Details:
FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT:
1. Come One, Come All to Global Forum on Freedom of Expression in Oslo, 1-6
June
REGIONAL NEWS:
2. Russia: Double Murder Highlights „Culture of Impunity“
3. Venezuela: Journalist Murdered; Another Survives Shooting
4. U.S.: IFEX Members in U.S. Urge Obama to Reaffirm Leadership in Human
Rights
5. Middle East and North Africa: Governments Resort to New Type of Smear
Campaign
6. Botswana: Government Passes Repressive Media Law
7. Somalia: Somali Journalist Freed, Two Foreign Reporters Still Being Held
RESOURCES:
8. Doha Centre Offers Assistance for Media at Risk
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FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT
1. COME ONE, COME ALL TO GLOBAL FORUM ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN OSLO, 1-6
JUNE
More than 500 freedom of expression activists, including writers,
journalists, artists and academics from around the world, are expected to
descend on Oslo, Norway from 1 to 6 June to participate in the Global Forum
on Freedom of Expression. Find out how you can be a part of this historic
event here.
How effective was free expression campaigning around the Olympics? What’s
the best way to ensure free expression makes the UN agenda? Should
defamation of religion be a crime? These questions and more will be
answered in three days of open seminars and debates, and special keynote
lectures by leading thinkers in the field from 3-5 June.
Expected speakers include Mexican journalist and UNESCO World Press Freedom
Prize laureate Lydia Cacho, South African writer and Nobel Prize laureate
Nadine Gordimer and Sudanese journalist Sami al Haj, released after six
years in Guantanamo.
Those seeking hands-on workshops will be able to take advantage of special,
small group training sessions in different languages geared to campaigning,
fundraising, free expression monitoring and security.
Throughout the week, free expression issues will also be highlighted
through cultural exhibitions and performances, such as a film festival
spotlighting films from the South, a national library exhibition on banned
books, and a boat trip to an island where you can visit a cartoon
exhibition housed in an old fortress.
International Publishers Association (IPA) will also be awarding its
Freedom to Publish Prize during the forum. The annual prize honours a
person or organisation that has made a notable contribution to defending
and promoting the freedom to publish. Nominations are accepted until 13
March and the nomination form is available here: http://tinyurl.com/9vg3ys
The forum kicks off with the IFEX general meeting, and organisational
meetings for International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee and Human
Rights House Network.
There will also be ample opportunities to meet like-minded groups from your
region as well as others across geographic and professional borders.
Register now – the deadline is 15 April 2009. Individuals and organisations
with limited resources and something to share may register and apply for a
grant.
The Global Forum on Freedom of Expression is a partner initiative, led by
IFEX, Norwegian PEN and the Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo (Fritt
Ord), and supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For more information and to register, including updated info on the
conference programme, visit: http://expressionforum.org or email: info (@)
expressionforum.org
——————————————————–
REGIONAL NEWS
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
2. RUSSIA: DOUBLE MURDER HIGHLIGHTS „CULTURE OF IMPUNITY“
A double murder in Russia this week of a lawyer and journalist highlights
Russia’s ongoing culture of impunity, said ARTICLE 19, Index on Censorship
and English PEN in a joint statement and echoed by other IFEX members.
Anastasia Baburova, a journalist for the investigative newspaper „Novaya
Gazeta“, and leading human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov were shot by a
lone gunman after a press conference in Moscow given by Markelov, report
the Glasnost Defense Foundation (GDF) and other IFEX members.
Markelov represented the family of Kheda Kungayeva, whose murder led to the
first prosecution for the killing of a civilian during the Chechen
conflict, is believed to have been the main target. He had just publicly
denounced at the conference the release of Kungayeva’s murderer from
prison.
Baburova, who reported on the conflict in Chechnya as well as on the
activities of neo-Nazi groups in Russia, had attended the press conference
and was talking to Markelov outside a Moscow metro station when the gunman
opened fire. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Baburova was
shot in the head as she tried to prevent the killer from escaping and died
a few hours later.
„The shocking murders… bring Russia’s human rights record to a new low. The
crime is compounded by the knowledge that Russia has a culture where
impunity reigns and murderers are rarely brought to justice,“ said ARTICLE
19, Index and English PEN.
