Reporters Without Borders continues its weekly look at the state of free expression and self-censorship in Denmark by publishing an interview with a leading figure from the world of the Danish media and arts.

This week's interview is with Carsten Jensen, a writer and journalist who is very critical of the liberal-conservative coalition government. He has just been awarded the Olof Palme Prize for his “courageous, committed and determined” defence of human rights.

Is freedom of expression in danger in Denmark?

No. Obviously there is the Kurt Westergaard case. When someone breaks into your house and tries to kill you, that is undeniably a threat. But the question is knowing whether or not this is just a symbol, and therefore an exception. Or if everyone who did what he did would risk the same fate. Personally I think it is an isolated case.

So why is this question constantly being discussed in Denmark?

It is hard to understand. Perhaps our freedom of expression is well protected but we have lost the habit of using it, except for telling Muslims how bad they are. Honestly, I would be surprised to learn that there are artists or writers who want to criticise Islam in their art or their work but hold back for fear of reprisals.

Have you personally never been the target of threats?

No. And in my view, anyone saying the contrary is just trying to draw attention to themselves. I do not think that artists and writers who want to draw cartoons of the Prophet or put on a play that is extremely critical of Muslims refrain from doing so. Mistreating Muslims has become a national sport in Denmark. Look at what the politicians say. No one is threatening them. They do not have bodyguards. They do not censor themselves when they talk about Muslims. On the contrary, if they want to attract voters, they have to say the worst things possible. Things that are absolutely unthinkable outside Denmark.

Why is the issue of free expression constantly linked to that of Islam in Denmark?

It is a consequence of the political context. It is also a consequence of the situation of the Muslim minority, which is bigger than other religious minorities and often comes from pre-modern societies, resulting in a clash of cultures with problems of adaptation, unemployment ... This makes Muslims an easy target of public anxiety and anger. Also, there is no denying that Islamist terror poses a global threat, which adds to the fear.

But doesn't this result in self-censorship on the part of artists and writers?

When Jyllands Posten published the cartoons of the Prophet in 2005, the newspapers were never able to find cartoonists ready to say they restricted themselves in their work for fear of reprisals. So why does this debate go on? It is obviously very important to take a clear position on free expression, whether or not one approves of the constant criticism being made of a religion. But the debate continues in part because it is manipulated by the (far-right) Danish People's Party, whose only platform is hatred of Muslims. It is not a party that is going up in the polls. It has around 12-13 percent. But it has an enormous influence on the political scene because the liberal-conservative government cannot rule without its support. And to protect its power it has to protect its raison d'être. Because it will cease to exist if people see that immigrants are integrating, which is the case. So it is in a desperate struggle for survival. It has to keep the debate alive. And that is what it does. It is like a monologue that no one dares to interrupt. Neither the government, for fear of losing power, nor the opposition, which hopes to attain power by imitating the People's Party's rhetoric.

Elected representatives of this party recently made some very aggressive comments about Muslims. Was that an abuse of free expression that should be the subject of legislation?

No, definitely not. Restricting free expression is not the solution. Silencing the opposition is never a solution in a democracy. You would just risk creating martyrs. No, the only solution is for the silent majority to stand up and react.

(Photo : Isak Hoffmeyer)

Reporters Without Borders today expressed deep concern about the plight of two sports journalists working for South African M-Net Supersport television who were kidnapped on 1st March and are still being held hostage.

South African producer Nick Greyling and Nigerian sports commentator Bowie Attamah were snatched close to airport in Owerri, capital of the south-eastern state of Imo, while they were heading to Lagos on a bus.

A third journalist abducted with them, Nigerian cameraman Alexander Effiong, managed to escape from his kidnappers the following day and is currently safe in Lagos.

“While hopes were high that the two journalists would be quickly released, it is worrying that they are still being held hostage. We back the efforts of the Nigerian authorities, particularly acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, and the chief of the Imo state police force in seeking to make contact with the kidnappers so that the hostages will be released as soon as possible,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

“Kidnapping is widespread in Nigeria, frequently directed against foreign workers with major oil companies and involving ransom demands. The always cowardly practice of kidnapping is all the more absurd when it is aimed at journalists whose financial means are very limited,” the organisation continued.

The day Effiong escaped his captors, on 2 March, managing director of M-Net Supersport in Nigeria, Felix Awogu, said of the hostages, “I am very positive about their imminent release. I am sure that very soon, they will be set free.” But two days later he told Reporters Without Borders, “I regret to tell you that the two journalists are still in the hands of their captors. I remain confident about the outcome of this case, but we will have to be patient.”

Nigeria is ranked 135th out of 175 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2009 world press freedom index, chiefly because of the high number of arbitrary arrests and high levels of violence to which journalists are subjected.

Deputy editor of the daily newspaper The Guardian, Bayo Ohu, was murdered outside his home in the Lagos suburbs on 20 September 2009.

Moreover, the State Security Service has for several years been on Reporters Without Borders' list of press freedom predators.

Reporters Without Borders is dismayed by a decision by the board of governors of the state-owned broadcaster RAI to suspend all political discussion programmes on its three TV stations during the one-month run-up to regional elections scheduled for 28 and 29 March. The reason given was the difficulty of ensuring “equality of treatment.”

“This move is doubly intolerable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Firstly, an election campaign is under way and Italy's citizens have more need than ever for political information, especially programmes about the various contending parties, so that they can cast an informed vote. Secondly it is above all the job of state broadcasters such as RAI to provide this information.”

It is extraordinary that RAI should be backing away from the obligation to provide the detailed political information that viewers appreciate by temporarily suspending its current affairs programmes prior to the elections.

The ability of a country's public broadcast media to allocate air-time fairly to the various political parties is a key indicator of its democratic credentials. RAI's inability to do this – acknowledged in the decision taken by the board of governors – is utterly incomprehensible in a democracy such as Italy, which was one of the European Union's founders.

The decision, taken on 1 March, seems to have been politically influenced, especially as polls show support for Silvio Berlusconi's coalition falling and various political scandals would normally give rise to closer scrutiny and more detailed reporting during an election campaign.

