Archive for August, 2009

Madonna booed for Roma comments

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Madonna was booed by thousands of fans when she spoke against “discrimination of Romanies and Gypsies in Eastern Europe” during a concert in Romania. She paused during her show and said: “It made me feel very sad.” Thousands in the crowd of 60,000 booed her. Read more here

Argentina: Congress to cover media reform

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez sent a media reform bill to Congress that would allocate a third of broadcast frequencies to private companies, a third to state broadcasters and the rest to non-profit organizations such as churches and universities. Read more here

Out of sight

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Natalya_EstemirovaThe murder of Natalia Estimerova was a stark reminder of the dangers human rights workers in Chechnya face when trying to draw attention to the region, writes Memorial’s Dokka Itslaev
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Philippines: editors receive death threats

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Stella Estremera, editor-in-chief and Virginia Agtay, news editor of the Sun Star Davao have both received death threats in the Philippines. The threats which came in the form of text messages warned that “a single bullet would be enough for you two” unless they ceased their “biased” reporting in favour of the city government. Read more here

Iraq play wins Amnesty award

Friday, August 28th, 2009

A play which looks at the war in Iraq from three different viewpoints has won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Palace of the End by Judith Thompson was described by the human rights organisation as “a truly formidable piece of work”. Read more here

Climate Camp criticised

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Photojournalist Marc Vallée has been criticising Climate Camp’s handling saying on his blog he was forced to wear a “media badge”, and that his request for a copy of the code of conduct for journalists was refused. He argued that the camp’s policy towards journalists was comparable to the police using anti-terrorism laws to harass journalists. Read more here

Xu Zhiyong aide’s status is uncertain

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Human rights advocates in China indicated that Zhuang Lu, the office assistant at the prominent human rights law centre Gongmeng may not have been released, as was previously stated. Ms Zhuang made a short phone call to her mother on 26 August in order to tell her that she was awaiting trial and forbidden from leaving Beijing. Read more here

Journalist targeted with car-bomb in Corsica

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Investigative journalist, Enrico Porsia’s car has been blown up near the Southern Corsican town Porto Vecchio, where he is currently on holiday. Porsia was not injured but believes it may have been an intimidation attempt linked to stories he has published implicating government officials in corruption. Read more here