Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009asia: snapshotsSNAPSHOTSattacks & developments throughout the regionBANGLADESH»»»»India’s Border Security Force detained Shahidul Alam, chief editor of theBangladesh-based photo agency DrikNEWS, on June 16 in Kurigram districton charges of illegally crossing Bangladesh’s northern border, accordingto local news reports. Alam, an internationally known photojournalist whoserved on the advisory board of the National Geographic Society, told localjournalists that Indian officials had lured him across the border. Alam wastransferred after six hours to Bangladesh, where a local court charged himwith illegally entering India. He was granted bail, and the charges were laterdropped.On September 10, unidentified gunmen shot computer technician HasanChowdhury in the offices of Fulki, a newspaper in Savar, Dhaka district.Chowdhury suffered serious injuries to the abdomen. On September 16, aman claiming to be a leader of a local criminal gang telephoned Fulki EditorNazmus Shakib and said he had carried out the attack on behalf of an unnamed“influential quarter.” Local press freedom groups, including the BangladeshFederal Union of Journalists, said the shooting was part of a patternof criminal attacks targeting critical newspapers.CAMBODIA»»A Cambodian court sentenced Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the oppositionKhmer-language daily Khmer Machas Srok, to one year in prison on June 26for his reports on alleged government corruption. The court said Chakra hadviolated criminal disinformation laws by publishing a series of articles accusingofficials under Deputy Prime Minister Sok An of corruption, according to theSouth East Asian Press Alliance. He was also fined 9 million riels (US$2,194),the alliance said. A three-judge appellate panel upheld the sentence on August11, the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported. Chakra apologizedfor the articles in September, local news reports said, but he remained in jail.»»In September, a court in Phnom Penh fined Cambodian Daily Editor-in-Chief Kevin Doyle, an Irish national, and reporter Neou Vannarin 4 millionriels (US$960) apiece, according to Radio Free Asia. The two had been foundFIJI»»»»liable in a civil defamation case stemming from an April report quoting oppositionleader Ho Vann as being critical of certification earned by Cambodianmilitary officials after a yearlong program in Vietnam. Several officialswith close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen had received the certification. HoVann later claimed that he had been misquoted in the Daily report.Fiji’s interim government declared a state of emergency on April 10, overthrowingthe constitution and imposing severe reporting restrictions, after acourt of appeal called caretaker Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s militaryrule illegal. The emergency regulations, repeatedly extended and still in effectin late year, banned “negative” reports about the military regime. Governmentofficers were stationed in newsrooms with authority over content, accordingto international news reports. Bainimarama had promised to restore democracyin 2009 after toppling the former government in a 2006 coup, but he hasdeferred elections until 2014.Officials expelled Sean Dorney, Pacific correspondent for the AustralianBroadcasting Corporation, and Sia Aston and Matt Smith of New Zealand’sTV3 television station, in April because of their reporting on the wave ofcensorship, according to news accounts. Two journalists who reported onDorney’s expulsion were themselves detained, according to the Pacific FreedomForum, a press freedom group, and local Web sites. Authorities heldFiji Television journalist Edwin Nand for 36 hours, and freelancer Pita Ligaiula,who worked for news outlets including The Associated Press and theregional news agency PACNEWS, for 24 hours.INDIA»»Karnataka State Police arrested B.V. Seetaram, chairman and editor-in-chiefof the media group Chitra Publications, and his wife, Rohini, the group’s director,in the state’s Udupi district on January 4. The arrests were connectedto two-year-old criminal charges of offending a religious group, filed againstChitra’s Kannada-language newspapers, Karavali Ale and Kannada Janantaranga,according to local news reports. Seetaram said the detentions werepart of a campaign of harassment against Karavali Ale for reports criticizinglocal authorities, according to news reports. The couple were freed onFebruary 3 and the Karnataka High Court later awarded them damages forillegal arrest, the reports said.150151