There is still time for RAI's governors to reverse this decision and fulfil their obligation to inform the public, as the journalists employed by RAI's three TV stations are demanding.

More than a thousand people protested against the decision outside RAI's headquarters in Rome on 2 March in response to a call from the National Union of Italian Journalists (FNSI) and the state TV unions. Reporters Without Borders representatives took part in the demonstration.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Afghan interior ministry to reverse its decision to ban live media coverage of Taliban attacks on the grounds that the information provided by journalists could be used by the insurgents to coordinate their actions. The press freedom organisation supports the culture ministry's plan to bring media representatives and security officials together on 6 March to seek a solution to the crisis triggered by the ban.

“'We fully understand that the government's priority is to protect civilians but the public's right to be informed about ongoing operations is also a priority and we are worried by a measure that could only lead to biased coverage of the conflict,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“We regard the interior ministry's decision as a veiled bid to disguise the realities of the conflict and to conceal events that are not to the advantage of the government and coalition forces,” the press freedom organisation added.

The head of the government's media centre, Hakim Ashir, confirmed on 2 March that the interior minister had decided to ban live media coverage of Taliban attacks. “This kind of coverage endangers journalists and gives the enemy forces an enormous tactical advantage,” he said.

Claiming that coverage of military attacks was a matter of state secrecy, the head of the Kabul criminal investigation department, Abdolghafar Seidzadeh, said the ban was decided by the National Security Council. All the media, both national and international, are affected by the ban.

Ariana TV news editor Abdul Qadeer Merzai told Reporters Without Borders: “According to Afghan laws, the public has a right to clear, transparent and accurate information. We support all decisions that help to preserve the lives of citizens and journalists, but if the aim is to censor us or to undermine free expression and the laws, we are resolutely opposed.”

Tolo TV news editor Mojahed Kaker said to Reporters Without Borders his station had objected to the decision “because it violates the constitution and media law, which guarantee unrestricted access to information.” He added: “Our station does not accept regulations which are illegal and which limit freedom of expression.”

The live coverage ban follows a bloody Taliban attack in the centre of Kabul on 27 February in which 17 people were killed, including a French filmmaker. The suicide operation highlighted the government's weakness and the ability of the insurgents to strike at the heart of the capital. Several journalists who were at the scene of the events were arrested and their equipment was confiscated.

This is not the first time the Afghan government has tried to censor journalists covering the war. During the presidential election campaign last August, the foreign and interior ministries asked the media not to refer to the wave of violence throughout the country, even in areas where the government's control was strongest, “in view of the need to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people (...) and prevent any election-related terrorist violence.” The interior ministry statement forbad journalists to mention terrorist attacks and instructed them keep away from the scene of any attacks.

In June 2006, the National Security Directorate summoned the executives and editors of some ten Afghan news media in order to tell them what they could and could not do. Following the meeting, the NSD sent a list of forbidden subjects to the leading news media.

Reporters Without Borders has on several occasions condemned the tendency of the security forces to harass reporters when they try to military operations or clashes with armed groups.

Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked by the Ingush supreme court's decision to release the policeman who fatally shot Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru news website, on 31 August 2008. By reducing the gravity of the charge on which Ibragim Yevloyev (no relation) was convicted, the court was able to commute his two-year jail sentence to two years of “supervised residence,” which means he will be able to resume working as policeman.

“The two-year jail sentence on a ‘negligent homicide' charge was already deeply unsatisfactory but this change in the charge minimises the responsibility of Ibragim Yevloyev and the rest of the police in Magomed Yevloyev's death even more,” Reporters Without Borders said. “His release is a total provocation and shows the Ingush judicial system's complete lack of independence.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Coinciding with a state visit to France by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the Ingush supreme court ruling has highlighted the fragility of Russia's progress in human rights. Nicolas Sarkozy praised Medvedev's ‘commitment to the rule of law, respect for the law, judicial security and defence of human rights,' but if Medvedev wants to show he deserves this praise, he must put an end to impunity for those who murder journalists and human rights activists in the Caucasus.”

Magomed Yevloyev's father, Yakhya Yevloyev, has said he will appeal against the Ingush supreme court's decision all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. “For the time being, I am in a state of shock,” he said. “I have never seen such a denial of justice as this. I think we are going to appeal to the Russian federal supreme court even if we do not expect a fair decision.”

An opponent of the Ingush government as well publisher of the Ingushetiya.ru news website (now Ingushetiyaru.org), Magomed Yevloyev was shot in the temple in an interior ministry vehicle shortly after being illegally detained on his arrival at Magas airport on 31 August 2008. He was left unconscious a few hours later at the entrance to a hospital, where he died soon afterwards. The police said he was shot accidentally as he tried to grab an officer's firearm.

The victim's colleagues and family had petitioned the courts for his death to be investigated as “murder with premeditation” under article 105 of the Russian criminal code. The petition was rejected by the supreme court, which ruled that investigators should continue to treat the case under article 109 § 2 as “homicide through negligence, as a result of inappropriate professional behaviour.”

This was the charge on which Ibragim Yevloyev, the Ingush interior minister's former chief bodyguard, was eventually convicted.

But in its ruling on 2 March, the supreme court went one step further by reducing the charge to just “homicide through negligence” under article 109 § 1 of the criminal code. Judge Tagir Azdoyev ruled that Ibragim Yevloyev had been right to take his firearm's safety off just before the “accident” because the police had been warned that Magomed Yevloyev's supporters might try to free him.

The sentence of “supervised residence” has only just been introduced into the Russian criminal code and it is not yet known how the Ingush authorities will implement it.

At the time of his death, Magomed Yevloyev was regarded as one of the leading opponents of then Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov (who was replaced two months later by Yunus-bek Yevkurov). Chechnya's neighbour in the North Caucasus, Ingushetia has for the past 10 years been in the grip of a low-intensity civil war marked by killings, kidnappings and other forms of violence.

Magomed Yevloyev's successor as Ingushetiyaru.org's publisher, Maksharip Aushev, was himself shot dead by police at checkpoint in Nazran on 25 October 2009.

