Suspected militants fired at two low-flying military helicopters in Basilan province in the southern Philippines on August 16, 2009, injuring two journalists who were on board, according to local and international reports. The militants were thought to belong to the Abu Sayyaf Group, which is allegedly linked to Al-Qaida.
On May 5, 2009, Milton Nelson Chacaguasay Flores, director and editor of the weekly publication La Verdad in the city of Machala, was released on parole after serving six months in prison on libel charges. Chacaguasay told CPJ that on June 8, 2009, he was again charged with slander and sentenced to four months in…
Police threatened to arrest two journalists based in Srinagar, capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, on July 10, 2009, for reporting that the family of a missing youth, Asrar Mushtaq Dar, feared he may have “disappeared” in police custody, according to a statement issued by the Kashmir Press Bureau. Dar was later…
A group of political supporters attacked freelance photojournalist Jay Mandal at an election rally in Nandigram, West Bengal, India, on May 5, 2009, according to news reports and the New York-based South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA).
On June 3, 2009, Mexican Judge José Alberto Ciprés Sánchez sentenced Hiram Oliveros Ortiz to 16 years in prison for the 2004 murder of journalist Roberto Javier Mora García, editorial director of the Nuevo Laredo-based daily El Mañana, the paper reported. The following day, Oliveros’ attorney appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of the…
Unidentified individuals harassed and attacked journalists working at the Tegucigalpa offices of the online daily Hondudiario.com three times in two weeks, according to CPJ interviews and local news reports. Though the attacks appeared to be robberies, the daily’s director told CPJ he believed they were retaliation for the Hondudiario.com’s reporting on corruption in the Honduran…
On April 23, 2009, six unidentified assailants held at gunpoint Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal, host of the political program “La Luciérnaga” on national Caracol Radio, inside his home in the western city of Tuluá, reported the Cali-based daily El País. The attackers ransacked the journalist’s home, stole two computers and two cell phones, according to local…
Local police beat three photographers in two separate incidents on June 18, 2009, in India’s West Bengal state. They were covering a government offensive by police and paramilitary forces trying to break a four-day siege of the Lalgarh area by Maoist insurgents, according to local news reports.