USA
Law enforcement officials have arrested a fugitive wanted by Mexican police following a journalist’s murder.
Jesus Rojas-Lopez, 41, is wanted on charges of tax evasion and for
questioning in the murder in Veracruz of journalist Raul Gibb Guerrero.
Rojas allegedly was the head of a Veracruz petrol contraband ring. He
was arrested in Houston on a money-laundering charge. Gibb, director of
the daily newspaper Opinión, was killed in April.
allamericanpatriots.com
RUSSIA
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A prominent journalist and political analyst in Dagestan has been
murdered in a contract- style killing. Men with machine guns opened
fire on Magomedzagid Varisov’s car in Makhachkala as he was returning
home with his wife and driver. For the past three years, he wrote
analytical articles for Novoye Delo (New Business), Dagestan’s largest
weekly. Varisov was often critical of the Dagestan opposition, claiming
that it was trying to destabilise the republic and topple the regional
government. He also wrote about organised crime and terrorism. IFEX
PAKISTAN
Gunmen ambushed a car carrying a local journalist, killing him and
another person in the vehicle in a tribal region of northwestern
Pakistan. However, it was not clear who was behind the killings of
Ubaidullah Azhar and his friend Gul Wahid in Dargai, a town in the
deeply conservative North West Frontier Province.
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Javed Aziz Khan, president of a representative body of journalists
in the area, condemned the killings and demanded the immediate arrest
of those who were behind the attack. AP/The China Post
BURMA
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association voiced
“relief and joy” at the announced release by Burma’s ruling military
junta of more than 200 political prisoners including journalist Sein
Hla Oo and documentary film maker Aung Pwint. Aged more than 70, Sein
Hla Oo was released after being held for nearly 11 years in harsh
conditions. He reportedly has diabetes and kidney problems. Aung Pwint
was arrested in 1999 and convicted of “illegal possession of a fax
machine” and of “transmitting information to banned Burmese
publications”. Reporters Without Borders
BRAZIL
Reporters Without Borders said it was “deeply shocked” by the murder
of investigative journalist José Cândido Amorim Pinto of Rádio
Comunitária Alternativa in Carpina, near Recife in the north eastern
state of Pernambuco. Amorim was ambushed at 6:40am as he parked his car
outside the radio station. Two men shot him about 20 times before
making off on a motorcycle. Reporters Without Borders
MALI
Journalist Hamidou Diarra of Radio Kélédou was kidnapped by four men in a residential district of Bamako and badly beaten.
After putting a bag over his head, his assailants gave him a severe
beating, broke a beer bottle on his head, slashed his hands and feet
with glass shards and finally left him for dead at a roadside 15km
outside Bamako.
Reporters Without Borders said: “We roundly
condemn this violent attack aimed at intimidating a journalist whose
radio programmes criticised a number of Malian
politicians”. Reporters Without Borders
ZAMBIA
Police summoned Fred M’membe, editor of the privately-owned The Post
newspaper, after a series of editorials critical of the government of
President Levy Mwanawasa .
Sipo Kapumba, for the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said
M’membe had signed a “warned and cautioned” statement at police
headquarters and was informed he was under investigation for possible
criminal libel. The investigation related to various editorials and
articles questioning the withdrawal of criminal charges against a
former senior health official. IRINnews.org
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