10 Mar 14 | Awards, News and features, Yemen
Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye has produced critical investigative reports on the US military’s activities in Yemen, including drone attacks. He also accessed and interviewed members of Al-Qeada. For this he was smeared as an Al-Qaeda supporter, and held in a Yemeni jail for three years at the request of the American government.
No evidence has ever been produced by either the US or Yemeni Government to support the claim that Shaye was facilitating Al-Qaeda attacks. Shaye indicated the real reason behind his detention was his reporting on US strikes and specifically the deaths of civilians including 14 women and 21 children killed in a sea-launched cruise missile strike on the village of al-Majala in December 2009. Leaked diplomatic cables released shortly after after the conclusion of his trial confirmed Sahye’s accusations that the US had indeed carried out the al-Majala bombing.
Sentenced in January 2011 to five years in prison for allegedly being a “media man for al-Qaeda’, Shaye should have walked free a month later following a presidential pardon. However, the American government stepped in and his release was continuously delayed – once after Barack Obama personally expressed concerns about his scheduled release in a phone conversation with then-president Ali Abdullah-Saleh.
In addition to his arrest, Shaye has been attacked by regime forces. In 2010 he was abducted by Political Security Organisation [PSO] gunmen, and beaten and threatened before being released. His house was also raided by Yemen’s elite US-trained and funded counter terrorism troops and he was allegedly again beaten and tortured during 34 days in solitary confinement, with no access to a lawyer or family members.
Shaye was released from prison in July 2013, to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest. He has remained steadfast in his commitment to journalism and free speech throughout his imprisonment.
Nominees: Advocacy | Arts | Digital Activism | Journalism
Join us 20 March 2014 at the Barbican Centre for the Freedom of Expression Awards
This article was posted on March 10, 2014 at indexoncensorship.org
07 Mar 14 | Awards, Honduras, News and features
Dina Meza is an investigative journalist working for the Committee of Relatives of the Detainees and Disappeared in Honduras, an incredibly difficult environment for press freedom.
Since the country’s 2009 coup d’état there have been a number of cases of the press being attacked and intimidated with impunity. Meza has dedicated her career to reporting on human rights stories shunned by the mainstream media, taking on the police, the security firms, and abusive employers in the process. The abduction and torture of her brother in 1989 by security forces was what initially sent her down this path — “It made me angry, the injustice. I knew then that I had to cover human rights abuses. I never had any choice!” she says.
Because of her work, Meza has been subjected to relentless threats – including threats of sexual violence – followed, watched, and had her communications intercepted. Her three children have also been threatened and followed. She briefly left Honduras to take up a fellowship at the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights as part of their Protective Fellowship scheme. During this time, her children were forced to leave Tegucigalpa for a period due to a suspicious looking man keeping watch outside her younger son’s school.
After returning to Honduras in May 2013, Meza reports that she continues to be subject to harassment and surveillance. She reports having been followed on at least four occasions between May and August, and on 12 August Meza reported being the victim of a suspected attempt to abduct her.
This all happens with complete impunity, as despite her reporting the issues to the police, nothing is ever done. But the idea of giving it up is not an option for Meza: “I could not look into my children’s eyes and tell them I can do nothing about the situation, because to do nothing would be far worse than the threats, beatings or bullets of the police and the military”.
Nominees: Advocacy | Arts | Digital Activism | Journalism
Join us 20 March 2014 at the Barbican Centre for the Freedom of Expression Awards
This article was posted on March 7, 2014 at indexoncensorship.org
06 Mar 14 | Awards, News and features, Sri Lanka
Callum Macrae, in collaboration with Channel 4 News, has made three films uncovering the truth about Sri Lanka’s human rights abuses in the final months of its decades-long civil war in 2009.
Macrae’s most recent film No Fire Zone, containing carefully authenticated video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, gained particular attention as it was aired just before the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka last November. “Both sides in that war committed crimes, although the most of those who died did so as a result of shelling by forces under the ultimate command of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Macrae wrote recently. The film tells this story, and that of the government’s attempt to cover it up.
