Some fifty-six out of 125 journalists jailed worldwide in 2008 were bloggers or editors or reporters for the web, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).However, others were tortured, killed or forced to go on exile by the repressive regime of their various countries. And many continue to have problems in course of their duties.CPJ executive director Joel Simon commented: “The future of journalism is on-line and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”
By Yemti Harry Ndienla
Among them two Nigerian bloggers, based in the United States; Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, and Jonathan Elendu, who were detained in Nigeria, in October. Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, editor of HuhuOnline, was “questioned over matters of national security”, according to a security spokesman while Jonathan Elendu of ElenduReports was held for ten days. He was asked about alleged links with another site SaharaReporters which published a picture of President Yar’Adua’s teenage son wielding an AK 47.Elendu said his detention “was the most horrible experience I have ever had”.
In Cameroon, Lewis Medjo, managing editor of the weekly, La Détente Libre, was arrested and later jailed in January for three years. He was accused of spreading false news in a report that President Biya was pushing out the president of the Supreme Court.
At least seven journalists were killed in Pakistan, against eight in 2007, and ten journalists in India. The Pakistani media make it clear that the toll reflects the unsettled situation particularly in areas bordering Afghanistan. One of these areas, Bajaur, has seen ruthless fighting between Pakistan’s army and local Taliban. In December, Taliban issued a fatwa saying two journalists deserved to be killed, as ‘agents of the West’. The press club in Khar, Bajaur’s capital, was hit by two rockets aimed at an army post on the roof. A journalist remarked: “If we report that civilians are killed by government or Taliban firing, we risk our lives.”
In the Swat valley, a TV man’s sister was killed when soldiers fired through the metal door of his house. A neighbour said that soldiers often fire when on the move, to keep militants at a distance. In the same area journalist Qari Muhammad Shoaib was killed in November. Soldiers shot at his car, believing him to be a suicide bomber. In January the Swat home of Dawn correspondent, Hameedullah Khan, was blown up. He had been forced to leave it by an army attack on December 28.
Canadian journalist Khadija Qahaar was kidnapped in November by Taliban. In the city of Peshawar, an Afghani and a Japanese journalist narrowly escaped kidnap. The Afghani was shot in the chest, arm and hand. Further west, in Baluchistan, two journalists were hurt when a bomb exploded outside newspaper offices in Quetta in October. In January a bomb thrown at an intelligence office in Baluchistan also damaged a TV booster station.
Away from the border, a newspaper editor was shot in November near Lahore and died four days later. Also in Lahore Ahmad Faraz, crime reporter for Geo News TV, needed 25 stitches in his head after he was attacked by security men at a gated housing estate in January. He had gone there after three men were killed during an armed robbery.
Ansar Abbasi, investigations editor at The News, Islamabad, has been told his life is under threat. On January 1, over 30 armed men from the Sindh Nationalist Front went to the office of the Sindhi daily Awami Awaz and threatened staff, reminding them they once broke a reporter’s legs. Editor-in-chief Jabbar Khattak said his paper had been under pressure from the SNF to publish its statements unedited.
Journalists’ other complaint, apart from insecurity, is pay. Those in the frontier areas complain they often do not receive it. A TV employee in Islamabad, Mohammed Azam Khan, killed himself at the end of November. He had not been paid for five months. Journalists held protest rallies in six cities against failure to pay a wage award dating from 2001.
Many more journalists are having hard times around the world. Fiji government has asked for the publishers and editors of the Fiji Times and the Daily Post to be jailed for six months for contempt of court. They published a letter from Australia criticizing the High Court for validating the 2006 military coup. Journalist Barbara Dreaver was put on a plane back to New Zealand when she arrived in December to cover a row between New Zealand and Fiji.
Four years after editor and government critic Deyda Hydara was shot dead in The Gambia, no one has been prosecuted for his murder. Key witnesses have disappeared, says Reporters sans Frontieres.
In Ghana, Metro TV complained to the police about attacks on its staff by supporters of the two presidential candidates. The attacks were in Accra, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Tamale. Journalists from Joy FM and Nhyira FM (Kumasi) and an opposition party cameraman also suffered assaults. In India, B.V.Seetaram, chief editor of a Mangalore evening, was detained with his wife in January on a charge of defamation filed two years ago. The case appears connected with his reporting of communal conflict.
Journalist Lenin Kumar Roy and two assistants were detained for ten days in December over a book exposing violence against minorities in the state of Orissa. Hindus and Christians have been in conflict there.
In Malawi, Joy Radio, which has had a lengthy battle with the government-appointed regulator, resumed broadcasting on December 16 after a month off the air. A judge said it could broadcast pending a judicial review of the decision revoking its licence. In Mozambique, Anibalzinho, convicted killer of leading journalist Carlos Cardoso, was on the run in December, having escaped prison for the third time. Staff members of the Abuja-based daily Leadership in Nigeria, were twice detained in November after it reported that Saudi Arabian doctors had been flown in to treat President Yar’Adua.
In Srilanka, a court in December rejected a plea that a confession by Tamil journalist J.S.Tissainayagam during his four months’ detention was made under duress. He and two colleagues are charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.Meanwhile two editors of the state-run Sunday Observer and Daily News were demoted in December after the papers reported remarks by the army chief. The remarks prompted a protest from India.
A son of a bishop in the Divine Healing Ministries in Swaziland, used fists and a knife to attack Swazi Observer news editor Ackei Zwane in a butcher’s shop on December 26. He complained of negative reporting of his father. He LATER gave himself up to the police. The bishop went with him. Mfonfo Nkambule, a popular columnist and former cabinet minister, apologised to the king for critical articles, after pressure from the police and a chief. Still in Swaziland, Media people were banned from covering a traditional ceremony in December. A South African TV crew had their equipment seized.
In Tanzania, Journalists protested on the streets of Dar-es-Salaam against a three-month ban on the weekly MwanaHALISI, which had reported an alleged plot to stop President Kikwete being re-elected in 2010. While in the United Kingdom, police found a new weapon against inquiring journalists – the offence of abetting misconduct in a public office. Sally Murrer of the Milton Keynes Citizen was accused of this after police put a bug in the car of her informant, a detective. Her reports in question related to a young offender, a footballer and a murder victim. She was cleared when a judge ruled that the public interest did not justify the bugging, which infringed her human rights.
In Zimbabwe, Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project and a former TV newsreader, who was seized from her home on December 3, was brought before a court on December 24. She and others were accused of organising a police officer’s trip to Botswana for training to overthrow President Mugabe. The peace project has constantly publicised political violence in Zimbabwe. A freelance photojournalist, Shadreck Manyere, disappeared ten days after Mukoko and was in court with her. Lawyers alleged they had been tortured and applied for medical treatment for them. Manyere denies charges of being involved in bombings. On his part Obrian Rwafa, an editor with state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting, was abducted and beaten in December by three men who accused him of lying about Zimbabwe’s situation.However, a disciplinary committee cleared Bhekinkosi Ncube, editor of the state-owned magazine Umthunywa, who had been accused of sending an e-mail insulting President Mugabe. Foreign media now have to pay 30,000 American dollars to operate an office in Zimbabwe.
Source: CJA
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