IFEX, das Organ für weltweite Pressefreiheit aus Kanada, und – italienische Journalisten seit 40 Jahren von der MAFIA drangsaliert..:
An: info@feminissima.de
Betreff: IFEX COMMUNIQUÉ VOL 17 NO 24 | 17 JUNE 2008
Datum: Tue, 17. Jun 2008 20:15:58 -0400
IFEX COMMUNIQUÉ VOL 17 NO 24 | 17 JUNE 2008 | ——
The „IFEX Communiqué“ is the weekly newsletter of the International Freedom
of Expression eXchange (IFEX), a global network of 81 organisations working
to defend and promote the right to free expression. IFEX is managed by
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
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FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT:
1. Middle East and North Africa: Backlash on Activists Who Take to the
Streets
REGIONAL NEWS:
2. Azerbaijan: Chair of IRFS Attacked by Police
3. China: Authorities Restrict Quake Reporting
4. Mexico: Federal Police Close Community Radio Station
REPORTS AND PUBLICATIONS:
5. IFJ Launches Report to „Break the Chains“ Confining Media in Middle East
6. Italian Journalists under Attack by Mafia for 40 Years, says Media
Watchdog
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:
7. Highway Africa Conference Tackles Citizen Journalism
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
8. ARTICLE 19 and ArtVenture Launch $100,000 Award for Repressed Artists
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FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT
1. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: BACKLASH ON ACTIVISTS WHO TAKE TO THE
STREETS
Six to 25 years in jail. Those are the harsh sentences meted out last week
to 11 Libyan activists who planned to gather in Benghazi, Libya’s second
largest city, to hold a peaceful demonstration against police brutality. In
the Middle East, with so few opportunities to voice dissent, taking to the
streets is often the only option. And now, report IFEX members, even that
avenue is coming under increasing threat.
The men, part of a group of 14 who were initially arrested, were hoping to
hold a rally in February 2007 to commemorate the first anniversary of a
violent clash between protesters and police in Benghazi, reports Human
Rights Watch. On that deadly day in 2006, demonstrators had stormed the
Italian consulate after an Italian government minister defended the
publication of the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Some
protesters were beaten by police, some were arrested, and at least 11 were
killed.
Of the 14 men arrested in February 2007 for planning the anniversary rally,
two have been released. A third man, ‚Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, has not
been heard from since his arrest. And the remaining 11 men were convicted –
in a new state security court established for the occasion – of planning to
overthrow the government and meeting with a U.S. embassy official ahead of
the rally.
Idris Boufayed, the „main organiser“ who lived for 16 years in exile in
Switzerland until he returned to Libya for a visit in 2006, was sentenced
to 25 years. Boufayed is suffering from advanced lung cancer and officials
are currently deciding if he should be released on medical grounds.
Another defendant, Jamal Ahmad al-Haji, is a recognised writer and
government critic. In an article he wrote a few days before his arrest, he
called for „freedom, democracy, a constitutional state, and law“ in Libya.
Al-Haji holds Danish citizenship, which the Libyan government has refused
to recognise. Nor have the authorities granted Danish government requests
to visit him.
„In Libya today, just planning to criticise the government can land you in
jail for years,“ says Human Rights Watch, which has been at the forefront
of a campaign to get the convictions thrown out.
The tune is the same elsewhere in the Middle East. In Bahrain, Special
Security Forces (SSF) and military forces in civilian clothes attacked an
audience attending a public seminar on 5 June moments before the meeting
started, reports the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). On the
outskirts of the capital Manama in Bilad Al-Qadeen, people were gathering
to discuss what to do with a petition they had put together – signed by
54,000 citizens – that demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister for
his human rights violations during his 37-year rule. One participant is now
in a coma after being hit in the head by a rubber bullet that was fired at
close range.
Just last week in Egypt, the Arabic Network of Human Rights Information
(ANHRI) reported that police threatened to use violence on poets and
intellectuals who were trying to gather for a cultural event in Cairo. The
participants planned to call for national unity and the rejection of
extremism through an evening of song and poetry – reasonable requests,
considering the sectarian strife Egypt has been experiencing in recent
weeks.
But security forces prevented them for reaching the venue, threatening to
hurt them if they tried to break through the police barriers. Among those
denied access: the great poet Ahmad-Fouad Negm, and George Ishaq, the
former leader of the coalition opposition group Kifaya.
