Crisis: International
Another journalist goes missing in Karachi
SAREED SARBAZI, 65, who works for the privately-owned English language Business Recorder, the only business daily in Karachi, Southern Pakistan, has not been seen since he left home on the morning of Sept. 20.
Sarbazi went missing after leaving home by car for the Karachi Press Club, of which he is the deputy secretary. His family has not received any word of him since then.
Sindh province Interior Minister Rauf Siddiqui told in Karachi that he would look into the case and would ask the police and secret services about it.
Two weeks ago, Sarbazi told a friend he was being “followed by the intelligence services.”
Mazhar Abbas, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists secretary-general, nonetheless said nothing was certain and the circumstances of Sarbazi’s disappearance remain unclear.
Mehruddin Marri, of the Sindhi-language daily Kawish, has also been reported missing since June 27. The intelligence services were also suspected of kidnapping him at the time of his disappearance in the Sindh province.
Four other journalists have been kidnapped in Pakistan since last December. Hayatullah Khan was found dead six months after he was abducted. Mukesh Rupeta and Sanjay Kumer were held illegally by the Pakistani intelligence services for more than three months. Munir Mengal has been missing since April 7.—RSF/IFEX
Blogger spends 18 months in jail
BLOGGER MOJTABA Saminejad, who was serving a combined sentence of two years and 10 months, got an early release last Sept. 12 in Iran. He spent 18 months in jail for a few messages posted on his blog.
Saminejad was first arrested on Nov. 1 last year for criticizing the arrest of three fellow bloggers online. While being held, his blog’s address was diverted to the website of a group of hackers linked to the Iranian radical Islamist movement, Hezbollah (http://irongroup. blogspot.com). After leaving prison on Jan. 27, he resumed his blog using a new address (http://8mdr8.blogspot.com ), which led to his re-arrest a few days later.
However, Arash Sigarchi, another blogger, is still in jail. Sigarchi, a former editor of the daily Gylan Emroz, was initially sentenced on March 23 to two years in prison for “insulting the Supreme Guide.” At a second trial, he was given an additional 10-month sentence for “publishing false information with the aim of unsettling public opinion” and “immoral” behavior. He was held in Gohar Dashat prison, in a suburb of Tehran, which is notorious for mistreating its inmates.
Sigarchi was first held for two months at the start of 2005. He was sent back to prison on Jan. 26, four days after being given a three-year sentence. He says he has not been mistreated in prison.—RSF/IFEX
4 journalists freed, no charges filed
FOUR JOURNALISTS who have been under arrest since Sept. 15 were released on Sept. 18 and 19, after being interrogated by the state prosecutor in Benin, a country in Western Africa.
Virgile Linkpon and Fulric Richard Couao-Zotti, publication director and managing editor of the private daily La Diaspora de Sabbat, both arrested on Sept. 15, were released on the evening of Sept. 18. Judicaël Adikpeto, from the same newspaper, was arrested on Sept. 18, and then released after one day of detention. No charges were filed against any of the journalists.
They were interrogated as a result of a Sept. 14 article which stated that the eldest son of the head of state was “insane.” La Diaspora de Sabbat is a new, sporadically published newspaper, known for its sensational stories.
Meanwhile, Cyrille SaĂŻzonou, publication director of the daily newspaper Djakpata, was arrested on Sept. 18 and released late the following day, after being interrogated by the prosecutor regarding articles published in the Aug. 25, and Sept. 1 and 8 editions of the newspaper.
These were entitled, “Jockeying in the police force: Why is the hierarchy breaking down?,” “Espionage at the top: Yayi Boni’s minister, a secret agent for the North,” and “Organized jockeying in the police force: Does Minister Alia condone these antics?”
No charges were filed against Saïzonou.—RSF/IFEX
Journalist disappears, another jailed in Uzbekistan
DZHAMSHID KARIMOV, a former correspondent of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), who wrote critically about both local and federal officials, disappeared Sept. 12 in the central Uzbekistan city of Jizzakh.