Previous releases on this subject:
Policeman gets two years in prison for fatal shooting of news website owner
Probe into Ingush website owner's murder relaunched but FSB continues to target website
Website owner's last words to his editor: “Roza, they are taking me away”
Ingush news website owner shot dead while held by interior ministry officials

Listen to Magomed Yevloyev (in Russian) :

Reporters Without Borders is relieved to learn that local retransmission of the French TV news station France 24 resumed yesterday in Côte d'Ivoire after the National Council for Audiovisual Communication (CNCA), which is responsible for regulating broadcasting, decided to rescind the suspension order it issued on 22 February.

“This satisfactory outcome ends a week in which Ivorians were deprived of a major international news source,” the press freedom organisation said.

After the CNCA met in extraordinary session on 2 March in the evening, its secretary-general announced “the lifting of the precautionary measure suspending France 24's signal.” Local retransmission resumed at around 7.00 pm local time yesterday.

The CNCA said in a statement that the decision to lift the suspension was taken after a France 24 representative “pledged to take measures so that news about Côte d'Ivoire are handled in a more professional manner.” The statement added that “the undertakings were confirmed in a letter from France 24's management to the CNCA on 26 February.”

When the CNCA announced the suspension on 22 February, it accused France 24 of covering local news “in a biased and unprofessional manner.”

23.02.2010 - France 24 suspended, opposition newspapers threatened

Reporters Without Borders is extremely concerned about the current tension in Côte d'Ivoire and the fact that local retransmission of the French TV news station France 24 has been “suspended” until further notice by the National Council for Communication (CNCA). Serious threats have also reportedly been made against several opposition newspapers.

“The CNCA should act with the utmost care and not take arbitrary decisions because the current situation is extremely sensitive and the danger of exacerbating tension is great,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We also urge the authorities to guarantee the safety of the opposition media and we call on all parties to act calmly and rationally.”

Reached by telephone, CNCA chairman Franck Anderson Kouassi said France 24 had been suspended as a “precautionary measure” because it had “reported the news in a biased way, violating journalistic ethics.” An extraordinary meeting of the CNCA is to be held soon to take a more definitive decision about the TV station's fate.

The political situation has been tense since President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the government and the Independent Electoral Council on 12 February, thereby postponing elections yet again.

Several demonstrations have been organised, and they have led to violence. Five people died when the security forces broke up a protest on 19 February. It was France 24's coverage of this incident that may have motivated the CNCA's decision to suspend it.

The managing editor of the newspaper Le Patriote, Charles Sanga, has meanwhile said he has received threatening phone calls. The newspaper, whose premises were torched during a political crisis in November 2004, has decided to temporarily scale back its activity and lay off some of its staff as a security measure.

Denis Kahn Zion, the managing editor of the daily Le Nouveau Reveil, told Reporters Without Borders that he has also received threatening phone calls and has taken security measures. The newspaper's offices were attacked and ransacked in 2004 and again on 22 October 2009.

Reporters Without Borders offers its condolences to the colleagues and family of journalist Joseph Ochoa of the privately-owned Canal 51 TV station, who was shot dead in Tegucigalpa on the evening of 1 March in an attack probably targeted at fellow journalist Karol Cabrera of the state-owned Canal 8 TV station and the privately-owned radio station Radio Cadena Voces (RCV). Cabrera was shot and seriously injured but she is out of danger.

The motive of the shooting has yet to be established but Cabrera is a very outspoken journalist who openly supported President Manuel Zelaya's removal in a coup last June and is often involved in media controversies.

The host of a discussion programme on RCV, Cabrera was being driven home and was connected with the station and talking on the air when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on her vehicle. RCV's listeners were able hear her cries for help during the shooting. A total of 36 bullet impacts were found in her car. Her daughter, Katleen Nicole Rodríguez Cabrera, was killed in similar circumstances on the same road on 15 December.

The shooting has highlighted the danger of violent crime to which the Honduran media and the population as a whole has long been exposed. Three journalists were killed in 2009. Reporters Without Borders hopes that investigators will quickly identify those responsible for this attack and bring them to justice.

The press freedom organisation also cautions the authorities, the political class and the media themselves against trying to exploit this shooting for political ends. Porfirio Lobo Sosa's installation as president on 27 January has not been followed by any improvement in the situation of press freedom or human rights.

After the ransacking of community radio station Radio Coco Dulce, two young Globo TV journalists who worked at the president's office before the coup were kidnapped and tortured in February. They fled to Nicaragua after being released.

Four human rights activists and opponents of the post-coup regime have been murdered in targeted killings since the 29 November elections.

Photo : Tiempo.hn

Reporters Without Borders is saddened and outraged by regional media owner Arun Singhaniya's murder in Janakpur, a city in southern Nepal's troubled Terai region, on 1 March. Claimed by several armed groups operating in the Terai, the killing has highlighted the lack of tolerance for independent media.

Reporters Without Borders has added the Terai's armed groups to its list of “Predators of Press Freedom.”

“This murder of a respected media owner is a result of violence that has been endemic in southern Nepal for several years,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Neither the Nepalese government nor the local political parties have succeeded or even tried to rein in the mounting violence and gangsterism. It is time the security forces accepted that they have a duty to protect journalists, including media owners.”

Singhaniya's murder comes just three weeks after another media owner, Jamim Shah, was killed in the capital. The police say they have established that a mafia group of Indian origin was involved in Shah's death.

Gunned down by two men on a motorcycle, Singhaniya, 50, ran the Janakpur Today Media Group, which included a daily newspaper, Janakpur Today, a radio station, Radio Today, and a website. Journalists' organisations staged demonstrations in several Nepalese cities today to condemn his murder.

A Radio Today reporter, Uma Singh, was murdered on 11 January but it is believed the motives were personal rather than linked to her work as a journalist.

News media based in the Terai are forced to censor themselves because of constant threats from armed groups. Sanjaya Sah of the Jana Pratibimba Daily newspaper was threatened in Birgunj, another city in the Terai, on 17 February by Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha, a local armed group that did not like the way it had been covered in his articles.

