Reporters Without Borders is dismayed that a court in the southern city Malmö today convicted three journalists with the tabloid newspaper Expressen of violating firearms legislation because one of them bought a revolver in the city's criminal underworld in order to show how easy it is to acquire a gun illegally in Sweden.

“It is shocking that journalists are treated like criminals because of a piece of investigative reporting,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Expressen's research clearly involved a subject of public interest. The information obtained by the reporter was important to society as a whole.

“We hope that this conviction will be overturned on appeal and that all the charges against these journalists will be dismissed. The ability to do investigative journalism in Sweden is at stake. If reporters cannot investigate sensitive subjects, then investigative reporting does not exist.”

The activities of a serial killer in Malmö in October 2010 triggered a debate about the availability of firearms in Sweden, and so Expressen did an investigative report on the ease with which they can be obtained illegally. As part of the research, Expressen reporter Diamant Salihu set out to discover how quickly he could get a revolver and a cartridge clip. It took him just five hours, after which he immediately handed in the gun to the police.

The Malmö court sentenced Salihu to a fine of 14,400 kronor (1,600 euros) for breaking the firearms legislation, Expressen editor-in-chief Thomas Mattsson to a fine of 30,000 kronor (3,300 euros) for inciting Salihu to break the law, and former Expressen news editor Andreas Johansson to a fine of 13,500 kronor (1,500 euros) for complicity. The fines will be increased if they repeat the offences.

The court claimed that it took account of the right to information. It also said that the fact the revolver was handed to the police constituted a mitigating circumstance. The journalists said they would file an appeal, for which the deadline is 8 June. Mattsson's lawyer, Ulf Isaksson, told Reporters Without Borders he was “disappointed” by the verdict as Mattsson had pleaded that “the actions in no way constituted a crime.”

This case could have an impact on Sweden's position in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, in which it is currently ranked 12th out of 179 countries.

(Picture: Expressen)

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Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn of the death sentence passed today on the citizen journalist Mohammed Abdelmawla al-Hariri for “high treason and contacts with foreign parties”. He was arrested on 16 April just after giving an interview to the television station Al-Jazeera about the situation in his hometown of Deraa.

“Such a verdict is unacceptable and out of all proportion to Mohamed al-Hariri's so-called crime of giving an interview to Al-Jazeera,” the press freedom organization said.

“The government of Bashar al-Assad has thus shown the extent of its brutality and cruelty. Reporters Without Borders calls for this contemptible verdict to be overturned and for this citizen journalist to be released immediately.”

According to the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, Hariri was subjected to horrific torture after his arrest, to the point of being partially paralysed. After the verdict was pronounced, he was transferred to Saidnaya military prison north of Damascus.

Hariri gave regular interviews to Al-Jazeera about the situation on the ground in Deraa in southern Syria, such as this one on 15 April. The Syrian government has accused the Qatari-based station and other foreign media outlets of being part of a global plot to cause chaos in Syria.

Reporters Without Borders lists Assad among 41 predators of freedom of information. Several media workers, citizen journalists and cyber-activists have been killed by the government since the start of the year and dozens more are currently languishing in Syria's prisons.

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Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns freelance journalist and blogger Ahmed Radhi's arrest in a pre-dawn raid on his home on 16 May.

“The Bahraini authorities have committed a grave freedom of information violation, resuming the practices adopted to crush last year's wave of protests,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It seems that Radhi's only crime was to have expressed his views. In the absence of any charges against him, we call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

Police broke down the door of his home in Sanabis, a locality to the west of the capital, at around 4 a.m. and took Radhi away without showing any warrant. The authorities have not announced any charges but Reporters Without Borders has been told that he could be brought before a judge as early as tomorrow.

His family thinks he was arrested for criticizing a proposed union of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in interviews he gave to BBC Arabic Radio and the London-based exile television station, Lulu TV. Radhi had posted excerpts of the BBC Arabic interview on Facebook.

Aged 35, Radhi has had many run-ins with the authorities in the past. The Bahrain Press Association said he was jailed and tortured at the end of the 1990s, suffering a permanent partial hearing loss.

In the early 2000s, he worked for the local daily Al-Ayyam and the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar, whose coverage angered the government so much that his accreditation was withdrawn for two years. Since then he has freelanced and keeps a blog on Bahrain.

Journalists are often the target of harassment and arrests in Bahrain, whose ruler, King Hamad Ben Aissa Al-Khalifa, is on the Reporters Without Borders list of predators of press freedom. Last year, Reporters Without Borders ranked Manama as one of the world's ten most dangerous places for media personnel.

Read in Arabic (بالعربية)

Although President Ali Abdallah Saleh was forced to stand down last February, media freedom violations are continuing at an alarming pace in Yemen. The political instability is allowing the enemies of press freedom to act with complete impunity.

“We condemn the violence, threats, arrests and at times grotesque trials that often beset journalists in Yemen,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The new Yemeni authorities must guarantee the safety and protection of all media personnel and must ensure that the prosecutions of journalists stop.”

The press freedom organization has compiled a summary of violations that have taken place during the past three weeks.

Trial of two Al-Jazeera journalists

Two local correspondents of Al-Jazeera, Ahmed Al-Shalafi and Hamdi Al-Bokari, are being prosecuted by the ghosts of the deposed Saleh regime. A complaint was brought against them in June 2011 by then information minister Hassan Ahmed Al-Lawzi, accusing them of working illegally for the Qatari news channel after the ministry withdrew their accreditation in March 2011 on the grounds that its coverage of the uprising and the government crackdown was biased.

Although there has been a change of government and the new information minister, Ali Al-Amrani, withdrew his predecessor's complaint, an initial hearing in the case against them was held on 14 May. As they boycotted the hearing, the judge adjourned until 21 May and ordered the prosecutor-general to ensure that they turn up for the next hearing.

Reporters Without Borders condemns these surreal proceedings, which are invalid in the absence of a plaintiff. Shalafi and Bokari are being made to pay for Al-Jazeera's coverage during the uprising. The pro-Saleh forces seemed determined to continue hounding the two journalists.

Shalafi is also still waiting to recover the passport that was confiscated more than a year ago by national security officials – apparently on direct orders from then interior minister Rashed Al-Masri – when he handed it in for renewal. The lack of a passport poses a major problem for him as TV reporter. He is still unable to recover it although the current prime minister has ordered its return and the new interior minister has assured him of his support.

Al-Jazeera's Sanaa bureau and its employees were repeatedly harassed by the former government, especially at the height of the anti-government protests. With tacit support from the police, a score of gunmen raided its premises on 22 March 2011, removing its transmission equipment. A few days later, the authorities withdrew the accreditation of all of Al-Jazeera's journalists, who were already the frequent targets of threats and violence.

Journalists and relatives still targeted

Hissam Ashour, the independent weekly Al-Nada's correspondent in Hadramout province, survived an apparent murder attempt on 16 May. It was the third alleged murder attempt to be blamed on the lawyer of a provincial pension fund that Ashour wrote about last year, accusing it of corrupt practices.

Security forces guarding the main prison in the southern city of Taiz arrested Abou Baker Al-Youssoufi, a cameraman with satellite TV station Yemen Shabab, on 15 May while he was doing a report on the damage from riots by inmates during the past few weeks. Despite having the prison director's permission to film, he was held for several hours until released on the interior ministry's instructions. The interior ministry and the prison administration gave him an apology.

