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Posts Tagged ‘journalist’

Gambia media jail terms ‘unjust’

August 7th, 2009 | No Comments

President Yahya Jammeh

A media watchdog has criticised two-year jail terms handed down to six Gambian journalists for publishing a statement criticising the president.

They were found guilty of six counts of defamation and sedition.

The journalists had questioned Yahya Jammeh’s declaration the government was not responsible for the 2004 death of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the sentencing reflected a "partisan judicial system".

"President Jammeh has managed to nail the coffin shut for press freedom in The Gambia," CPJ’s Tom Rhodes said in a statement.

A poster saying: "Who killed Deyda Hydara"

The head of The Gambia Press Union, Ndey Tapha Sosseh, told the BBC she was "shocked" by the harsh outcome of the trial.

Mr Hydara, a vocal critic of strict media laws, was gunned down but nobody was charged with his murder.

Since then the privately owned newspaper he edited, The Point, has incorporated into its masthead his photo, with the question: "Who killed Deyda Hydara"

It is three years since another prominent journalist Chief Ebrima Manney went missing.

President Yahya Jammeh came to power through a coup in 1994 and has won three multi-party elections since then.

But amid claims of plots to oust him, dozens of people have been arrested and unlawfully detained.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Calls for new inquiry at Politkovskaya retrial

August 6th, 2009 | No Comments

Three men suspected of being involved in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya have gone on trial for a second time in Moscow. Two brothers and another man appeared in the dock after being acquitted last February.

Sudanese journalist faces 40 lashes for wearing ‘trouser’

August 4th, 2009 | No Comments

A Sudanese journalist facing 40 lashes for wearing “indecent” trousers returns to court on Tuesday after waiving immunity granted UN workers so that she can challenge Sudan’s harsh laws. Journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein is to be judged under Article 152 of Sudanese law, which decrees up to 40

Ukraine finds ‘reporter’s skull’

July 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Georgiy Gongadze (August 2000)

Ukrainian investigators say they have found skull fragments believed to be those of the journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, who was decapitated in 2000.

The find came just days after the arrest of a former Ukrainian general suspected of carrying out the murder.

Mr Gongadze was an investigative journalist who had exposed high-level corruption. He was an outspoken critic of former President Leonid Kuchma.

Three policemen were convicted of his murder last year.

Ukrainian investigators said Gen Oleksiy Pukach, a former police officer himself, had confessed to the killing last week when he was arrested, after spending years on the run.

Mr Gongadze’s decapitated body was found in a forest near the capital, Kiev, in September 2000, months after his abduction. He had been beaten and strangled, his body doused in petrol and burned.

Prosecutors allege that Gen Pukach – who was detained near Kiev – organised the abduction and personally strangled Mr Gongadze.

National scandal

Gen Pukach headed the interior ministry’s surveillance department at the time of the killing.

Video handed-out by Ukrainian secret services shows general Oleksiy Pukach during his arrest by security services (21 July 2009)

But Mr Gongadze’s family has always claimed someone more senior was behind the killing.

Secret tape recordings released soon after the killing appeared to implicate the then-President, Leonid Kuchma.

In the recordings – made secretly by a member of his personal guard and then released by an opposition politician – Mr Kuchma allegedly discussed ways of removing the journalist with a former interior minister, Yuri Kravchenko.

The latter was later found dead and was said to have committed suicide.

Mr Kuchma did not deny the voice in the recordings was his, but insisted it was doctored to make him appear to say things he did not actually say.

The scandal prompted massive street protests against Mr Kuchma’s government. He was later ousted in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Sarah Palin: ‘She’s An Ignorant Demagogue’ (VIDEO)

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

Journalist Carl Bernstein joined the “Morning Joe” panel to discuss Sarah Palin formally relinquishing the governorship of Alaska yesterday.

And he did not mince words regarding her fitness for national office, calling Palin “ignorant” and a…

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy: The Other Walter Cronkite

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

Walter Cronkite was much more then an expert journalist. As a man of personal faith who loved his country and its Constitution, Walter Cronkite looked on with alarm as self-appointed religious
authorities attempted to prescribe policy for the government.