Markelov, who also represented Anna Politkovskaya, the investigative
journalist who was shot dead in 2006 after writing about Russian atrocities
in Chechnya, had recently received death threats associated with the
Kungayeva case.“Every case Markelov was involved in were reasons for his
enemies to hunt him down,“ said GDF.
Coincidentally, the trial of the four suspects in the murder of
Politkovskaya, who was also a „Novaya Gazeta“ journalist, resumed the same
day in Moscow. Neither the masterminds of her murder nor the suspected
gunman are on trial.
Several critics of the authorities in Russia, particularly those who spoke
out about torture, abductions and extrajudicial executions in the North
Caucasus, have been targeted in the past few months, say IFEX members.
Just this month, Shafig Amrakhov, editor of the online regional news agency
RIA 51 in Murmansk, northern Russia, died of gunshot wounds after at least
one unidentified man shot him in the head at his apartment on 30 December,
report GDF and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
According to CPJ, Russia is the third-deadliest country in the world for
journalists. Since 2000 alone, 16 journalists have been murdered in Russia
in direct retaliation for their work. Only in one of these cases have the
killers been convicted, and in all 16 the masterminds remain at large.
Visit these links:
– ARTICLE 19/Index/English PEN: http://tinyurl.com/dkd3zl
– GDF: http://www.gdf.ru/monitor/index.shtml
– Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations:
http://www.lenta.cjes.ru/?lang=eng
– CPJ: http://tinyurl.com/9oxzfm
– Human Rights Watch: http://tinyurl.com/7hkxrh
– International Federation of Journalists: http://tinyurl.com/9fyket
– RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30043
– IFEX Russia page: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/212/
AMERICAS
3. VENEZUELA: JOURNALIST MURDERED; ANOTHER SURVIVES SHOOTING
A journalist who recently covered drug trafficking in Venezuela was
assassinated last week, report the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS),
the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Reporters Without Borders
(RSF) and other IFEX members. He was slain just three days after the
attempted murder of another journalist in southwestern Venezuela.
Two men on a motorbike shot to death Orel Sambrano, the editor of the
political weekly „ABC“ in Valencia, Carabobo on 16 January as he was
getting out of his car.
Sambrano was also vice-president of the privately-owned Radio América radio
station, a columnist for the regional daily „Notitarde“, and a lawyer.
Sambrano had recently covered several drug trafficking stories, including a
case involving the Makleds, an influential family in the region and the
subject of an investigation by the national prosecutor’s office after 400
kilograms of cocaine was found in their home last year.
According to IPYS, Carabobo’s National Journalists‘ Association decreed a
state of emergency following Sambrano’s murder due to the risks faced by
journalists in the region.
The murder of Sambrano came just three days after the attempted murder of
Rafael Finol of the privately-owned daily „El Regional“. Finol was grazed
by a bullet on 13 January in Acarigua, southwestern Venezuela as he was
leaving the office with colleagues, say IFEX members.
According to RSF, Finol said he was attacked for political reasons. „I knew
this would happen after the recent interview I had with President Chávez,“
he said. „It was the work of the extreme right, who want to kill me.“ Finol
is an avowed supporter of the President.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling for a swift and
thorough investigation, especially in the current political climate. Last
week, the National Assembly approved a constitutional amendment that would
allow Chávez to run for indefinite re-election. The reform will be voted on
in a popular referendum as early as 15 February.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says the attacks are part
of a pattern of serious violations of press freedom in Venezuela this
month.
According to IFJ, a young graphic reporter, Jacinto López, was killed on 1
January and his partner and fellow graphic journalist Ricardo Marapacuto
injured in Barquisimeto, Lara, in an attack that was blamed on general
crime.
IFJ blames the attitude of law enforcement authorities for their failure to
act against the behaviour of violent groups, allegedly associated with
government sectors that publicly declare journalists and communication
professionals as military targets.
Visit these links:
– IAPA: http://tinyurl.com/8uxa7y
– CPJ: http://tinyurl.com/938rjm
– IFJ: http://tinyurl.com/7qcquj
– RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30020
– International PEN Writers in Prison Committee: http://tinyurl.com/a24kd7
– IPYS on Sambrano: http://tinyurl.com/ad3ztf
4. U.S.: IFEX MEMBERS IN U.S. URGE OBAMA TO REAFFIRM LEADERSHIP IN HUMAN
RIGHTS
New U.S. President Barack Obama must retake leadership of the global agenda
that has been hijacked by „spoiler“ states like China, Egypt and Russia,
and put human rights at the heart of it, said Human Rights Watch in issuing
its annual world report. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) voiced
a similar sentiment in a letter to Obama.
