Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010told CPJ that authorities had offered to free Maung Maung Zeya if hedivulged the names of other undercover DVB reporters. Charges werepending as of December 1.Burundi: 1imprisoned: july 17, 2010Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, Net PressPolice arrested Kavumbagu, editor of the online news outlet Net Press,on treason charges stemming from commentary critical of the country’ssecurity forces. The July 12 piece came a day after deadly twinbomb attacks in neighboring Uganda.The hard-line Somali insurgency Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibilityfor the Ugandan bombings, threatened more attacks if Ugandaand Burundi did not withdraw military forces deployed in Somalia insupport of the federal government there, according to news reports.Kavumbagu’s opinion piece questioned the ability of the Burundiansecurity forces to prevent bomb attacks similar to those that struckUganda.Defense lawyer Gabriel Sinarinzi told CPJ that Kavumbagu was beingheld in pretrial detention at Mpimba Prison in Bugumbura. The chargecould bring life imprisonment.Kavumbagu had been imprisoned in 2008 on defamation charges relatedto an article critical of the amount of money spent on a presidentialtrip to the Beijing Olympics. That charge was eventually dismissed,Sinarinzi said.China: 34imprisoned: june 24, 2000Xu Zerong (David Tsui), freelanceXu was serving a prison term on charges of “leaking state secrets”through his academic work on military history and “economic crimes”related to unauthorized publishing of foreign policy issues. Someobservers believed that his jailing might have been related to an articlehe wrote for the Hong Kong-based Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly)344