Although a number of journalists and netizens have been freed in the past few days, the crackdown on media and journalists is continuing. The daily Etemad was suspended on 1 March and the weekly Iran Dokht's licence has been cancelled. At the same time, journalists continue to be arrested in Tehran and many others throughout the country have received summonses.

Journalists held by the intelligence ministry are being subjected to considerable pressure to publicly ask the Revolution's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, for forgiveness. The Islamic Republic's prosecutor-general, Golamhosien Mohssenie Ejehie, said last week that “repentance” was “one of the conditions” for the release of political prisoners.

“The release of a number of journalists is obviously good news but we continue to demand the release of all the journalists and netizens being held arbitrarily, in violation of Iran's laws, including those convicted without due process,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Why must these journalists offer apologies when all they did was inform their fellow citizens?” the press freedom organisation added. “After arresting 110 journalists and censoring at least 20 media in the past eight months, it is the government that should request the forgiveness of its victims when it releases them.”

Etemad was suspended after publishing the reactions of pro-reform parliamentarians to video footage broadcast by BBC Persian showing police and militiamen beating and clubbing students during a raid on the Tehran university campus on 15 June that was apparently filmed by the security forces themselves.

In an article in Etemad, the pro-reform parliamentarians requested the release of the full version of the report by the parliamentary commission that was appointed to investigate the incident. The Iranian authorities have meanwhile questioned the video's authenticity.

Iran Dokht's licence was cancelled on the orders of the Press Surveillance Commission, an offshoot of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, for “non-compliance with the press law,” the same reason that the ministry has given for closing many pro-reform publications in the past.

Akbar Montajabi, an Iran Dokht journalist who was arrested on 7 February, is still being held.

Three journalists were freed on 1 March. They were Biste Saleha editor Mohammad Reza Moghisseh, who was arrested on 14 October, Mahsa Jazini of the Isfahan-based daily Iran, who was arrested on 7 February, and Foad Sadeghi, the editor of the Ayandenews website, who was arrested on 12 February. Kivan Mehrgan of Etemad, who was arrested on 28 December, was freed on 2 March. All four were released on bail pending trial.

Baris Yarkadas, the editor of the online newspaper Gercek Gündem (Real Agenda), will face up to five years in prison when he appears before a criminal court in the Istanbul district of Kadiköy tomorrow in response to a complaint brought by the president's office. He is charged with insulting President Abdullah Gül under article 299-2 of the criminal code for failing to remove a comment posted by a reader.

“We call for the immediate withdrawal of this baseless charge,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is incomprehensible that Yarkadas should be accused of insulting the president when he did not himself write the comment, which was anyway neither rude nor insulting. This prosecution is indicative of a desire by the government to intimidate and silence its critics.”

The president's office has even said it knows who posted the comments, referring to him as “the aggressor” and revealing that he lives abroad. The reader accused President Gül of allowing his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, to defy him. “Bravo, you have trampled on the honour of the great republic of Turkey,” he wrote.

Yarkadas is facing other prosecutions. He is due to appear before the same court on 5 March on a charge of offending Nur Birgen, the head of the Institute for Forensic Medicine's expertise section, by reporting allegations that human rights NGOs have made against her.

Journalists are up in arms over a decision by the state of Tabasco Attorney's Office (PGJE) to close the investigation into the January 2007 disappearance of journalist Rodolfo Rincón Taracena on the grounds that he is now said to have been kidnapped and killed by members of a criminal gang known as Los Zetas, who burned the body.

“The investigation cannot be closed until the authorities have legally demonstrated that the human remains found in a search of a property are those of Rodolfo Rincón,” a colleague told Reporters Without Borders.

A reporter for the Tabasco Hoy daily, Rincón disappeared in Villahermosa, the capital of the southeastern state of Tabasco, on 20 January 2007.

Members of the Tabasco Hoy management and staff have criticised irregularities in the investigation. “It is not normal that the PGJE let so much time go by before releasing information that it knew as early as April 2007, when Rincón's remains were reportedly found,” one of them said.

They also pointed out that the Federal Attorney's Office (PGR) already closed the case last year on the grounds that it “could not confirm the results of the investigation” although it turned out that the Tabasco state prosecutor's office had all the information. Investigators never even asked Tabasco Hoy's representatives to make a statement.

According to statements reportedly made by detained suspects, Rincón was kidnapped, tortured, mutilated and killed by members of Los Zetas, a paramilitary group involved in extortion and drug trafficking, because of what he had reported. Rincón had just written a story about drug dealing in the Villahermosa neighbourhoods of Atasta and Tamulté in which he named dealers.

Reporters Without Borders supports the position of Tabasco Hoy's journalists. The federal and Tabasco state authorities cannot close the case until all its aspects have been confirmed.

Three journalists have been killed since the start of this year in Mexico, which is the hemisphere's deadliest country for the news media.

e fight against impunity for violence against journalists saw significant progress on two fronts in late February in the form of the arrests of the alleged instigators of the 2009 murder of newspaper editor Orel Sambrano (photo) and the 2004 murder of radio presenter Mauro Marcano.

A common feature of these two murders was that the victims had covered drug trafficking cases.

Drug traffickers now figure among the western hemisphere's worst predators of press freedom. Reporters Without Borders hopes that these suspects will be tried and convicted quickly as this will help to show that it is possible to stand up to organised crime.

One of the suspects is former policeman David Antonio Yánez. He was arrested in an anti-drug operation on 21 February but he is to face trial on a charge of masterminding the 16 January 2009 murder of Sambrano. and the murder of Francisco Larrazábal, a key witness in a drug trafficking and money-laundering case against the Makleds, an influential business family in the central state of Carabobo.

The editor of the regional weekly ABC, vice-president of privately-owned Radio América 890 AM and a columnist for the regional daily Notitarde, Sambrano had dared to criticise the Makled family's activities.

Yánez is the third person to be arrested for Sambrano's murder. José Manuel Luque Daboín and another former police officer, Rafael Segundo Pérez, are being held on suspicion of being the hit men. The authorities are now investigating the possibility that Walid Makled was the mastermind.