It was „as if poetry and song represented a threat to Egyptian national
security and had to be met with a military response,“ says ANHRI.
Meanwhile, in Syria, a group of 13 notable political activists, including
former parliamentarian Riad Seif, remain in detention following their
arrest in December 2007 for attending a meeting of opposition groups,
reports Human Rights Watch. They are awaiting their trial on charges from
weakening national sentiment and awakening sectarian strife, to spreading
false news that would affect the morale of the country. Hundreds of other
activists are prevented from leaving Syria to attend human rights meetings.
And still others are being prevented from holding gatherings. Mazen
Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of
Expression, had actually gotten a permit from the Ministry of Culture to
organise a press freedom conference at the Arab Cultural Center in Damascus
on 25 May. But 15 minutes prior to the event, an official from the same
ministry ordered its cancellation. In an unrelated case Darwish is
currently awaiting trial for defaming the state. He was arrested in
January while covering violent clashes in Damascus.
These acts of assembly and the regimes‘ violent reactions to them are worth
remembering at a time when Western governments are edging toward increasing
engagement with some of the worst press freedom predators. French President
Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to send two senior envoys to Syria as early as
this month, as ties suspended last year over Lebanon’s political crisis
start to thaw.
„Any engagement with Syria must include an open discussion of human rights
concerns,“ says Human Rights Watch. For without continued support for those
people and movements that fight for human rights and democracy, Middle East
– West relations aren’t likely to get very far.
Visit these links:
– Human Rights Watch on Libya: http://tinyurl.com/3ts2qk
– BCHR: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/2254
– ANHRI: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/94452/
– Human Rights Watch on Syria: http://tinyurl.com/3pomek
– RSF on Darwish: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27489
– IFEX Middle East and North Africa page: http://tinyurl.com/4ksop7
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REGIONAL NEWS
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
2. AZERBAIJAN: CHAIR OF IRFS ATTACKED BY POLICE
The chair of IFEX’s Azerbaijan member the Institute for Reporter Freedom
and Safety (IRFS) was detained and beaten while in police custody – the
second time in two days he faced off with police, reports IRFS.
Emin Huseynov was covering an event in Baku on 14 June, organised to mark
the 80th birthday of revolutionary Che Guevara. Dozens of police raided the
event and arrested 20 people, including Huseynov and two other members of
IRFS, and brought them to a nearby police station.
At the station Huseynov protested against the photographing and
fingerprinting of the detainees. He was isolated, interrogated, threatened
with death and beaten repeatedly in the head, including with the butt of a
gun. He was hospitalised after losing consciousness.
IRFS reports that he is awake but remains in the critical care unit with
sustained head injuries. The other event goers were detained for seven
hours.
„We are appalled by this brazen attack on our colleague Emin Huseynov,“
said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). „We call on the highest
authorities in Azerbaijan to investigate this incident and bring those
responsible to justice.“
CPJ contacted the police department where Huseynov was held and was told
that „no beating took place. (Huseynov) went to the hospital by himself.“
When CPJ asked how Huseynov sustained a serious concussion when there was
no beating, the police said, „There is no brain concussion. Huseynov is a
slanderer.“
Huseynov, who was able to speak from the hospital, says the police
statement is „an attempt by police to cover up their unlawful action. Such
behaviour is characteristic of the police.“
Just two days earlier, Huseynov was picked up by state security officers in
front of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration building while filming an
anti-government picket. He was released more than two hours later, only
after officers confiscated his ID, deleted his video footage of the protest
and questioned him about IRFS’s activities and sources of funding.
In recent months, journalists have been the target of numerous attacks and
court cases brought on by officials.
In a recent case, the authorities failed to conduct a thorough
investigation into the brazen assaults against „Azadlig“ reporter Agil
Khalil, who in the space of three months earlier this year was beaten,
stabbed and escaped a kidnapping attempt.
If anything, prosecutors have made a concerted effort to further endanger
Khalil, says CPJ: they have falsified information, ignored evidence –
saying that Khalil was never actually beaten – and smeared the reporter in
state-sponsored media.
