2 Western Journalists Freed, but Questions Linger

We rejoice at the liberation of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan.

But we still wonder what it would have been like had any of the reportedly numerous attempts to liberate them succeeded.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, speaking from his exile office in Nairobi, Kenya, said Lindhout and Brennan were freed in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after a 15-month-long captivity.

But he said there were numerous failed attempts to free the two journalists, who were kidnapped by Islamic insurgents in a lawless country controlled by warlords.

The Canadian Television Network:

Lindhout spoke to CTV News Channel only hours after her release, describing a months-long ordeal that saw her beaten and tortured and forced to live in a room without windows.

"It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day," Lindhout told CTV during a telephone interview from Mogadishu on the day she was freed.

(...)

Prior to leaving Mogadishu on Thursday, the two journalists met with Sharmarke, who said the pair had been held in an area controlled by Islamic insurgents.

The precise details of Lindhout and Brennan's release are not clear. Lindhout said money "was paid by our families," and a statement from Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that "the Government of Canada was not involved in ransom negotiations."

The exact amount of ransom exchanged for Lindhout and Brennan is unknown.

Welcome home, both of you, and thank you for your courage and dedication.

Tunisian Journalist Ben Brik Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison

Taoufik Ben Brik, one of Tunisian President Ben Ali's most prominent critics, is paying a heavy price for his dissent and courage to confront the de facto dictatorship that rules his country.



Ben Brik (above) was arrested and accused of trumped up charges —including assaulting a woman in public— in October. But from the beginning of this cruel charade, he has insisted the government framed him in retribution for his criticism of the regime.

Amnesty International has condemned the sentencing and considers him a prisoner of conscience. Also many international press freedom organizations, including WPFC, have denounced this blatant case of judicial harassment.

The BBC:

As well as criticism from rights groups and media organisations, the French government also expressed concern over his arrest.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged his release so he could receive treatment.

But according to Reuters news agency, Mr Ben Ali responded in a speech earlier this month by attacking "foreign interference" in Tunisia's internal affairs.

"This is a very disappointing outcome", said Malcolm Smart, Middle East and North Director at Amnesty International.

"Taoufik Ben Brik should not have been prosecuted, let alone convicted and sentenced to a prison term.

"Taoufik Ben Brik has been convicted on politically-motivated charges for exercising his right to freedom of expression."

And to add insult to injury, Ben Brik, 49, suffers from poor health, including diabetes and other hormonal conditions, and needs urgent medical treatment.

As the old dictator's rule says, keep your friends close and your enemies in prison.

A Tiny Nation Gives a Huge Example

The Maldives on Monday, Nov. 23, has given 90 percent of the world's nations a lesson to follow.

The Maldives Coat of Arms

The small archipelago on the Indian Ocean, just south of the Indian Peninsula, decriminalized defamation laws, a crucial step toward full democracy that only 10 percent of the planet's countries have had the courage to take.

The Maldivian Parliament, by a vote of 34 in favor and seven against, approved a presidential bill abolishing five articles of the criminal code that used to punish defamation infractions with fines and incarceration.

The Parliament also provided civil remedies to defamation cases, thus removing a Damocles sword that used to dangle on top that country's journalists intent on fulfilling their duty to keep the public informed.

If you are about to give thanks for the blessings received this year, please keep the Maldives in mind.

African Nations Urged to Eliminate Criminal Defamation Laws

This is a brilliant idea advocated by Africa's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Pansy Tlakula, as part of her annual report to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR).

Rapporteur Tlakula brought up an issue of critical importance to the fight against corruption in that continent.

Here is from Botswana's www.Mmegi.bw:

Commissioner Pansy Tlakula went on to state that criminal defamation laws are being used to prosecute journalists who publish articles that are critical and exposing to elected public officials.

(...)

Media laws can only effectively promote and protect freedom of expression and access to information if they are guided by the principle of maximum disclosure and if publications regarding matters of public interests are not considered defamatory.

She also called on State Parties to end the use of imprisonment for publications made which governments may consider critical to them and that they should abstain from imposing penal sanctions on journalists regarding their articles."

Criminal defamation laws should therefore be revoked or amended to conform with international and regional standards.

As long as public officials have the arbitrary option to invoke criminal defamation or insult laws to shield themselves from the rest of society, progress and development will be severely impaired.

This human rights axiom applies not only to African nations but to any country in the world. About 90 percent of the world's nations do have defamation laws in their criminal codes.

In other words, journalists in any of those countries risk being imposed exorbitant fines or imprisonment just because of their choice to fulfill their duty to keep the public informed about matters of crucial importance.

Rapporteur Tlakula has chosen to fight the good fight, an uphill battle of continental proportions. She has our wholeheartedly support.