Macrae has been continuously smeared in Sri Lankan media, with claims that he is a Tamil Tiger supporter and that he and Channel 4 receive funding from the disbanded rebel group. He has received death threats, and the team has been followed by the secret service as well as impromptu pro-government protesters, while in the country. “I am probably the most hated man in Sri Lanka at the moment” Macrae recently wrote, but added that based on his experiences in the country, “it is very clear there are a lot of people in Sri Lanka who are very happy to see their increasingly despotic ruling family coming under pressure.
Nominees: Advocacy | Arts | Digital Activism | Journalism
Join us 20 March 2014 at the Barbican Centre for the Freedom of Expression Awards
This article was posted on March 6, 2014 at indexoncensorship.org
05 Mar 14 | Awards, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, News and features
Rahim Haciyev, deputy editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
One of the few remaining independent media outlets in Azerbaijan, the newspaper Azadliq has continued to report on government corruption and cronyism in spite of an increasing financial squeeze enforced by the authorities.
The country likes to present itself as a modern democracy, but it is widely recognised as an authoritarian regime where opposition is often brutally cracked down on and critical voices silenced. In this environment, Azadliq works to hold the ruling Aliyev family, and the rest of the powerful elite in the country to account. The latest attacks on the paper came hot on the heels of the country’s 2013 presidential election, where Ilham Aliyev was reelected in a vote labelled flawed by the OSCE.
The paper has been been the target of defamation suits that have resulted in £52,000 in fines. Courts found Azadliq guilty of “damaging” the business reputation of Kabira Mamedova, director of the Baku-based Bina shopping centre, and Taghi Ahmadov, CEO of the Baku Metro, after the paper published articles critical of their activities.
The paper’s bank accounts have been frozen since 25 October, and Gasid, the state-owned press distribution company, has not been transferring payments that reflect the paper’s sales; according to Azadliq’s latest calculations, Gasid now owes about £44,000.
Azadliq’s journalists also face continuous threats. On 4 October 2013, Azadliq reporter Ramin Deko was part of a group of journalists assaulted by a pro-government mob while covering an opposition rally in the central Azerbaijan town of Sabirabad. He also alleges he was abducted and beaten up on 3 and 4 April 2011 by law enforcement bodies. While he was illegally detained, he said he was told to stop writing critical articles and to change his workplace to a pro-government newspaper.
Despite this, Azadliq refuses to back down, and continues to cover the activities of the Azerbaijan corrupt elite. “We play a significant role in providing people with alternative information. Our staff are underpaid, overworked, and yet are fully committed to their work”, said deputy editor-in-chief and acting editor Rahim Haciyev.
Haciyev, who joined the paper in 2001, talked to Andrei Aliaksandrau about why his work at Azadliq is so important.
Index: Your publication faces constant pressure from the authorities. Have you ever thought of leaving for a safer job?
Haciyev: No, this is my work, and it is not only a job, it is my form of expression. The fight for free speech is sacred for me. This is the way of opposing lawlessness and tyranny, and working for Azadliq provides me with a possibility to continue this fight for what I believe in.
Index: What is the wider media landscape in Azerbaijan? And how does this fit into the wider political and social situation?
Haciyev: Repressive steps taken by the government of the country have led to significant restrictions of media freedom. Today there is a real threat of independent press in Azerbaijan totally disappearing. The country lives under a strict authoritarian rule. Activists of political opposition, civil society organisations and independent journalists face constant pressure. There are more than a hundred political prisoners behind bars in Azerbaijan, including journalists.
Index: What is your view on the Snowden/Greenwald revelations about mass surveillance?
Haciyev: Our newspaper covered the story. I think a government should keep its secrets – but it is the role of the press to inform the public and share the information they gather. And any kind of pressure exerted on the media is nothing but a violation of the freedom of expression.
Index: Technologies have changed the media market globally. Do you think newspapers are still relevant?
Haciyev: I am sure printed newspapers will keep their relevance for a long time. Despite the development of the internet, we can still see great demand for newspapers among the audience. For us,our website is getting more and more popular, and the circulation of the printed newspaper is going down – but it is not because people are losing their interest in the printed publication, merely because of all the restrictions and pressure our authorities put on us.
Nominees: Advocacy | Arts | Digital Activism | Journalism
Join us 20 March 2014 at the Barbican Centre for the Freedom of Expression Awards
This article was posted on March 4, 2014 at indexoncensorship.org
