Archive for August, 2011
Friday, August 26th, 2011
Syrian political cartoonist Ali Farzat was abducted for several hours yesterday while driving home from his office in Damascus. The masked members of security forces broke Farzat’s left hand, which he uses to draw his famous cartoons, and burnt him with lit cigarettes before dumping him on the side of the road with a bag over his head. Some of his drawings as well as his belongings were confiscated.
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
The
Cambodian government
this month suspended land rights group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), which had been critical of government-backed evictions as a result of a railway rehabilitation project that would link Phnom Penh to Thailand. In another development, a draft law on associations and NGOs is on verge of being passed in the country, which has faced
criticism for imposing registration on grassroots movements and community-based organisations.
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Two gunmen on a motorcycle
shot radio commentator Niel Jimena, 42, on Monday night near his home in the Negros Island town of E.B. Magalona,
Philippines. He was riding his own motorcycle when he was shot, and died of multiple gunshot wounds before arriving at a local hospital. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement that police have not determined a motive in the case or whether the killing was work-related. Jimena broadcast political commentary on DYRI-RMN Radio in nearby Iloilo City.
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
On 18 August, police in
Istanbul raided the office of newspaper Aydinlik, as well as Ulusal Kanal television station. Officials
detained five journalists following the raids, reportedly in connection to an ongoing investigation of
Ergenekon, a “secular ultra-nationalist group” for attempts to oust the adminstration of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Four of the journalists were released, but Turhan Özlü, executive editor of Ulusal Kanal, remains in custody.
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
As Twitter, Facebook and Research in Motion prepare to meet the Home Secretary, Index on Censorship and other human and digital rights campaigners ask to be included in discussions on social media blackouts
Joint Letter to Home Secretary
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
The Freedom Theatre in Jenin’s refugee camp
came under attack by the the Israel Defence Force in the early morning of 22 August. Having been notified that soldiers were surrounding the theatre, Acting General Manager Jacob Gough arrived at the scene, where he was confronted by armed soldiers. He was detained following his attempts to get closer to the theatre. A security guard was also physically attacked and his home was raided by soldiers, who reportedly fired live ammunition in an attempt to disperse the crowd that had gathered around the house. This is the third time the theatre has been targeted in the last month. In April, its general manager Juliano Mer Khamis was
gunned down by an unknown assassin.
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Between 20 and 23 August, Al-Jaridah, a Khartoum-based Arabic daily newspaper,
had issues confiscated by members of
Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). According to a press release, no official reason was given for the suspension. However, editor-in-chief Saad Al-Din Ibrahim believes that the paper was suspended because of their refusal to comply with the NISS’s persistence in interfering with the paper’s editorial and recruitment policy. Recently, officials
have confiscated a number of publications without explanation, are currently revising Sudan’s
press and publications law, and are considering pre-publication censorship.
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
A BBC World Service reporter who was arrested in
Tajikistan this summer has said
he was burned with lit cigarettes and beaten while detained. Although the specific charges against journalist
Urunboy Usmanov remain unclear, he has been accused in the country’s state media of being a member of Hizb ut-Tahr an Islamist organisation which is banned in the country.