The other suspect is José Ceferino García, the reputed head of the Cartel del Sol in the northeastern state of Monagas, who was arrested for Marcano's murder on the orders of an appeal court on 23 February.

Arrested in Trinidad and Tobago and extradited in 2006, García was released two years later after being acquitted of the murder by a Monagas court. Suspecting that pressure had been put on the court, the public prosecutor's office appealed against his acquittal. Accepting the petition, the appeal court has ruled that García should be retried before a different court.

The host of a programme on Radio Maturín 1080 AM and a columnist for the regional daily El Oriental, Marcano had accused local police and military officials of collaborating with the Cartel del Sol shortly before his murder.

Photo : globovision.com

Reporters Without Borders condemns university student Ahmed Abdel Fattah Mustafa's trial by court martial for blogging about army human rights violations. Held incommunicado since his arrest by state security agents on 25 February, he appeared today before a Cairo military court on charges of “publishing false news” and trying to “undermine people's confidence in the armed forces.” The trial was adjourned.

“Mustafa is a civilian and there are no grounds for trying him before a military court,” Reporters Without Borders said. “These extraordinary judicial proceedings are designed to intimidate anyone who dares to criticise the army. This is further proof of the government's inability to tolerate sensitive subjects being tackled by bloggers.”

A student at the University of Kafr El Sheikh's engineering faculty and a member of the “6 April Movement,” Mustafa wrote in his blog (http://hazel2eyes.jeeran.com/archive/2009/2/805460.html) in early 2009 about army human rights violations.

It was his lawyer who told his family that he had been arrested. The last entry in his blog was an anonymous comment warning him that he would be punished within two days because he “knew nothing about the army.”

His lawyers have not been allowed access to the findings of the investigation. The military forced Mustafa to delete the blog entry about the army.

Another blogger, Kareem Amer, has been jailed since 2006 for criticising religious authoritarianism and gender discrimination.

As today's closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics turns the spotlight on Sochi, the host of the next Winter Games in 2014, Reporters Without Borders would like to cast its own light on the situation of the news media in this Black Sea city and in Krasnodar, the populous southern Russian province in which it is located.

Sochi's selection for the 2014 Games was given totally uniform coverage in the local media. Press-ganged into supporting the Kremlin policy of “the games at any cost,” they never reported the environmental concerns or the protests, such as those by the Imeretinskaya Bay residents facing eviction, except to brand them as anti-patriotic.

But this is just one symptom among many of how the media of Sochi and Krasnodar are heavily dependent on the local authorities.

Last summer, the German section of Reporters Without Borders conducted a detailed field investigation into the situation of the media in seven Russian regions, including Krasnodar, shedding light on a situation largely ignored until now. The “Atlas of Media Freedom in the Regions” that was produced on the basis of this survey has been presented in German on 10 September 2009.

Today, Reporters Without Borders is releasing the chapter on Krasnodar in French together with summaries of the chapter in English and Russian.

The report reveals that the region's media have been brought under the thumb of its pro-Kremlin governor, Alexander Tkachev. Although there is a wide range of publications, the great majority are closely dependent on the regional or municipal authorities.

The lack of financial independence is the leading cause. With their money problems aggravated by recession and a fall in advertising revenue, the media are desperate for advertisers. The local authorities have turned an official “media register” into a very effective means of controlling privately-owned newspapers. Those that register enjoy major financial advantages but they have to publish content provided by the authorities and submit to close control of their accounts.

The few publications that have remained relatively independent of the government, such as the local edition of Novaya Gazeta (Kubani) or Chernomorskaya Zdravnitsa, face a daily battle for financial survival that is complicated by judicial harassment.

Even with most of the local media censoring themselves because of their financial dependence, there have been cases of officials intervening directly in their editorial decisions. And despite slight progress, access to public information continues to be closely filtered.

Aside from the campaign for Sochi's candidacy for the 2014 Games, the media's lack of independence was glaringly obvious during the municipal elections in early 2009 when a liberal, Boris Nemtsov, ran against incumbent mayor Anatoli Pakhomov. The coverage of the campaign was totally biased, with most of the media denigrating Nemtsov and the four local TV stations running a spot defaming him during their news programmes.

The report by the German section of Reporters Without Borders says the only way to loosen the local government's grip on the media is to strengthen their financial independence and to end the discriminatory treatment under the “media register” system. This situation should not be overlooked because of the mood of regional unanimity typical of sports events.

Read a summary in English :

Read a summary in Russian/ Читать на русском :

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed today along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed's birthday).

“We welcome Dehah's release after eight months of unjustified detention,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The president seems to have heard the appeals from Mauritanian journalists and the international community. We thank them for interceding.”

Dehah's lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, said his client had become an embarrassment for the government. He thanked all those who fought for Dehah's release and said without them his client would still be in prison.

The legal void in Mauritania regarding online journalists must be filled as a matter of urgency so that similar cases to not recur. On 29 December, Reporters Without Borders sent the government a series of recommendations aimed at improving respect for press freedom. One of the recommendations was an overhaul of Internet legislation.

05.02.2010 - Court imposes new two-year sentence on website editor

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the harsh, two-year jail sentence which a court passed yesterday on Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, at the end of an incomprehensible and arbitrary trial. Dehah, who was not freed in December on completing a six-month sentence of a charge of violating public decency, was convicted this time on charges of violating public decency, inciting revolt and “criminal publication.”

The press freedom organisation, which met the Islamic Republic of Mauritania's president, Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz, last October, requests a new meeting with the president. It also requests permission to visit Dehah in prison.

“We fail to understand how the judicial authorities could reach such a decision at the end of this farcical trial,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Why didn't they just give Dehah a 2½-year sentence in the first trial? This is a disgrace! The position of the Mauritanian authorities is confused. On the one hand they send positive signals but, on the other, they allow the principles of press freedom to be trampled on.”

