Corruption and Crime

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the sabotage attempt against LT6 Radio Goya in Corrientes, capital of the province of the same name in Argentina. Saboteurs cut through the cables of the radio’s aerial, preventing it from broadcasting on its usual frequency and reaching all its listeners. The 70-metre structure supporting the aerial collapsed suddenly on January 12 taking programmes...

The mayor and local police of the town of San Pedro Jicayán, in the state of Oaxaca, burnt 1,000 copies of a newspaper and detained a newspaper vendor for several hours on January 11. The newspaper Noticias Voz e Imagen had published information that reflected poorly on the administration of Mayor Leonardo Silva Palacios, the Centro de Periodismo y Etica Publica (CEPET) has reported. While on his...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned an attack on the home of Carlos Velasco Molina, editor of the weekly El Correo de Oaxaca, in the southwestern city of Oaxaca in the early hours of January 9. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at his house, starting a fire but causing no injuries. Fearing the possibility of violence, Velasco had moved his family to a different location a few weeks ago...

Four people have reportedly been arrested for the murder of journalist and women’s rights activist Uma Singh, who was stabbed to death in her home in the southeastern lowland city of Janakpur on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. At the same time, local news website Republica quoted state-owned Nepal TV on January 12 as reporting that an underground group had claimed...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on authorities in the northern Russian city of Murmansk to thoroughly investigate the death of Shafig Amrakhov, editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51. Amrakhov died in a Murmansk hospital on January 5, having slipped into a coma after at least one unidentified assailant shot him in the head several times a week earlier. The type of...

Algerian authorities have been urged to ensure an effective investigation into a murder attempt against Hafnaoui Ghoul, a journalist on the daily Al-Wassat and a human rights activist, at his home in Djelfa (250km south of Algiers) overnight on January 6-7. A group of hooded assailants armed with a knife were lying in wait for him, gagged him and ripped his clothes. They fled without being...

A woman reporter who worked for a local radio station in a troubled region of southeast Nepal has been stabbed to death by a group of unidentified assailants. Uma Singh, also a member of a rights group, Women's Human Rights Defenders Network, Dhanusha, was attacked late on Sunday while she was sitting in her home in Janakpur, 98 km southeast of Kathmandu. A group of 14 people attacked Singh, a 24...

Police in the southern Tajik city of Kulob have detained two people for attacking Abdumumin Sherkhonov, the editor in chief of the newspaper "Pazhvok" and an RFE/RL freelancer. Both suspects have confessed to their participation in the attack. A third man sought for involvement in the crime has not yet been arrested. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported: [ Link] Sherkhonov says he was...

Press freedom groups have expressed shock at the December 30, 2008 announcement that Cláudio Orlando "O Ratinho" do Nascimento, like Claudino "Xuxa" dos Santos Coelho before him, has been granted a partial release for "good behaviour." The two men, known members of a Rio de Janeiro gang, were sentenced in 2005 to 23 years and six months in prison for the June 2002 murder of TV Globo reporter Tim...

A group of unidentified individuals bought off copies of the Perú 21 newspaper from newsstands in the district of Chosica, east of Lima, on January 3 ostensibly to stop the public from learning about allegations of fuel trafficking involving authorities and 27 police officers in the district, the Lima-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) has reported. According to journalist Elizabeth Salinas...