24 Sep 2010 | Americas, Mexico
Mexico continues to be an important destination for press freedom organisations. The Inter American Press Association and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists visited Mexico this week to promote legal changes on the prosecution of crimes against journalists, and a protection plan for journalists under threat, similar to the one implemented in Colombia in early 2000. Under current law, murder cases are presided over by provincial authorities, and international groups have been pushing for crimes against journalists to be brought under the federal government´s control. President Felipe Calderon told both groups he will put in place a government sanctioned plan to protect journalists, which will include early warning alerts, extension of the statute of limitations for crimes against journalists, a programme to transfer threatened journalists to other residences, police protection for threatened reporters, and establishment of a government-media group that would identify motives behind attacks on the press.
IAPA, meanwhile, gave a vote of confidence to Calderón’s protection plan, but warned about a lack of resources for putting the plan into action.”There aren’t necessary resources to cover the magnitude of the problem,” the IAPA Vice President, Gonzalo Marroquín.
The group held a public meeting at Casa Lamm, a grand old house located in the Colonia Roma of Mexico City, where editors from Ciudad Juarez, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Tijuana and Zacatecas told the meeting that they practiced self censorship. Some of the editors were told the group that they would not accept government protection. “How can we ask the government to protect us if they cant protect themselves” Ismael Bojorquez, editor of Rio Doce, Sinaloa asked rethorically .”They can’t protect themselves,” he added, mentioning that a number of state government officials have been killed in Sinaloa.
The debate over protection measures for journalists in Mexico will continue, especially because journalists in the provincial cities, called states in Mexico, need to understand how these measures will work.
6 Aug 2010 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost
The Azerbaijan Press Council have published a blacklist of 77 newspapers. They accuse the newspapers of racketeering and publishing articles affecting people’s honour. The blacklist, which is available online, lists the founder and editor-in-chief of each publication. Last year, a similar list in the Eurasian state blacklisted 95 publications.
2 Aug 2010 | Index Index, minipost, News
Three opposition radio and television stations were silenced for 48 hours on 26 July without a reason by a commando unit of five men in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The signals of Canal Congo Télévision (CCTV), Canal Kin Télévision (CKTV) and Radio Liberté Kinshasa (RALIK) were cut off. However no equipment was damaged or taken.
30 Jul 2010 | Uncategorized
Last week’s news that Hugo Chávez has once again broken ties with Colombia was hardly a shock.
The break follows Colombia providing an Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting in Washington with video, audio and photographic evidence that Venezuela is harbouring members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, went further alleging that the paramiltaries “eat fried pork and get fat in order to rest before launching attacks in Colombia”. Chavez denies the charges and certainly has his defenders, one being Oliver Stone, whose new film “South of the Border” has been criticised as a hagiography of South America’s Bolivarian leaders.
Another high profile fan is Diego Maradona, who was inexplicably present at the press conference where Chávez broke ties with Colombia.
The arrest of three Colombian journalists on 16 July in the Venezuelan town of El Nula seemed to many to be just another example of Latin America’s turbulent relationship with the media. Delve a little deeper, however, and there is much more to the story. The three Colombians were in El Nula on a tip off that the head of the ELN was in town. Whats more, having been detained for not having visa documentation (which they did not need under a border agreement between the two countries), they were released two days later, minus an audio tape and accusing their captors of ill treatment. All this in the same week that Venezuela was busy denying that there are terrorist camps in the country.
The story confirms that freedom of expression in Venezuela is under threat. Colombia, rated by Freedom House as only partly free and with a history of violence against journalists, is hardly without problems itself.
The Chávez government recently took control of 45.8 per cent of the staunchly anti-Chávez media broadcaster Globovision. The president of Globovision, Guillermo Zuloaga, won the 2010 Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Grand Prize for Press Freedom but has lived in exile in Florida since a warrant was issued for his arrest in June over financial irregularities.
Chávez is still undoubtedly loved by many; he survived a 2002 coup attempt after the public mobilised in his defence, despite misleading television reports accusing Chávez protestors of inciting violence. So why does he feel the need to clamp down on the press?
