23 May 12 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The head of a new Palestinian news channel has been arrested on undisclosed charges in Israel. Bahaa Khairi Moussa, the general director of the Palestine Prisoner Channel, which covers the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, was arrested on Thursday (17 May). Saher al-Qassim, the news broadcaster’s executive director, believes the channel’s specialist coverage has lead to the arrest. Moussa’s whereabouts is currently unknown.
22 May 12 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The body of a Pakistani journalist has been found, one day after he was abducted. Razzaq Gul, a reporter with the Express News in southern Balochistan, was found dumped near his home in Turbat on Saturday, having been shot 15 times. On Sunday, journalists in Quetta gathered to protest the murder. According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), Gul was the 21st journalist to die in the area. Pakistan Press International claims six journalists have been deliberately targeted and murdered in Balochistan in the last four years.
21 May 12 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
A citizen journalist has been sentenced to death in Syria, after giving a series of interviews to Al-Jazeera TV station. Mohammed Abdelmawla al-Hariri has been charged with “high treason and contacts with foreign parties” after giving the broadcaster an interview on the situation in his home town of Deraa. Hariri, who was arrested on 16 April shortly after giving an interview, has reportedly been subject to horrific torture after his arrest, resulting in partial paralysis. The Syrian government has accused the station of being part of a global plot to cause chaos in the country.
21 May 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
The body of a murdered Mexican crime reporter was found at a roadside on Friday. Marco Antonio Avila Garcia of “Diario Sonora de la Tarde” and “El Regional” newspapers was kidnapped on Thursday while waiting at a car-wash. His tortured body was discovered in a black plastic bag the following day, in the northern state of Sonora, almost 70 miles away from where he was kidnapped. Police found a message signed by a cartel with the body, but refused to reveal its contents. Garcia regularly reported on organised crime in Ciudad Obregon.