The organisation added: “President Abdel Aziz was reassuring when Dehah's case was raised during our meeting in October and the media legislation that Mauritania adopted in 2005 is the best in the sub-region. Dehah's treatment at the hands of the courts is a major step backwards. This case has damaged Mauritania's image and could discourage its international partners, especially if it goes before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. It is in the general interest to acquit him on appeal and release him at once.”

Dehah was kept in prison illegally after he completed the original six-month sentence on 24 December. Arrested in June and unjustly convicted in August, this new trial was supposed to have retried the entire case but an opportunity was missed to clear him.

Mauritania's journalists have been campaigning for his release for weeks, organising rallies and pleading his case with the authorities. The Union of Mauritanian Journalists (SJM) has described the latest conviction as “a retrograde step as regards treatment of the media.”

See the previous release:http://www.rsf.org/Still-held-illegally-website.html

Watch a Reporters Without Borders interview in French with Dehah's lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, on 13 January: http://www.rsf.org/Website-editor-still-held-three.html

Ranked first in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Denmark is known for a deep attachment to free expression and press freedom. This was seen again on 16 September 2009, when the Copenhagen-based daily Politiken published Thomas Rathsack's entire book Ranger – at War with the Elite as a free insert after the defence ministry tried to get the courts to ban it. The book relates Rathsack's experiences as a member of a Danish special forces unit carrying our sensitive operations inside Afghanistan.

Last month's appearance of two opinion polls in quick succession nonetheless suggest that the 2005 storm over the Mohammed cartoons has had a serious impact on freedom of expression and information in Denmark. Published on 30 September 2005 in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, the cartoons set off a storm of outrage among some Muslims. As well as protests and attacks on Danish embassies, calls were made in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries for a commercial boycott of Denmark. There was a renewed outcry whenever a newspaper reprinted the most controversial of the cartoons, showing the Prophet Mohammed with a turban in the form of a bomb. The cartoonist who did this drawing, Kurt Westergaard, has escaped two murder attempts and still has police protection.

In a poll of 1,010 people carried out by Ramboell/Analyse from 11 to 14 January and published in Jyllands-Posten on 19 January, 84.2 per cent said they approved of the national media's decision not to reprint the cartoons after the latest murder attempt on Westergaard on 1 January. Only 11.7 per cent thought the cartoons should have been reprinted and 4.1 per cent were undecided. Most of those polled (57.3 per cent) nonetheless continued to support Jyllands-Posten's original decision to publish them in September 2005 on the grounds of the right to free expression, while 32.8 per cent disapproved and 9.9 per cent had no opinion.

The other poll was carried out from 3 to 12 December by Kaas & Mulvad of 654 members of Danish cultural organisations, of whom about half asked not to be identified. Published on 11 January on Ugebrevet A4, the website of the union federation LO, the poll showed that nearly half (47 per cent) of authors, artists and art gallery and museum directors think that freedom of expression is under threat in Denmark, 56 per cent say they fear offending people on the grounds of their ethnic origin and 53 per cent fear offending their religious feelings.

Reporters Without Borders wanted to go beyond the polls and the percentages by interviewing journalists, cartoonists, artists and intellectuals and publishing their comments on its website over the next month.

Flemming Rose, the editor of Jyllands Posten's arts and culture pages, who has been living under police protection since the end of 2005, is one of those who agreed to answer a few questions. His interview begins this series.

We take this opportunity to thank both him and the following people, who also agreed to be interviewed: Lotte Garbers, the president of the Danish writers' association Dansk Forfatterforening, Tøger Seidenfaden, the editor of Politiken, and Cartsen Jensen, a writer and journalist who has just been awarded the Olof Palme Prize for his “courageous, committed and determined” defence of human rights. Their comments will be published over the coming weeks.

Flemming Rose Jyllands Posten's arts and culture editor

Is freedom of expression threatened in Denmark?

Everything depends on how you define the problem. Some say there is no threat as such because, according to the law, you can say and write anything you want within the limits set by the European Conventions. So freedom of expression is protected by the law. It is also true that there have been none of the serious attempts to change the law that we have seen elsewhere, in Norway, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Denmark, we have the law against blasphemy and the law against racism. You could argue that the first poses a problem because it gives religious groups a special status. But it has not been used since 1938. So in terms of the law, you cannot say there are any threats.

But in practice?

The question is still open. According to the findings of the poll carried out by the union weekly, some artists censor themselves or abandon projects for fear of the consequences. The poll's methodology can be questioned but we know this phenomenon exists in other countries as well. Examples abound in Europe of museums, theatres, production companies and publishing houses refusing to display works, show them, film them or publish them because they were considered to be too offensive, above all as regards Islam. This is not a phenomenon that is limited to Denmark. The question is how do you find out if this threatens freedom of expression. We know for sure that there is a growing pressure across Europe and that it translates into self censorship.

Why is the debate about free expression in Denmark so often linked to religion, above all Islam?

It isn't always. There was, for example, the case of the book by a special forces soldier which the defence ministry tried to have banned last autumn. Personally, I never thought it was a free speech issue. But that is how it was treated by some people. I think it is right that the threats that Islam poses to freedom of expression should be high on the agenda in Denmark, after the cartoons crisis. That was a major shock for us. We were in the habit of regarding ourselves as nice people, who contribute generously to international aid, who can be counted on abroad... This image of a tolerant and open people has been challenged by the cartoons crisis. So there is a real interest in understanding where the problem comes from, Denmark or Islam.

But why do some people regard Islam as a threat to free expression?

When the cartoons were published, I wrote that you could see there had been an increase in self-censorship but it was impossible to say whether the fears that motivated it were imaginary or justified. Personally, I don't think Islam is the only threat. There are others, which come from societies and countries that are trying to protect themselves internally after 9/11 by adopting anti-terrorist legislation that violates freedom of expression.

So this threat is not so important?

I don't want to play it down. You may have noticed that after the arrests of two individuals in Chicago on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack against Jyllands Posten and myself, no Danish newspaper printed the cartoons. It was not to be nice to Muslims. It was the result of intimidatory practices. It has become something that is real. We have correspondents abroad. We have to think of them.

You say that self-censorship is being practiced now?

