17 Jan 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
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.
12 Jan 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
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.
12 Dec 11 | Index Index, minipost
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deemed unethical by Sudanese authorities, who also said the newspaper continued publishing “isolated topics that should not be published for the public”.
28 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
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.
