Index on Censorship’s Mike Harris took part in a discussion on the use of social media and protest at the Frontline Club on Tuesday night with Sina Motalebi of BBC Persian TV, Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy, Benjamin Chesterton of Duckrabbit, and Mexico Reporter founder Deborah Bonello. Watch it below
Prominent Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has placed the cartoonist responsible for the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day campaign on an hit list. Writing in English language Al Qaeda magazine Inspire, New Mexico born al-Awlaki branded Molly Norris a blasphemer and declared that she “does not deserve life, does not deserve to breathe the air”. In April 2010, Norris started a Facebook group encouraging people to draw Mohammed, in retaliation to Comedy Central’s decision to edit South Park’s depiction of the Islamic prophet, which resulted in Pakistan blocking the social networking site. The FBI has warned Norris of what they consider to be “a very serious threat”.
Two Mexican journalists have been separately murdered in the North of Mexico. The killings bore the signs of gang violence and bring the number of journalists murdered in Mexico this year to 11. Radio journalist Marco Martínez Tijerina was found in the North Eastern state of Nuevo León. His body had one gunshot to the head and bore signs of torture. On July 10, Guillermo Trejo, an employee of the State Commission for Human Rights in North West Mexico, was killed outside the offices of a newspaper he had previously worked for. Police found over forty bullet casings at the scene.
Gerardo Jarquin Diaz, mayor of the small town of San Pedro Totolapan and member of the PRI (The Institutional Revolutionary Party), was arrested for killing one supporter of the rival political group PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) and injuring another. The shooting took place after the two men made fun of the PRI’s performance in a recent election. The election results mark the first time that the southern state Oaxaca has been ruled by a non PRI governor in 80 years.