IFEX Communique Vol 16 No 35,28 August 2007

IFEX Communique Vol 16 No 35,28 August 2007

INDEX

FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT: 1. Burma: Rare Protests Spark Arrest of Activists and Crackdown on Free Expression

REGIONAL NEWS: 2. Somalia: Young Reporter Gunned Down 3. Paraguay: Chilean Journalist Killed by Uniformed Men 4. Canada: Police Use Agents Provocateurs at Protest

UPDATES: 5. Russia: Suspects in Politkovskaya Murder Arrested; "More Action Needed" 6. Kenya: President Rejects Controversial Media Bill 7. Iran: Iranian-U.S. Academic Released on Bail

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS: 8. INSI to Hold General Meeting in October

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS: 9. 2008-09 Fellowships in International Human Rights 10. Media Management Scholarships for Southern African Women

ALERTS ISSUED BY THE IFEX CLEARING HOUSE LAST WEEK

FREE EXPRESSION SPOTLIGHT

1. BURMA: RARE PROTESTS SPARK ARREST OF ACTIVISTS AND CRACKDOWN ON FREE EXPRESSION

Protests against soaring fuel prices held in Burma's capital Rangoon last week - including the largest rally in a decade - have sparked the arrest of at least 70 activists and a crackdown on the media and lines of communication, report Mizzima News, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and news reports.

In late-night raids on 21 August, Burma's military leaders arrested 13 prominent pro-democracy activists who had spearheaded a protest two days earlier against a sharp rise in fuel prices, which has more than doubled public transport costs and drastically affected commodity prices. The 500-strong rally is believed to be the largest in more than 10 years.

In a rare announcement in all state-run newspapers, the junta said the 13 had been arrested for "agitation to cause civil unrest" and "undermining peace and security of the state", charges that could put them in jail for up to 20 years.

Those arrested included at least seven leaders of the 88 Generation Students, the group of students who led the 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was violently suppressed by the military. Among those arrested were Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Min Zeya - some of Burma's most prominent dissidents along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. University students and activists from other pro-democracy groups were also reportedly arrested in separate sweeps, says Mizzima. Following a search across the Rangoon region, Htin Kyaw, who has been detained three times this year for protesting over living standards, was beaten as he was seized on 25 August, the BBC reports.

SEAPA says the military regime has also confiscated the mobile phones of the Generation 88 leaders, in an effort to prevent international media from obtaining the latest information about the protests. Callers to the well-known dissidents said they received a message informing them that the government has cut off the number.

"With the junta's iron-fist hold on information and all channels of communication, the people rely on foreign media for the truth, even when it comes to events within the country," says SEAPA.

According to the BBC, the arrests were probably an attempt by the military to pre-empt a repeat of Sunday's protest. But the protests continue. On 22 August, about 200 people defied the visible presence of armed police and marched through Rangoon, while being cheered by onlookers. Today (28 August), more than 100 Buddhist monks in Sittwe town of Arakan state led a march demanding a decrease in commodity prices.

The junta has also deployed gangs of supporters, some wielding brooms and shovels and pretending to be road sweepers, on the streets of Rangoon to halt further protests. According to media group Democratic Voice of Burma, a local journalist had his camera confiscated and destroyed by the gangs on 22 August. The following day, a Reuters correspondent was threatened and pushed away by a similar mob as he tried to cover a sporadic protest, while local journalists were ordered to stay away from demonstrators.

Mizzima News also reports that editors from a leading journal in Rangoon were interrogated by police the day after Sunday's rally, and were accused of favouring the National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party that was denied the right to govern despite winning a landslide victory in the 1990 polls.

Within the country, there is virtually no coverage of the protests. "The difficulties and harassment experienced by journalists is leading to further self-censorship in Rangoon's local journals," SEAPA says.

SEAPA reports that the Burmese junta is tightening the already restricted telecommunication channels in the country to prevent information about the ongoing mass protests and arrests in Rangoon from leaking out.

Internet users in Burma who are trying to communicate with their contacts outside the country are experiencing constantly disrupted connections, while friends and relatives overseas are finding it difficult to reach those inside on mobile phones.