Visit these links:
– IRFS: http://www.irfs.az/content/view/892/28/
– CPJ: http://tinyurl.com/5f4866
– CPJ on Khalil: http://tinyurl.com/5tyqhu
– IFEX page on Azerbaijan: http://tinyurl.com/5scuo9
ASIA
3. CHINA: AUTHORITIES RESTRICT QUAKE REPORTING
The latest arrests of journalists and bloggers in China suggest the
authorities are punishing those who criticise the government’s handling of
the earthquake, say IFEX members.
Chinese police arrested retired professor Zeng Hongling in Chengdu, the
capital of the earthquake-hit province of Sichuan, on 9 June for publishing
personal accounts of the earthquake on Chinese-language websites overseas,
reports PEN American Center and PEN Canada, the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Then three days later, a well-known Internet publisher and human rights
advocate, Huang Qi, went missing in Chengdu after his website publicised
Zeng’s arrest, say the IFEX members. According to the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ), he has been charged with illegally
obtaining state secrets.
Huang was forced into a car with two of his friends by three unidentified
men on 10 June. RSF says the Chengdu police claimed they know nothing about
their whereabouts.
„The arrest and the disappearance of these reporters suggest that
authorities in the earthquake zone are beginning to punish those trying to
publish information about the terrible disaster in May,“ says CPJ. „The
government in Beijing must protect journalists in Sichuan who are attacked
for their reporting rather than spare local Communist Party officials from
embarrassment.“
Zeng is currently being held incommunicado at a detention centre in
Mianyang, her hometown and a city hard-hit by the earthquake, for
„illegally providing intelligence overseas“, says the Chinese Independent
PEN Center. Her articles criticised the insensitivity of local authorities,
and their unwillingness to let aid organisations do their job.
Huang, director and co-founder of the Tianwang Human Rights Center in
Chengdu, posted stories on his website http://www.64tianwang.com that
criticised the way relief was doled out – all through government channels,
and reported on parents protesting the shoddy construction of a school that
collapsed in the quake. According to RSF, the Chinese press has been
forbidden to cover the collapsed schools story freely.
Two associates working with Huang at Tianwang, Internet writer Huang
Xiaomin and webmaster Zhang Qi, were detained on 16 May after saying they
planned to join rescue activities in Sichuan, says PEN. Huang Xiaomin was
released on 31 May, after extensive questioning about his relation to Huang
Qi and their activities at Tianwang. Zhang is being held incommunicado.
Huang Qi spent five years in jail after being arrested on 3 June 2000, the
eve of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was charged
with subversion for posting articles about the massacre by exiled
dissidents on his website, which he originally created as a bulletin board
for messages about missing persons, says RSF.
Huang was the first website publisher to be charged with inciting
subversion in China. According to CPJ, Chinese authorities repeatedly
delayed his trial in 2001 while the International Olympic Committee was
considering Beijing’s bid for the 2008 Olympics.
Meanwhile, police expelled around 10 foreign journalists on 12 June from a
neighbourhood of Dujiangyan, one of the cities that was badly hit by the
earthquake, says RSF. They were trying to do a story about a school that
collapsed in the quake. Police manhandled some of the journalists and
damaged their equipment.
„We are seeing an all-out hunt for press representatives, with police and
soldiers blocking access roads and searching all vehicles,“ said Tom Van de
Weghe, the China correspondent of Belgian radio and TV broadcaster VRT, who
was arrested in Dujiangyan and Juyan.
China had promised to ease restrictions on foreign reporters in January
2007 in time for the Olympic Games this August. But so far, it has done
little to meet its pledges.
Visit these links:
– CPJ: http://tinyurl.com/4u4gtp
– IFJ: http://tinyurl.com/5hw5qn
– PEN American Center/PEN Canada: http://tinyurl.com/59z2bv
– RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27465
– CPJ report, „Falling Short“, on China’s failure to meet press freedom
pledges made when the Olympics were awarded:
http://cpj.org/Briefings/2007/Falling_Short/China/index_new.html
– PEN American Center, PEN Canada, and the Independent Chinese PEN Center,
„We are Ready for Freedom of Expression“ Olympic countdown campaign,
http://www.pen.org/china2008
– IFEX China page: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/147/
AMERICAS
4. MEXICO: FEDERAL POLICE CLOSE COMMUNITY RADIO STATION
Tierra y Libertad is a community radio station in Monterrey in the
northeast of Mexico with a broadcasting radius of four kilometres – just
far enough to hit some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Monterrey’s west
end. It’s been on the air for seven years, giving the locals news and
analysis on education, health, culture, human rights and labour issues. So
it came as some surprise when a large armed police contingent surrounded
the station and forced its closure one Friday this month, in what ARTICLE
19 – Mexico and the World Association of Broadcasters (AMARC) say is an
alarming case of the „criminalisation of free expression.“
More than 100 heavily-armed members of the federal police violently burst
into the station on 6 June. Over 200 people tried to defend the station,
say AMARC, ARTICLE 19 and the National Center for Social Communication
(CENCOS), but were unable to prevent the police from seizing the station’s
equipment.
