Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: iranPolice arrested Chaudhury, a correspondentfor the Oriya-language Sambaddaily, in Mohana, a southern areaof eastern Orissa state, for alleged involvementwith antigovernment Maoistgroups, according to local news reports.His detention was based on a packet ofMaoist literature addressed to the jourcrackdownon the press, was convictedin connection with a 2004 story alleginghuman rights violations againstthe ethnic Oromos, the largest ethnicgroup in the country, according to localjournalists.Ali and Wedajo were being held atKality Prison, outside the capital, AddisAbaba, pending appeals in theircase. The Ethiopian government hashad a longstanding practice of revivingyears-old criminal cases, some ofthem seemingly dormant, as a way tosilence critical journalists.GAMBIA: 1“Chief” Ebrima MannehDaily ObserverIMPRISONED: July 7, 2006Manneh, a journalist for the statecontrolledDaily Observer, was arrestedafter he tried to publish a BBCreport critical of President Yahya Jammeh.His colleagues witnessed his arrestby two plainclothes officers of theNational Intelligence Agency on thepremises of the Daily Observer.Demba Jawo, a former president ofthe Gambian Press Union, said Mannehmay have been further targetedfor his reporting of the 2005 killing ofGhanaian immigrants in the Gambia.Gambian security agencies and policehave consistently refused to provideinformation on the journalist’swhereabouts, health, or legal status.Manneh has been seen but a fewtimes since his arrest. A fellow journalistreported seeing him on the groundsof Fatoto Prison in late 2006. The nextyear, witnesses told the Ghana-basedpress freedom group Media Foundationof West Africa that Manneh wasbeing treated for high blood pressureat the Royal Victorian Teaching Hospitalin Banjul.The case has galvanized a variety offorces to pressure the Gambian government.In November, the U.N. WorkingGroup on Arbitrary Detention determinedthat Manneh’s imprisonmentwas unlawful under international lawand called on the Gambian governmentto release him immediately. In April,U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin led a groupof six colleagues in calling for Manneh’srelease. And in 2008, the CommunityCourt of Justice of the Economic Communityof West African States orderedthe Gambian government to releaseManneh and compensate his family foran illegal detention.INDIA: 1Laxman Chaudhury, SambadIMPRISONED: September 20, 2009nalist and found in the possession ofa bus conductor who was arrested thesame day, the reports said. Chaudhurydenied any knowledge of the packet orhaving any connection with Maoists.Chaudhury, 40, was denied bail bytwo lower courts and charged withcriminal conspiracy and sedition, localnews reports said. Sedition, which includesinciting hatred against the governmentthrough the written word,carries a possible life term, accordingto the Indian Express.More than 100 local journalistsstaged protests the day after the arrestand petitioned local authoritiesfor Chaudhury’s release, news reportssaid. Maoists, also known as Naxalites,frequently pass materials to journalistsin the state as part of their insurgencycampaign, reporters said.Colleagues accused local police of arrestingChaudhury in reprisal for hisarticles connecting a local police chiefto the drug trade, according to newsreports. Chaudhury said police madehim sign blank papers as part of a “confession,”the Indian Express reported,citing the journalist’s wife, Minati. Apetition for bail was before an Orissacourt in late year, news reports said.IRAN: 23Adnan Hassanpour, AsoIMPRISONED: January 25, 2007Security agents seized Hassanpour, ajournalist and former editor for thenow-defunct Kurdish-Persian weeklyAso, in his hometown of Marivan, inKurdistan province, according to newsreports.A Revolutionary Court convictedHassanpour in July 2007 of endangeringnational security and engagingin propaganda against the state, one ofhis attorneys, Sirvan Hosmandi, toldCPJ. The journalist was sentenced todeath. A court of appeals overturnedthe death sentence in September 2008and ordered a new trial on chargesof “working for outlawed parties” andespionage, according to the BBC. InNovember, a trial court convictedHassanpour on the new charges andreimposed the death sentence, theBBC said.Mohammad Seddigh KaboudvandPayam-e MardomIMPRISONED: July 1, 2007Plainclothes security officials arrestedjournalist and human rights activistKaboudvand at his Tehran office, accordingto Amnesty International andCPJ sources. He was being held atEvin Prison in Tehran.Authorities accused Kaboudvand,head of the Human Rights Organizationof Kurdistan and managing editorof the weekly Payam-e Mardom, ofacting against national security andengaging in propaganda against thestate, according to his organization’sWeb site. A Revolutionary Court inTehran sentenced him to 11 years inprison.326327