Posts Tagged ‘journalist threatened’
March 15th, 2012
Venezuelan TV channel Globovisión have
been accused of hiring paramilitary men to be involved in armed stand-offs on 10 March, resulting in two deaths. Members of armed group Colectivo La Piedrita went to the offices of Globovisión to accuse the station of hiring paramilitaries to ”promote violence” and blame them for the deaths of two former members of the group. Appearing with the hearses of the deceased group members, Colectivo demanded authorities investigate the deaths. The group also accused “Ultimas Noticias” newspaper of engaging in a “terrorist-media campaign” operating via social networks.
March 14th, 2012
Arab and foreign media who are in
Syria “illegally” are
being threatened by the information ministry. On 9 March, authorities threatened to take measures against Arab and foreign journalists who have entered the country “illegally” and against anyone cooperating with them. The minister accused journalists of fabricating reports, complicity with terrorists and suggested that covering the activities of those terrorists justified their crimes. Two Turkish journalists, Adem Ozkose, Middle East correspondent for Gercek Hayat magazine and columnist for newspaper Milat, and cameraman Hamit Coskun, who crossed into Syria a week ago,
have been missing for four days.
March 12th, 2012
A female journalist has
been threatened with genital mutilation after exposing the practice in
Liberia. Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily newspaper FrontPage Africa and news website New Narratives was forced into hiding after receiving threatening phone-calls, saying “they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up”. Azango published an article on Thursday about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three girls in the country. Several people confronted the journalist about the article, and it was widely discussed on radio programmes.
March 9th, 2012
An award-winning journalist in
Azerbaijan has been
threatened with blackmail. Khadija Ismayilova received photographs of an intimate nature with a threatening note saying unless she stops “behaving improperly”, she will be “defamed.” Ismayilova, who has caused public scandal by writing investigative articles exposing corruption among high-ranking Azerbaijani officials and their families, said on Facebook that the threat was not a surprise to her. The journalist has been targeted by pro-government forces in previous incidents.
January 17th, 2012
A
Venezuelan journalist has received
threatening messages via Twitter. Luis Carlos Díaz, Communication Networks Coordinator of the Gumilla Center, a Jesuit-run research institution, received a number of intimidating direct messages on Twitter. The attackers insisted Díaz was “going to be taught a lesson” for his remarks on previous cyber attacks which took place
late last year, his activity on social networks, and “working with priests”. The so-called hacker group N33 are believed to be responsible for these latest threats.
January 12th, 2012
An independent journalist and human rights campaigner in
Honduras has received several
death threats following her involvement in a free expression march last month. Itsmania Pineda Platero was told “We’ll skin you alive, bitch!” in one of four death threats over three days. During one of the calls, there was the sound of a gun being loaded in the background. Platero walked at the forefront of the “Journalism for life and free expression” march on 13 December, which was violently dispersed by soldiers and members of the presidential guard.
December 12th, 2011
A
Sudanese editor has received a
death threat following the publication of an article critical of the country’s president, Salva Kiir.
Dengdit Ayok, vice-editor of the English-speaking newspaper The Destiny, was arrested and detained for two weeks for publishing a news story on the marriage of the president’s daughter to an Ethiopian. The article was deemed unethical by Sudanese authorities, who also said the newspaper continued publishing “isolated topics that should not be published for the public”.
September 28th, 2011
A Swedish-based journalist has been
threatened by the brother of Dawit Isaak. Following a public forum in
Eritrea on the case of
Dawit Isaak, a Swedish-Eritrean journalist who has been
imprisoned for over a decade without charge, journalist Meron Estefanos was confronted on Friday by Isaak’s brother, Tedros. Tedros Isaak told the journalist if she used his name, or spoke of his family again he would “slit her throat”. Estefanos, a contributor to the leading Eritrean diaspora news site
Asmarino, wrote a column in 2010, comparing Tedros Isaak’s support for the government that arrested his brother with the
efforts of his other brother to free Dawit.
