27 Aug 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Police arrested human rights campaigners and prevented them from gaining signatures for petitions at U2’s first concert in Russia, on 25 August. The tents of Amnesty International, Greenpeace Russia, and U2’s own charity the ONE campaign for Aids, were all removed by police. Campaigners were not allowed to hand out leaflets or talk to any of the 75,000 fans at the Moscow venue. Head of Amnesty International in Russia, Sergei Nikitin, said that the organistation had carried out similar publicity events at many of the band’s concerts in Europe.
25 Aug 2010 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Prohibitions on reporting on green movement leaders are just the latest restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic. Negar Esfandiary reports
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24 Aug 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Police in eastern Ukraine have reclassified the case of a missing journalist as “premeditated murder“. Vasyl Klymentyev, chief editor and reporter for newspaper Novyi Stil, was last seen on 11 August getting into a BMW with an unknown man. The Kharkiv-based weekly newspaper is well known for reporting on corruption in local government and law enforcement. Klymentyev’s most recent articles criticised a local prosecutor and head of the regional fiscal police, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged investigators to focus on his journalism as a motive. Klymentyev’s deputy said that the editor had been threatened several times before and had been offered bribes to keep damaging information quiet.
24 Aug 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Carlos Flores, winner of the Index on Censorship and Guardian award for Journalism has won his fight to have his radio licence returned. Flores’ radio station, Radio La Voz, was closed by the Peruvian government for allegedly inciting violence in Bagua Grande in June 2009, when indigenous groups and villagers clashed with security forces. No official charges were ever brought against Flores. Just a few weeks ago Flores had travelled over 400km to attend a scheduled meeting regarding the reopening of the station, only to be met by a junior minister and told Radio La Voz would remain closed.
