Crisis: International

W. African president’s brother sues for libel
L’EVÉNEMENT, A bi-monthly publication in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in West Africa, was tried for libel on Jan. 8 after François Compaoré, brother of President Blaise Compaoré, filed a complaint for articles linking him to the 1998 murder of journalist Norbert Zongo.
The lawsuit stemmed from several articles on the Oct. 25, 2006 issue of the paper concerning a news conference on the Zongo case which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) secretary-general Robert Ménard had given in Ouagadougou five days earlier. The president’s brother in particular felt he had been libeled by a front-page headline accom-panying his photo which read: “So it’s him, François Compaoré. Until now we had not been able to say his name. RSF has finally done so.”
At a news conference on Oct. 21, RSF had called on the Burkina Faso state prosecutor to reopen the Zongo murder case on the grounds of new evidence produced by Ménard linking François Compaoré and businessman Oumarou Kanazoé to the case.
The inside pages of L’Evénement contained three reports, an editorial, and a press release about the case.
Zongo was an investigative journalist and editor in chief of the weekly L’Indépendant. His charred body and those of three companions were found on Dec. 13, 1998.—RSF/IFEX

2 journalists freed in Burma
JOURNALISTS Thaung Tun and Than Win Hlaing were released on Jan. 3 after six years of imprisonment by the Burmese military junta. The two were among the 2,831 detainees pardoned in conjunction with the nation’s 59th year of independence on Jan. 4.
Thaung, who is better known by his pseudonym Nyein Thit, is a videographer, editor, and reporter. He was sentenced in December 1999 to eight years in prison for col-lecting and spreading infor-mation about human rights violations in Burma. He is a recipient of the 2004 Interna-tional Press Freedom Awards of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Than was a journalist for the Mya Yeik Nyo Journal. He was arrested in June 2000 and sentenced to seven years in prison for mentioning in his writing Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, the late Gen. Aung San.
Than, 48, rejoined his family on Jan. 4 following his release from Tharrawady prison, north of Rangoon. While he was held, prison officials were said to have repeatedly refused him treatment for his diabetes and kidney problems. His wife, Moe Moe Kyi, feared for his life in early 2006.
Thaung has also reportedly returned to his family home in the central city of Mandalay following his release from prison in Moulmein, the capital of the state of Mon.
Thaung worked for the magazine Padaut Pwint Thit, the Rangoon city magazine, and produced video reports for a privately owned production company. Interrogated and tortured for more than three weeks following his arrest in Oct. 1999, he was sentenced in Dec. 1999 to eight years in prison under Article 5 (J) of the Emergency Act on the Protection of the State for compiling data about human rights violations in Burma and sending it abroad.—RSF/IFEX

Journalists barred from Sri Lanka war zones
JOURNALISTS are being denied access to war zones in Sri Lanka while the government and the Tamil separatists Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continue to wage war against each other.
On Jan. 2, the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed what it described as an LTTE military base near the western village of Padahuthurai. The Tamil Tigers said the air strike killed 15 civilians without hitting any military objective. No independent journalist has been able to enter the area.
As a result, some of the Sinhalese and English-language media in Colombo have relayed information provided by the government without verifying it while Tamil-language media and websites have been using the information and pictures provided by the LTTE.
The press has not been allowed to cover the fighting taking place in the eastern Vaharai region. Thousands of civilians are trapped in an area surrounded by government troops and are being prevented from fleeing by the LTTE.
The lack of independent reporting feeds rumors and propaganda. The governmental Daily News newspaper recently claimed, without any evidence, that Norwegian mediators had offered a television set to the head of the LTTE.
These press freedom violations are being compounded by the self-censorship that has become obligatory as a result of the restoration of anti-terrorism legislation in December.
At the same time, three state media journalists were summoned last month for questioning by the police while an investigative journalist, Iqbal Attas, said he had been forced to censor himself on security issues because of the reactivation of the anti-terrorism legislation.
The local press is also in danger of disappearing because of serious problems of supplies and distribution.
The Tamil dailies Uthayan, Valampuri, and Yarl Thinakkural have been reduced to publishing four-page issues instead of the nearly 20 pages which they normally produce. They could be forced to stop publishing altogether after Jan. 15 if the authorities, especially the army, do not let them have newsprint and ink delivered from Colombo.