The problem, says the police, is the station has allegedly been operating
illegally – without a licence. But AMARC and ARTICLE 19 report that Tierra
y Libertad had actually applied for a permit from the communications
ministry way back in November 2002. And to date, they have not received a
response.
Instead, the police shuttered the station using the General Law on National
Assets rather than applying the Federal Radio and Television Law – which
„amounts to criminalising the use of technology to exercise one’s right to
free expression,“ says AMARC and ARTICLE 19.
The federal government denied the station the opportunity to operate within
the legal framework, say the IFEX members, and it’s not the first time that
the authorities have closed a radio station without respecting the right to
due process.
ARTICLE 19, AMARC and CENCOS point out the real problems: that the
authorities have „excessive discretion“ in handling licence applications –
which was, incidentally, ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court – and
that the federal government refuses to recognise community radio
broadcasting, even though it promised the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights (IACHR) that it would create the conditions for community
broadcasters to survive and thrive.
The members are demanding that the Mexican state respect freedom of
expression and the right to access information, and that it not misinform
the public with „biased and concocted information,“ as it has in the case
of Tierra y Libertad radio station.
AMARC has penned 14 principles for democratic legislation on community
broadcasting, which came out of an investigation on best practices in 26
countries. Read it here: http://tinyurl.com/5yymb4
Also visit these links:
– AMARC/ARTICLE 19: http://tinyurl.com/5d5h4w
– CENCOS: http://cencos.org/es/node/18729
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REPORTS AND PUBLICATIONS
5. IFJ LAUNCHES REPORT TO „BREAK THE CHAINS“ CONFINING MEDIA IN MIDDLE EAST
Sixty-five media workers killed in Iraq in 2007, with little investigation
into their deaths. An Arab charter that gives governments control of what
satellite channels can broadcast. Up to five years in prison for insulting
the President in Egypt or Tunisia. This is what journalists working in the
region can expect, says the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
in a new report.
Country by country in the Middle East and North Africa, „Breaking the
Chains“ documents the main laws used to repress the media, as well as cases
of journalists who have been sentenced over the past year or are still in
jail. Some of the more known prisoners include Egyptian blogger Kareem
Amer, who was sentenced to four years in jail in February 2007, and
journalist Adnan Hassanpour, who is on death row in Iran for „subverting
national security“ – a standard excuse to justify the repression of
journalists.
The report is part of an IFJ „Breaking the Chains“ campaign that is
demanding the end of jail terms and extortionate fines that intimidate and
silence independent media. Launched in June 2007, the campaign is also
helping to build professional solidarity among journalists in the region.
Read „Breaking the Chains“ here: http://tinyurl.com/5oortv
6. ITALIAN JOURNALISTS UNDER ATTACK BY MAFIA FOR 40 YEARS, SAYS MEDIA
WATCHDOG
For more than 40 years, the Mafia has been targeting journalists who try to
expose the organisation’s criminal activities, says an Italian media
watchdog.
In a new report, the Italian-based rights group Information Safety and
Freedom (ISF) says that nine journalists have been murdered by the mafia
since 1960, from Cosimo Cristina who was killed in Sicily in 1960 to Beppe
Alfano in 1993.
Many other journalists have been threatened and attacked, says the report,
and lists some of the most recent victims, like Roberto Saviano, the
journalist and author of the bestseller „Gomorrah“, which has sold 1.2
million copies in Italy and has been translated into several languages.
