April 7th, 2010
Kuwaiti journalist Mohammed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem was convicted of
slander and sentenced to six months in prison on April 1 for publicly declaring that Prime Minister Skeikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was unsuitable to run Kuwait and calling for his resignation. Al-Jassem is currently out on bail awaiting the outcome of his appeal against the conviction, he has at least five other government lawsuits outstanding and was fined 7,000 euros in March for an earlier article that criticised the Prime Minister.
April 6th, 2010
CPJ’s latest monthly census reveals that as of April 1, about
35 journalists were imprisoned as a result of the Iranian government’s post-election media crackdown. Although 18 more journalists were temporarily released for the Iranian New Year they are expected to be returned to prison soon. Iran currently has the
most incarcerated journalists in the world. To sign a petition to help release the journalists in Iran,
click here.
March 31st, 2010
On 25 March, journalist
Gustavo Azocar, host of “Café con Azócar,” a news and political commentary of
Televisora del Táchira,
was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment for illegal profiting in acts of public administration. Judge José Hernán Oliveros found the journalist
guilty of fraud in the signing of a 2000 advertising contract between the state lottery and Radio Noticias 106, where he was working at the time. Azocar, an outspoken critic of Chavez’s government, was released from prison, where
he had been held since July 2009, and he will be able to serve his sentence on probation.
