Corruption and Crime

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Guatemalan authorities to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the shooting of a two-man TV crew in Guatemala City on Wednesday. Unidentified gunmen killed veteran reporter Rolando Santiz and injured cameraman Antonio de León. At around 5:10 p.m., Santiz and de León, a news crew for the national television station Telecentro...

Gunmen shot and killed Honduran radio journalist Rafael Munguía Ortiz Tuesday night in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. Honduran authorities must conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into Munguía's killing and bring those responsible to justice, CPJ said today. At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, unidentified...

Russian authorities should thoroughly investigate the March 12 beating of Maksim Zolotarev, an editor at the independent newspaper Molva Yuzhnoye Podmoskovye in the town of Serpukhov, Moscow Region, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Zolotarev told Radio Svoboda—the Russian Service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—that three unidentified men in hooded jackets...

Ecuadoran journalist Emilio Palacio has told local reporters that he had received threats against himself and his family following a March 1 article criticising President Rafael Correa's weekly radio address. According to reports in the Ecuadoran press, Palacio, editor of the Guayaquil-based daily El Universo, said he has received multiple death threats via e-mail since late 2008. The journalist...

On February13, 2009, Venezuelan authorities arrested Rafael Segundo Pérez, a former sergeant for the Carabobo police, in connection to the January 16 killing of journalist Orel Sambrano, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. Pérez is accused of working as a hired assassin and conspiring to commit a crime. Police Commissioner Robinson Castillo told...

Vadim Rogozhin, managing director of the independent media holding company Vzglyad in the southern city of Saratov, was hospitalised in serious condition on March 10 after surviving a brutal attack last week, his company said in an official statement, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Two unidentified assailants attacked Rogozhin, 38, as he was leaving an elevator at his...

Centro de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala (CERIGUA) has warned of several incidents that the organisation has taken note of that could be part of a plan to undermine freedom of expression in the country. CERIGUA's director, Ileana Alamilla, said in a statement that in the beginning of February 2009, the CERIGUA website was hacked into, though personnel within the organisation were able to...

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has expressed great concern over the trial of the Omani journalist and internet activist Ali al-Zwaidi who allegedly violated article 61 of the Omani communications law. The crime carries a sentence of up to a year in prison and a fine of one thousand Omani riyals (approx US$2,600). In August 2008, al-Zwaidi, a supervisor of the discussion...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Belarusian authorities to renew work credentials for Andrzej Poczobut, a local correspondent for Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and to investigate recent harassment of him and his family in the western city of Hrodno. Poczobut's credentials were pulled off after he reported on the policies of President Aleksandr Lukashenko and the...

Faramaz Novruzoglu (Allahverdiyev), editor and head consultant for Nota newspaper, has received anonymous death threats. The IRFS Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS) informed by Novruzoglu that unknown individuals called him and threatened him and his family members. Novruzoglu believes that these calls are related to his recent series of articles about the Antiterrorism Centre of the...