International Crisis
Thai online editor found liable for third party posts
A Thailand criminal court on May 30 found an online editor guilty of violating the Computer Crimes Act (CCA) of 2007 for not deleting quickly enough from her website the comments of a third party that were deemed defamatory to the Thai monarchy.
Judge Kampol Rungrat sentenced Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster and director of the online news and commentary website Prachatai, to a year of imprisonment and a 30,000 baht (approximately USD1, 000) penalty for violating Section 15 of the CCA, which mandates website hosts to delete illegal content. But the judge reduced the sentence to eight monthsâ imprisonment and a 20,000 baht fine, because the court found merit in Chiranuch’s testimony during the trial.
The judge also suspended the sentence subject to good behavior and because she has not been convicted of any prior crime. The court’s decision affirms that website operators can be criminally liable for the content of user comments, and leaves Thai news sites vulnerable to politically motivated prosecution.
Chiranuch was prosecuted for 10 comments posted on her site allegedly insulting to the monarchy, out of the thousands posted by users during the 2008 state of emergency in Thailand.
Thailandâs lĂšse majestĂ© law deems any actions insulting to the monarchy a crime. The charges carry up to 15-year jail terms and have been much used for political purposes during the country’s protracted political conflict.
Prosecutors claimed that Chiranuch, under the country’s CCA, was personally liable for all content posted in her service.
Passed in June 2007, the CCA states that any service provider “intentionally supporting or consenting” to transmission of unlawful content within a computer system under his or her control is subject to the same penalty as the original creator.
Chiranuch had faced up to 20 years in prison, two years for each of the 10 comments, but was convicted for a single comment, which was left on the Prachatai board for 20 days. The court reduced her sentence because she had cooperated with authorities by deleting nine of the comments upon request.
The verdict is a major setback for freedom of expression in Thai sites by making webmasters liable for content posted by users of their online platforms, even if they did not consent to the posting.
Charges under both vague and arbitrary laws have surged during Thailand’s six-year-old political conflict, pitting supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against the conservative royal establishment. But civil society movements calling for the reform of both lĂšse majestĂ© laws and the Computer Crimes Act have gained momentum in recent months, says Committee to Protect Journalists research. (CPJ/ IFEX)
Three Mexican photojournalists found dead
The dismembered bodies of photojournalists Guillermo Luna, Gabriel Huge and Esteban RodrĂguez, along with Irasema Becerra, said to have been Luna’s companion, were found last May 3, 2012 in a sewage canal in the municipality of Boca del Rio, Veracruz in Mexico.
The families of Guillermo Luna and Gabriel Huge had reported them missing hours before the discovery a week after the murder of Regina MartĂnez, a journalist for Proceso magazine, also in Veracruz.
The three photojournalists had worked for years covering police issues. Huge worked at Notiver, the principal newspaper in Veracruz, but after three Notiver journalists were murdered last year, he had fled the city along with other local journalists, news reports said. News accounts reported that upon Huge’s return to Veracruz in recent months, he had worked as a freelance photographer, among other jobs.
Luna also once worked as a photographer for Notiver, but had left the paper, according to news reports. He had worked as a photographer for the website Veracruznews for the past six months, MartĂn Lara Reyna, the site’s owner, told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
RodrĂguez, who used to work as a news photographer for the local newspaper AZ, had quit after the Notiver murders last year and taken a job as a welder, local journalists and news reports said.
News accounts reported that Becerra, Luna’s girlfriend, had performed administrative duties at a local newspaper.
The murders occurred less than a week after the public commitment by the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, to ensure proper investigation into the murder of MartĂnez. The number of journalists who have now been murdered during his administration has increased to eight.
Since 2006, more than 45 journalists have been killed or disappeared in Mexico, according to CPJ research. Mexico appeared in eighth place in CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where the killers of journalists escape punishment. (CPJ/ IFEX)
Honduran journalist found dead after kidnap
A week after being kidnapped, a radio journalist was found dead in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras last May 15.
Ăngel Alfredo Villatoro, 47, was a prominent host and news coordinator at HRN, one of Honduras’s most widely listened-to radio stations. His body was found on a sidewalk dressed in the uniform of a special operations police unit and with a red handkerchief covering his face, according to news reports. The journalist had two gunshot wounds in the head. Neighbors reported hearing gunshots in the area a few hours before the body was discovered.
News of Villatoro’s murder spread quickly through the national media and dozens of journalists showed up at the morgue in a show of solidarity for their colleague and condemning his murder. The journalists’ union has called for justice in this case.
Villatoro was kidnapped on the morning of May 9. His car was found abandoned later that day in a neighborhood with known gang activity.
News report from La Tribuna said the journalist’s family had received a demand for ransom. HĂ©ctor Ivan MejĂa, spokesman for the national police, told journalists that police would continue to investigate.
On May 16, President Porfirio Lobo Sosa announced in a press conference a reward of 3 million lempiras (approx. US$157,000) for information on those responsible for Villatoro’s murder.
A suspect in the kidnapping of Villatoro was captured in the city of Danli, El Paraiso, in eastern Honduras. The suspect was arrested for sending messages to the Villatoro family negotiating the journalist’s release.
The motive for the murder is still unconfirmed. CPJ is still investigating the murder to determine whether the death was work-related.
A climate of violence and widespread impunity has made Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in the region, according to CPJ research. The government’s stance on media killings has worsened the situation. Authorities have minimized crimes against journalists and have been slow and negligent in pursuing the culprits. CPJ had documented two other attacks on journalists in the past three weeks. (CPJ/ IFEX)
Journalist murdered in Pakistan
A journalist, his brother, and a friend, were murdered by gunmen in a group of about 20 that had attacked the local office of a leading Pakistan television channel in Lalu Ranwak Village, in the country’s Qambar District, last May 11.