2 journalists jailed for ‘inciting to violence’
JOURNALISTS Néstor Pasquín and Hugo Francischelli have been detained in Corral de Bustos, a town in Córdoba province in Argentina’s north-central region, for alleged instigation of violence, arson, and minor injuries, for which they may face three to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Pasquín and Francischelli were taken into custody on Dec. 20, 2006, although the events in which they were allegedly involved took place at the beginning of the month. On the morning of Dec. 4, inhabitants of Corral de Bustos, enraged over the rape and murder of a young girl, caused disturbances that resulted in the destruction of property around the local law courts, including the burning of a judge’s car. Local legal authorities have accused the mother of the murdered girl of involvement in her killing. Two men were also charged with homicide and aggravated sexual assault in the case.
Following investigation into the public disturbances of Dec. 4, Public Prosecutor Carlos Ernesto Viramonte issued 10 arrest warrants. Among those named for arrest were Pasquín and Francischelli who were present at the scene to cover the events unfolding. Sixteen days after the incidents, the two journalists and six others were detained.
Pasquín owns the local radio station FM Show and is a correspondent of the station FM Panorama. Francischelli hosts a radio program on FM 97.3.
According to legal sources, the two journalists are accused of having incited some 1,000 individuals to demonstrate violently in front of the law courts.–RSF/IFEX

Malaysia censors The Economist
GOVERNMENT officials in Malaysia tore pages from the international weekly The Economist and blacked out a paragraph whose content allegedly contravened Islamic teachings, according to the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ).
Missing in the locally circulated Dec. 23 edition of The Economist, which is published by the Economist Newspaper Limited in Britain, was the article “Born of Fire” which is about Muslims in Afghanistan and Somalia believing in the existence of jinns (genies).
Blacked out in the article “A Child in Bethlehem” was a paragraph on Muslim women visiting an ancient shrine to the Virgin Mary to pray for fertility.
When contacted by CIJ, a spokesperson from the Internal Security Ministry said the practices in the articles contravene Islamic teachings. Muslims cannot believe in jinns as this goes against Islam, he said.
In a statement on Jan. 8, CIJ said the censorship of The Economist deprived the public of information about the practices and cultures of people outside Malaysia. (The full statement is available from its website, http: //www.cijmalaysia.org.)

Nigerian journalist shot dead
GODWIN Agbroko, head of the editorial board of the privately owned This Day newspaper, was found dead on Dec. 22 shortly after he left his office in Apapa, a major port city in Nigeria.
Agbroko was found dead at the wheel of his car on the road to the Daleko bridge in the Lagos district of Isolo at around 10 p.m. (local time). He had been shot in the throat.
The window of the driver’s door, which was locked shut, was shattered. His safety belt was still fastened. The air-conditioning and radio were still on. None of his belongings had been taken. Three policemen and two passersby were shot dead in the same area that night.
Although the police think he was shot in the course of an attempted robbery, his son, Tobor Agbroko, said the Nigerian press and his family suspected a targeted murder.
He said his father must have been trailed from the office. A phone worth over a hundred thousand naira (approximately US$750) was not taken, as well as his money, wristwatch, and several other valuables.
Agbroko was a well-known journalist who wrote a regular column for This Day. He edited several newspapers during the 1993-1999 military dictatorship, when he was detained at least twice in 1995 and 1996. He was held at a military intelligence detention center from Dec. 18, 1996 to May 6, 1997, during which he was allowed to see his wife only once. He was awarded the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith prize in 1997.

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