According to the BBC, the prospect of economic protests linking up with the 1988 veterans would be especially alarming to the military government - it was this combination of factors the led to the near overthrow of the military regime during that first uprising 19 years ago.

In a separate development, an ethnic Arakanese human rights activist exiled in Bangladesh has won the Yayori Award, a Japan-based honour given to women activists who work with marginalised groups, reports "The Irrawaddy". Saw Mra Raza Linn, chair of the Rakhaing (Arakan) Women's Union and a member of the Women's League of Burma, led thousands of people in pro-democracy marches in 1988, before fleeing to Bangladesh and continuing to fight against human rights violations in Burma and violence towards women and children.

REGIONAL NEWS

AFRICA

2. SOMALIA: YOUNG REPORTER GUNNED DOWN

A young reporter on his way home from a journalism training workshop in Mogadishu was killed in an ambush on 24 August, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and affiliate organisation the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) report. He is the third journalist to be killed in two weeks in Somalia.

Abdulkadir Mahad Moallim Kaskey, a correspondent of the private, Mogadishu-based station Radio Banadir, was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a minibus in southwestern Gedo province. Kaskey was the only passenger of 15 who died; CPJ reports that two others were injured.

NUSOJ says that the day before his death, Kaskey had visited its offices in Mogadishu to discuss working conditions of journalists in southwestern Somalia. Kaskey was also a correspondent of Radio Maandeeq in Gedo and Radio Daljir in the northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

In the absence of a strong central government, gunmen linked to clan militias clashing over land frequently set up roadblocks to extort money from vehicles passing through their localities, say CPJ and the Somali-speaking Writers Centre of International PEN.

Kaskey was the seventh journalist killed in Somalia this year and the third journalist killed within two weeks, according to NUSOJ. Only Iraq has had more journalists killed this year, says CPJ.

"This latest killing confirms our fears that journalism has become more dangerous than ever in Somalia," says IFJ. "The deteriorating political crisis and increasing levels of violence make independent reporting almost impossible. International organisations need to think hard about action now to calm the situation."

IFJ is planning a campaign to highlight attacks on the press in Somalia.

AMERICAS

3. PARAGUAY: CHILEAN JOURNALIST KILLED BY UNIFORMED MEN

A Chilean radio reporter was shot dead in Paraguay last week by two men wearing military uniforms, report the Paraguayan Union of Journalists (Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay, SPP), Institute for Press and Society (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, IPYS), the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and international press freedom groups.

Tito Alberto Palma Godoy, a radio journalist, was killed when two armed men opened fire in his home on 22 August in Mayor Otaño, a town in the department of Itapúa, southeastern Paraguay where the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet. His partner, Wilma Martínez, was wounded in the leg.

Palma Godoy, of Chilean nationality, had settled in Paraguay several years before. He regularly reported on the links between organised crime and politicians for a community radio station in Mayor Otaño, and also provided reports for Chaco Boreal radio station in the capital, Asunción.

According to IPYS and SPP, Palma Godoy had often received death threats - which he had reported on air and were known by the authorities. Several years ago, an attempt had been made to expel him from the country, also due to his coverage of the situation in Itapúa.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that the threats had recently intensified. Within a month of his death he received death threats for his recent reports on drugs and petroleum trafficking in the tri-border area. A week prior to his death, Palma Godoy announced on air that he was returning to Chile with his family.

IAPA, in its recently published book "Map of Risks for Journalists" - part of the organisation's Anti-Impunity Project - identifies the Brazil-Paraguay border as one of the three most dangerous places in the Americas for reporters.

SPP says Itapúa is one of the departments where journalists have most been under attack by criminal groups. In February 2006, gunmen fired at Juan Augusto Roa, a correspondent for "ABC Color" newspaper in Encarnación, Itapúa, after he had reported on marijuana production and trafficking in southern Paraguay. He escaped unharmed.

Earlier this year in May, Oscar Bogado Silva, an "Ultima Hora" newspaper correspondent also based in Encarnación, was the target of a series of threats, including harassing telephone calls, being followed by individuals, and strangers breaking into his home, after reporting on local corruption and drug trafficking.