I know people who say they feel intimidated and who admit to censoring themselves. Why don't they say it out loud? I think that the spokespeople of artists' and writers' associations are influenced by the political situation. They have a problem with admitting that self-censorship exists and that Jyllands Posten is right. It would be like associating with the devil! There is a political interest in distancing oneself from the problem. And then, artists who always want to be challenging the authorities, cannot admit to being intimidated by Islam or by anybody outside the traditional perception of political power. It would not be politically correct.

You yourself still live under police protection...

And my situation isn't getting better. Kurt Westergaard made the mistake of showing where he lives on television. Few people know where I live. But such a situation is bearable only if it last for about six months. I am beginning to understand that the threats will not go away. This is disturbing. The people who decided to be offended by the cartoons are not going to forget it. It was a symbolic event around which it is easy to rally others. I have no regrets. I do not look back. If it had not been the cartoons, it would have been something else. But obviously, I could have done without it.

Reporters Without Borders is extremely shocked and disturbed by a wave of police violence against journalists in Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It has registered a total of 13 cases of abusive treatment and physical attacks by police against media personnel in February alone.

“Given that a police officer was recently suspended for hitting a Dalit woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh, it would be appropriate to punish police officers who treat journalists in a similar manner,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Public opinion was shocked by the footage of this woman being beaten.”

The press freedom organisation added: “We appeal to the Union government and authorities of the states concerned to investigate this unacceptable violence and to urge the security forces to act with more restraint. In Kashmir, in particular, it is no longer enough for those in charge of the police to promise investigations. The abuses must be punished.”

Reporters Without Borders also urges the Uttar Pradesh police to quickly produce hard evidence to justify the continued detention of Seema and Vishwavijay Azad, the founders of the Hindi magazine Dastak Nai Samay Ki, who were arrested on 6 February on the basis of allegations that they belong to an outlawed Maoist movement.

“The state police can target anyone who raises their voice against the government,” said Sandeep Pandey, a well-known social activist, who has criticised their detention. “I have been told that Seema had been writing against sand mafia and land mafia here,” he added.

Kashmir Times photographer Imran Ali was injured by a tear-gas grenade fired by police during a demonstration on 22 February in Srinagar, the capital of the northwestern state of Jammu and Kashmir. S. Tariq, a cameraman with the television news station NDTV, and Umar Ganai, a photographer working for the PTI news agency and the Kashmir Monitor newspaper, were beaten during the same demonstration.

At least six journalists were beaten by members of an elite police unit known as the Greyhounds during pro-separatist demonstrations on the Osmania University campus in Hyderabad (in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh) on 14 and 15 February. The victims included Narsinga Rao of Andhra Jyothi TV, who was beaten with particular ferocity by members of the police unit, who also attacked and damaged press vehicles.

A local reporter for the Kannada TV station was beaten on 13 February by police in Mangalore (in the southwestern state of Karnataka) and was then held in a police station for two hours. Police Sub-Inspector Pramod denied that the reporter was beaten, claiming that he was detained for “rude behaviour” and was released as soon as his identity was established.

Pervez Majeed, the magazine Sahara's correspondent, was threatened and roughed up by a senior officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on 3 February in Srinagar after he told them he intended to write about a case of police violence against school children he had just witnessed. The officer insulted Majeed and then told his men to “teach him a lesson.” Majeed reported the incident to the police chief Kuldeep Khuda, who promised an investigation.

In another recent case in Srinagar, a police officer opened fire on Amaan Farooq, a photographer with the Greater Kashmir daily newspaper, injuring him in the leg, as he was covering a police operation on 6 January. The police officer, Safdar Samoon, said Farooq refused to leave the scene of a clash with separatists. The Kashmir police chief ordered an investigation.

A Kashmir court ordered local TV stations not to broadcast “provocative” or “anti-government” video footage of major demonstrations that took place in the state on 5 February. Judge Meraj Ahmad ruled that such self-censorship was authorised by article 6 of the 2005 law governing the regulation of cable television.

In an encouraging development, the National Human Rights Commission ordered the Uttar Pradesh authorities on 9 February to pay compensation to Samiuddin Neelu, a journalist with the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, who was kidnapped and threatened by police officers in 2005 after writing about police corruption and abuse of authority. “This case is a stark example of not only total apathy but also outright antagonism towards a person, whose right to life was seriously endangered,” the commission said.

“You have guns, we have pens,” was the message that the Sulaymaniyah-based independent newspaper Hawlati (Citizen) printed on an otherwise blank front page on 24 February in a bold protest against a spate of threats, harassment and physical violence against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan in the run-up to a parliamentary election on 6 March.

Hawlati's front page is just one example of the growing protests by Kurdish intellectuals and independent media against abuses by the Kurdish security forces and by the supporters and security forces of the two parties that control the Kurdistan Regional Government – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The newspaper Awene, Radio Nawa, the television station Kurdish News Network (KNN) and Speda, a TV station that belongs to the opposition Kurdish Islamic Union (Yekgirtu), issued a joint statement on 23 February condemning the recent violations of free expression and media freedom in Kurdistan.

Asos Hardi, Awene's founder and head of the company that publishes it, said: “The authorities do not stop talking about freedom of expression, constantly boasting of the media's independence. But these words are meaningless. In practice, the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan do not believe in freedom of expression.” Hardi won the 2009 Gebran Tueni Prize for the defence of press freedom, which is awarded by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Anwar Bazgr, the head of a press freedom defence committee formed by the Union of Kurdistan Journalists, has also condemned the recent attacks and has called on political parties to respect a law protecting journalists that was passed by Kurdistan's parliament.

Hawlati editor Kamal Rauf told Reporters Without Borders: “I called Kurdistan's prime minister, Dr. Barham Salih, to talk about the recent incidents involving journalists. He told me he was going to request an investigation.”

In a Hawlati editorial about the abuses, Rauf appealed directly to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani: “As free and independent journalists, we have improved the media's level of impartiality and independence in the reader's interests but now the security forces are attacking us and beating us without reason.”

The PUK's own security forces, which are regarded as illegal, are alleged to have been responsible for most of the attacks on journalists in Sulaymaniyah since the start of the election campaign.

