27 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Three journalists were killed in two separate incidents on Saturday. Nathan S Dabak and Sunday Gyang Bwede from the Light Bearer, owned by the Church of Christ in Nigeria, were stabbed to death by Muslim rioters in the town of Jos. The town has been the centre of inter-religious violence, which has killed an estimated 1,500 people this year. In a separate incident, Edo Ugbagwu, a court reporter for the Nation, was shot dead at his home in Laos by two gunmen. It is unclear whether his killing was related to his journalism.
21 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Journalists were assaulted by police officers while covering protests in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan on 17 and 20 April. On Saturday, media employees were obstructed from reporting clashes between security forces and students following a ministry of education’s decision to change schools grading system. Soran Ahmed, reporter for the independent biweekly Hawlati, who told CPJ: “They beat me, seized my camera and my phone, handcuffed me and forced me into a police van.” On Tuesday, journalists were again prevented from covering protests in front of the General Directorate of Education.
20 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for all presidential candidates standing in the Filipino general election in May to make pledges protecting journalists and to overturn the “country’s culture of impunity”. This move comes after the government dropped the murder charges against Zaldy and Akmad Ampatuan on Saturday, who were linked to the Maguindanao massacre in November 2009. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has today named the Philippines as one of the 12 countries on its 2010 Impunity Index.
20 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The investigation into alleged police involvement in the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is to be reopened. Dink was the editor of Agos, a bilingual newspaper which challenged the official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which holds that hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished because of hunger and suffering in World War One. He was murdered in 2007 by Ogün Samast. During the trial, concerns were raised over photos which showed Samast posing with Istanbul police officers. In October 2008, the officers were acquitted. At the time the court claimed that it could no “solid and convincing evidence” to convict them. The Provincial Administration Board has now decided that the investigation can take into consideration evidence relating to four police officers, former Police Chief İbrahim Pala, Chief Inspectors Volkan Altınbulak and İbrahim Şevki Eldivan and police officers Bahadır Tekin and Özcan Özkan, although four other officers involved in the case will not be investigated.
