8 Jun 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
The headquarters of Venezuelan newspaper Versión Final, in the city of Maracaibo, was shot at nine times on 3 June, making the attack the third of its kind against a media outlet in the northeastern state of Zulia. On 28 May, the headquarters of newspaper Qué Pasa was attacked by a grenade that damaged the front side of the building, although there were no casualties. The following day, the public television station in Catatumbo suffered an armed attack.
8 Jun 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A constitutional amendment was given final approval in Mexico yesterday [7 June] making attacks on the press a federal offence in Mexico. The amendment, passed by 16 state legislatures, allows federal authorities to investigate and punish crimes against journalists, persons or installations when the right to information or the right to expression is affected. Press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists heralded the “landmark legislation”, with the groups’s senior programme coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauría, deeming it a “first step to stop impunity in the killings of Mexican journalists.”
7 Jun 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Chinese dissident Li Wangyang, who was jailed for over 22 years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was found dead in a hospital ward in Shaoyang city, Hunan province, on Wednesday. Family members found the dissident, 62, apparently hanged by a bandage around his neck in his hospital room. Security and hospital authorities have said he had committed suicide but his family has said Li died in strange circumstances. Police are also reported to have removed his body without the family’s permission.
7 Jun 2012 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
A Yemeni court on Monday sentenced journalist Majed Karoot to one year in prison and fined him YR 200,000 for criticising local government officials on the popular social networking site Facebook. The director of corporate communications for the Al-Baida governorate, Mohammed Al-Karfoshi and his deputy, Kamal Al-Najar filed the complaint against posts made by the journalist on the site last year. The Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate (YJS) called the verdict a “threat to freedom of the press and freedom of expression”.