„Gomorrah“ denounces the activities of the Mafia organisation Camorra in
Naples. Last month, Saviano tried to rent an apartment in Naples but was
forced to go elsewhere due to pressure from neighbours who feared Mafia
reprisals. Saviano himself has received serious threats from the Casalesi
clan. According to ISF, he has been living under police protection since
October 2006.
Fellow journalist Lirio Abbate, who has been the target of numerous threats
and even an assassination attempt for his book „The Complici“ – a look at
the collusion between the Mafia and politicians – is always accompanied by
two bodyguards. „Of course, the presence of bodyguards complicates my job,“
he told ISF. „I have to find alternative ways to find information. I can no
longer go on the streets as I used to do and meet my sources in peace.
„I do not want to leave Sicily but maybe one day I will be forced to do
so,“ he added.
Abbate says in the past 10 to15 years, the Mafia have become increasingly
interested in journalists – partly because Mafia leaders are no longer
farmers but doctors, politicians and university graduates. „They know where
the information is, and why it’s important to try to manipulate it.
Violence is only the tip of the iceberg. Journalists may also yield to
pressure, be corrupt and bought,“ he says.
ISF recently launched an appeal in Rome for increased protection of
journalists reporting on the Mafia in Italy. Most threats come from the
Camorra in Naples, the ‚Ndrangheta in Calabria, Cosa Nostra in Sicily and
the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia.
Read „In the Mafia’s Viewfinder“ here (in Italian only):
http://www.isfreedom.org/home1098.htm
Also see „The Revenge of the Mafia“ (also in Italian):
http://www.isfreedom.org/home1096.htm
And check out ISF: http://www.isfreedom.org/
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CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
7. HIGHWAY AFRICA CONFERENCE TACKLES CITIZEN JOURNALISM
Thanks to social networking websites like Facebook and YouTube and instant
messaging on cell phones, more people can not only consume journalism, but
produce it. Welcome to the age of citizen journalism. But is it really
journalism for citizens? Organisers invite you to tackle these issues and
more at Highway Africa’s 2008 conference in South Africa this September.
Highway Africa, a partnership between Rhodes University and the South
African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is dedicating this year’s
conference to examining the surge of citizen journalism, from what it means
to what technology best supports it, and how it can create new freedom of
expression possibilities in Africa.
„Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens“ will also look at the
challenges, such as the response of the traditional media, or how citizen
journalism can affect the quality of journalism and the professionalism of
trained reporters.
This year’s conference on 8-10 September at Rhodes University in
Grahamstown, South Africa is open to journalists, academics, bloggers,
students, publishers and other interested media professionals.
A limited number of scholarships will be made available for participants
who are unable to cover their costs. The application deadline is 30 June.
For more information, email: Highway Africa director Chris Kabwato at:
c.kabwato (@) ru.ac.za or visit: http://www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za or
http://highwayafrica.wordpress.com/
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AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
8. ARTICLE 19 AND ARTVENTURE LAUNCH $100,000 AWARD FOR REPRESSED ARTISTS
ARTICLE 19 and ArtVenture are seeking to „find light in darkness and
courage in truth“ with a newly established US$100,000 Freedom to Create
Prize. The prize honours artists around the world who promote human rights
and free expression and are denied their „freedom to create.“
The inaugural prize has been divided into three categories. The main prize
of US$50,000 is open to artists (individuals or artistic groups) in all
creative fields, including the visual and performing arts, music, design
and literature. The Youth Prize is for artists aged 18 or younger, and
carries a US$25,000 award. The US$25,000 Imprisoned Artists Prize is for
artists currently jailed because of their work.
„This is not an art prize,“ warn the organisers. „It will not simply judge
the skill of the artist but recognise how the artist has used their work in
speaking out in defence of human rights and freedom of expression.“
Submissions are being accepted now. The deadline for entries is 31 October
2008.
For more information and to register, visit the ArtVenture Freedom to
Create Prize website at: http://www.freedomtocreateprize.com or contact:
info (@) freedomtocreateprize.com
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The „IFEX Communiqué“ is published weekly by the International Freedom of
Expression eXchange (IFEX). IFEX is managed by Canadian Journalists for
Free Expression ( http://www.cjfe.org ) on behalf of the network’s 81
member organisations.
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Contact IFEX Online Editor Natasha Grzincic at: communique(@)ifex(.)org
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