10 May 2010 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
On 6 May, video footage was confiscated from Norwegian journalists in Azerbaijan. Television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl were investigating the case of editor Eynulla Fatullayev— jailed in 2007 for an article deemed insulting to refugees. Upon their return to Oslo from Baku, they discovered that information relating to the investigation was missing from their luggage. Fatullayev recently had his prison sentence extended on drugs charges; the European Court of Human Rights last month called for his immediate release.
10 May 2010 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Maziar Bahari sentenced by Iran in absentia — 13 years and 6 months in jail and 74 lashes
The Canadian-Iranian reporter, Iran correspondent for Newsweek magazine, was released on bail by the Iranian authorities in October 2009 and left the country. Index on Censorship, Newsweek, Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression campaigned for Bahari’s release after he was detained on 21 June 2009 in the aftermath of last year’s disputed presidential election during Iran’s post-election crackdown on the media. He discovered his sentence yesterday, after Iran’s security services informed his family.
Five years imprisonment for gathering and conspiring against the security of the state (for taking part in the demonstrations after the presidential election).
Four years for collecting and keeping secret and classified documents (for keeping a court document regarding Freedom Movement of Iran given to him by one of the leaders of the group).
One year for propagating against the system (for Bahari’s post-election Newsweek articles).
Two years for insulting the Supreme Leader (for a private e-mail he sent in which Bahari said Khamenei has learnt from the Shah’s mistakes).
Two years and 74 lashes for disrupting public order (for filming the Basij shooting at people).
Six months for insulting the president (for someone tagging a picture of Ahmadinejad kissing a boy on Bahari’s Facebook wall. The authorities said that the picture implied that the president was a homosexual).
Bahari expressed surprise that none of the charges he was interrogated over – including espionage, paving the way for a velvet revolution, contacts with Jews and Israelis, improper sexual conduct and connecting various reformist leaders to western governments – are mentioned in the sentence.
He suggested the sentence and the wave of other sentences and arrests made on the eve of the first anniversary of the election are supposed to scare people from taking part in the demonstrations, and from reporting them.
Bahari recently headed the Our Society Will Be A Free Society campaign, with events aimed at building pressure for the release of writers and journalists in prison in Iran.
7 May 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Journalists of the TSN news programme have issued an open letter yesterday accusing the 1+1 TV station of censoring their bulletins. According to the 15 journalists who signed the letter, the “last straw” was the station’s decision to edit out footage of a fight between the opposition and ruling majority in parliament, during a broadcast on 2 May. Oleksandr Tkachenko, general director of 1+1 has denied the charges and accused the journalists of lacking “professionalism”.
7 May 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
Freelance journalist Sardasht Osman was found dead yesterday in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Osman, who was abducted on 5 May, had been tortured and shot twice. His family believe he was targeted because of a critical article he wrote about a high-ranking Klocal official. Osman’s brother, Bashdar told CPJ “In the last few months my brother received a number of phone threats, demanding that he stop meddling in government affairs”. Earlier this week, Reporters Sans Frontières accused the two parties that control the region — the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan — of creating a “tacit strategic accord” to restrict press freedom.
