26 Oct 2010 | Index Index, minipost
A radio commentator renowned for his popular satirical broadcasts was stabbed in Luanda last Friday. António Manuel Manuel Da Silva is a government critic and his Friday broadcast attacked the Angolan president’s failure to address crime and corruption. The stabbing occurred after Da Silva’s assailant confronted him about his programme. Alexandre Neto, his station’s director, claims Da Silva had recently received two death threats. Since September two other Angolan journalists have been attacked, one fatally, for criticising the government.
26 Oct 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Juan Williams, a senior news analyst at National Public Radio (NPR), has had his contract terminated following comments he made on Fox News. Last Monday (October 18), Williams told Bill O’Reilly that aeroplane passengers “in Muslim garb” made him nervous. He also made remarks about the Pakistani immigrant who attempted to plant a car bomb in Times Square. Whilst Republicans have accused NPR of censorship, an NPR statement said Williams’ remarks were “inconsistent with their editorial standards”. In September, CNN sacked anchor Rick Sanchez after he suggested that everybody who ran the network was Jewish.
26 Oct 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Guillermo Farinas has won the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award. Farinas has spent much of the last 15 years in jail and has gone on hunger strike more than 20 times. His most recent hunger strike ended in July when the government agreed to release 52 political prisoners. At the same time as the EU bestowed the accolade, Cuba authorised the release of a further five prisoners, who were not among the originally specified 52. The released men are due to be transferred to Spain. 39 have already been released, but 13 have refused the deal and remain behind bars.
26 Oct 2010 | Index Index, minipost
A political blogger was arrested on Monday. Phan Thanh Hai, who blogs as Saigon Brother Three, was taken from his home in Ho Chi Minh after a police raid. His wife says that he has been detained for the “publication of false information”. Another blogger, Nguyen Van Hai, who had reached the end of his two and a half year prison sentence for tax evasion, has been hit with new charges. He is now accused of campaigning against the one-party communist state.
