5 Sep 2011 | Americas, Mexico
Free expression and press freedom in Mexico have again taken several hits in recent days. Last week, two Twitter users were sent to jail in Veracruz, the southern state which has seen a rise in drug-related violence thanks to the Zetas Cartel and its confrontations with anti-drug units of the Mexican Navy.
Gilberto Martínez Vera and María de Jesús Bravo Pagola were sentenced to jail for having tweeted warnings about impending drug gang violence around several public schools. Tweeps using the hashtag #verfollow continue to complain about the jail terms and attacks against freedom of expression.
On the same day, the congress of the southeastern state of Tabasco approved a law punishing those who disseminate false alarms via phone calls or social networks. The crime carries a possible sentence of up to six years in prison.
The nerves of Mexican journalists have also been frazzled by the murder last week of two female journalists, Ana María Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocío González Trápaga, who were found strangled in a park in Mexico City. Until now, violence against the press in Mexico has spared the capital, Yarce Viveros worked for Contralinea, an online investigative journalism site, and Gonzalez Trapaga, who worked for Televisa a one point, was at the time an owner of a currency exchange centre at Mexico City’s international airport. Investigators have suggested the motive for their murders was not journalism related.
5 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Two outspoken Beijing newspapers, the Beijing Times and the Beijing News, have been brought under the direct authority of the Beijing Propaganda Department. Previously, the papers were overseen by state-level propaganda authorities. Some reporters claim the move, which was announced to newspaper staff on Friday, is part of a wider struggle over control of the media in China. There is also the fear that the move may restrict reporters’ abilities to cover events in the Chinese capital and sensitive news from other areas.
5 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) overturned a January decision to pull a 1985 song by the popular Dire Straits. The song, “Money for nothing”, was pulled from airwaves after complaints over the lyrics, which use the word “faggot”. The council reversed the decision after considering the meaning of the lyrics, which were meant to be satirical.
5 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
In what is reportedly the first time that a Philippine Supreme Court justice has filed a libel case against anyone including a journalist, reporter Marites Danguilan Vitug was forced to post P10,000 (145 GBP) bail on Friday on charges that she had defamed Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco in a recent book. In the book, Shadow of Doubt, Vitug quoted residents of the Marinduque constituency as saying the Supreme Court justice was active in inviting two local officials to run with his son as councillor and promising to underwrite campaign expenses.