Ulugbek Khaidarov, also a former IWPR correspondent and reporter for Internews Network, a US-based media training and advocacy organization, was arrested Sept. 14 on trumped-up charges of extortion and bribery after writing several articles critical of local authorities.
Karimov has not been seen since visiting his elderly mother in the hospital Sept. 12. His mother, Margarita Karimov, told CPJ that her son never came home and his personal effects are intact. Authorities have ignored her calls for help, she said.
Karimov worked for IWPR until May 2005, when troops killed anti-government protesters in the northeastern city of Andijan. Afterward, he contributed to many independent newspapers and online publications. Most recently, he worked as a contributor to the Almaty-based independent online newspaper Liter. According to Uznews, Karimov wrote about social and economic problems as a freelancer.
Two days after Karimov’s disappearance, his former IWPR colleague Khaidarov was arrested. He is in jail awaiting trial on extortion and bribery charges. He refused a state-appointed attorney, and his family cannot afford a private lawyer. Police have not allowed his family to meet with him, according to international press reports.
Shortly before his detention, Khaidarov published several articles about the unpaid salaries of workers at a local marble factory managed by Rakhima Abdullayeva.
The international press and a CPJ source close to the case reported that Abdullayeva approached Khaidarov while the latter was standing at a bus stop and put an envelope containing US$400 in his pocket. Khaidarov threw the envelope on the ground, where it was immediately picked up by four police officers who arrested Khaidarov. Abdullayeva told police Khaidarov tried to blackmail her.—CPJ
Iraqi TV correspondent killed
AHMED RIYADH al-Karbouli, a correspondent for Baghdad TV, was murdered on Sept. 18 in Iraq. Six unknown gunmen in two cars shot the reporter-cameraman as he chatted with friends after midday prayers outside a mosque in the town of Ramadi, sources at the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
Al-Karbouli, 25, had received numerous death threats from insurgents over the past four months warning him to leave the satellite channel. Baghdad TV is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political group in the country. The party joined the US-backed Iraqi government earlier this year.
Ramadi, 110 kilometers west of Baghdad, forms the south-western point of the “Sunni Triangle,” a focus of Sunni Muslim opposition to the US presence in Iraq.
Many journalists with Baghdad TV have received death threats, including the channel’s other correspondent in Ramadi, a source at the station said.
Al-Karbouli worked at Baghdad TV for two years covering security and the plight of the residents of Ramadi. According to CPJ sources, his features offended some insurgents in Ramadi who felt he was criticizing them. A month ago, gunmen stormed into his house and threatened him in front of his family.
Baghdad TV has lost three other employees since June 2005; two of them were killed by US forces in crossfire. In all, 80 journalists, including al-Karbouli, and 28 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the war began on March 20, 2003, making it the deadliest conflict in CPJ’’s 25-year history.— CPJ/IFEX
AP photog held by US military
A PULITZER Prize-winning freelance photojournalist working for The Associated Press in Iraq has been held by US military forces for five months without charge.
Bilal Hussein is an Iraqi citizen who began working for the AP in September 2004. AP reported that he had photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 this year. One of Hussein’s photos was part of the package of 20 photographs that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography. His contribution was an image of four insurgents in Fallujah firing a mortar and small arms during the US-led offensive in the city in November 2004.
The US military maintains that Hussein is a suspect for allegedly having close ties to Iraqi insurgents.
“He has close relationships with persons known to be responsible for kidnappings, smuggling, improvised ex-plosive attacks, and other attacks on coalition forces,” according to a May 7 e-mail from Gardner to AP International Editor John Daniszewski, which was quoted by AP.
“The information available establishes that he has close relationships with insurgents and is afforded access to insurgent activities outside the normal scope afforded to journalists conducting legitimate activities,” he added.
AP executives and editors decided to make public Hussein’s prolonged detention after they had “worked quietly until now” to press US military authorities for his release. “But with the US military giving no indication it would change its stance, the news cooperative has decided to make public Hussein’s imprisonment,” said Tom Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer.”We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable.”
The AP executive also said: “We’ve come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure.”
At present, there is no formal charge against Hussein.—CPJ/IFEX
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