Anwar Al-Bahri, a news editor with the Yemeni news agency Saba, was beaten in front of his children by a dozen armed thugs who burst into his apartment in the Sanaa neighbourhood of Al-Hasba on 30 April, terrifying his family and neighbours. After policed arrived, he was taken to Revolution Hospital for treatment to cuts to his face, a broken right hand, and bruises on various parts of his body.

The police managed to arrest two of the assailants, who were put in Sector 5 prison, and then assigned units to patrol the neighbourhood. Nonetheless, it was fellow residents who prevented another attempt by thugs to invade the building on 2 May. The Union of Yemeni Journalists issued a statement holding the interior ministry solely responsible for the second attack and accusing it of “delaying the arrest of the criminals.”

Journalist Mohamed Ali Al-Lozi's 15-year-old son was kidnapped on 27 April by several unidentified men in a black SUV who threatened and hit him before releasing him several hours later. Lozi reported that three gunmen in a grey saloon car had asked questions about him in his Sanaa neighbourhood earlier the same day.

Wael Al-Absi, a photographer with the Al-Eshtiraki Net news website, was attacked on 24 April in Freedom Square in Taiz, the site of a permanent opposition sit-in. His assailant was reported to be one of the sit-in's security volunteers who is a member of the Yemeni Reform Rally (an Islamist party) and who has reputation for physically attacking people with different views. Absi, who supports the Yemeni left, was beaten unconscious and was hospitalized with head and eye injuries.

The Sanaa-based journalist Fathi Abou Al-Nasr received death threats by telephone from an anonymous caller on 24 April in connection with articles he had recently written for various Yemeni newspapers and websites.

Abdel Qader Al-Mansoub, a journalist who is currently working on corruption cases in the west-coast province of Al-Hudaydah, was also threatened by an anonymous caller the same day.

Saleh Al-Hamati, a Sanaa-based journalist working for Al-Siyasiyya, was threatened in the latter part of April by one of the assistants of Sanaa's governor, who reportedly also sent soldiers to his home in his absence to intimidate his family.

Smear campaigns

The weekly Al-Ahale and the daily Akhbar Al-Yom have been the target of a smear campaign by former President Saleh's son, Ali Abdallah Saleh, who heads the Republican Guard. In a 24 April communiqué, he accused them of spying on military camps with the information ministry's complicity and of cooperating with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and he demanded that their journalists appear before a military court.

These venomous allegations, which were widely quoted in the pro-Saleh electronic media, were prompted by an article posted the previous day on Al-Ahale's website claiming that the president's son owned four Apache helicopters in a military camp in Sanhan, the former president's birthplace.

Reporters Without Borders unreservedly condemns yesterday's targeted bomb attack on the car of Fernando Londoño Hoyos, a hardline former interior minister who is now Radio Súper's programme director and a columnist for various newspapers. Londoño survived the attack on busy Bogotá street, but his driver and bodyguard were killed and 39 others were injured.

It is not yet known who was behind the bombing, which came during the continuing wait for the release of French journalist Roméo Langlois, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the south of the country since 28 April.

“The bomb that nearly killed Londoño is a painful reminder of the 1980s, when bombings like this were a common occurrence in the capital,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This violence, a product of Colombia's civil war, has never really disappeared, as we saw when a car bomb was set off outside Caracol Radio in August 2010, five days after President Santos was sworn in.

“We hope that investigators will quickly identify those responsible for yesterday's tragedy, which bears all the hallmarks of the half-century-old civil war, and we hope that it has no impact on the release of Langlois.”

Londoño sustained concussion and chest injuries in the explosion. According to one of his bodyguards, the bomb was thrown on to the hood of his armoured SUV and then set off. Shortly before the blast, an attempt to set off a bomb on the way to police headquarters was thwarted.

Interior and justice minister from 2002 to 2004 under former President Alvaro Uribe, Londoño is a strong supporter of a military solution to the FARC's continuing guerrilla insurgency. He had not received any threats recently, according to Radio Súper president Javier Pava, but police sources said he continues to be in the FARC's sights.

“As an organization that defends freedom of information and expression, we express our support for Londoño during this ordeal and our hope that he will recover quickly and be back on the air soon,” Reporters Without Borders said. “At the same time, we regret some of his recent comments during his radio programme ‘La Hora de la Verdad,' which we regard as unnecessarily polemical and unfavourable to Langlois.

“Freedom of expression is not incompatible with concern for the truth. Langlois is a recognized, impartial and experienced journalist, not an activist, and there is nothing ‘farcical' about his hopefully imminent release, as Londoño suggested. This kind of remark can expose a journalist to even more risks in a country such as Colombia. When a journalist is in Langlois' or Londoño's situation, a show of solidarity is needed from all of his colleagues.”

Reporters Without Borders

• Defends journalists, netizens and media assistants who are imprisoned or persecuted for gathering and disseminating news and information, and lets the outside world know when they are tortured or mistreated.
• Combats censorship and laws designed to restrict freedom of information.
• Distributes around 100 assistance grants every year to journalists, netizens and media in distress (to cover lawyer's fees, medical fees, purchase of equipment and so on) and to the families of imprisoned journalists.
• Works to improve journalists' safety, especially in war zones.

Background

Reporters Without Borders has gone to Libya three times since the fall of Benghazi and the country's subsequent liberation in order to evaluate the situation of the media, analyze their needs and identify the contribution it could make during the transition period.

In the course of these meetings, journalists and emerging civil society organizations have requested Reporters Without Borders' help in preserving media freedom and providing material assistance and advice. They would like us to help with reorganizing the media system and drafting new laws. The Libyan authorities have taken a favourable view of these initiatives.

Reporters Without Borders would like to have a representative in Libya to monitor the reconstruction of the media system as closely as possible and to take whatever action is necessary to help ensure that the principles of independence and pluralism are fully implemented and respected.

The representative will cooperate closely with Libyan journalists, local media freedom organizations and the authorities, transferring skills and expertise that will eventually enable local organizations to carry out these activities.

Goals

Help the authorities establish lasting mechanisms that guarantee media freedom Support the creation of new independent media in Libya Reinforce the independent media that have emerged since the start of the mass uprising.

Funded by the European Union, this is an 18-month project.

Duties and activities

The person recruited by Reporters Without Borders will be its representative in Libya.

Working under the supervision of the Tunis bureau and the international secretariat in Paris, the head of project will be based in Libya. He or she will be able to count on the expertise of a jurist and the Reporters Without Borders legal committee and on the help of external contributors, if need be.

The head of project's main duties will be to:

• Monitor media freedom violations and cases of censorship with the aim of issuing press releases that will receive wide national and international distribution.
• Provide expert advice on the creation of bodies to regulate traditional and online media (identify needs, analyze bodies that already exist in a similar environment, lobby the authorities and so on).
• Provide expert advice on drafting regulations for the allocation of frequencies to broadcast media, and drafting terms and conditions for the media that are given frequencies.
• Help draft a new media law and lobby the Libyan authorities (executive and legislative).
• Help draft a code of professional conduct for media workers.
• Provide advice and support to journalists who want to create new media (help set up the project, identify partners and investors, put them in contact with donors, find material resources and so on).
• Support journalist training projects (identify needs and possible partners, evaluate the quality of the training provided by local universities).
• Make the public aware of the importance of free expression and the need to safeguard it (getting articles published in the local print media, participating in radio and TV programmes, organizing poster campaigns and so on).
• Set up a nationwide network of correspondents in order to carry out these activities in all of the other major cities as well as Tripoli.

