CATEGORY: News and features

Zimbabwe: two journalists detained during cabinet meeting

by | 23 Oct 09

On 20 October, two Al-Jazeera journalists were assaulted and briefly detained in Zimbabwe while covering a cabinet meeting which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s had boycotted.

Cameraman Austin Gundani and his reporter colleague Haru Mutasa were physically assaulted and detained at a small police post located at Munhumutapa Building and before being transferred to Harare Central Police Station. They were released three hours later.

In past years Zimbabwe has imposed harsh media laws that saw local newspapers shut down and journalists and editors jailed. The new government has promised to relax the laws and invite the international media back in. (RSF)

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Bolivia: newspaper office attacked by demonstrators

by | 23 Oct 09

On 19 October, more than a hundred cooperative miners attacked the headquarters of La Razón, a newspaper based in the Bolivian administrative capital La Paz.

The attack took place during a protest march over the ownership of a site in the Murillo province of the La Paz department. According to local media, the demonstrators exploded dynamite cartridges outside the offices of the newspaper. Nobody was injured in the attack.

“Next time it could be worse, so a clear message must be sent that violence against the media will not be tolerated”, said Alison Bethel McKenzie, Deputy Director of the International Press Institute (IPI), in a statement condemning the attacks. (La Razón)

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