Georgiy Gongadze Murder: Ukraine General Admits To Killing Journalist

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

A former Ukrainian general suspected of carrying out the high-profile murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze has reportedly confessed to the killing.

Ukraine general ‘killed reporter’

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Ukrainian police have arrested a key suspect in the murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze, whose killing nine years ago prompted widespread protest.

Oleksiy Pukach was the chief of the interior ministry’s surveillance department at the time of the killing.

He was the fourth man named by prosecutors as a suspect in the killing. The three others – all former policemen – were jailed last year.

Mr Gongadze’s decapitated body was found in a forest in September 2000.

He had been beaten and strangled, his body doused in petrol and burned.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Pukach – who was detained near the capital, Kiev – organised the abduction and personally strangled Mr Gongadze.

Three others were jailed for the murder last year. Mykola Protasov was given a sentence of 13 years, while Valeriy Kostenko and Oleksandr Popovych were each handed 12-year terms.

But Mr Gongadze’s family has always claimed someone more senior was behind the killing.

The investigative journalist had exposed high-profile corruption.

Secret tape recordings released at the time – allegedly implicating the then-President, Leonid Kuchma – caused a political scandal, and led to widespread street protests.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leading Journalist Confirms that Government Could Take Over the Power of Money-Creation for the Public Good

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

William Greider is a former Washington Post and Rolling Stone editor, and now writes for the Nation. Greider has written numerous books and articles on the economy over the course of many decades, including the leading book on the Federal Reserve, Secr…

Will Bunch: Walter’s Choice –Cronkite’s Lesson for Today’s Journalists

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

I have to start with a confession — I did not grow up in a Walter Cronkite household. I’m not sure why — I was…

U.S. TV anchor Walter Cronkite dies

July 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Walter Cronkite, the broadcast journalist once called “the most trusted man in America”, has died late Friday at the age of 92 after a long illness. The longtime television news anchor kept Americans informed about the great news events of the second half of the 20th century.

John R. Bohrer: Senator Cronkite

July 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Walter Cronkite was a liberal and no, he didn’t have a problem with that. He was not afraid to express opinions when the situation called for it; he just insisted it be marked an editorial.

Shirin Neshat: A Cry for Help: An Open Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Maziar is a jewel of an artist to any society. Let us protect our artists so they can live to go on to tell our stories.

Kyrgyz journalist death ‘private’

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev

The authorities in Kyrgyzstan have said a police officer has confessed to getting into a fight with journalist, Almaz Tashiyev, causing his death.

Officials said the policeman was off duty and that the argument was unrelated to the journalist’s work.

Mr Tashiyev’s relatives said he was beaten up by several officers in the incident in the south of the country.

The European security organisation, the OSCE, urged Kyrgyzstan to halt a wave of attacks on journalists.

The OSCE said last month that the attacks were threatening media pluralism ahead of presidential elections scheduled for 23 July.

Shed light

The journalist died in hospital in his home town of Nookat on 12 July after falling into a coma after the incident on 4 July.

Relatives who attended Mr Tashiyev’s funeral on Monday said he told them before an operation for his injuries that he was beaten by eight police officers days earlier in the southern town of Nookat.

But the authorities insist the fight was private.

"That was a usual fight, not related to Almaz Tashiyev’s professional activities," Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Sadyrbek Kurmanaliyev told a news conference

He said the Nookat district prosecutor’s office in the southern Kyrgyz Osh Region was investigating the incident.

"We have a recording in which the police officer admits to having beaten the journalist," Kyrgyz Interior Minister Moldomussa Kongantiev told AFP news agency.

"On the road, (Mr Tashiev) met a friend, a police officer. However, there was a private quarrel between them. The officer was out of uniform," Mr Kurmanaliev told reporters in Bishkek.

The French foreign ministry condemned the incident, calling on authorities in the Central Asian state to "shed light" on the tragedy.

Mr Tashiev, 32, is the sixth independent journalist in Kyrgyzstan to suffer violence this year.

He was a social affairs reporter whose articles in the newspaper Agym often criticised the government’s performance.

Electricity shortages and rampant unemployment are causing widespread discontent in the former Soviet republic.

Critics of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev say the government has tried to stifle opposition ahead of an election during in which he is widely expected to win a second term.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.