Profile

• Support for Reporters Without Borders' mandate
• Experience or training in journalism
• Expertise in rebuilding media systems
• Familiarity with the media in Northern Africa and the Middle East
• Project management experience
• Experience in lobbying/advocacy
• Self-reliant
• Attention to detail
• Able to operate in challenging circumstances
• Excellent writing and interpersonal skills
• Bilingual in English and Arabic

Terms

18-month contract, salary according to experience, reimbursement of consular fees etc

Referring to “Head of Project, Libya,” please email your application (CV plus accompanying letter) to: libya-recruitment@rsf.org

Deadline: 1 July 2012

Radio journalist Alfredo Villatoro, kidnapped on his way to work last week, was found dead yesterday on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa six days after his abduction.

“With the death of Erick Martinez on 5 May and that of Alfredo Villatoro, journalism has lost two of its members in the space of 10 days, while at the same time threats, attacks and assaults remain an almost daily reality for journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Against this background, where common crime, the activities of criminal gangs and political violence undermine national security and basic public freedoms, no attempt to combat impunity can succeed without wide-ranging reform of the judicial system involving civil society and international observers. It is a daunting challenge but one that cannot be put off any longer.”

Villatoro, programme co-ordinator and presenter at the radio station HRN, was shot twice in the head and his body had been dressed in the uniform of an officer of the police, which is widely suspected of being behind serious breaches of human rights.

Shortly before the grim discovery, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo made reference to clues that the journalist was still alive. This was later denied by the security minister, Pompeyo Bonilla.

The death brings to 26 the number of journalists killed in Honduras in the past decade, 20 of them in the period immediately after the June 2009 coup d'état. Honduras, together with Mexico and Colombia, is among the most dangerous countries in the hemisphere for journalists.

09.05.12 - Journalist and rights activist found dead

Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to render justice in the murder of Erick Martínez Ávila, a 32-year-old opposition journalist and gay rights activist whose body was found at the side of the road between Tegucigalpa and Olancho on 7 May, two days after his family reported him missing. Local officials said he appeared to have been strangled.

A spokesman for Kukulcán, an organization that defends lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, Martínez had recently registered as a would-be candidate to be a parliamentary representative of the opposition party, Libre, which is to hold primaries in November.

Libre is the political wing of the National People's Resistance Front, which former President Manuel Zelaya created after he was ousted in a June 2009 coup.

“Because of his activities and his commitment, Martínez was a marked man for the enemies of human rights and pluralism in Honduras, where 27 journalists have been killed in the past decade, 20 of them since the coup,” Reporters Without Borders said. “His case recalls the December 2009 murder of fellow journalist and gay rights activist Walter Tróchez, which is still unpunished.

“Who will conduct the investigation into Martínez's murder? When will it start? Will Honduran society carry out a much-needed debate about the causes he defended? His murder constitutes an attack not only on journalism but on all those who are involved in defending fundamental freedoms in Honduras.

“Recalling the requests we made when the Organization of American States readmitted Honduras in June 2011, we continue to support the principle of an international commission of enquiry to shed light on the most serious human rights violations that have taken place in recent years, including this one.”

Reporters Without Borders has just learned that HRN radio journalist and coordinator Alfredo Villatoro was kidnapped by gunmen while on his way to work this morning in Tegucigalpa. A search has been launched and we hope that he is found safe and sound quickly.

Freelance journalist Faisal Mohammed Salih was released on bail yesterday after being held for six days by the security forces in Khartoum. He is to be prosecuted on a charge of refusing to cooperate with the authorities under article 94 of the criminal code, which is punishable by a month in prison and a heavy fine.

“Salih deserves a public apology from the Sudanese authorities for this constant harassment but instead they are keeping up the pressure by bringing criminal charges,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call for the immediate withdrawal of the charges and for guarantees that he will be able to resume working without any further harassment.”

He was arrested on 9 May after being made to report to the office of the National Intelligence and Security Services in Khartoum every day since 25 April and spend six to seven hours there each time without being interrogated. The harassment began after he criticized President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in an interview for Al-Jazeera on 19 April.

2012.05.10 - Call for an end to harassment of detained journalist Faisal Mohamed Salih

The freelance journalist and human rights activist Faisal Mohamed Salih was arrested arbitrarily today in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The day before, he was held for eight hours at the office of the security forces where he was given nothing to eat or drink.

Reporters Without Borders is outraged at the violence and pressure to which the journalist, a former editor of the newspaper Al-Adwa, has been subjected for almost two weeks.

“We ask the Sudanese authorities to call a halt to such cruel intimidation, bordering on physical and psychological torture,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“The aim of these repeated detentions is to push him to his limit and at the same time to prevent him from doing his job. We call for Faisal Mohamed Salih‘s immediate and unconditional release.”

On 25 April, Salih was summoned to the office of the National Intelligence and Security Services in Khartoum where he was questioned by officers for several hours about critical comments he made about President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in an interview with Al-Jazeera on 19 April.

The next day, he was once again called the NISS office and subsequently spent seven hours a day there every day, until his arrest, without being questioned and with no legal proceedings or judicial investigation being undertaken against him.

“The constant harassment to which he has been subjected is further proof of the repressive attitude towards the press on the part of the Khartoum government, whose intention is to silence all dissident voices,” the press freedom organization added.

On 22 and 24 April and 3 May, the intelligence service seized all copies of the opposition newspaper Al-Midan as soon as it had completed its print run. No clear reason was given.

Besides preventing Sudanese citizens from being informed, this method of censorship causes severe financial losses for the media organizations concerned, which face a stark choice of self-censorship or closure.

Photo: Faisal Mohammed Salih (Deutsche Welle/K.Danetzki)

Read in Arabic (بالعربية)

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Hamin Ary, the editor of the Erbil-based Kurdish and Arabic monthly Chirpa (Al-Hamsah in Arabic), and the withdrawal of all the charges against him. He has been held since 7 May for reprinting an allegedly blasphemous article by Goran Halmat, a controversial Kurdish writer living in self-exile in Norway.

According to Erbil police chief Abdullah Khaliche Talate, Ary was arrested under article 372 of the Iraqi criminal code, which punishes “offences that violate religious sensibilities” and carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Reporters Without Borders regrets that the criminal code has again been applied to a media offence in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region instead of the region's Law 35, governing media offences, which makes no provision for the detention of journalists in connection with their work.

The media freedom organization also condemns comments by the region's prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, implicitly calling for the restriction of media freedom. “His comments, designed to flatter and calm the Islamists, are very disturbing, especially coming from a senior politician.”

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the intolerance and undemocratic methods of Kurdistan's Islamists, who use street demonstrations to achieve their goals instead of legal methods of protests. They could have brought a lawsuit against Chirpa and allowed the courts to decide.

Halmat's article, entitled “Me and God,” was reprinted in the Chirpa issue that was published on 3 May. The article, which imagines a conversation with God and which was originally posted on Facebook in 2010, is deemed by Islamists to be “offensive to Islam.”

