IPI World Press Freedom Monthly Review: November to Mid-December

IPI World Press Freedom Monthly Review:
November to Mid-December

On 1 November, unidentified assailants murdered Mohammad Ismail,
a bureau chief at the Pakistan Press Institute (PPI), in PAKISTAN’S
capital, Islamabad. Ismail was last seen leaving his house for a walk.
He was later found dead after having been beaten about the head with
a blunt instrument.

In the UNITED STATES, a press release issued on 2 November by
Freedom House called on the Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC), which distributes U.S. congressional aid, to ensure that countries
receiving development funding should be held to high ethical standards.
The organisation called on the MCC to refuse to fund countries that failed
to meet “reasonable” standards on political and civil rights and invited the
organisation to follow-up on countries that were failing to meet promised
benchmarks. In June this year, the International Press Institute praised
the MCC for its suspension of THE GAMBIA from the programme due to
its poor record on press freedom and human rights in general.

In POLAND, on 3 November, the Polish constitutional court upheld
Article 212 of the Criminal Code, which makes it an offence, punishable
by a maximum of one year in prison, to defame or publicly humiliate someone.
Critics of the decision said that the Polish constitutional court was putting
personal dignity ahead of the right to free expression.

On the same day, in IRAQ, Ahmed Al Rashid, one of TV station Al Sharkiya’s journalists, was gunned down in his car as he was leaving the station. Two days
later, police officers entered the television station and threatened to close it
down if it continued to broadcast programmes about the trial of former Iraqi
leader, Saddam Hussein. There were also calls for the release of Associated
Press photographer, Bilal Hussein, who has been detained for over six months
in Iraq accused of being a security threat. So far, the U.S. forces have failed to
offer any evidence justifying the journalist’s detention.

A legal review of proposed amendments to the SINGAPORE Penal Code, a
law already believed to seriously infringe freedom of expression, highlighted
further risks to press freedom. According to the report produced by the
Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), the government intends to introduce
fresh amendments to the law that cover the Internet and electronic media. Furthermore, it is proposed that section 298 is expanded to cover the “wounding
of racial feelings.”

In a decision of 9 November, in RUSSIA, the Supreme Court overturned the
acquittal of two suspects in the assassination of Forbes Russia editor, Paul
Klebnikov, in 2004. The decision of the court follows a jury verdict that found
Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev innocent of Klebnikov’s murder. The
trial was held in camera and the jurors were forbidden to speak about the case
by an order of the court

On 10 November, in MEXICO, Misael Tamayo Hernández, the editor of El
Despertar de la Costa, was found murdered in his hotel room in Ixtapa
Zihuatanejo in Guerrero state. Hernández was found naked with his hands tied
behind his back by a belt. There were also punctures wounds in his right arm indicating he might have been poisoned.

Unidentified gunmen killed Muhammad al-Ban, a reporter and cameraman for
the privately owned Al-Sharqiya TV, on 13 November. He was murdered when leaving his home in the town of Mosul in IRAQ. The gunmen fired from a fixed
position on the back of a pickup truck.

There were reports in mid-November that three journalists had died in the
Eiraeiro detention centre in the northeastern desert of ERITREA. All of the
journalists had been arrested in a brutal roundup of the private media in
September 2001. The reports led to calls from international press freedom organisations for the Eritrean government to confirm the reports.

Another three journalists were reported killed in IRAQ. Fadia Mohammed Ali,
who worked for newspaper Al Masar, was killed, together with her driver, while travelling to work in Mosul on 15 November. Journalist Qussai Abass of the
newspaper Tariq Al Shaab was killed with his driver in a similar attack on the
way to the office on 2 November. Another journalist, Luma Mohammad Reyad,
who worked for the US-funded Al Dustoor newspaper, was killed on 17 November.

In the ongoing battle over attempts to force blogger Josh Wolf to provide
authorities in the UNITED STATES with video footage of a July 2005
demonstration, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a November decision
refused to rehear the case. Wolf has been in prison since 18 September.

On 16 November, in MEXICO, José Manuel Nava Sánchez was found stabbed
to death in his home in Mexico City. Sánchez was a former director of the daily Excélsior and columnist for the national daily El Sol de México. According to
witnesses at the murder scene, there was no evidence of a robbery. Prior to
his death, he had published a story alleging corruption among local officials.
On 21 November, Roberto Marcos García, a reporter for the Veracruz-based bi-monthly publication Testimonio and a local correspondent for the Mexico
City weekly Alarma, was gunned down by armed attackers near the town of
La Matoza while travelling from Veracruz to Alvarado. García, who reported
on violent crime and drug trafficking in Veracruz, had recently received threats.

In a disappointing decision in late November, the
African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), at its session in
Banjul, The Gambia, deferred to its next session a Communication filed by the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ), Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe). The Communication challenges the legality of
ZIMBABWE’S Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA). The ACHPR’s decision followed a request from the Zimbabwean
government.

In a 4 April 2006 protest, IPI said it was disappointed at the slow progress
made by the African Union (AU) in criticising Zimbabwe's record on human
rights. The press release said, “[I]t is essential that the AU places the importance
of human rights and freedom of the press above what appears to be a deep-
seated reluctance to criticise African leaders.”

On 26 November, in IRAQ, Fadhila Abdelkarim, an administrative staff member
of the TV station Nainawa, was killed in Mosul. The journalist was shot dead by gunmen outside her front door. Raad Jaafar Hamadi, a journalist with Al Sabah,
was killed on 22 November in Baghdad when gunmen fired on his car.

In MEXICO, on 30 November, the body of missing journalist
Adolfo Sánchez Guzmán was found in Mendoza, Veracruz. Guzmán, who worked for Mexican news website, Orizaba en Vivo, had been shot twice in the head. His body also bore evidence of stab wounds. On 4 December, police announced that they were holding two suspects in the murder.

On 4 December, IPI welcomed the acquittal of three journalists who had been
tried by the Danish courts for publishing classified intelligence reports under DENMARK’S criminal code. Commenting on the acquittal, IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said, "…The legal decision is an important victory in Denmark for the media's right to investigate the claims of government."

The case goes back to 2004 when Michael Bjerre and Jesper Larsen, reporters
for the daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, were charged with "publishing information illegally obtained by a third party.” On 13 November 2006, Niels
Lunde, editor-in-chief of Berlingske Tidende, as well as the two reporters, went
on trial in Copenhagen.

The charges stemmed from a series of articles published in Berlingske Tidende in
2004 that contained information passed anonymously to Bjerre and Larsen by military intelligence officer Frank Grevil showing that there was no credible
evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In another murder of a journalist in IRAQ, on 4 December,
Nabil Ibrahim Al-Dulaimi, a journalist with the Baghdad-based news radio station Radio Dijla, was murdered by gunmen in Baghdad.

On 5 December, FIJI suffered its fourth coup in twenty years. The declaration
of the coup by Commodore Frank Bainimarama led to a number of press freedom violations particularly surrounding the private Fiji Daily Post. On 5 December, IPI protested that the Fiji Daily Post was forced to halt operations and evacuate their premises for a period of 24 hours following these threats. In another press release
on 14 December, IPI crticised the ongoing intimidation and censorship and the alarming decision to deport the Post’s editor-in-chief, Robert Wolfgramm

On 8 December, in the PHILIPPINES, Ponciano Grande, who had worked for
The Recorder and The Nueva Ecija Times, was killed when he was shot five times
at close range. Grande’s wife was close by when he was murdered. The perpetrators appeared to be teenagers.