6 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
A web editor was jailed for 10 days for reposting an unconfirmed report that two local officials had been caught with prostitutes in China. Shang Laicheng, an editor at Tiantian Xin news forum was arrested on 17 February as he left work, and his family were informed he had been formally detained for spreading misinformation. The Foshan Procuratorate office said that the information in the post, suggesting two local prosecutors were caught using prostitutes at a sauna, was fabricated and had damaged the reputations of authorities. The original author of the post remains unclear.
6 Mar 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
A Somalian journalist has been shot dead by gunmen. Ali Ahmed Abdi who worked for a Somali news website was shot in the head several times by masked men as he walked home on Sunday evening in the northern town of Galkayo. Until recently, Abdi had been working for the privately owned Galkayo Radio. Abdi is the third Somalian journalist to be killed this year. On Saturday, a media director in Puntland was arrested and detained following the closure of radio station Radio Voice of Peace. Officials did not give motive for Ali’s arrest, nor the shutting down of the radio station.
5 Mar 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Ten Indian journalists were attacked by a group of lawyers outside a court in Bangalore last week. On 2 March, following the high-profile case of a former minister accused of illegal mining, the lawyers attacked journalists, most of whom were TV camera operators, with stones, iron chairs, and flowerpots. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Some reports said the lawyers were angered by “one-sided” coverage of a protest in January, while other news reports said the dispute occurred after the lawyers were angered by television crews blocking the entrance to the courts.
5 Mar 2012 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Two British journalists have been accused of spying in Libya by a militia group who arrested them last month. Gareth Montgomery-Johnson, 36, and Nicholas Davies, 37, from Iran’s state-owned Press TV were arrested by the militia group in Tripoli on 23 February. In a late-night press conference, Dr Suleiman Fortia, a Misratan member of Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council showed what he said was suspicious material found on the two men, including a field dressing, photographs and a photocopy of an Iranian residence permit. Fortia added that the group had governmental authority to hold the men because they represented the “February 17 Revolution”.