4. CANADA: POLICE USE AGENTS PROVOCATEURS AT PROTEST

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) has voiced concern that police disguising themselves as protesters at a North American leaders' summit acted like agents provocateurs by provoking violence from within the crowd.

According to local news reports, about 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town of Montebello, Quebec, near the capital Ottawa, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss trade and security across the continent.

A video of the demonstration posted on YouTube shows three men with bandanas across their faces, at least one with a large rock in his hand, taunting union members. In the video, the president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, confronts the trio - who stand out among the peaceful protesters - demanding they throw down the rocks, unmask and identify themselves as cops.

The men push towards the riot police line and are immediately pushed to the ground, handcuffed and escorted away. Photographs taken by another protester show the men on the ground wearing boots with the same emblem as the officers who are arresting them.

Authorities initially denied claims from protesters that officers had infiltrated their ranks but later acknowledged the three men were police officers. The police say their men were just trying to pinpoint protesters who were not peacefully demonstrating in Montebello.

"The actions of these police officers suggest that they were there not to observe, but to instigate violence," says CJFE. "CJFE is concerned that these police tactics subvert the legitimate rights of Canadians to engage in peaceful protest. Not only did they potentially put peaceful protesters at risk, but they also undermined the message of the protest itself."

The protesters' main focus was the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement that was to be discussed among the North American leaders. They say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada's control over its natural resources, security and defence.

UPDATES

5. RUSSIA: SUSPECTS IN POLITKOVSKAYA MURDER ARRESTED; "MORE ACTION NEEDED"

Ten people, including government officials, have been arrested in connection with Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder, report the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). But the press groups say there is a long way to go before "justice will be delivered."

Prosecutor-general Yuri Chaika announced on 27 August that Politkovskaya's murder was carried out by a group led by an ethnic Chechen that included former and current interior ministry and federal security service (FSB) officials. He later added that he believed her killing was masterminded from abroad by anti-Kremlin forces trying to destabilise Russia.

Some IFEX members have expressed scepticism that prosecutors were any closer to convicting Politkovskaya's killers.

"The murders of journalists in the past 14 years have been so poorly investigated that it's hard to have any faith in this," Oleg Panfilov, head of CJES, told Al Jazeera. "I suspect it's connected with the fact that the one-year anniversary of (her) death is coming up. People will ask 'Where are the killers?', and this way they can say that the case is closed and suspects have been detained."

The press freedom groups want Russian authorities to publicly disclose details of the probe, such as evidence of the suspects' involvement, their identities and motives, and the role of the supposed masterminds.

Politkovskaya, who wrote extensively about human rights abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya for the investigative newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", was gunned down outside her central Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Her murder marked the 13th contract-style killing of a journalist in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, according to CPJ. She told the BBC shortly before her death that President Putin had deliberated provoked terrorist acts, including the hostage-taking in a Moscow theatre in 2002.

Politkovskaya's widely condemned murder brought international attention to the dangers Russian journalists face and led to accusations that the Kremlin was failing to protect freedom of speech. More than 80 journalists in Russia have been murdered because of their work since 1993, according to IFJ.

6. KENYA: PRESIDENT REJECTS CONTROVERSIAL MEDIA BILL

Press freedom groups welcomed Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's refusal to sign into law a media bill that would compel reporters to reveal their sources in court. One of IFEX's members in Kenya, the Media Institute, had been campaigning vigorously against the bill.

President Kibaki said he refused to sign the media bill into law on the grounds that a last-minute amendment limiting the confidentiality of sources posed an "obstacle to press freedom" and ran counter to Kenya's "democratic efforts" in recent years. Under the amendment, journalists could be forced to identify their sources or unnamed individuals quoted in a story to the police or to the courts.

A consensus was achieved in the drafting of the bill but parliamentarian Karue Muriuki added the controversial amendment at the last moment, before the bill's approval on 2 August.

President Kibaki's announcement came a week after more than 300 journalists wearing black gags over their mouths marched silently through Kenya's capital to protest the proposed law, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Several radio stations also declined to run their morning news broadcasts, playing music or talk shows instead.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Kenyan journalists using anonymous sources have exposed some of the country's biggest scandals, such as the Goldenberg affair, when the government was cheated out of millions of dollars for fictitious gold and gem exports during the 1990s.

