Dominican police have identified the individuals they believe plotted and carried out the 2 August 2011 abduction and murder of journalist José Agustín Silvestre de los Santos, saying the motive was an article by the reporter linking the alleged mastermind to criminal activities.
A rights activist in central Uzbekistan says she was detained on 15 August for an article in which she criticised the government requirement that citizens use state-issued bank cards for cash withdrawals or purchases. Saida Kurbanova told RFE/RL she was summoned to the Pakhtakor district police station in Jizzakh Province where she was “dragged up the stairs” by officers. She was released after several hours. Kurbanova added that police told her she is being sued for libel over the article she wrote and posted online in March about the difficulties faced by people using the state-issued cards.
Marina Silva, a photojournalist for Brazilian newspaper Correio, was arrested on 11 August while covering the killing of a military police sergeant in the northeastern city of Salvador de Bahía. The military police claimed that Silva challenged the police officers, while reports say that Silva and other witnesses deny the allegation. The Bahian Journalists’ Union accused the police of brutality, claiming in a statement that officers broke Silva’s arm, pushed her against a vehicle and tried to break her camera. The Secretary of Public Security in Bahía said the case is under investigation and promised to determine if the police used excessive force in the journalist’s arrest.
Venezuelan reporter Carlos Sánchez was threatened with a pistol when he left the offices of Radio Fe y Alegría in the city of Maracaibo on 1 August. The unknown gunmen beat and robbed Sánchez, and then drove him around the city for an hour before releasing him. In a separate case in the country, a programme on radio station Primerísima 98.5 FM, Magazine Informativo, was last month cancelled just fifteen days after its first broadcast due to political pressure. Presenter and journalist Henry Viola said the station’s director informed him the show would be cut “following orders from above”.