Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists killed: el salvadorin a Baku prison hospital while servinga 10-year jail term on fabricated chargesof treason and incitement to ethnichatred. The next day, a PenitentiaryService spokesman told the Azeri PressAgency (APA) that the journalist appearedto have suffered a stroke. PenitentiaryService representatives claimedthat Mamedov had refused a transfer toa civilian hospital for treatment.The official statement was directlyat odds with accounts from the journalist’slawyer and supporters.Ramiz Mamedov, the editor’s lawyer,said the journalist told him twodays before his death that medicaltreatment had been inadequate and hishealth was deteriorating. The lawyer(no relation to the journalist) also toldCPJ that prison authorities refusedto release the editor on humanitariangrounds despite calls from the Councilof Europe’s representative to Azerbaijanand the country’s ombudsman.Novruzali Mamedov suffered fromhypertension, bronchitis, neuritis, anda prostate tumor, the lawyer said.Emin Huseynov, director of the Baku-basedInstitute for Reporters’ Freedomand Safety, told CPJ that prisonauthorities did not comply with a localcourt’s order to provide Mamedovwith medical treatment beginning inMarch. He said authorities refused toallow independent medical treatmentoffered by a European Union delegationthat visited the journalist in prisonin June.Azerbaijani authorities took Mamedovinto state custody in February 2007,initially on a trumped-up charge of resistingarrest, which was then changedto charges of state treason and incitementof ethnic hatred. A three-monthlong,closed-door trial culminated ina 10-year jail sentence. Authoritiesnever disclosed their evidence againstthe journalist. News reports said thecase was based on an allegation that hehad received money from Iran to publishTalyshi Sado, a tiny, twice-weeklypublication that served Azerbaijan’sethnic Talysh minority. The Talyshcommunity spans northern Iran andsouthern Azerbaijan. The paper foldedafter Mamedov’s arrest.COLOMBIA: 1José Everardo AguilarRadio Súper and Bolívar EstéreoApril 24, 2009, PatíaA man posing as a delivery personentered Aguilar’s home in southwesternCauca province around 7:15 p.m.,saying he had a package of photos todeliver, according to Ovidio Hoyos,director of the Popayán-based RadioSúper, where Aguilar worked. Onceinside, the assailant shot Aguilar threetimes and fled. The journalist died atthe scene, Hoyos told CPJ.Aguilar, 72, was a correspondentfor Radio Súper in the southern cityof Patía. He also hosted a daily newsprogram on the community radiostation Bolívar Estéreo, Hoyos said.The journalist had reported for RadioSúper for 10 years and was known forhis harsh criticism of corruption andlinks between local politicians andright-wing paramilitaries, accordingto CPJ interviews and local news reports.A 30-year veteran, he had alsoreported for national Caracol Radioand RCN.Local and national authorities wereinvestigating, Col. Luis Joaquín Camacho,commander of the Cauca police,told CPJ. On July 10, the ColombianNational Police arrested Arley ManquilloRivera, also known as “El Huracán,”at a routine checkpoint outsidethe provincial capital, Popayán, basedon witness descriptions of the assailant,according to an official police statement.Authorities said Manquillo hadbeen hired to kill the journalist, but alocal court acquitted the defendant inNovember.EL SALVADOR: 1Christian Gregorio Poveda RuizFreelanceSeptember 2, 2009, TonacatepequeSalvadoran police found Poveda’s bodysprawled near his car on an isolatedroad in the town of Tonacatepeque,about 10 miles (15 kilometers) fromthe capital, San Salvador, according tolocal and international press reports.He had been shot in the face at leastfour times at close range. Authoritiesfound an audio recorder and the journalist’spress credentials at the scene.Poveda, a 52-year-old Frenchmanof Spanish descent, had documentedviolence in El Salvador as a filmmakerand photojournalist over the course ofthree decades.Throughout 2008, the journalistworked on a highly anticipated documentaryabout one of the country’smost violent street gangs, Mara 18.During the filming, Poveda lived withgang members for 18 months. Thedocumentary, “La Vida Loca,” wasscheduled for wide release in Septemberand had already been screened atinternational film festivals. It showedbrutal killings, rites of initiation, andthe judicial system’s ineffectivenessin combating gangs. Local press reportssaid Poveda had received deaththreats from angry gang members.Tonacatepeque was controlled byMara 18, local press reports said. Atthe time of the murder, Poveda wasreportedly traveling from nearby LaCampanera, a town controlled by Mara18’s main rival, Mara Salvatrucha. Confrontationsbetween the two gangs havebeen extremely violent. Witnesses saidthey called police to the scene of thekilling after hearing several gunshots,according to local press reports.In September, local police arrestedfive suspects: four alleged members ofMara 18 and a police agent assignedto the emergency phone system in aneighborhood outside San Salvador,according to news reports. Authoritiessaid a sixth man, a Mara 18 memberalready jailed in connection with otherkillings, was the mastermind.254255