The Aroyo governments drops the pretence it is capable of prosecuting its political allies implicated in the slaughter of reporters. The only hope for the victim’s family is that the upcoming elections will deliver change argues Harry Roque
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The dissident human rights lawyer — missing for over a year until he resurfaced last month — has been reported missing again by his family. In early April, Gao gave a series of interviews to the western media publicly renouncing activism. He boarded the Beijing-bound flight from Urumqi on 20 April but his whereabouts are now unknown. Critics speculate that his reappearance was “a ploy to try to demonstrate to the outside world that he had not been mistreated”.
President Mahinda Rajapaska has pardoned a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of supporting terrorism. Tyssainayagam, then editor of North-Eastern Monthly magazine, was first arrested in March 2008. He was accused of conspiring to cause ethnic violence through his articles. The Tamil journalist, who wrote about the effects of the separatist conflict on the ethnic Tamil minority, was convicted in August 2009. The government’s pardon announcement was timed to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
Elton John was banned from playing a private show on 18 May after the head of Egypt’s musician union denounced his “anti-religious sentiments”. Union head Mounir al Wasimi said John should not be allowed to perform in Egypt because he is “a homosexual who wants to ban religions, claimed that the prophet Issa (Jesus) was gay and calls for Middle Eastern countries to allow gays to have sexual freedom…”.