Representatives of the Kurdistan parliament's rights commission and religious affairs commission met on 6 May with the Union of Ulemas, the Union of Journalists and the magazine's representatives to discuss the article's publication. Although Chirpa presented an apology, it was decided that the magazine would be suspended indefinitely.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Sawaf Mosque in central Erbil that evening. The Union of Ulemas and Islamist parties, including Jama'a Islamiya, called for a major demonstration on 8 May to protest against the article.

The next day, 7 May, Ary was arrested and Prime Minister Barzani condemned the article as an attack on Islam and criticized the lack of restrictions on media freedom in Kurdistan. In response, Jama'a Islamiya said it “trusted the prime minister to punish those responsible” and called off the next day's protest.

Around 2,000 people nonetheless marched through the streets of Erbil calling for Halmat's death and an attempt was made to set fire to Zagros TV, which is owned by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the region's two main ruling parties. Police intervened to disperse the protesters.

Halmat meanwhile said in an interview for Lvin Magazine that, when he wrote the article in 2010, he was targeting Mullah Krikar, the leader of the armed group Ansar Al-Islam, “Since then, it has been republished on the Internet without posing any problem,” he added.

The article's publication in Chirpa came at a time of tension between Islamist groups and Kurdistan's government. Several weeks before it appeared, Islamist parties had begun protesting against the sale of off-the-rack clothes with inscriptions that have a religious connotation in Arabic, and they seem to have seized on the article as another way of attacking the government.

Reporters Without Borders has written an open letter to Prime Minister Najib Razak urging him to guarantee press freedom in Malaysia, where the media are exposed to censorship and violence and where their independence is severely curtailed by the ruling coalition's political meddling.

The letter calls in particular for the immediate reversal of the interior minister's refusal to issue a print publication licence to the Malaysiakini news website, a decision that led the website's lawyers to lodge an appeal before the supreme court on 11 May.

Like the media freedom violations in connection with coverage of protests by the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (BERSIH), this decision has highlighted the government's determination to control news and information and its fear of the independent media that are developing in Malaysia.

Dear Prime Minister,

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that defends freedom of information, would like to draw your attention to the increase in difficulties for the media in Malaysia and to the lack of freedom of information, as regards both access and dissemination, which pose a serious threat to the general elections that are due to be held in the coming months.

When you took office, you urged to the media to criticize you and you promised more freedom. At the same time, you lifted the temporary ban that had been imposed on two opposition newspapers, Suara Keadilan, the mouthpiece of the party Keadilan, and Harakah, the mouthpiece of the Islamic party PAS.

However, the hopes raised by these promising moves were short-lived. Malaysia's ranking in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index fell in 2009 and 2010, and its improvement in 2011, which you made a point of mentioning on 19 March, was in fact due more to the sharp decline in the situation in a number of other countries rather than any improvement in yours.

We would like to express to you our concerns about the many persistent problems.

The very scant coverage in the main Malaysian media of the so-called “Bersih 3.0” protest on 28 April by the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (BERSIH) and the outrageous censorship of the BBC's coverage of the protest highlighted the urgency of the need to allow independent media such as Malaysiakini to provide your fellow citizens with news coverage that is free of any partisan influence.

The groundless refusal by the home minister (interior minister) to grant Malaysiakini a licence to publish a print version not only discourages critical and independent media but also runs directly counter to article 8 of the Malaysian constitution, which guarantees equality before the law, and article 10, which guarantees freedom of expression.

The refusal is all the more disturbing as it came just a few days after the extremely limited coverage of the major “Bersih 3.0” demonstration again turned the spotlight on the Malaysian print media's lack of independence, a problem repeatedly condemned by journalists, including those working for the main news outlets that are under the influence of your party, UMNO.

News websites and blogs have flourished in recent years as an alternative to the traditional, government-controlled media. By delivering quality journalism and tackling major subjects, the new media, and in particular, Malaysiakini, have earned themselves a great deal of credibility and are helping to provide the Malaysian public with news and information. Their development should be encouraged, not reined in.

You are also undoubtedly aware that the cartoonist Zulkiflee Anawar Ulhaque, better known as Zunar, is suing the police and your government for illegal arrest and detention, loss of art books and confiscation of 66 cartoon books in a police raid, as well as the loss of income resulting from the inability to sell these books. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 28 May.

Reporters Without Borders' recommendations

There will be repeated recourse to the judicial system during the coming days and weeks. Reporters Without Borders hopes that the courts will respond by doing their duty to protect the media and to guarantee fundamental rights including media freedom and freedom of information:

• Malaysiakini must be granted a licence to publish a print version and future requests from other online media seeking to publish print versions must be examined in a fair manner. An editorial position or policy critical of the government must not be used against a media that is seeking a licence.

• The home minister's discretionary power to grant and renew media licences must be revised. The recent amendments to the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act were insufficient in many respects. A complete overhaul is needed to this law, which continues to allow the government to put pressure on media that it regards as overly critical.

• The courts must recognize that the cartoonist Zunar has been the victim of physical, psychological, material and financial harassment. The unlawful censorship of his cartoons must stop.

• Your government must also give concrete undertakings to respect media independence, ensure that no external influence hampers the work of the media, and prevent any recurrence of censorship of the kind recently seen on Astro TV.

• We urge you to abandon the new Security Offences Act. Although this attempt to reform the Internal Security Act, dubbed the “white terror,” is admirable, it is not enough. The Security Offences Act would perpetuate authoritarian practices that run counter to the democratic transition and reforms your government claims to be engaged in.

Media freedom in Malaysia is far from assured. In the run-up to the general elections, we think it is vital that you should take a public position on these crucial problems affecting the future of freedom of information and expression in your country.

We thank you in advance for giving this matter your careful consideration.

Sincerely,

Olivier Basille Director general

Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a reporter for the independent news agency Hablemos Press, was arrested on 10 May and is being held in a police detention centre in Havana awaiting deportation in three days' time to his home town of Camagüey for the 10th time in two years.

His sister-in-law, Niurka Caridad Ortega, visited the journalist yesterday and told Hablemos Press she had “seen him and taken him some clean laundry, although he said he had stopped eating since Thursday and was spitting blood. It appears that the stomach ulcer from which he suffers has worsened.”

Reporters Without Borders said: “Calixto Ramón Martínez lives and works in Havana, where he also has relatives. On this basis, his expulsion to Camagüey contravenes the relaxation, passed at the end of last year, of the law on internal migration, which restricted the movement of people to the capital.

“The free movement of individuals is a basic right which the Cuban government must acknowledge, particularly if it decides to ratify the two United Nations pacts on civil and political rights that it signed in 2008.

“Why do the authorities insist in uprooting this man from his everyday surroundings? Is it because he recently reported, via Hablemos Press, that Havana was experiencing problems with its water supply? The subject deserves more than senseless reprisals against the journalist who raised it.

“This deportation – his 10th — would be laughable were it not for the fact that it exposes the refusal of the government, which claims to be aware of the need to change the way it governs, to establish an open and sustained dialogue with civil society.”

The press freedom organization also called for the journalist to be given all appropriate care.

Hablemos Press has recorded just over 1,900 detentions or hostile acts by the authorities towards dissidents since the start of the year, including 340 during April. The agency has itself been affected by the crackdown. Besides Martinez, two more of its journalists, Gerardo Younel Avila and Magali Norvis Otero, were each detained briefly, on 6 and 9 May respectively.

