1 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Two journalists detained on 19 and 21 June are suspected by police to have planned terrorists acts in Ethiopia. The police chief accused Woubishet Taye, from Awramba Times, and Reyot Alemu, from the Feteh newspaper, of recruiting others to undertake terrorism activities, with the support from Eritrea, and said the group will be charged upon completion of investigations. Amnesty international reported that Ethiopia has often used such charges to silence dissenters and the Committee to Protect Journalists has called for their release.
1 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Authorities arrested Faysal Mohamed, a reporter for Hiraan Online, on Wednesday morning (29 June) in the semi-autonomous republic of Puntland in northern Somalia. Police told journalists that Mohamed was arrested for a “false news report” on Hiiraan Online. Fellow colleagues said they suspected the article in question was one published three days before the arrest, which hypothesised that two bodies recently discovered on a roadside were those of security personnel.
1 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho told Mexican authorities on Thursday (30 June) that she has received anonymous death threats via phone and e-mail for revealing the names of sex traffickers. Authorities claim they have leads on the source of the threats. Cacho is one of many journalists who have been intimidated or even killed by crime rings for their reporting in Mexico.
1 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Belarusian police have grabbed and beaten over a dozen reporters, broken their equipment, and detained another 150 protestors at a political rally in Minsk and Brest on Wednesday. Over a thousand people assembled to protest the repressive policies of President Alexander Lukashenko by clapping every two to three minutes to avoid arrest. The protest was strictly ‘silent’ and no one shouted or held signs. At a similar protest last week, 450 were detained.
