23 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Sri Lankan journalists have been dubbed “traitors” by state television, following the adoption of a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into the country’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists. After the passing of the motion on Wednesday, state television said journalists in support of it were helping the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels and “betraying the motherland.” The broadcaster added that, although the journalists who took part in Council sessions were not named, Sri Lankan state television “repeatedly zooms in on thinly disguised photographs of them, promising to give their names soon and ‘expose more traitors.'”
23 Mar 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused the press of “media terrorism” during a Ministers Council meeting this week, following reports on contamination of drinking water in the central region of the country. Chavez attributed the stories to an attempt to damage his image in an electoral year.
After speaking with Chavez, Venezuela’s attorney general Luisa Ortega announced on Wednesday that she would ask the courts to order the media to publish a technical report supporting the information published about water contamination. The prosecutor’s office also opened a criminal investigation into the news outlets that published the stories.
22 Mar 2012 | Africa, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
A Zimbabwe court on Monday fined six activists 500 USD (315 GBP) each and ordered them to carry out 420 hours of community service for conspiring to commit public violence during a meeting at which they watched video footage of Egyptian mass uprisings. Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini ordered former opposition politician Munyaradzi Gwisai and five others to do community service or face a year in jail. He said that, although watching a video was not a crime, the “manner and motive” of the meeting showed bad intent, ruling that showing the footage that included “nasty scenarios” was intended to arouse hostility towards Zimbabwe’s government.
22 Mar 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
Soldiers in Mali stormed the state TV and radio station in central Bamako yesterday, announcing they had seized control of the country hours after attacking the presidential palace. In a video clip circulating online, spokesman for the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), Captian Amadou Haya Sanogo, announced an immediate curfew, the suspension of the constitution and dissolving of democratic institutions. The soldiers have claimed the government is not giving them enough arms to tackle a northern rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists, in a conflict that has seen 195,000 people displaced since mid-January.
