Yemen Reporters Without Borders has condemned the beating that a
cameraman received from police in the capital of Sana’a while filming a
demonstration by textile factory workers demanding payment of wage
arrears. Moujib Soueileh, a cameraman with the Arabiclanguage satellite
TV news station Al-Arabiya, was taken with Najib Al-Charaabi, a
correspondent for the Saudi TV station El-Ikhbariyah, to a police
station where they were held for several hours. Soueileh was
hospitalised suffering from internal bleeding and three broken ribs.
www.rsf.org
Ethiopia Ethiopian authorities have threatened to arrest journalists
and made statements that could endanger independent reporters in the
capital Addis Ababa, where violent anti-government protests have
recently taken place. The government threatened to detain leaders of
the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association for “playing a key
role in implementing the plan for violence”. The Information Minister
called radio stations Voice of America and Germany’s Deutsche Welle
“mouthpieces of the opposition”. Police intimidation also caused at
least one private newspaper not to publish.
www.ifex.org Congo An
editor was abducted and held for three days by the national
intelligence agency (ANR) in the capital, Kinshasa. Jean-Marie Kanku’s
disappearance followed articles in his newspaper L’Alerte accusing ANR
head Lando Lurhakumbirwa of corruption. A local press freedom
organisation said that Kanku was taken from a street in Kinshasa by
three armed men in civilian clothes. A recent edition of L’Alerte
contained an interview with MP Thierry Bongo, who said Lando should be
imprisoned for “high treason, embezzlement, and gross incompetence”.
www.cpj.org
Iran The imprisoned Iranian investigative journalist and dissident,
Akbar Ganji, said that judiciary officials have tortured him to
renounce his writings. Ganji has been in prison since April 2000. In
July 2001, the judiciary sentenced Ganji to six years for his writings
critical of the government. He was convicted of “acting against
national security”
and “spreading propaganda”. Ganji had earlier
published a series of articles alleging that high-level government
officials were involved in the serial murders of writers and
intellectuals in 1998. He also published a “Republican Manifesto”
critical of Iran’s government.
www.reuters.co.uk Sri Lanka An
escalation of attacks against journalists and media outlets has been
reported as the country heads towards parliamentary elections on 17
November. Unidentified armed men attacked the printing presses of the
Sunday Leader and Irudina, papers known for their critical reporting on
the government. The Leader recently investigated allegations that the
country’s prime minister misappropriated tsunami relief funds. Earlier,
a parked van exploded outside the offices of Thinamurasu, a
Tami-language newspaper associated with moderate critics of the
militant Liberation of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group. Assailants have
also targeted journalists working for the Tamil-language newspaper
Sudaroli.
www.indexonline.org United States Two regional chapters
of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have said that New
York Times reporter Judith Miller should not have received a national
journalism award. Miller (pictured) recently served 85 days in prison
for refusing to talk about her sources. The Northern California and
mid-Florida chapters stated that Miller’s “careless and deceptive use
of confidential sources” and unverified reporting on alleged Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction made her a poor choice for the First
Amendment Award she received at the SPJ national convention.
www.insidebayarea.com
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