3 Apr 2012 | Index Index, minipost
The publisher of a Latvian news website was attacked last week. Leonids Jakobsons, owner of the independent news website Kompromat was attacked by at least two unidentified assailants, after the site published sensitive news stories. The publisher was attacked with a knife in the stairwell of his apartment building in Latvia’s capital Riga. He was admitted to hospital with bruises on his head and a 3 inch long cut to his cheek. Kompromat has reportedly published information on sensitive issues, including a probe into the attempted murder of a former customs official, and alleged connections between Latvia and the communities of Chechen people who live outside of Chechnya.
3 Apr 2012 | Index Index, minipost
A Syrian citizen journalist who has been detained by authorities since Wednesday has reportedly been tortured during his arrest. Ali Mahmoud Othman, who ran the media centre in Baba Amr where Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed, was arrested and initially detained at a military intelligence unit in Aleppo. Over the weekend, he was transferred to Damascus. Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy told Channel 4 news that Othman had been tortured during his detention. The continuing campaign against local and international press in Syria is believed to be an attempt to “systematically dismantle” the anti-regime “citizen journalist network”.
3 Apr 2012 | Index Index, minipost
A citizen journalist who was shot during a peaceful protest in Bahrain has died in hospital. Ahmed Ismael Hassan al-Samadi was shot in the thigh whilst filming tear-gas being fired on protesters near Bahrain’s capital. It is believed al-Samadi was targeted for having a video camera, by armed men who were accompanying security forces. Violence has intensified in Bahrain in the run up to the Grand Prix, which will take place later this month.
1 Apr 2012 | Americas, Mexico
Wiretapping has become so fashionable in Mexico that it could pose a problem for freedom of expression. The latest victim of this type of espionage was presidential candidate Josefina Vasquez Mota, of the ruling National Political Action Party (PAN). A telephone conversation in which Mota is heard complaining that National Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna spends more time spying on her than on fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin Chapo Guzman was released publically and made available on video sharing site YouTube.
Many of the wiretaps released in Mexico in the past have involved politicians or aspiring candidates during electoral periods. But in a country at war with organised crime, and where the number of journalists killed because of what they write or know is among the highest in the world, it is worrisome that nobody is alarmed by this eavesdropping fashionista streak.
Access to eavesdropping equipment in Mexico is easily done. US and Mexican authorities use eavesdropping to get access to information on organised crime cases, which is of concern as many times these wiretaps are carried out with information that might not be totally correct. However, both US and Mexican authorities say the practice is important and useful as it has helped them nab high-level organised crime figures.
What worries journalists and other freedom of expression advocates, however is how is organised crime and corrupt government officials use wiretaps to curb a free press.
