EU should scrutinize Montenegro–Wild West for the press
Nestled between Croatia’s Dalmatian coast and Albania, the small state of Montenegro (14,000 square kilometers, 630,000 inhabitants) evokes images of sandy beaches, pristine lakes, and gorgeous mountains. The wild beauty advertised by its savvy tourist board, however, looks more like the Wild West for the Montenegrin press. In the past weeks a number of violent…
Duping pirates and endangering journalists
It could have been the script for a John Le Carré intrigue. On Saturday October 12, Belgian security agents arrested Mohamed Abdi Hassan, a kingpin of Somali piracy known as “Afweyne” (Big Mouth), and his associate Mohammed M. Aden, nicknamed Tiiceey, a former governor of Himan and Heeb province.
The US press is our press
The international media depend on the U.S. press to cover U.S. stories–and many of these, from the subprime mortgage crisis to NSA surveillance, are global stories because of their worldwide repercussions. But international journalists also rely on the U.S. press to report and comment on most world events. Therefore any restriction on U.S. journalists’ freedom…
Mediapart complies with ruling, but vows to fight on
At midnight on Monday, the French news website Mediapart complied with the Versailles court of appeal which last week ordered the site to withdraw articles referring to the Bettencourt recordings–the secret tapings of Liliane Bettencourt, the richest woman in France, by her butler. Mediapart as well as the newsweekly Le Point had been sued for…
French website Mediapart faces crippling judgment
Three years ago, revelations by the independent news website Mediapart on the “Bettencourt affair”– allegations of illegal funding of former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party by the heiress of the L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt–put the fledgling site on the map, helped it build a reputation as a dogged and fearless muckraker, and boosted its…
JPK’s disappearance becomes murder case in Tahiti
Since Jean-Pascal Couraud’s disappearance in mid-December 1997 his friends had been fighting to debunk the notion that he had committed suicide. In 2004 they had thought they could prove that the 37-year-old muckraker had been a victim of foul play. Vetea Guilloux, a member of the local militia Groupe d’intervention de Polynésie (GIP), had alleged…
In Barroso-Aliyev talks, press freedom takes a back seat
“We in Europe are also not perfect,” José Manuel Barroso said last week while hosting a joint press conference in Brussels with Azerbaijan’s head of state, Ilham Aliyev. The president of the European Commission, who is supposed to defend the EU’s democratic values, seemed to prove his own point by deciding not to openly question…
With Panorama jail sentences, Italy’s libel law under fire
“Incredible,” “staggering,” “enormous,” “out of time”–the expressions of outrage have been flying in Italy since a Milan magistrate sentenced to prison three journalists for the weekly magazine Panorama. On May 24, Andrea Marcenaro and Riccardo Arena were each condemned to a one-year jail term for a 2010 article discussing Palermo magistrate Francesco Messineo’s alleged family…
European Parliament reaffirms principles, but action lacks
The European Parliament, meeting in a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, adopted today a resolution stating that “changes in EU member state’s media laws that make it easier for governments to interfere in the media should be monitored every year at EU level.”
Portuguese media chilled by Angolan involvement
Portuguese journalists are increasingly concerned by Angola’s growing investment and influence in their country. Buoyed by petrodollars and diamonds, powerful Angolan interests have been indulging in a buying spree in their former colonial power. Angolan capital invested in Portugal increased 35 times in the past decade, according to news reports. In a process often acidly…