Archives 2005-1014: Features
A year has gone by since Christian Poveda, a French photojournalist, documentary filmmaker and politically-committed observer, was shot dead in a San Salvador suburb on September 2, 2009, probably by members of a local gang. His death has deprived his profession of one of its best-informed specialists in Central America, a region often ignored by the international press. After covering the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1970s and 80s, Poveda returned to El Salvador during the... MORE
Desi Bouterse, sworn in Thursday as President of Suriname, continues to be charged with the murders of five journalists in 1982, while he was dictator. A soldier by profession, Bouterse has been returned to power by an election. He first came to power in a coup on February 25, 1980 and went on to run the country with an iron hand for two periods, 1980-1987 and 1990-1991, violating fundamental human rights with no compunction. The five journalists were among a total of 15 pro-democracy activists... MORE
If you’re a journalist trying to capture footage of political unrest in Thailand, be warned. Only a few have escaped unscathed from the hands of death while being among the fierce battles between security forces and protesters. Two journalists died and several others were injured during the country’s political unrest. New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has carried out an investigation and have found that both security forces and protesters engaged in... MORE
In Honduras, the political condition is so bad that criminals are able to kill journalists freely with no worries. In a matter of weeks, seven journalists have been murdered and the Honduran authorities have been tardy in their attempts in pursuing the killers. Spanning from the beginning of March till mid June, seven murders is a disconcerting count during such a short time in a country with a population of just 7.5 million. With most of the murders being clear assassinations carried out by... MORE
Social media is becoming more influential by the day. If the May elections in the UK were anything to go by, social media has been an influencing factor for those aged between 18 and 24. A recent study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows that politics has caught on with the youth with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter becoming important in communicating with voters. Dubbed by many as the “internet campaign” or “social media campaign”, these elections... MORE
Those responsible for Zahra Kazemi's death have enjoyed complete impunity for the past seven years, thanks in part to the silence and passivity of the international bodies that are supposed to protect human rights. Mistreatment, rape and torture are common in Iranian prisons. Those behind the murders of prisoners, such as former Tehran prosecutor general Sayeed Mortazavi, continue to hold important posts within the political apparatus. A resident of Canada, Iranian-Canadian photo-journalist... MORE
In the year since former journalist Natalia Estemirova’s abduction and murder on July 15, 2009 in the Russian Caucasus, little progress has been made in the investigation. The impunity that prevails in cases of violence against journalists and human rights activists in Russia seems to have triumphed again. No suspect has yet been identified and key questions remain unanswered. Estemirova’s colleagues fear that the authorities will blame her murder on a deceased “boyevik” (Chechen rebel),... MORE
Silvio Berlusconi is sending out a message as he and his allies fall victim to a string of embarrassing phone call leaks: Stop listening. The Italian premier is pressing a bill to limit the use of investigative wiretaps that have been the source of numerous scandals, but there is fierce opposition to curbing official eavesdropping in one of the world's most wiretapped nations. Magistrates warn the contentious legislation winding through parliament would damage their fight against the Mafia,... MORE
Eritrea now has at least 30 journalists and two media workers behind bars, which means that, exactly eight years after the round-ups of September 18, 2001 that put an end to free expression, it has achieved parity with China and Iran in terms of the number of journalists detained. The three most important waves of arrests of the past eight years were in September 2001, November 2006 and February 2009. Thirty journalists and two media workers are currently detained, without trial. “Eritrea’s... MORE
Long destabilised by efforts to defeat the Taliban, the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar has become even more dangerous since the recent presidential elections. Besides the daily threat of being caught up in an attack by insurgent groups, several local journalists say they fear beatings, detentions, or worse in retribution for their reporting. Journalists say they are particularly concerned about threats from officials connected with the provincial council, which is headed by your... MORE
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