Two community radio presenters and indigenous activists were shot and killed in southern Oaxaca on Monday.
A vocal critic of a constitutional reform that will allow President Paul Biya to stand for another term in 2011 was arrested on Wednesday.
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The Simpsons has been taken off Venezuelan television. Is this because the regime doesn’t like the programme, or because they just don’t get it, asks Daniel Duquenal
In the latest media silliness from Venezuela, censors have asked TV station Televen to remove the Simpsons from its late morning schedule. The organisation in charge of monitoring the quality and suitability of Venezuelan TV, CONATEL, not only told Televen to suspend the programme, but it might actually fine them: according to the law (Ley Resorte), the network should have known better.
Before I discuss this further I must state that I am not a great fan of the Simpsons and I only ever watch it for lack of anything else catching my attention. I do this through Fox, which gives me the original version, in English. But in Venezuela Fox is on cable, and from now on it seems that Simpsons fan will have to subscribe to cable if they want to keep watching their show. Through Televen they got it free; now they will have to pay for it. Cable, though, is expensive, and does not reach much more than 25 per cent of homes in Venezuela. This number has been increasing regularly since a previous fit of censorship by the Chavez administration.
An amnesty panel in Baghdad has cleared AP photographer Bilal Hussein of charges of conspiring with Iraqi insurgents. Hussein has been held by US forces since April 2006. AP chief Tom Curley welcomed the decision, and called on the US to release Hussein.
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