China Sentences Human Rights Webmaster to 3 Years in Prison

And the court that summarily gave him the harshest punishment allowed by the law even refused to provide a copy of the sentence to him or his wife, reports The Washington Post.


(AP photo)

Huang Qi (above), an activist who has denounced shoddy construction in thousands of buildings that collapsed in last year's Sichuan earthquake, was sentenced for "illegally possessing state secrets."

According to his wife, Huang was never told what state secrets he possessed and was given the maximum sentence as "revenge."

He was arrested, indicted and sentenced in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province, where some 80,000 people perished in the May 12, 2008 quake, including at least 5,335 children who died crushed by their collapsing schools. He's not the only one in prison for denouncing official responsibility in the quake's devastating death toll.

Through his website www.64tianwang.com, Huang had become a thorn on the authorities' side by denouncing repressive practices and supporting democratic causes.

The sentence also shatters any hopes that US President Barack Obama's recent visit to China, where he openly advocated for respect for human rights, would make any difference in the treatment of dissidents by Beijing's repressive bureaucracy.

This is Huang's second incarceration. In 2003, he was given a two-year sentence for "inciting subversion" over his denunciations of the 1989's massacre of Tiananmen Square.

This new show of arbitrary repression of human rights tells us all that old habits die hard, especially when you brandish the sword of absolute power.

WPFC Congratulates Argentine Congress on Historic Reform

The World Press Freedom Committee sent a letter to the leaders of the Argentine Congress congratulating them for the final passage of the reform decriminalizing defamation offenses.

This final approval took many years of efforts and resources on the part of the international press freedom movement.

As the letter says, "The approved bill breaks with the status quo that has kept expressions about public matters in the Criminal Code as a Damocles sword, dangling over the heads of Argentine journalists, who still risk their assets and even their freedom just by fulfilling their obligation to keep the public informed."

That risk will be eliminated the day President Cristina Kirchner signs the bill into law.

Here is the full text of the letter:

Victory in Argentina

The Argentina Senate last night passed a reform that is welcomed but arrives many years late.

After the Chamber of Deputies approved it last month, the Senate finally passed the reform of the Criminal Code decriminalizing defamation laws.

The bill, submitted by the executive power, reforms articles 109, 110, 111, 113 and 117, and eliminates Art. 112 so that defamation offenses are excluded in case of “expressions referred to matters of public interest.”

The presidential initiative was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on Oct. 28 and the Senate followed suit on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Now it is the turn of President Cristina Kirshner to sign the bill into law.

The battle to decriminalize defamation laws in Argentina started in 2001 when journalist Eduardo Kímel took his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights after being sentenced to one year in prison and to pay a US$20,000 fine.

The charges stemmed from a suit brought by a judge mentioned in Kímel's book about a massacre committed during the military dictatorship in the 1970's.

Seventeen years after Kímel published his book, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled for him and ordered the Argentine state to reform the laws that had been arbitrarily used to indict, sentence and harass Kímel.

The Argentine Congress and President Kirshner are to be congratulated for this historic step toward a true press freedom atmosphere in one of the most influential countries in the hemisphere.

Even though the bill has its flaws, Argentine journalists will no longer have to work with a Damocles sword dangling over their heads called criminal defamation laws.

Tunisian Journalist Ben Brik Had His Day in Court

And he was very forceful testifying that he was framed by government agents who successfully pressed concocted assault and other grave charges that could cost him a five-year prison sentence.



Taoufik Ben Brik (above) is paying a high price so far for being one of the most vocal critics of the regime of President Ben Ali.

His imprisonment took place during the government's crackdown on independent journalists who denounced the Oct. 25 presidential elections, traditionally won by Ben Ali, as fraudulent.

Today, Ben Brik told the court that he was the victim of a police trap when confronted charges of having assaulted a woman and damaging her car.

Agence France Press reports that one of Ben Brik's attorneys brought up the fact that there were no witnesses for the prosecution in the courtroom and questioned the authenticity of his client's alleged confession.

Authorised to sit on health grounds, Ben Brik objected "that's not mine, that's a different signature," while the judge shouted for order in a noisy courtroom.

According to his French lawyer William Bourdon, the case against Ben Brik is "entirely made up." He drew parallels between the case in Tunis and another in Paris, which "use the same logic of turning a political opponent into a common criminal."

Ben Brik is due to appear before a Paris court in January for alleged violence against a woman. The affair dates back to March 2004, when Ben Brik visited France with the plaintiff, Kaouther Kouki.

Two French lawyers, the secretary general of Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters Without Borders) and a member of the European parliament were in the Tunis courtroom with three members of Ben Brik's family.

In this travesty of justice, Ben Brik is charged with damaging other people's property, violation of public morality standards, defamation and extreme aggression. His verdict is scheduled to be announced on Nov. 26.

The eyes of the international press freedom movement are trained on Tunisia.

