22 Aug 2011 | Index Index, minipost
A journalist with newspaper El Mío, was beaten and then detained as he left the newspapers premises in Anzoátegui, northeastern Venezuela. Óscar Tarazona was getting into a car when he spotted the police officers, Tarazona claims he walked over, identified himself as a journalist, and officers proceeded to beat him, handcuff him and take him to a police station. The initial attack was caught on video. Tarazona was released and subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office. The state’s chief of police, Francisco Ortiz, said that he stood behind the officers.
22 Aug 2011 | Index Index, minipost
In addition to last week’s suspension of Zhao Lingmin, editor of Guangzhou-based news and current affairs magazine Window on the South, the magazine’s president, Chen Zhong, has been removed from his post, though not dismissed. The changes have been linked to Zhao’s 25 July interview with Taiwanese historian Tang Chi-hua, in which Tang had criticised Sun Yat-sen, an early 20th-century political leader referred to as the “Father of the Nation.”
22 Aug 2011 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Radio Gafsa, a radio station located in the southern Tunisian city of Gafsa, was attacked by a group of 20 men on 2 August. They reportedly ransacked the premises and terrified employees.
19 Aug 2011 | Index Index, minipost
In what has been seen to signal a further softening of the military government’s stance, three Burmese state newspapers on Wednesday dropped half-page slogans accusing the BBC and the Voice of America (VOA) of “sowing hatred among the people”. The slogans have been a fixture in official newspapers since a bloody army crackdown on monk-led protests in August 2007.