Not a day goes by without some new horror in Mexico. The media have again been targeted in with armed attacks on two newspapers in the past four days and, a week ago, the murder of a former reporter who was supporting a presidential candidate's campaign. Will it be possible to hold normal elections on 1 July amid such violence?

“With just a month and a half to go to federal elections to choose a president and fill other important posts, we call for an immediate end to the federal offensive against drug trafficking, in which the toll currently stands at more than 50,000 dead,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“The only thing that this undeclared war has achieved is to increase the endemic violence. To continue the offensive will just jeopardize the electoral process and the necessary public debate that depends on the participation of journalists and civil society actors.”

Self-censorship seems to have become the only defence for news media that are more exposed than ever to bombings and armed attacks. The latest target was El Mañana, a newspaper based in Nuevo Laredo (in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas), which was attacked on the night of 11 May. Shots were fired at the building's facade and car park, and a small explosive device was thrown at the building, the paper reported.

A member of El Mañana's staff confirmed to Reporters Without Borders that at least six vehicles in the car park received bullet impacts. The interior ministry announced the next day that the newspaper would get federal protection. The newspaper and its staff have been the target of armed attacks in the past and the 2004 murder of its editor, Roberto Mora, is still unpunished.

In Reynosa, also in Tamaulipas state, the premises of the newspaper Hora Cero were evacuated on 8 May after an anonymous caller warned that an attack was imminent. A few minutes later, six hooded gunmen open fire on the empty building. Incomprehensibly, the Tamaulipas State Attorney-General's Office (PGJE) initially denied that any attack had taken place.

From journalism to politics

Former reporter René Orta Salgado's body was found in the trunk of his car in Cuernavaca, in the central state of Morelos, on 13 May, three days after his family reported him missing. His face was covered by a cloth and his body had the marks of blows from a blunt object. The cause of death is thought to have been suffocation.

Aged 43, Orta had worked for 20 years for the crime section of the daily El Sol de Cuernavaca. He took leave from the newspaper last December in order to support the presidential campaign of Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Enrique Peno Nieto.

No fewer than 83 journalists have been killed in Mexico in the past decade and 14 others have disappeared. The overwhelming majority of these cases are unsolved and unpunished. The east-coast state of Veracruz is the latest epicentre of attacks on the media. A Veracruz journalist employed by the daily La Jornada recently fled the country.

Read in Arabic (بالعربية)

Reporters Without Borders condemns the raid carried out by the Egyptian police two days ago on the Iranian Arabic-language satellite TV station Al-Alam.

“The Egyptian authorities seized the station's equipment and issued a warrant for the arrest of the bureau's director, Ahmed Sioufi, on the grounds that Al-Alam did not have the necessary operating licences,” the press freedom organization said. “However, the station had made numerous licence applications in recent years without success.

“The Egyptian authorities appear reluctant to grant licences to certain media organizations so they can take punitive action against those that displease them at their discretion. Even if it was carried out legally, this raid qualifies as arbitrary.

“The Egyptian authorities must abandon such practices and give a clear and reasoned response to media organizations that apply for licences. We also demand the return of the seized equipment and the dropping of all proceedings against employees of the station.”

Police officers burst into the station's offices in broad daylight and seized all its equipment, including video cameras, broadcasting apparatus and computer hard disks. In addition, they detained correspondent Khaled Sioufi and public relations director Tamer Abou Gami for questioning, apparently as witnesses, before releasing them the next day.

The police had a warrant for the arrest of Ahmed Sioufi, who was reported to have gone on hunger strike in the face of what he considered to be a “gag attempt”. Since the raid was carried out, security forces are reported to have surrounded the station's Cairo premises – the main office in the city centre and another in the Dokki district – and threatened anyone trying to enter or leave with arrest.

An Al-Alam correspondent wrote on the station's website two days ago that the bureau had applied many times to the Egyptian authorities for the necessary operating licences, yet a decision was postponed each time and so far its application has not been granted.

Forced to work without a licence since it opened its bureaux in Egypt in 2004, Al-Alam was the target of a similar raid in 2008. Other stations were reported to have faced similar difficulties in obtaining operating licences.

The raid on Al-Alam appears to be part of a broader picture. The station is a propaganda organ of the Islamic Republic and is a bitter critic of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been running Egypt since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, regularly accusing it of perpetuating the repressive practices of the former regime.

Less than 10 days before the Egyptian presidential election, Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign affairs adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he hoped to see an Islamic government in Egypt.

Reporters Without Borders also points out that Iran, for its part, has refused to grant operating licences to several foreign media organizations, including Arabic-language satellite television stations.

The operation by the Egyptian police has attracted objections and criticism. Station employees demonstrated outside parliament yesterday, calling on members to take appropriate action to protect the media. The Egyptian Journalists' Union described the raid as “arbitrary”.

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information said in a statement the military “hates freedom of the press because it exposed their violations throughout the transitional phase”.

It also said two religious networks had encountered difficulties with the authorities in the past week. One, Al-Hikma, was threatened with closure after broadcasting comments on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that were deemed too virulent. The other, Al-Umma, which recently criticised the electoral commission, was raided by police and some of its equipment was reported to have been destroyed.

Last September, the Egyptian police used the pretext of having no operating licence to raid the premises of Al-Jazeera Mubasher Egypt, Egypt's affiliate of the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera, seizing its mobile broadcasting equipment and arresting a technician. That raid took place 48 hours after the station covered an attack by protesters on the Israeli embassy in Cairo. The scenes of chaos showed by the station prompted criticism of the government's handling of the incident and the passivity of the security forces.

Reporters Without Borders is disturbed by a spate of freedom of information violations in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale in the past two weeks, including the forced closure of a radio station, arrests of 11 journalists (three of whom are still detained) and threats against two journalists.

Officials hostile to media in North Kivu

Radio Liberté, a station located in Butembo, in North Kivu province, was shut down on 13 May on the mayor's orders by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), who arrested the nine journalists at the station when they arrived. Presenter Kashigwe Binjamin Pili Pili was arrested earlier the same day at his home.

“We are shocked by Radio Liberté's arbitrary closure although residents badly need the information it provides at a time of considerable violence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By what right does a local government official usurp the power of the courts to close a radio station? Since when do members of the ANR break the law by acting on behalf of private and partisan interests?”

Reporters Without Borders added: “This is an appalling abuse of power. We urge the authorities to release of the presenter, who is still held, and to allow the radio station to resume operating at once.”

The raid on Radio Liberté, owned by wealthy opposition politician Jean-Pierre Bemba, began at around 7 a.m. when ANR members accompanied by police and soldiers stormed into the station, grabbed all the journalists present and took them to the ANR's local headquarters in the Butembo district of Furu. The station's transmitter, generator and mobile phones were confiscated.

After learning about the raid from reports by other local media, Furu residents gathered outside ANR headquarters in the early afternoon to protest against the detention of the journalists, who were all finally released except the presenter, Binjamin, who is being held by the criminal investigation police.

The raid was prompted by Binjamin's telephone interviews during his morning “Animation Volcan” programme on 7 May with a rebel general identified as La Fontaine and a renegade army colonel identified as Kahasha who lead rebel forces fighting the regular army in the Lubero and Rutshuru regions south of Butembo.

Butembo's mayor reacted by issuing an order on 12 May closing the station for three months on the grounds that it was conducting “a campaign to denigrate the DRC government and demoralize loyalist groups, which constitutes an attack on state security.”