CPJ reports that the government is also withdrawing another media bill for redrafting. The Kenya Communication Bill contained restrictions on media ownership and provisions granting the government sweeping powers of search and seizure without judicial or parliamentary approval on suspicions of threats to national security.

7. IRAN: IRANIAN-U.S. ACADEMIC RELEASED ON BAIL

An Iranian-U.S. scholar jailed in Iran for more than three months was released on bail last week, following protests by activists and international human rights groups. But she still faces charges of endangering Iran's national security and cannot leave the country.

Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East programme at the Washington, D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was in Iran visiting her mother when she was prevented from leaving last December. She was interrogated repeatedly over her work before her eventual arrest in May. Her detention in Tehran's notorious prison had just surpassed the 100-day mark when she was released on 21 August for three billion Rials (US $320,000).

Although Amnesty International USA welcomed Esfandiari's release, "the conditions of her release remain suspect," Amnesty says. "Many questions are still unanswered, including whether the Iranian authorities will allow Dr. Esfandiari to leave the country and whether she was ill-treated in detention."

Last month, Iranian television broadcast a report in which Esfandiari apparently "confessed" that a network of foreign activists was plotting to overthrow the Iranian government in a "velvet revolution". But Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights groups claim the statement was coerced by the Iranian authorities.

Like Esfandiari, three other U.S.-Iranians have recently been arrested or prevented from leaving the country. They include Kian Tajbakhsh, a consultant for the Open Society Institute; Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for Radio Farda; and Ali Shakeri, founder of the Center for Citizens Peace Building at the University of California, Irvine. ARTICLE 19, Index on Censorship and English PEN, along with Amnesty, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch, are calling for their unconditional release.

Thousands of activists have already taken action through the Free Haleh Esfandiari and Free Kian Tajbakhsh websites. Petitions can be found at: - Free Haleh Campaign: http://www.freehaleh.org/category/petition/ - Free Kian Campaign: http://www.freekian.org/petition/

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

8. INSI TO HOLD ANNUAL MEETING IN GERMANY IN OCTOBER

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) will hold its annual meeting on 24 October 2007 in Berlin, Germany, on the eve of Europe's annual News Xchange conference. An agenda will be made available closer to the day. INSI asks prospective participants to RSVP to deputy director Sarah de Jong at: sarah.dejong@newssafety.com by 1 October.

The News Xchange conference for broadcasters, underwritten by the European Broadcasting Union's Eurovision service, takes place on 25-26 October at Berlin's Grand Hyatt Hotel.

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

9. 2008-09 FELLOWSHIPS IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights Watch invites recent graduates from law, journalism, international relations or area studies, and those with comparable relevant work experience, to apply for its 2008/2009 fellowship programme.

Fellows work full-time for one year with Human Rights Watch in New York, Washington, D.C., or London. They monitor human rights developments in various countries, conduct on-site investigations, draft reports on human rights conditions and engage in advocacy aimed at publicising and limiting human rights violations.

Applicants must have exceptional analytical skills, an ability to write and speak clearly, and a commitment to work in the human rights field in the future. Proficiency in one language in addition to English is strongly desired. Familiarity with countries or regions where serious human rights violations occur is also valued.

Fellowships begin in September 2008 and are open to graduates with relevant degrees received after January 2005 and before August 2008. The salary for 2007-08 is $47,000 plus benefits. The salary for 2008-09 is currently under review.

The deadline for applications is 5 October 2007.

10. MEDIA MANAGEMENT SCHOLARSHIPS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICAN WOMEN

The Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership at Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies is offering three scholarships to women for its postgraduate diploma in media management in 2008. The one-year course provides skills and knowledge to people working in the media, and is designed to fast-track their careers into management.

The scholarships, administered by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), cover an allowance, tuition, materials, medical insurance, accommodation and meals at the university in Grahamstown, South Africa. Women media workers are eligible from nine Southern African Development Community countries - Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Applications are due by 26 October 2007.

ENDS

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