12 Jun 12 | Azerbaijan News, Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
A journalist and government critic has been sentenced to two years in prison in Azerbaijan. Anar Bayramli, a correspondent for two Iranian media outlets, was sentenced for a drug possession charge following a controversial court case which was said to include contradictory evidence. Bayramli was arrested in February and charged with possession of four grams of heroin. The journalist was previously summoned by police on a number of occasions to disclose his political affiliation. The sentencing comes at a time when tensions between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Iran are particularly heightened.
12 Jun 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A Mexican reporter has gone missing from her home in the state of Coahuila, along with her two-year-old son. Hypathia Stephanía Rodríguez Cardoso, crime reporter for Zócalo Saltillo newspaper, disappeared on Friday (8 June) after attending an event celebrating Freedom of Expression day. The journalist contacted colleagues around 2 AM Friday to tell them she had returned home safely, but did not turn up for work later that morning. According to relatives, her house had been ransacked. The disappearance comes less than three weeks after a crime journalist in Sonora, Marco Antonio Ávila García, was kidnapped and later found tortured and killed.
06 Jun 12 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
The editor of a Chinese newspaper has been dismissed after posting comments online deemed critical of the government. Yu Chen, editor of the investigative news desk at Southern Metropolitan Newspaper, was initially suspended and later forced to resign after he accidentally used the newspapers Sina Weibo account to respond a question on whether China’s Ministry of National Defence should serve the Chinese Communist Party. Yu’s post was deleted immediately, along with the message he was responding to. Yu is the first journalist in China to be forced to resign from a newspaper as a result of online comments.
06 Jun 12 | Index Index, minipost
A prominent journalist in the Maldives is in a critical condition in hospital after being stabbed in the neck. Ismail “Hilath” Rasheed had his throat slit by an attacker on Monday evening, with the knife missing a vital artery by millimetres. In November, the journalist’s blog was blocked by the communication authority in the Maldives, who claimed it contained “anti-Islamic” material. A hospital source gave the journalist and blogger a five percent chance of survival.