Local sources told Reporters Without Borders the closure order may have come from North Kivu governor Julien Paluku, who is known for his hostility to the media and who, on 2 May, threatened Radio Okapi journalist Gisèle Kaj Kaung, accusing her of bias and fraternizing with the rebels for broadcasting interviews with residents and ANR members on 30 April indicating that mutinous soldiers controlled certain areas and people were fleeing towards the Rwandan border.

“In a region that is prey to widespread violence and an armed rebellion, we urge the governor to act with restraint,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The responsibilities of his public office include a duty to protect media personnel who are just doing their job, not to expose individual journalists to even more danger by slandering them.”

Journalist in Danger (JED), a Reporters Without Borders partner organization, said Governor Paluku's comments about Kaung, coming in the current violent climate, were tantamount to “calling for her murder.” This is the second time Paluku has directly threatened her. In 2008, he accused her of being former rebel leader Laurent Nkunda's concubine.

Two journalists held on libel charge in Orientale province

Kisangani News editor Sébastien Mulamba and Mbuyi Mukadi, the newspaper's publisher, were arrested by intelligence officials and police on 9 May in Kisangani, the capital of Orientale province, for allegedly libelling local parliamentary representative Alphonse Awenze in a 15 April article accusing him of having an affair with another man's wife.

After 48 hours at police headquarters, they were transferred to Kisangani's main prison. If prosecutors decide to bring criminal libel charges against them, they could be facing a three-year jail sentence. Paradoxically, they had agreed prior to their arrest to publish Awenze's response in the newspaper by 15 May, and had been on their way to meet him when they were arrested.

“Without taking a position on the substance of the case, we deeply regret that these two journalists have been jailed in connection with their work,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We condemn their detention, for which the required legal and judicial procedures were not followed, and we call for their immediate release, so that they can prepare their defence at what we hope will be a fair trial.”

Reporters Without Borders continues to campaign for the decriminalization of media offences in the DRC.

Radio journalist ambushed by gunmen in South Kivu

David Mambo Munyaga, the manager of rural radio station Ondese FM in Kiliba, in South Kivu province, and fellow journalist Malega Muyuku were returning from a reporting trip on 30 April when they were ambushed by three masked gunmen but managed to escape on their motorcycle.

Munyaga, who had already reported receiving telephone threats in connection with his reporting, filed a complaint about both the threats and the ambush in the hope that the authorities will identify those responsible. Fearing for his life, he is now in hiding.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the dangerous climate prevailing in this region and urges the local authorities to do everything possible to put a quick end to the threats and attacks on journalists.

Photo: Long life to press freedom in DCR (AFP)

Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn that independent TV director Amon Thembo Wa'Mupaghasya was shot dead at around 1 a.m. on 12 May as he was returning to his home on the outskirts of the western city of Kasese after covering a wedding.

Thembo was gunned down by unidentified individuals who took his bag and video camera. The police have arrested several suspects but have not yet said what they think the motive was. Kasese is located near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We note that the police lost no time in beginning an investigation and we urge them to do everything possible to shed light on all aspects of this murder,” Reporters Without Borders said. “They should not rule out the possibility that it was linked to Thembo's work as a journalist. Regardless of the motive, this murder will alarm journalists in this region.”

Daily Monitor correspondent Enid Ninsiima, who knew Thembo personally, told Reporters Without Borders she was shocked by the news of his tragic death. “It is both sad and scary for us,” she said.

The Daily Monitor quoted Red Pepper correspondent Simon Turibamwe as saying Thembo had been attacked by unidentified individuals in the past and feared for this life after being threatened by local politicians.

Photo: Trails of blood on the ground (Spencer Platt/AFP)

Read in Arabic (بالعربية)

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the provisional release of eight journalists and bloggers who were arrested by intelligence officials during a raid on the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in Damascus on 16 February.

“The release of these eight news and information activists at the end of last week is a positive sign, but it should not divert attention from the fact they are still facing a court martial and that dozens of other journalists and netizens are still languishing in Syrian jails,” Reporters Without Borders said, reiterating its call for their immediate release.

Seven of the eight released – Yara Badr, Razan Ghazzawi, Mayada Khalil, Sana Zetani, Joan Farsso, Bassam Al-Ahmed and Ayham Ghazzoul – are SCM members. The eighth, Hanadi Zahlout, was visiting the centre at the time of the raid.

They are all due to appear before a military court on 29 May on a charge of “possessing prohibited documents with a view to distributing them,” which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence.

Five of the eight who are women – Badr, Ghazzawi, Khalil, Zetani and Zahlout – were released three days after the raid but were rearrested when they first appeared before the military court in Damascus on 22 April. The other three – Farsso, Ahmed and Ghazzoul – had remained in detention but were brought before the military court at the same time as the five women on 22 April. They spent at least part of their time in detention in solitary confinement.

Five other SCM members who were also arrested during the 16 February raid – Hussein Gharir, Hani Zetani, Mansour Al-Omari, Abdel Rahman Hamada and SCM president Mazen Darwish – have been held apart from the others and have not as yet been brought before any court.

Human rights lawyer Anwar Al-Bonni told Agence France-Presse during the weekend that he had received word that they might in poor health. The judge handling the case of the other eight has ordered that that Darwish appear as a witness at the 29 May hearing.

According to a Reporters Without Borders tally, at least 31 professional journalists, citizen journalists and cyber-activists are currently detained by the Syrian authorities.

12.05.2012 - Two Turkish journalists released but more than 37 Syrian journalists still held

Read in Arabic (بالعربية)

Reporters Without Borders is relieved to learn that two Turkish journalists who were captured while making a documentary in northwestern Syria two months ago were released today. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Iranian government acted as mediator in their release.

Adem Özköse, a reporter for the magazine Gerçek Hayat and the daily Milat, and cameraman Hamit Coşkun were abducted by a pro-government militia near the northwestern city of Idleb on 10 March and were handed over to a government intelligence agency.

IHH, a Turkish Islamist humanitarian NGO, announced on 5 May that it had managed to visit the two detained journalists in Damascus. Turgut Alp Boyraz, the head of foreign news at Milat, said they were able to telephone their families on 5 May for the first time since their capture.

Credit : AFP PHOTO/ IHH - Turkish journalists, reporter Adem Ozkose (L) and cameraman Hamit Coskun (R) posing with the President of the IHH Fehmi Bulent Yildirim in Damascus.

Announcing their release, the Turkish foreign minister said: “We expect that they will arrive in Tehran shortly. At our prime minister's request, we have sent a plane to Iran to bring back journalists.” They are expected to arrive in Turkey this evening or tomorrow, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

Reporters Without Borders said: “Their release is a big relief but more than 37 journalists and citizen journalists are still detained in Syria. We must not forget them.”

Sham trial before military court begins for detained SCM members

Seven members of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) who were arrested during a raid on the centre on 16 February, and a visitor to the centre who was arrested at the same time, appeared before a military judge in Damascus on 9 May, two days after the regime's sham election.

“Who is going to believe in this fake democracy if Bashar Al-Assad's government continues to detain and try professional journalists and citizen journalists?” Reporters Without Borders said. “Who do they expect to fool? We continue to be very worried about Syrian journalists and activists who are arrested, jailed and tortured for trying to tell the outside world what is happening in Syria.”

