying by radiookapi.net.
Faustin Fwafa, Send's chief of staff, told the Commitee to Protect Journalists the stations were operating without official documentation of authorization and were in default of required fees or taxes.
Local journalists told CPJ the ruling came without notice or hearing, is an attempt to intimidate stations near the opposition and comes when the government is preparing to distribute approximately 2 million U.S. dollars in state subsidy funds to impoversihed public and private meida houses.
Fwafa said the audit thus far has only affected commercial broadcasters in Kinshasa but will spread into provinces. Dozens of community radio and television stations, who can not pay the regulatry fees, are threatened by audit according to the Congo Federation of Community Radio Stations.
Higher-ed minister orders guards to beat journalis
On October 22, Higher Education Minster Sylvain Ngabu ordered policemen to beat news director Heustache Namunanika and cameraman Didier Lofumbwa, of private broadcaster Horizon 33, after the station aired a program discussing Ngabu's decision to suspend a local university chancellor.
Ngabu invited Namunanika and Lofumbwa to his office in Kinshasa and scolded them for interviewing the suspended chancellor. When they defended their position as journalists to present both sides of the story, Ngabu ordered his bodyguards to beat them and throw them off the premises.
Lofumbwa told the Committee to Protect Journalists he was preparing his camera when five armed officers assulted him from behind and beat him with rifle butts while dragging him out of the office. Namunika, who escaped the beating, said his clothes were torn and he has gotten treatment for bruises and chest pains.
Defense lawyer Jean-Pierre Ngunda told CPJ a complain has been filed against Ngabu and the guards for unlawful confinement, assault and battery. Faustin Fwafa, chief of staff to Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send, said a government cabinet meeting will discuss the issue October 26.