„The Obama administration must undo the enormous damage caused by the Bush
administration and begin to restore the U.S. government’s reputation and
effectiveness as a human rights defender,“ said the report.
Human Rights Watch said the change must begin in Washington, with steps
such as closing the Guantanamo Bay military detention centre, ending
coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects and detention without trial,
and seeking membership of the UN Human Rights Council.
„Changing U.S. policy on how to fight terrorism is an essential place to
start,“ said the report. „It’s not only wrong but ineffectual to commit
abuses in the name of fighting terrorism or to excuse abuses by repressive
governments simply because they’re thought to be allies in countering
terror.“
Human Rights Watch said the „spoilers“, governments opposing basic rights,
such as Algeria, China, Egypt, Pakistan and Russia, had rushed to fill a
vacuum left by controversial U.S. policies. These governments often „set
the human rights agenda in international forums“ and deflected
international scrutiny away from their own or their allies‘ violations.
Democracies are also singled out, such as South Africa for failing to
address the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, and India for not addressing
repression in Burma out of political solidarity or economic interests.
The best way to successfully defend human rights is to lead by example, say
Human Rights Watch and CPJ.
„Journalists in many countries who risk their lives and liberty upholding
the values of free expression look to the United States for support,“ CPJ
wrote to Obama in a letter dated 12 January. „To assert moral authority we
must first put our own house in order.“
CPJ focuses on how Obama can lead specifically in press freedom. CPJ urges
Obama to end the U.S. military’s practice of open-ended detention of
journalists, and to investigate fully the deaths of journalists from U.S.
forces‘ fire.
According to CPJ, the detention without trial of journalists has reduced
the U.S.’s standing in the world and „may have contributed to the overall
global increase in jailed journalists by emboldening the many tyrants who
look for pretext or justification to throw critical journalists in jail.“
U.S. allies and close friends such as Azerbaijan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco
and Pakistan are among the 10 countries where press freedom has most
deteriorated, says CPJ.
Fourteen journalists have been held for prolonged periods of time without
due process in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Ibrahim Jassam, a
freelance photographer working for Reuters who was detained on 2 September
by U.S. forces in Baghdad, is still behind bars. The practice violates the
U.S. military’s own commitment to review journalist cases within 36 hours
of detention, says CPJ.
CPJ is also hoping that the Obama administration will commit the military
to fully investigate the killing of journalists at the hands of U.S.
forces. According to CPJ, at least 16 journalists have died and others have
been seriously wounded by U.S. forces‘ fire in Iraq since 2003. The handful
of investigations that were carried out by the U.S. military authorities
exonerated the soldiers involved in each case, says CPJ.
Read the letter here: http://tinyurl.com/9cqnyy
Human Rights Watch’s „World Report 2009“ documents ongoing human rights
abuses by states and non-state armed groups in 90 countries, including
attacks on civilians in conflicts, political repression, and violations by
governments trying to curb terrorism, among others. Read the 564-page
report here: http://tinyurl.com/7z7x53
Individual country reports will be uploaded to the IFEX website.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
5. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: GOVERNMENTS RESORT TO NEW TYPE OF SMEAR
CAMPAIGN
Governments in the Middle East have taken their smear campaigns to a new
level, planting news, adverts and paid-for editorials discrediting
journalists and free expression advocates in foreign papers as well as the
local press, report the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) and IFEX
members.
According to Rohan Jayasekera of Index on Censorship, who is also TMG’s
chair, the most brazen practitioner of this kind of propaganda is Tunisia,
which has unleashed a storm of such material apparently in reaction to the
way Tunisia’s appalling human rights record has been exposed
internationally.
In the most recent case, former Tunisian diplomat Khaled Ben Said was
jailed on torture charges for eight years in France in December. At the
same time, one of the leading witnesses for the prosecution, journalist and
free expression campaigner Sihem Bensedrine, was herself the target of a
propaganda attack, says TMG.