The eight detainees from the SCM raid who were brought before a military court on 9 May were Yara Badr, Razan Ghazzawi, Mayada Khalil, Sana Zetani, Joan Farsso, Bassam Al-Ahmed, Ayham Ghazzoul, and Hanadi Zahlout. They are facing up to five years in prison and a fine of 500 to 5,000 pounds (6 to 60 euros) on a charge of “possessing prohibited documents with a view to distributing them.”

The next hearing is scheduled for 29 May. The judge in charge of the case requested SCM founder and president Mazen Darwish's appearance as a witness.

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about Darwish and four other SCM members – Hussein Gharir, Hani Zetani, Mansour Al-Omari and Abdel Rahman Hamada – who were also arrested during the 16 February raid and who, unlike the others, have been held incommunicado ever since. There has been no direct news of Darwish since his arrest.

Another journalist arrested

Hassan Mohamed Mahmoud, a journalist and blogger, was released yesterday after being held incommunicado since his arrest by air force intelligence officers at his home in Salamieh, a town located between Homs and Hama, on 3 May.

Mahmoud has written opinion pieces for the Syria-news.com online newspaper, including this one published on 9 March, in which he uses conspiracy theory to explain the Arab revolts. Born in 1967 and a graduate in economics, he has participated in many demonstrations and advocates peaceful opposition to the Syrian regime.

The following is an incomplete list of the many other journalists and netizens who are detained or missing in Syria:

• Mary Iskander Issa, a journalist who was arrested with her husband Joseph Nakhla, a doctor, in the Damascus suburb of Jermana on 14 April. The security services accuse her husband of treating “terrorists” in their home.
  
• Assem Hamsho, a freelance journalist arrested in Damascus on 8 April.
  
• Mahmoud Ali Othman, a citizen journalist and resistance figure who was arrested on 28 March. He was one of the people running the Media Centre in the Homs district of Baba Amr while it was temporarily controlled by insurgents. Two journalists were killed and many others were wounded when the centre was shelled on 22 February. His forced confession was portrayed as interview in a Syrian TV programme on 28 April about the “secrets of Baba Amr.”
  
• Noura Al-Jizawi, an activist who was arrested in Damascus on 28 March. She is a member of the Syrian Revolution General Commission (an opposition coalition) and Flash News Network, and worked with the Syrian revolutionary newspaper Hurriyat.
  
• Jamal Al-Omar, a blogger arrested at the Lebanese border on 15 March. He was reportedly transferred recently to Deraa prison with a view to trying him before a military court.
  
• Jehad Jamal, a blogger arrested with Yara Michel Shammas on 7 March in Damascus.
  
• Deyaa Labdalla, a blogger arrested in Suweida on 13 February for sending an open letter to President Assad.
  
• Said Fahd Dairky, an engineer with the national television station who was arrested on 14 January for broadcasting video footage clearly showing that a pro-government demonstration had many fewer participants than the official media claimed.
  
• Mohamed Omar Al-Khatib, a journalist who was arrested on the outskirts of Damascus on 8 January after sustaining a gunshot injury. He worked for the business and local news sections of the newspaper Al-Watan.
  
• Moheeb Al-Nawaty, a Palestinian journalist who was reported missing on 5 January, a few days after arriving in Damascus.
  
• Alaa Al-Khodr, a journalist who was arrested in Deir Ezzor on 18 November 2011. He worked for the official news agency Sana until fired for publicly criticizing the regime's treatment of civilians.
  
• Qais Abazli, a blogger who was arrested near Jisr Al-Shoughour. He created the “Anti-corruption Syrians” blog.
  
• Alaa Shueiti, a cyber-activist who was arrested in Homs on 15 October 2011.
  
• Shibal Ibrahim, a journalist and writer who was arrested in Kamishli on 22 September 2011.
  
• Bilal Ahmed Bilal, a producer who was arrested in the Damascus suburb of Moadamieh on 13 September 2011. He worked for TV new station Falesteen Al-Yom.
  
• Hussein Issou, a journalist and writer who was arrested in Al-Hassakah on 3 September 2011. His family has not had any word of him.
  
• Amer Abdel Salam, a business journalist who was arrested on 30 August 2011, the day after promulgation of a new media law banning the imprisonment of journalists. It is not known where he is being held.
  
• Miral Biroreda, an activist, writer and blogger who was arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Al-Hassakah on 26 August 2011. According to the Kurdish Organization for the Defence of Human Rights and Civil Liberties (DAD), he is to be tried on 15 May for participating in demonstrations and writing about the Syrian revolution.
  
• Abdelmajid Rashed Al-Rahmoun, a journalist who was arrested on 23 August in Hama province. He worked for the daily Al-Fidaa.
• Tarek Said Balsha, a citizen journalist who was arrested in Latakiya on 19 August 2011. According to a recently released prisoner, he was placed in solitary confinement at the end of April 2012.
  
• Mohamed Nihad Kurdiyya, an engineer who was arrested in Latakiya on 17 August 2011 as he was about to be interviewed by Al-Jazeera.
  
• Abdel Walid Kharsah, a reporter who was arrested in Deraa on 17 August 2011 while covering the protest movement.
  
• Abd Qabani, a netizen who was arrested on 8 August 2011 in Damascus.
  
• Abd Al-Majid Tamer, a journalist who was kidnapped by security forces on 31 May 2011 in Kamishli. He is now said to be in Aleppo prison.
  
• Firaz Akram Mahmoud, a blogger who was arrested arbitrarily in an Internet café in Homs on 5 February 2011.
  
• Ahmed Ben Farhan Al-Alawi, a blogger arrested on 28 October 2010.
  
• Ahmed Ben Abdel Halim Aboush, a blogger held since 20 July 2010. He was previously held for six years, until freed on a presidential pardon on 2 November 2005.
  
• Tal Al-Mallouhi, a blogger who was 18 when she was arrested in December 2009. A state security court in Damascus sentenced her to five years in prison on 14 February 2012 on a charge of exchanging “intelligence with a foreign country.”
  

Reporters Without Borders is relieved at the release on bail yesterday of Jamal Al-Muhtaseb, who had been held in custody since 23 April charged with “inciting anti-government sentiment”.

However the press freedom organization added: “We can only regret that his release after 21 days in custody remains conditional and the charges still stand.

“In addition, we stress that the prosecution of a journalist before a military court is unlawful. Such a procedure is contrary to the Jordanian constitution and to international commitments to which the Jordanian state is a signatory. We ask the authorities to drop the charges against Jamal Al-Muhtaseb immediately.”

The prosecutor at the state security court ordered the release of Muhtaseb, editor of the Gerasa News website and the Al-Mir'aa weekly newspaper, on bail of 5,000 dinars (about 5,300 euros). Media workers had held demonstrations in Amman on 11 May to support demands for his release.

The charge against Muhtaseb, which carries a possible 15-year jail sentence, was prompted by an article quoting an unnamed parliamentarian as saying parliament had received royal directives not to indict former government minister Sahil Majali for alleged corruption in connection with the “Sakan Karim” low-income housing project.

Fellow Gerasa News journalist Sahar Al-Muhtaseb, who faces the same charges, was also released on bail of the same amount.

Under Jordanian law, these proceedings are unlawful and without foundation. Article 101 of the Hashemite Kingdom's constitution specifically prohibits the trial of any civilian by a military court, except on charges of high treason, espionage or drug trafficking.

