On 11 April, Mauricio Medina Moreno, director and founding member of the indigenous community radio CRIT 98.0 FM Estéreo, was murdered in his home in the town of Ortega. Medina, 50, died of multiple knife wounds. Although police described the murder as a ‘crime of passion’, some organisations said that this label is often applied in order to avoid investigating links to a journalist’s work. (RSF)
On 12 April, a court dropped all the charges against the former commissioners of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), accused of the closure of two media during the political crisis of 2009. The Human Rights special prosecutor had accused them of the crime of abuse of authority, for ordering the closing of Channel 36 and Radio Globo, in the context of the political crisis created after the coup d’état against Manuel Zelaya.
Two journalists in Tunisia have been targets of harassment and violence this month by unknown assailants. Mouldi Zouabi, a journalist for Radio Kalima, was anonymously attacked and had his wallet and press credentials stolen from him outside of a police station in Jendouba on 1 April. Moez Jemai, an independent blogger and a correspondent for Kalima, has recently received threats on his phone at work. In January, Jemai was arbaitrarily arrested, detained for eight hours and had his equiptment confiscated by the police.
After immense pressure from the right-wing on Sunday, the Israeli bookstore chain Tzomet Sfarim has stopped selling a leftist political manifesto heavily critical of the settler movement. In The National Left, the authors call settlers “messianic madmen” and brainwashed “zombies”. The company claims they pulled the book not for political reasons, but because it “hurts the feelings of some of our customers”.
Meanwhile cameraman and AFP correspondent Hazem Bader was arrested by Israeli forces in Hebron after he refused to stop filming a protest. Fifteen protesters were also arrested for not leaving the closed military area. Bader was detained for three hours then released after AFP intervened.