Aurangzeb Tunio, a TV reporter for the news bureau of the Sindhi-language Kawaish Television Network, along with Rustam Tunio, his brother, and Deedar Khaskheli, a family friend, were murdered in Aurangzeb’s office, which served as the local bureau of the broadcaster.
The attackers were angry about a story Aurangzeb had aired about a failed marriage attempt between a man from the Tunio tribal group and a woman from the rival Mughairi clan, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and local journalists. The journalists said the gunmen were members of the Mughairi tribe. There is tension between the many tribal groups in Sindh.
Police are currently investigating the murders.
“We condemn these murders and call on Pakistani authorities to move swiftly to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must send a clear message that there is no place for such violence.”
CPJ ranked Pakistan the most dangerous country for journalists in 2010 and 2011. Since 1992, at least 42 Pakistani journalists have been killed in direct relation to their work. (CPJ/ IFEX)
Two Yemeni journalists face trial
Two correspondents from Al-Jazeera were summoned last May 14 by Yemenâs Press and Publications Court to appear in court on May 21 for their coverage of the uprising in that country last year.
Ahmed al-Shalafi and Hamdi al-Bukari, Sana’a-based Al-Jazeera correspondents, were summoned to appear before the special Press and Publications Court on May 21 for “operating outside the bounds of the law,” according to news reports.
The government of former President Ali Abdullah Salehâwho stepped down in February following popular protestsâfiled a case against the two journalists in June 2011, claiming they broke the law by broadcasting news of the uprising even after the government had withdrawn Al-Jazeera’s accreditation.
Despite the Ministry of Informationâs having withdrawn the charges, the Press and Publications Court has chosen to revive the case, news reports said. A 2010 CPJ report found that the court is politicized and arbitrary and fails to accord journalists minimal legal protection. Many local lawyers describe it as unconstitutional.
Saeed Thabit, Al-Jazeera‘s Yemen bureau chief, told CPJ that the move is part of a campaign against Al-Jazeera and press freedom in Yemen. In April 2011, security forces raided and shut down Al-Jazeera‘s Sana’a offices; the government pulled the station’s accreditation; and several of its journalists faced harassment, death threats, and assault for their coverage of the uprising. Saleh had accused the station of conspiring against Yemen and using its broadcasts to topple the regime. Thabit said none of the perpetrators of the 2011 attack on Al-Jazeera have been brought to justice. (CPJ)
Journalists assaulted in Egypt
At least 18 journalists have been assaulted, injured, or arrested from May 2 to May 4 while covering clashes between protesters and uniformed military personnel in front of the defense ministry in Cairo, Egypt.
Clashes between protesters, armed thugs and uniformed military personnel began on May 2 with at least 11 people killed and hundreds injured, according to news reports.
Mohamed Raafat, reporter for the news website Masrawy, was beaten and shot with pellets by three unidentified armed men who noticed him filming them as they were assaulting protesters on May 2 in Abbasiya. Raafat was taken to the hospital and received 25 stitches in his head, he told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
On May 4, Abd al-Rahman Yousef, a photographer for the independent news site Hoqook, was taking pictures of the clashes when an unidentified man approached him with a knife and cut part of his ear off, Hoqook reported.
Ahmed Ramadan and Islam Abu al-Ezz, reporters for the independent daily Al-Badil, were arrested while covering the clashes in Abbasiya, Al-Badil reported. They were assaulted and captured by unidentified thugs and handed over to the military. The two were taken in a military vehicle to the military prosecutor’s office, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Khaled el-Balshy, posted on his Twitter account.
Meanwhile, a crew of seven cameramen and correspondents of broadcast station Misr25 — Ahmed Lotfy, Hassan Khodry, Ahmed Fadl, Musaab Hamid, Ahmed Abd al-Alim, Mohamed Rabie, and Mohamed Amin — were arrested on May 4 while covering the clashes, Misr25 reported. Abd al-Alim told Misr25 that he and about 70 other people being transported in a vehicle by security forces were viciously beaten.
Virgine Nyugen, a Belgian photojournalist for the English-language daily Egypt Independent, was injured in the face while covering clashes in Abbasiya, and was taken to Ain Shams hospital for treatment, according to news reports. Military forces arrested her in the hospital and took her to a state security office, multiple local journalists reported from their Twitter accounts. She was questioned briefly and released three hours later, according to the same sources.
Mohamed al-Shami, a journalist from the Arabic-language sister publication Al-Masry Al-Youm, was also arrested, Abeer Saadi, an Egyptian Journalists Syndicate board member, told Al-Badil.
Abd al-Rahman Musharaf, a reporter for Egypt’s newest daily, Al-Watan, was arrested and beaten by military police while covering the clashes in Abbasiya and remains in custody, Al-Watan reported. Three other Al-Watan journalists covering the clashes — Mohamed Kamel, Ahmed Abdu, and Ahmed Bahnasi — were rushed to the hospital suffering the effects of tear gas, the newspaper reported. Mohamed Amr, a photographer for the daily, was hit by stones thrown by unidentified assailants while taking pictures on May 3, the newspaper said. Amr received three stitches for his injury.
The assaults and arrests in Egypt marked the worst surge in attacks on the press since CPJ documented a spike in attacks in February against journalists in Cairo and Suez. In December and November alone, CPJ documented 50 anti-press attacks during clashes between protesters and security forces in Egypt. (CPJ)
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