25.04.2012 - Journalist to be tried before state security court for corruption case coverage

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Jordanian authorities to free journalist Jamal Al-Muhtaseb at once and to drop plans to try him before a military-run state security court in connection with his coverage of a corruption investigation. The editor of the Gerasa News website and the Al-Mir'aa weekly newspaper, Muhtaseb has been held since 23 April.

“Muhtaseb's detention is a serious violation of Jordanian law and freedom of information.” Reporters Without Borders said. “His reporting of this corruption case has been in the public interest. The illegal and arbitrary proceedings brought against him are indicative of the royal family's inability to accept being criticized or challenged. We call for his immediate release and the withdrawal of all the charges.”

Muhtaseb has been put in pre-trial detention in Amman's Juweida prison for an initial period of 14 days on a charge of “inciting anti-government sentiment,” which carries a possible 15-year jail sentence.

His arrest was prompted by an article quoting an unnamed parliamentarian as saying parliament had received royal directives not to indict former government minister Sahil Majali for alleged corruption in connection with the “Sakan Karim” low-income housing project.

According to Agence France-Presse, this gigantic project was launched in 2008 with an initial budget of 7 billion dollars with the aim of building 100,000 homes for low-income Jordanians. Muhtaseb has been alleging high-level government corruption involving Majali.

Using a state security court to try a journalist is completely illegal under Jordanian law and is indicative of the government's nervousness and determination to suppress freedom of information in this affair. Article 101, paragraph 2 of the Hashemite kingdom's constitution specifically bans trying a civilian before a military court on any charge other than high treason, spying or drug trafficking. But challenging the monarchy is clearly a red line that Jordan's press cannot cross.

Gerasa News reported yesterday that the state security court had deferred until today any decision on Muhtaseb's possible release on bail. The court gave no explanation for the postponement. Gerasa News reporter Sahar Al-Muhtaseb, who has also been charged in the same case, was released after she paid 5,000 dinars (5,300 euros) in bail.

Gerasa News was the victim of a cyber-attack on the night of 23 April, when users hacked into the website and deleted articles about Muhtaseb's arrest and the charges brought against him.

Around 50 journalists staged a sit-in outside the Jordan Press Association building on 23 April to protest against the use of a state security court to try Muhtaseb and to demand his immediate release. They repeated the sit-in yesterday morning and then demonstrated outside parliament in the afternoon.

Reporters Without Borders is relieved to learn that two Turkish journalists who were captured while making a documentary in northwestern Syria two months ago were released today. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Iranian government acted as mediator in their release.

Adem Özköse, a reporter for the magazine Gerçek Hayat and the daily Milat, and cameraman Hamit Coşkun were abducted by a pro-government militia near the northwestern city of Idleb on 10 March and were handed over to a government intelligence agency.

IHH, a Turkish Islamist humanitarian NGO, announced on 5 May that it had managed to visit the two detained journalists in Damascus. Turgut Alp Boyraz, the head of foreign news at Milat, said they were able to telephone their families on 5 May for the first time since their capture.

Credit : AFP PHOTO/ IHH - Turkish journalists, reporter Adem Ozkose (L) and cameraman Hamit Coskun (R) posing with the President of the IHH Fehmi Bulent Yildirim in Damascus.

Announcing their release, the Turkish foreign minister said: “We expect that they will arrive in Tehran shortly. At our prime minister's request, we have sent a plane to Iran to bring back journalists.” They are expected to arrive in Turkey this evening or tomorrow, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

Reporters Without Borders said: “Their release is a big relief but more than 37 journalists and citizen journalists are still detained in Syria. We must not forget them.”

15.03.2012 - Two Turkish journalists and Syrian assistants kidnapped in northwestern Syria

Read in Turkish / Türkçe

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the fate of two Turkish journalists, Adem Özköse, a reporter for the magazine Gerçek Hayat and the daily Milat, and cameraman Hamit Coşkun, who went missing near the northwestern city of Idlib five days ago.

According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, the two journalists and the Syrians who were accompanying them were abducted by Shabiha militiamen in the pay of the Assad governmentat at a checkpoint outside Kefraya, a Shiite village near Bannish, a town just to the northeast of Idlib.

The two Turkish journalists, who had entered Syria to make a documentary, were then reportedly handed over to the Syrian authorities.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Syrian authorities to release the two journalists and their Syrian assistants. Our fears have been reinforced by the information minister's statements on 9 March threatening foreign journalists who enter Syria illegally and the Syrians who help them.

On 9 March, the Syrian armed forces launched a major assault on Idlib, a stronghold of the opposition Free Syrian Army, with a reported civilian death toll of 114. The government forces now control the city but civilian casualties are said to be continuing. Communication with the city has been completely cut off.

More than a year after they came into force, Reporters Without Borders reiterates its demand for the repeal of India's information technology regulations, known as the IT Rules 2011, as activists and Internet users rally to the Save Your Voice campaign against these repressive measures.

Two of the movement's campaigners, the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and the citizen journalist Alok Dixit, were forced today to end a hunger strike they began on 2 May. Their health had deteriorated considerably and they were hospitalized.

“We have just ended the hunger protest, but not the struggle,” they were quoted as saying. They are demanding the repeal of the IT Rules and support a motion to this effect proposed by Shri. P. Rajeev, a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. The motion was due to be discussed on 11 May but was postponed until a later session. 

The IT Rules 2011 were adopted in April last year as an addition to the 2000 Information Technology Act, which was amended in 2008. They require Internet companies to withdraw any content deemed objectionable, particularly if its nature is “defamatory,” “hateful,” “harmful to minors,” or “infringes copyright” within 36 hours of being notified by the authorities, or face prosecution.

“This has turned technical intermediaries into Web censorship police informants,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Although some content categories are justifiably objectionable, other more vague or subjective definitions could jeopardize informational content.”

The IT Rules also impose on cybercafé owners drastic regulations that violate personal data privacy and place a presumption-of-guilt burden on all Indian netizens.

India was added in March to the list of countries under surveillance in Reporters Without Borders' latest report on Internet Enemies.

Reporters Without Borders deplores community radio presenter Habarugira Epaphrodite's detention since 24 April in the main prison of Gitarama, the capital of Muhanga district, on a charge of “minimizing” the 1994 Tutsi genocide and “spreading genocide ideology.”

Epaphrodite was arrested because, while reading a report about ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the genocide on community radio Huguka's morning new broadcast on 22 April, he mixed up the Kinyarwanda words for “victims” and “survivors,” making it sound as though he approved of the genocide.

His colleagues say it was just a slip of the tongue, pointing out that he read the same the news item the day before without any mistake. The radio station nonetheless fired him on 23 April and he was arrested the following day.

“Without defending what Epaphrodite said, we condemn the fact that he was placed in pre-trial detention for something he said on the air,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The prosecutor's 30-day detention order is out of all proportion to the offence. It will inevitably have the effect of intimidating all journalists and that is unacceptable.

“We urge the judicial authorities to free him so that he can prepare his defence for the trial, which we hope will be fair and impartial. His dismissal by his radio station on disciplinary grounds was already a severe punishment. The authorities do not need to add imprisonment.”

Reporters Without Borders continues to press for the decriminalization of media offences in Rwanda.

Photo: Harabugira Epaphrodite