Archive for September, 2010
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Top Russian investigators say they
guarantee to pursue 19 cases of murdered journalists presented to them by a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The CPJ delegation led by CPJ Chairman Paul Steiger and board member Kati Marton met with the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Bastrykin and other investigators examining the cases.
CPJ representatives met with the Investigative Committee in September 2009 to discuss unsolved cases concerning Russian journalists. This year they returned for an update.
The investigator told CPJ delegation that Alkhazur Bashayev, alleged
murderer of journalist Natalya Estemirova is alive. Authorities are trying to locate his whereabouts in Russia. Bastrykin also said he will find and arrest the suspected murderer of
Anna Politkovskaya, who has fled in Europe.
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Category Index Index, minipost, News and Analysis | Tags: Tags: Alexander Bastrykin, Anna Politkovskaya, Committee to Protect Journalists, Investigative Committee, journalists, Kati Marton, murder, natalya estemirova, Paul Steiger, Russia,
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
The
Supreme Court is to decide next week whether members of
Westboro Baptist Church have the constitutional right to picket military funerals. Al Snyder, the father of a US marine whose funeral was accompanied by the protesters’ anti-gay and anti-Catholic demonstrations is seeking damages for emotional distress. The fundamentalist church, which has
said that it plans to protest outside the court, will argue on 6 October that its actions are protected under the First Amendment. Snyder says the decision isn’t a free speech issue but a “
case of harrassment“.
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Human rights campaigner Surat Ikramov was
found guilty on libel charges on 28 September for an article he published about the suspicious death of singer Dilnura Kadyrjanova in 2007.
Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan, was fined 100,000 som (around $60) and ordered to publicly refute the article by publishing approved corrections. Authorities claimed the death of Kadyrjanova, who had been the mistress of a prominent police chief, was suicide. Ikramov’s report suggested that the police chief had used his position of power to prevent a full murder investigation.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
A group of Russian artists have threatened to
boycott an exhibition at the Louvre over the removal of works deemed offensive to Vladimir Putin. Seven painters have said they won’t partiicpate because of a ban on Avdei Ter-Oganyan’s “
Radical Abstractionism” series, originally created in 2004. A culture ministry official told newspaper Ria Novosti that a boycott could not take place because the artwork had already been shipped to Paris. Ter-Ognayan wrote on his website that the boycott would draw attention to the “conflict between art and the authorities”.
Read more on Avdei Ter-Oganyan
here.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
An
Iranian news website is reporting that blogger Hossein “Hoder” Derakhshan has been
sentenced to more than 19 years in prison. Mashregh News says that he was convicted on charges of cooperating with hostile countries, spreading anti-government propaganda, promotion of counter-revolutionary groups and insulting Islam. Derakhshan has been in
prison since 2008. The report says that he can appeal against the sentence.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
The Chinese government is putting
pressure on the Nobel committee not to award the peace prize to
Liu Xiaobo. The activist is currently serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. According to the director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, deputy foreign secretary Fu Ying said giving the prize to Liu would damage relations between China and Norway. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Liu’s actions are “diametrically opposed to the aims of the Nobel prize”. The winner of the 2010 Nobel peace prize is due to be announced in Oslo on 8 October.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
Iranian authorities have
revoked the filming permit of an internationally acclaimed director over his support for dissident filmmakers. Asghar Ferhadi, who won the award for
best director at the Berlin festival in 2009, called for change at a recent Iranian awards ceremony. He spoke out in favour of actress Golshifteh Farahani, and directors
Jafar Panahi, who spent three months in jail, and
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who supports the opposition
Green Movement. Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari described Ferhadi’s comments as “inappropriate”. He said that the director was given a week to change his remarks.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
A cartoonist is under investigation on suspicion of
sedition. Zulkifli Awar Ulhaque, more commonly known as Zunar, was arrested on 26 September just hours before the launch of his new book — a collection of satirical political cartoons. Zunar was released on bail, but has
gone into hiding for fear of being detained under the Internal Security Act. Most of the drawings in Zunar’s book
Cartoon-O-Phobia have already been published on popular news site Malaysiakini, to which the cartoonist is a regular contributor.