The government claimed impropriety in her funding relationships with
international donors – even though her donors and partners are on public
record confirming Bensedrine’s due diligence.
The claims appeared in state-owned and state-sponsored news organisations.
But more surprisingly, international news agency United Press International
(UPI) reprinted the accusations and the story was widely circulated in
Arabic and French.
Jayasekera says the purpose was to discredit Bensedrine, a staunch human
rights defender whose magazine „Kalima“ is banned in Tunisia and who has
been both jailed and beaten by security forces because of her criticism of
the authorities.
TMG members urged UPI „to protect its reputation by making appropriate
amends, and for the agency to take steps to ensure it is not embroiled in
this kind of state disinformation again.“
In Egypt the pro-government daily „Rosa al-Yousef“ published a quarter-page
advertisement filled with allegations defaming Bensedrine and topped by a
photo of Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, reported the Arabic
Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). The head of ANHRI, Gamal Eid,
has been defamed in the same paper.
„We are used to these campaigns and attacks being waged against us,“ said
ANHRI and 18 other Egyptian human rights groups in a joint statement.
„However, what angers us is how they tarnish the name of a once great media
institution that… helped to create freedom of the press in Egypt.“
The pro-government Egyptian press has long used this tactic at home. Human
rights and democracy advocates Hisham Kassem, Ayman Nour and Saad Edine
Ibrahim have all been slandered after they raised Egypt’s human rights
record on the international stage, says Jayasekera.
A study by the rights organisation Andalus Institute for Tolerance and
Anti-Violence in Egypt revealed increasing human rights abuses by
journalists against their own kind. The study, covering the period from
February 2007 to January 2008, confirmed that „Rosa al-Yousef“ was ranked
first in Egypt at printing articles that intimidate and insult other
newspapers and journalists.
The critical paper „Al Masry El Youm“ and its editor, Magdi al-Gallad, and
the famous opposition weekly „Al Dustour“ and its editor, Ibrahim Issa,
were among the favourite targets of „Rosa al-Yousef“ and other Egyptian
papers known for turning their backs on journalism ethics. See results of
the study here: http://tinyurl.com/9orul9
English version: http://tinyurl.com/89lnn4
Meanwhile, in Bahrain, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has
reported a slandering media campaign against seven human rights defenders,
including former president of BCHR Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. A group of 14
youth activists, currently facing charges of planning to carry out acts of
terrorism, named the seven well-known human rights defenders as the
instigators and trainers of the plans. According to the youths‘ lawyers,
the detainees showed signs of ill-treatment and torture during
interrogation. But the accusations were repeated without reservation in all
the major Bahrain dailies and government-owned and run TV networks.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), fears that rights defenders have
been slandered to deter them from defending Shi’a minority rights, and is
asking for supporters to write to the authorities expressing concern that
the activists were framed. See: http://tinyurl.com/7uyulv
This strategy of blurring the lines between truthful reporting,
unattributed opinion and propaganda, coordinated to serve a political
objective, is also being extensively developed by the U.S. in Iraq, despite
domestic legal restraints and strong ethical opposition, says Jayasekera.
According to Jayasekera, the responsibility of separating truth from lies
rests on journalists. „They should treat false reports with healthy
scepticism and always question the motive behind the message,“ he says. „In
today’s high-volume, high-speed media environment it has never been more
important to ask not only ‚Is this person telling me the truth?‘ but also
to ask ‚Why is he telling me this?'“
Visit these links:
– Jayasekera’s op-ed, published in „The Daily Star“, Lebanon:
http://tinyurl.com/7o7den
– TMG: http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg/
– ANHRI: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99843/
– BCHR: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/2661
AFRICA
6. BOTSWANA: GOVERNMENT PASSES REPRESSIVE MEDIA LAW
Botswana has hurriedly passed a controversial media law that journalists
fear will restrict their work, say the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA) and news reports.
The Media Practitioners Act was passed last year, but parliamentarians had
asked for amendments and had expected to discuss them at parliamentary
committees for fine-tuning this year.
Instead, the government published the act in the official gazette over the
holidays, making it law.
Under the act, journalists are required to get the consent of a new Media
Council before they can work. The council is a government-appointed body
that has the power to impose fines and jail time on journalists it
determines have violated standards – including failing to register.
