Corruption and Crime

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned last week’s seizure of all 40,000 copies of Izvestia Kaliningrada, a weekly published in Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad. It was the latest example of regional governors abusing their power to silence media that annoy them. “We are disturbed to see this form of censorship used more than once in a short space of...

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a threat in a phone call to the chairman of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge, on July 19 because of an article reporting that China had given the president and his son, parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, money to be used “at their discretion.” “We are extremely shocked that the president personally phones journalists in order to threaten them.” Paris...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has caleld for a swift and thorough probe into the July 31 arson attack on the home of Oleksiy Matsuka, a well-known investigative journalist based in the eastern city of Donetsk. Matsuka edits the regional news website Novosti Donbassa. “The authorities must react with firmness and, as this journalist’s life is clearly in serious...

The discovery of the body of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a crime reporter and columnist for the regional daily Notiver on July 26 in the east-coast port city of Veracruz, adds her name to the long list of journalists who have been murdered or have disappeared in Mexico. A total of 77 have been killed since 2000 and 23 have gone missing since 2003. According to a Paris-based press freedom group...

Auro Ida, a renowned political journalist in the west-central state of Mato Grosso and editor of the Midianews website, was gunned down in Cuiabá, the state capital, on July 22, becoming the fourth journalist to be murdered in Brazil since the start of the year. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) offered its condolences to his family and colleagues, and called on the...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the latest arson attack on a car displaying the colours of the Podgorica-based daily Vijesti on the night of July 23. It was the third such attack on a Vijesti vehicle in the space of a week . In the latest incident, an unidentified individual tried to set fire to a Vijesti car parked on the street but a policeman who...

Nery Jeremías Orellana, 26, the manager of Radio Joconguera in the town of Candelaria, in the western department of Lempira, was gunned down July 14 morning, bringing the number of Honduran journalists killed since the start of the year to three. A total of 12 journalists have been killed in the past 18 months in Honduras without any of their murders being solved, according to Paris-based press...

An arson attack was carried out on two cars owned by the independent daily Vijesti in the early hours of July 14 in Podgorica. Unidentified individuals dowsed the two parked cars with gasoline before setting them alight and fleeing. The cars were clearly marked with the newspaper’s colours, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “We firmly condemn this latest attack...

Mashiyul Haque, the correspondent of daily Dainik Samakal and president of the Kalia Press Club, and his wife, Reena Parvin, were badly injured in a bomb attack on their home on July 11 in the southwestern locality of Kalabaria, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). They were taken to a hospital in the capital, Dhaka, where they were reported to be in a...

Angel Castillo Corona, a journalist based in Ocuilan, in the central state of Mexico, was beaten to death on the highway from Ocuilan to nearby Tiaguistenco on July 3. His unidentified assailants also killed his 16-year-old son, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The press freedom organisation urged the authorities to react to the seemingly endless...