UZBEKISTAN
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) criticised the Uzbek government’s
“obstinate, determined and continual” efforts to harass the country’s
independent journalists and crush all dissident opinion. Erkin
Yakubjanov, a Kyrgyzstani journalism student in the city of Osh, was
arrested by border guards as he was investigating the crackdown on the
rebellion in Andijan for the radio station network Dolina Mira.
Freelance journalist Tulkin Karaev was also forced to flee the country
after systematic harassment by the authorities. RWB said: “Journalists
who dare to mention the events in Andijan are subjected to a witchhunt.”
INDIA
The high court in the southern city of Madras has dropped terrorism
charges against high-profile regional journalist RR Gopal, editor of
the weekly magazine Nakeeran. He was charged in 2003 with illegally
possessing a weapon and spent eight months in prison before being
released on bail. He was the first journalist in India to be charged
under the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has since
been repealed. He was arrested in connection with the killing of a
police informer. Opposition parties, journalists and human rights
activists in Tamil Nadu condemned the arrest.
Gopal became well known after he recorded a video interview with India’s most wanted outlaw, Veerappan, in 1996. BBC News
HAITI
Roman Catholic priest Rev Gerard Jean-Juste, who has emerged as a
leader of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s party, was arrested
for the murder of a prominent journalist after demonstrators at the
man’s funeral called for his detention. The bullet-sprayed and
handcuffed body of Jacques Roche, who was kidnapped earlier this month,
was found on a Portau- Prince street. He had been tortured by his
abductors, who had demanded a ransom of $250,000. Roche was the arts
and cultural editor of La Matin, a private daily newspaper. An Aristide
supporter is pictured with a sticker of the ex-president on a flag
during a demonstrati
LEBANON
The wife of slain journalist Samir Kassir has urged the French and
Lebanese governments to ensure that those responsible for her husband’s
death are identified. Gisele Khoury said her husband, who died when his
car blew up in Beirut in June, had received death threats and was under
surveillance by the Lebanese intelligence services. A writer and
historian with both French and Lebanese citizenship, Kassir wrote
columns for the daily newspaper An-Nahar and the French monthly Le
Monde Diplomatique. Reporters Without Borders
YEMEN
Haj’e al-Jehafi, managing editor of the newspaper al-Nihar, was
injured in the face when a booby-trapped envelope exploded. In a
statement to the Yemen Times, al-Jehafi said that while he was working
at the newspaper, someone telephoned and said he wanted to publish a
complaint. “He arrived, handed me an envelope and left immediately,”
said al-Jehafi. “When I opened the envelope it exploded,” he said,
adding he had received threats since publishing articles criticising
the policy of Sheikh Mansour. Yemen Times
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