Tunisia's Leading Journalist Assaulted, Abducted

Omar Mestiri, director of private station Radio Kalima and leader of Tunisia's independent journalism, was assaulted, abducted and, after several hours in detention, released in Tunis.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued a stern condemnation of the criminal treatment received by Mestiri underlining very strong suspicions that government agents where behind the entire attack. The message was issued before Mestiri was released.

Mestiri and his station, of course, are not new to the harassment by agents of the government of President Ben Ali.

After the recent presidential election, traditionally won by President Ben Ali, the repression against independent journalists has intensified, including the arrest on trumped-up charges of journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, whose trial starts tomorrow, Nov. 19, in Tunis.

Here is the full media release by IFJ:

In China, Obama Utters the 'F' Word

As in "Free Internet," a concept as foreign to the Chinese leadership as the president of the United States himself.


President Obama conducts a town hall meeting at Shanghai's
Museum of Science & Technology (EPA Photo)

During a town hall meeting with students in Shanghai, he took questions via the Internet. And lo and behold, the big one came along to the sure horror of Chinese censors and perhaps of US officials who are trying so very hard to strike a conciliatory note during President Obama's first visit to that country.

"Should we be able to use Twitter freely?", the question read.

After confessing that he's too clumsy to use his cell phone to type anything, he gave an answer that should give hope to the world's largest Internet user market.

I should be honest, as president of the United States, there are times where I wish information didn’t flow so freely because then I wouldn’t have to listen to people criticizing me all the time.

But because in the United States, information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.

What a concept! A democratically elected leader who dislikes being criticized but that acknowledges that the free flow of opinions and information strengthens rather than weakens any society.

One wonders whether the architects and peons of the world's most sophisticated censorship machinery were tempted to kill Obama's microphone.

But we take heart that the event was broadcast live on China's television network, that the website of the country's official news agency, Xinhua, carried the event live for the whole of China and that was also simulcast by Shanghai's local stations.

As the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

The UK Finally Does the Right Thing on Repressive Laws

After a long campaign by the international press freedom forces, the British government today abolished the offenses of seditious libel (insult) and decriminalized defamation laws.

Even though these statutes were left dormant in the British books, they still had the power to infuse a chilling effect on the free flow of information and ideas.

Also, the mere existance in the British books encouraged other countries who inherited British laws or were heavily influenced by them to keep them alive and kicking as a powerful means to repress press freedom.

The Index on Censorship:

The laws, which date from the time of the Star Chamber, made criticism of the Monarch or the Government a criminal offence, and were used to silence political dissent. Like the law of blasphemy, they fell out of use in the twentieth century - but their existence in the UK does no favours to the right to free expression worldwide.

In March this year, campaigning groups English PEN, Index on Censorship and Article 19 urged the government to abolish these offences. Amendments to the Coroners & Justice Bill were tabled in the House of Commons by Dr Evan Harris MP, and then again in the House of Lords by Lord Lester of Herne Hill, before the Government eventually accepted the case for abolition and promised to get rid of the laws themselves.

The proposed removal of these offences in the UK clears a path for campaigners to argue for their abolition overseas.

Two of the World Press Freedom Committee's fundamental goals are eliminating insult laws and  decriminalizing defamation ones throughout the world. But time and again, when we advocate for these reforms, public officials in less developed countries brandish a very effective counter argument: If countries like the UK or France or Spain still have these laws in their criminal codes, why should we do away with them?

Now they one powerful reason to drop that argument and reform these laws, which are the most powerful means of censorship in the world, other than deadly threats and violence against the news media.

France and Spain, your press freedom clock is ticking.

Azerbaijan's Government Intensifies Its War on Free Expression

The latest show of repression by state forces in Azerbaijan leaves no doubt that both journalists and bloggers exercise their right to express themselves freely at their own risk.


Emin Abdullayev (left) and Adnan Hajizade

The victims this time around are bloggers and youth activists Emin Abdullayev (blogger name Emin Milli) and Adnan Hajizade, who on Wednesday were sentenced to 30 and 24 months in prison respectively after being charged with hooliganism and inflicting minor bodily harm.

In reality their crime was having the nerve to use their blogs to criticize the government.

Here is from Article 19:

"The criminal investigation and trial proceedings have been widely criticised by international and national observers as flawed and pre-determined. An ARTICLE 19 observer, present at one of the court hearings on 6 November, witnessed one of the alleged victims testified that he did not remember writing a statement accusing Milli and Hajizade, a statement which had also reportedly stated he was attacked by three men."

Several international press freedom and human rights organizations agree that these are trumped-up charges to get two pesky critics out of the way.

Amnesty International, for instance, has adopted both Milli and Hajizade as prisoners of conscience.

"The charges against the two activists were fabricated to curtail their right to freedom of expression and in response to their criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities. Both men must be released immediately and unconditionally," said Nicola Duckworth, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia programme.