Botswana already had an independent, self-regulated Press Council.
„It is a very repressive law because one cannot practise journalism in
Botswana without the consent of (the) Media Council, which excludes media
practitioners, publishers or anybody with an interest in the media from its
decision-making structures,“ the Botswana chapter of MISA told The
Associated Press.
MISA says the act amounts to direct, political interference in the media –
more so as Botswana has a general election this year – and will lead to
self-censorship by media „fearing retributive measures by the council.“
According to news reports, the law as it appeared in the official gazette
included a passage saying it was designed, among other things, to „monitor
the activities of the media“ and to create a body to „receive any
complaints directed against media practitioners.“
Visit these links:
– MISA: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99910
– AP via International Herald Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/8lh5lw
7. SOMALIA: SOMALI JOURNALIST FREED, TWO FOREIGN REPORTERS STILL BEING HELD
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and other IFEX members
welcomed the release of a Somali journalist after 146 days in captivity,
and call for the safe release of two foreign journalists who were kidnapped
with him.
Photojournalist Abdifatah Elmi was working as a fixer and translator for
Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel
Brennan when they were kidnapped with their drivers, Mahad Isse and
Marwali, while on their way to visit Elasha refugee camp in Afgoye, just
outside of Mogadishu on 23 August 2008.
Elmi and the two drivers were freed on 15 January and are apparently in
good health. According to NUSOJ, they were blindfolded, driven to
Mogadishu’s Bakara market in a four-wheel drive vehicle and released.
Lindhout and Brennan are still being held. Elmi told NUSOJ that he and the
drivers were kept at a separate location from the foreigners and has no
knowledge of where they are being held.
According to Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), little has
been heard from their kidnappers other than a ransom demand of US$2.5
million several months ago. CJFE is asking the Canadian government „to do
everything in its power to work for the release of these journalists.“
Foreigners, journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted
for ransoms in the Horn of Africa nation. Various IFEX members have been
engaging in advocacy behind the scenes, trying to secure their release.
British reporter Colin Freeman of „The Sunday Telegraph“ and Spanish
freelance photographer Jose Cendon were released on 4 January after being
kidnapped on 26 November 2008 while covering a story on piracy.
Currently Somalia is experiencing massive political change. Ethiopian
forces have pulled out of the country, two years after they intervened to
try to oust Islamists from Mogadishu. The government and moderate Islamists
are continuing talks on power-sharing, while the UN has adopted a
resolution agreeing in principle to a peacekeeping force in Somalia. At the
moment all factions – whether they back the peace process with the
government or not – seem to be working together.
„We call upon the transitional government, the alliance of re-liberation of
Somalia and traditional elders to make use of the current political change
in the country to secure the safe release of Amanda and Nigel. We demand
their immediate release,“ NUSOJ said.
Visit these links:
– NUSOJ: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99915
– CJFE: http://www.cjfe.org/releases/2009/16012009somalia.html
– Committee to Protect Journalists: http://tinyurl.com/9mo926
– Reporters Without Borders: http://tinyurl.com/9aod9n
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RESOURCES
8. DOHA CENTRE OFFERS ASSISTANCE FOR MEDIA AT RISK
Journalists and media outlets in danger are invited to apply for support
from the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, a relatively new international
freedom of expression organisation based in Qatar and run by the former
head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Robert Ménard.
The centre provides assistance to imprisoned journalists and their
families, and to journalists who have been threatened or attacked, by
offering funding, legal aid and money for medical treatment. The centre
also offers advice for those facing lawsuits, including how best to defend
themselves at the regional and international level.
Media outlets that have been censored or persecuted, or destroyed in
fighting or national disasters, can also call on the centre for help.
The centre has given financial assistance to 150 journalists or media
outlets so far, totalling more than US$340,000.
The Doha Centre was set up in December 2007 by a decree of Qatar’s Emir,
H.H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who is also the chair of Al Jazeera,
and is under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned.
Complete the application form online here: http://tinyurl.com/7a29ee
The form can also be sent to you on request by contacting: assistance (@)
dohacentre.org
For more information, see: http://www.dohacentre.org/-Assistance-.html
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of Expression eXchange (IFEX), a global network of 80 organisations working
to defend and promote the right to free expression. IFEX is managed by
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