5 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
In what is reportedly the first time that a Philippine Supreme Court justice has filed a libel case against anyone including a journalist, reporter Marites Danguilan Vitug was forced to post P10,000 (145 GBP) bail on Friday on charges that she had defamed Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco in a recent book. In the book, Shadow of Doubt, Vitug quoted residents of the Marinduque constituency as saying the Supreme Court justice was active in inviting two local officials to run with his son as councillor and promising to underwrite campaign expenses.
2 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
The bodies of Marcela Yarce, the founder of a political magazine, and Rocio González, a freelance journalist, have been discovered by joggers in El Mirador park in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. The women’s necks showed strangulation marks and their hands were tied behind their backs, said a spokesman for Mexico City police. Authorities gave no motive for the killings. Yarce founded Contralinea magazine, and González was a freelancer and former reporter for the Televisa television network.
1 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Fidèle Gakire, publisher of bimonthly newspaper Ishema decided to suspend the publication for one month on 28 August because of serious threats received after printing an opinion piece calling Rwandan president Paul Kagame a “sociopath”. While Gakire apologised to the High Media Council, the comment was deemed to be libellous, and he was handed a six-month suspension from the Forum of Private Newspapers. The editor of the paper, Didas Niyifasha, resigned after the incident.
1 Sep 2011 | Index Index, minipost
The editor of satirical Venezuelan weekly newspaper 6to Poder has turned himself in to police on Tuesday while under investigation over a front-page photomontage that angered allies of President Hugo Chávez. Authorities had sought Leocenis García while investigating him on charges of insulting public officials and instigating hatred. The publication and circulation of the magazine were briefly prohibited after it published a cover with six Venezuelan government officials portrayed as cabaret dancers on 21 August. García insists he is innocent.
