31 Jan 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A Cuban journalist is facing more than ten years in prison for alleged corruption offences. José Antonio Torres, a correspondent for Granma, the party newspaper, in Santiago de Cuba, was detained on 11 March, 2011 after writing two articles criticising a major government infrastructure project. In the articles, Torres said experts undertaking the rebuilding of a key aqueduct intended to supply water to the city’s inhabitants, had claimed that “ineptitude” and “poor workmanship” had caused parts of the aqueduct wall’s veneer to fall off. The journalist also wrote that the project should have been “better planned.” Torres was initially charged with being an “agent of the CIA” and leaking confidential information abroad.
04 Jan 12 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Van Khuong was arrested this week on suspicion of bribery after he ran an expose on corruption among traffic police in his newspaper, Tuoi Tre. The reporter is said to have paid a bribe of 15 million dong (458 GBP) to a police officer to secure the release of an impounded vehicle. The officer in question was arrested after Khuong’s story was published, and Khuong was suspended by the paper on 3 December. Tuoi Tre quoted him as saying he had made an error in gathering evidence for a series of stories about police corruption, but he did not say he had provided the bribe.
17 Oct 11 | Index Index, minipost
The car of a popular Bulgarian journalist was blown up on Thursday, after a makeshift bomb was attached to the vehicle. Sasho Dikov, programme director of the Channel 3 TV station, was not injured by the blast outside his home in a residential area of Sofia. The journalist, who has been a fierce critic of the center-right government said the attack was to intimidate him, and “anyone who speaks the truth.” Dikov said the attack would not stop him from discussing the alleged failure by Prime Minister Boiko Borisov’s government’s to cope with corruption and organised crime.
12 Oct 11 | Index Index, minipost
An Angolan journalist is facing a year in prison for libel. William Tonet, editor of the newspaper Folha 8, was accused of libel after he published allegations of corruption among the country’s military elite. Tonet accused three generals of the Angolan Armed Forces of self-enrichment and power abuse in a 2008 news article. In a court ruling on Monday, the journalist was given five days to pay 10 million kwanzas (€77,000) in damages, or face a year in prison. The journalist’s lawyer, David Mendes, said the government of Angolan President, Jose dos Santos wants to imprison William Tonet.