Amnesty International gives a detailed account of the events that led to their arrest and imprisonment here.

Back on April 17, WPFC sent a letter to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev congratulating him for releasing two journalists through a "Pardon Act" but also reminding him that several other journalists were at that time still in prison only because of their audacity to question or challenge the actions of public officials.

The letter reminded President Aliyev of the following:

"Arresting journalists because of their professional activity is a serious attack not only on their fundamental human rights, including press freedom, but also on their audience, who thus are deprived of important information about issues of public interest. By keeping them in prison, the state also holds their audience hostage to an arbitrary decision that threatens fundamental democratic principles.

"The harassment and illegal detention of members of the media represent grave violations of fundamental human rights postulates enshrined not only in the Azeri Constitution but also in international covenants, such as the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), of which your country is signatory."

Thanks to international pressure such as the WPFC letter and several others, the Azeri government has been compelled to release journalists from prison.

But this latest act of repression against two bloggers leaves no doubt that, if left alone, public officials in Azerbaijan will continue their abusive ways.

Google and Print Media to Square off at WAN Conference

The threats by Rupert Murdoch against Google and other Internet search indexes are not falling on deaf ears, at least on the news publishers' corner of this intense debate.

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is organizing its 62nd World Newspaper Congress under the theme, "What do we do about Google? The Great Debate."

The congress will take place in Hyderabad, India, Dec. 1-3 and will attract renowned publishers from throughout the world and also Google's Chief Legal Counsel David Drummond, the website's point person dealing with legal challenges in just about any country on the planet.

Here is WAN's complete announcement of its 62nd World Newspaper Congress:

Google News to Rupert Murdoch: Bring It on

The jousting between media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and the world's most popular website is heating up, with Google News telling the head of the News Corp. a resounding "as you wish."


(EPA photo)

In recent days Murdoch (above), the head of the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and many others, and his top executives have complained that the use of News Corp. content by search indexes, such as Google News, Microsoft and Ask.com, is tantamount to "kleptomania" and accused them of being "parasites."

Murdoch is threatening to charge for the content of its media empire on the Internet and to remove such content from any Internet search index.

Google News countered by saying any news organization is free to have its content removed from the search index by just requesting it.

The Google News response as quoted by Agence France Press:

"News organisations are in complete control over whether and how much of their content appears in search results," it said said in a statement issued in London.

"Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But if they tell us not to include it, we don't."

It added: "If publishers want their content to be removed from Google News specifically all they need to do it tell us."

Google said its news listings service and web searches were a "tremendous source of promotion" for news organisations, sending them "about 100,000 clicks every minute".

Murdoch is also after the fair use doctrine, which argues that the Internet would be deprived of its very reason to exists if aggregators (such as us) would be kept from linking to other pages or sites.

"There's a doctrine called fair use, which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether... but we'll take that slowly," threatened Murdoch.

All the huffing and puffing by the Murdoch empire seems to have popped up after its heavy investments into Internet social networks, such as MySpace, have failed to respond to expectations.

Also, building firewalls to keep the Internet's traffic controllers from driving users to your content sounds like a lose-lose proposition, no matter how powerful News Corp. may be.

The New York Times, and many copycats after it, tried this approach once before and after a resounding failure, it went back to open access again.

We believe the Internet is not the newspaper slayer it has been portrayed to be, especially in the US, whose newspaper industry is undergoing the worst crisis in its history.

In fact, we believe the Internet is a transformational force of unprecedented proportions. The challenge is to learn how live and prosper with it.

In other words, war is not the answer.

Iran Releases 4 Journalists Arrested During Street Clashes

The Iranian regime keeps toying with press freedom like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.


Iranian riot police charge on pro-democracy
demonstrators in Tehran on Nov. 4 (EPA photo)

The Tehran bosses decided to free three foreign and one Iranian journalists who were arrested during last week's counter-demonstrations that took place in the capital during celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy.

The Washington Post, quoting Iranian official media, reported that two unnamed German and one Canadian reporters were released from prison, where they had been charged with "unauthorized reporting" of the opposition demonstrations that took place on Wednesday during the anniversary observation.

Also, Farhad Poulad, an Iranian working for Agence France Press, was released from prison.

All of them were arrested at the opposition's counter-demonstrations, which marked the strongest show of force by pro-democracy forces in two months and were marred by violent clashes between demonstrators and riot police on the streets of Tehran.

More than 100 people were arrested during the incidents, with more than 60 remaining under custody after the rest were released following questioning.

If green is the color of hope, pro-democracy forces in Iran have shown enough of it. But they are confronting a formidable enemy, which is very deeply entrenched in both authoritarian ways and a conviction of their "being on the side of God."

And that is a very explosive formula.