Some, but by no means all, of the press freedom violations of the past week are summarised below:

Security forces attacked and beat Hawlati reporter Soran Ahmed in Sulaymaniyah at 7:50 p.m. on 20 February, seized his mobile phone and camera and shut him in the boot of a car for more than half an hour. He got his phone and camera back when he was freed, but the data on both of them had been erased.

Two Speda television journalists were attacked in Erbil on 19 February.

Ara Ibrahim, the publisher of Hawlati, and Saman Majid of the magazine Livin and the TV station Gorran (Change) were attacked by security forces in Sulaymaniyah while covering the election campaign on the evening of 18 February.

“We were taking photos in Sahollaka Street, especially of a man who had been injured by members of the security forces, when individuals in civilian dress ordered us to stop, saying they were authorised by the PUK to confiscate our cameras,” Ibrahim told Reporters Without Borders. “One of them managed to take my camera. Then he began hitting him and insulting me. Saman managed to get away.”

Ibrahim, who still has not got his camera back, is the third Hawlati journalist to be attacked in Sulaymaniyah. An independent biweekly, Hawlati (www.hawlati.com) was founded in November 2000 with the aim of defending free expression, reinforcing civil society and helping the development of democratic debate.

Dawoud Baghstani, the editor of the magazine Israel-Kurd (www.israelkurd.com), who is also a local political figure and a member of Kurdistan's Jewish minority, was attacked in a restaurant in Erbil on 18 February.

“I was invited to dine in a restaurant in the city's Ankawa neighbourhood,” he told Reporters Without Borders. “After my arrival, I was attacked by the bodyguards of Dr. Nuri Othman, the head of the Kurdistan cabinet's secretariat, who was also there. There were about 25 soldiers at the restaurant. They tried to scare me. It was clearly linked to my recent criticism of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Othman disputes this version of the incident, claiming that his bodyguards just defended him. “I was in a restaurant with foreign journalists,” he told Awene. “Dawoud Baghstani was also there. He brandished his pistol and insulted me and Iraqi Kurdistan. I just asked by bodyguards to disarm him.”

Baghstani said he intended to bring a complaint against Othman. “Masoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan, must investigate what happened,” he said. “I will file a complaint although I am sure the courts will support him.

He added: “The KDP and PUK do anything they want against journalists, who are the victims of frequent attacks and cannot work freely. Democracy and free expression are in danger in Kurdistan. International organisations must act to put an end to this harassment of independent journalists, otherwise we risk going back to the darkest years of Baathism.”

Shaswar Mama of Sbeiy.com (www.sbeiy.com), the official website of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was attacked by PUK and KDP supporters in the city of Raniya as he and KNN reporter Karwan Anwar were taking photos in the city's market on 18 February.

A Hawlati photographer had already been attacked there on 16 February, when his camera was broken and his photos were erased.

Adnan Othman, a former Hawlati editor who is now an MDC parliamentary representative and editor of Rojname, a newspaper that supports the MDC, has received many death threats by email and SMS. He was also insulted by KDP and PUK supporters after he referred to the security forces that had attacked MDC supporters as illegal and called them “militias.”

Responding to these comments in a speech at the opening of a students' conference in Erbil on 24 February, Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani said: “There is no place in Kurdistan for those who say that the province's security forces are militias. I see nothing to stop me from acting against these people.”

Reporters Without Borders is today posting a video that it made during its second visit to Haiti since the 12 January earthquake, from 9 to 15 February. During the first visit, a week after the disaster, the press freedom organisation set up a Media Operations Centre in partnership with the Canadian media group Quebecor. It is being run by Haitian journalists.

The Centre's new address:
8 A rue Butte, Bourdon, Port-of-Prince
Phone: + 1 514 664 86 95

The footage we shot a month after the earthquake shows its impact on the media, which have vital role to play in relaying information about the relief operations and the country's reconstruction.

Part 1

Part 2

As well as giving Haitian journalists the opportunity to talk about their problems in the video, Reporters Without Borders undertook to keep the Centre going and to support local media projects aimed at providing information about the humanitarian relief efforts.

As partners of the weekly Courrier International, we are relaying its appeal for help for Le Nouvelliste, the main Haitian daily newspaper: http://www.courrierinternational.co...

With the support of

Aylin Duruoglu, the editor the Vatan newspaper's website, Gazetevatan.com, was granted a conditional release by an Istanbul court on 23 February, 10 months after her arrest on 27 April for alleged links to a clandestine armed group called Devrimci Karargah (Revolutionary Headquarters).

Nine other people who were arrested in the same operation, including Mehmet Yesiltepe, an employee of the magazine Devrimci Hareket (Revolutionary Movement), were also freed conditionally. Duruoglu continues to be accused of belonging to the group because she knew one of its members, Orhan Yilmazkaya, who was killed during the 27 April operation.

“We are relieved to learn of these releases but we point out that they come after 10 months of detention,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is ridiculous to accuse Duruoglu of belonging to an armed group simply because she knew one of its members, something she does not deny (http://www.rsf.org/Woman-journalist-held-for-past.html). We call for the charges against her and Yesiltepe to be withdrawn at once.”

Duruoglu had been held in Istanbul's Bakirköy prison since her arrest, while Yesiltepe was imprisoned in the northwestern city of Tekirdag.

The police operation against all those with supposed links to Revolutionary Headquarters came after the group claimed responsibility for the 1 September 2008 bombing of the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in which one person died, and an August 2008 bombing at an army barracks in Üsküdar (on the Asian side of Istanbul).

In a statement to the court, Duruoglu said: “For the past 10 months, I have been trying to remember something that would explain my detention. I am before you because I was unable to foresee that a person circulating freely on the streets and with a place in society could be a terrorist. I had never heard of this organisation before my arrest. I had lunch with Orhan Yilmazkaya. I regard myself not as a suspect but as a victim of the terror. I have worked for news media for the past 15 years. I had no reason to collaborate with terrorists.”

The next hearing in the case has been set for 29 June.

(Photo : Vatan gazetesi)