Crisis: International
Nepal cracks down on journalists
More Nepalese journalists are being jailed for participating in the country’s struggle for press freedom.
According to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), more than 200 Nepalese journalists have been detained since April 4, 2006. Thirty-one journalists remain under arrest as of April 18. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the immediate release of those still detained.
According to CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, the continued detention of the journalists “is a harsh reminder that the present regime regards a free press as a threat to its legitimacy.”
On April 14, 13 journalists were arrested in the district of Baglung, west of Kathmandu, as they exchanged greetings in celebration of the Nepalese New Year. Nepalese police gave no grounds for the arrests and released the journalists two hours after.
In the town of Hetauda in the central region, security personnel forcibly took journalist Dipak Adhikari inside his residence. Journalist Girija Adhikari was also manhandled by security personnel who accused him of informing the FNJ regarding Dipak’s arrest.
As anti-government rallies suffuse the country, the United Nations and other countries have called on the Nepalese government to use restraint in confronting protesters. As of April, no less than five protesters have been shot to death by security forces. A number of journalists have also been injured during the dispersal of the street demonstrations.
Chinese president, Microsoft head asked to discuss censorship
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has asked Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to raise the issues of Internet censorship and the suppression of cyber dissidents during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States.
In an open letter to Gates, RSF disapproved of Microsoft’s expurgation of the Chinese version of MSN Spaces, a blog tool usually used by democracy advocates. The lack of the blogging tool auto-matically rejects search strings such as “June 4,” the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and “human rights in China.”
Microsoft faced controversy in China last December when it succumbed to political pressure and discontinued the blog of Michael Anti, a popular Chinese blogger.
RSF urged Gates to consider the need for Internet sector companies to reflect on the consequences of their business activities in politically sensitive countries such as China.
Missing Pakistani reporter believed to be in US custody
A Pakistani journalist seized by unidentified gunmen last Dec. 5 is believed to be in the custody of the United States.
Hayatullah Khan, a reporter for the Urdu-language Ausaf and the European Pressphoto Agency, was forcibly taken from his vehicle by five unspecified gunmen in the tribal region of North Waziristan on the Afghanistan border.
Four days before his kidnap, Khan covered an explosion incident in the town of Haisori, North Waziristan. His report challenged official Pakistani statements on the killing of an al-Qaeda commander by the US military.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has appealed to United States and Pakistani authorities to reveal information on Khan’s abduction.
Khan’s family claims to have been told by sources from the Pakistani government that Haya-tullah is in US custody. Ihsanullah Khan, Hayatullah’s younger brother, told CPJ that a Pakistani military colonel revealed that his brother was taken from Rawalpindi to Kohat before being turned over to the Americans.
The Pakistani Army headquar-ters is located at Rawalpindi, which is near the capital of Islamabad; while Kohat is the site of an infamous air base.
The Pentagon and Federal Bureau of Investigation denied any involvement on Khan’s abduction. The US consulate in Peshawar and the Central Intelligence Agency have both declined to comment on the matter.
CBS cameraman acquitted after one year in jail
An Iraqi criminal court has acquitted a CBS cameraman who was being held for one year under US custody in Iraq.
Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, an Iraqi cameraman for CBS News, was released on April 7 after justice officials in Mosul in northern Iraq cited lack of evidence in the charges against him.
Hussein, detained since April 5, 2005, was charged for allegedly collaborating with Iraqi rebels during a ceremony that he was filming at Mosul University, northwest of Baghdad. CBS reported that the US military suspected him of recruiting for the insurgents because of videotape footages obtained from his camera.
The New York Times reported last year that the US military has referred Hussein’s case to Iraqi justice officials who declined to prosecute until the recent trial. Charges against Hussein were never publicized prior to the trial.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Hussein was the last remaining journalist under US custody in Iraq.
Burmese journalists sentenced to 3 years
Two Burmese journalists, Ko Thar Cho and Ko Moe Htun, were given three-year sentences on March 30 for taking photographs of the country’s new capital.
Cho and Htun were apprehended and arrested by security officials while driving and taking pictures of Burma’s new capital, Pyinmana, on March 23.
Officials ruled that the journalists violated the country’s Television and Video Act, which prohibits the distribution of film material without official approval.
The journalists have appealed, saying that they were not taking pictures of restricted areas. They are still being held in prison.
Arab journalist jailed
Arab journalist Rabah Al-Ouwai’ was detained in Hail, a city north of Riyadh, after being summoned by security officials last April 7 for writings that questioned religious doctrines.
Al-Ouwai’, who wrote for Saudi dailies Okar and Shams and for websites Dar Al-Nadwa and Gasd Al-Thiqafa, criticized strict religious interpretations of hard-line Islamists.
Saudi news websites report that the journalist received threats in November when assailants smashed his car and left a note that read, “First time, your car; next time, you. Go back to your religion and leave these fictions behind. This is the last warning.”
2 Gambian editors imprisoned
Madi Ceesay and Musa Saidykhan, editor in chief and managing editor respectively of Gambian newspaper The Independent were detained March 28 for still unknown reasons.
The two have not been taken to court despite Gambian law requiring the appearance of detainees within three days of arrest. According to Reporters Without Borders, they are still being held at the National Intelligence Agency.
Police have barred family and friends from visiting the journalists.
The Media Foundation for West Africa believes that the Gambian journalists’ arrest was part of President Jammeh’s plan “to silence and weaken any sources of possible opposition or critical expression so as to handle the election in his own way for his own purposes.”
Threats force TV anchor to leave Peru
Peruvian journalist MarilĂş Gambini Lostanau was forced to leave the country on April 5 after being attacked and receiving constant threats regarding her investigation on drug trafficking in Chimbote, northwestern Peru.
Lostanau told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that she was forced to leave Peru after being threatened April 2 in the street by an unknown woman and having her dog killed by unknown persons the same night.
Earlier, the journalist, who was host of the weekly program Confidencial on Canal 31 television in Peru, received a phone call from a woman on March 28 threatening her children and telling her to stop her commentaries within a week. Two strangers assaulted Lostanau in her home the same day, and stole or destroyed documents regarding her drug-trafficking investigation.
The next day, another woman threatened Lostanau’s older daughter and granddaughter in a marketplace in Chimbote. The journalist has also received daily phone calls counting down the days she had left to live.
On April 2, Lostanau left Chimbote for the country’s capital of Lima to report the threats to security officials. CPJ said the journalist eventually left the country after officials failed to assure her that an investigation would be conducted.
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