IFJ, FAJ and WAJA Call for Restraint in Ivory Coast Conflict

ource: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

Date: 05 Apr 2011

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) and the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) today expressed their deep concerns over the escalating war in Ivory Coast and the impact on civilians, including Ivorian and foreign journalists in the country.

According to the International Red Cross Committee, 800 people were killed last week in the intercommunal war between forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara and those supporting incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo.

Journalists were reported to have been threatened and frequently intimidated by both forces competing to manipulate news and information.

Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) has reportedly become a propaganda tool after changing hands between forces loyal to Ouattara and Gbagbo.

"We are very much concerned about the situation spiralling out of control, the threats against journalists and the manner in which warring sides are attempting to control the media information system of the country. Media has become gravely endangered by this fight for control," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President.

Forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo were reported as trying to block news website they deem to be in opposition, according to an order issued by Sylvanus KLA, Director General and CEO of Agence des Télécommunications de Côte d'Ivoire (ATCI), a political appointee of the Gbagbo government.

"The War in Abidjan and the rest of the country has created confusions, chaos and a crackdown on journalists. Our fear is that when politicians turn their fight into a fully-fledged intercommunal war, journalists end up being divided at a time when they should be more focused on their job of informing the public and extending solidarity to each other in the face of serious danger," said Omar Faruk Osman, FAJ President.

Journalists in Abidjan are afraid to go out of their houses and workplaces for fear of being targeted. It is also reported that the pro-Gbagbo Criminal Investigation Department officers, have targeted journalists for interrogation.

"We demand that violence and hostilities cease so that the lives of civilians can be spared. Using journalists and targeting those who refuse to take sides cannot be tolerated. We call on the warring sides to refrain from harming journalists whichever community group they belong to," said Mohamed Garba, WAJA President.

FAJ, IFJ and WAJA call on the rival warring sides to show restraint, respect the rights of journalists to carry out their work in safety and stop interfering in media affairs.

In such situations, international laws must be respected and enforced. The right to free expression and freedom of the press are essential to bring about a peaceful resolution of disputes over elections, said the three journalists organisations.

For more information contact the IFJ at +221 33 867 95 86/87

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 125 countries worldwide

International Federation of Journalists

IFJ, CPJ Condemn Abduction of Senior Baloch Journalist in Karachi

IFJ, CPJ Condemn Abduction of Senior Baloch

Journalist in Karachi

The Baloch Hal News:

BRUSSELS/ NEW YORK/KARACHI: In two different statements of condemnation, international media watchdogs striving for the freedom of the press and protection of journalists strongly criticized the abduction and manhandling of Mohammad Rafique Baloch, a veteran Karachi-based journalist and the vice-president of the Karachi Union of Journalists(KUJ).

According to Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), reports, Baloch was on his way to the Sindh High Court, in Karachi on March 21 to attend a hearing of the case filed before the bench on the implementation of the Seventh Wage Award for journalists, when he was intercepted, bundled into a vehicle and taken to an unknown location.

Baloch was verbally abused and severely manhandled by his unidentified abductors. He was held for close to four hours before being released in a remote part of Karachi at 1pm.

“The IFJ is deeply disturbed by this blatant intimidation of a senior journalist and trade unionist in Pakistan,” International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.

“We join the PFUJ in demanding a quick and credible investigation into this incident and the imposition of the severest punishment available under the law for those who carried out the abduction”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists

In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) said it joined colleagues in Pakistan in calling for an immediate investigation into Monday’s abduction and abuse of senior journalist and vice president of the Karachi Union of Journalists, Mohammad Rafique Baloch.

According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Baloch was on his way to the Sindh High Court, in Karachi, when he was picked up by a group of men, forced into a vehicle, taken to an unknown destination, and released in a remote area of the city around 1 a.m. this morning. He had been picked up near the Sindh Legislative Assembly building, close to the center of the sprawling city.

The PFUJ said Baloch was verbally abused and manhandled by his abductors. The group called for an impartial inquiry into the incident.

“The most recent attack on Mohammad Rafique Baloch is an indicator of the government’s increasing inability to protect its citizens, including journalists,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “We fear that this attack will go uninvestigated as so many others have.”

On January 13, Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar was shot and killed in Karachi shortly after covering gang violence in the city. On Monday, Capital City Police Officer Saud Mirza told a press conference about the arrest of a group of alleged ‘contract killers” that any progress into the investigation of Babar would be made at “an appropriate time.”

In early September 2010, men in police uniforms abducted and beat Umar Cheema, a correspondent of the English-language daily The News in Islamabad. Men in police uniforms seized Cheema while he was driving in a suburb of Islamabad. No arrests have been made in that case either. The well-known political reporter was held captive for more than six hours. He was dropped, bound, near his car, where he had been picked up earlier. His abductors told him to stop writing articles critical of the government, Cheema told several Pakistani papers and television stations after his release. Some reports said his captors mentioned other media outlets whose reporters would meet the same fate as Cheema.

Pakistan was the deadliest country in the world in 2010, according to CPJ data. The country also ranked 10th on CPJ’s Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are regularly killed and authorities fail to solve the crimes.

IFJ, local media groups alarmed by Zaldy Ampatuan's attempt to get off the hook

02-Mar-11, 2:22 PM |

Widows and relatives of the media workers killed in the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre march to the Court of Appeals in Manila Wednesday to demand justice as the court readies to decide on a petition by suspended ARMM governor Zaldy Ampatuan to be dropped from the list of accused. (Nonoy Espina, InterAksyon)

MANILA, Philippines - (UPDATE) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and local media groups expressed alarm over the attempt of suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan to remove himself from the list of suspects facing trial for the November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists and media workers, in Maguindanao province's Ampatuan town.

The IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said that a "crucial moment" would soon occur when the Philippine Court of Appeals decides on a petition for certiorari or judicial review filed by Zaldy on a decision of former justice secretary Alberto Agra denying his bid to be dropped from the list of accused.

Agra had originally granted Zaldy’s petition but, following protests, including from state prosecutors handling the case, he reversed himself.

"If it (Zaldy’s petition) is successful, he will be freed from jail and avoid facing trial," Park said in a statement on Wednesday.

In Manila, media groups called for “transparency and vigilance” in the court process and joined relatives of the media workers slain in the massacre in a march to the CA Wednesday afternoon to show their outrage over the possibility that one of the leading suspects in the gruesome killings may go scot-free.

The IFJ extended its "solidarity and support" to the protest.

In their statement, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, November 23 Movement, Philippine Center for Photojournalism and Center for Community Journalism and Development noted that “some of the families of the slain journalists have filed a petition for two CA justices—Danton Bueser and Marlene Gonzales—to inhibit themselves from hearing the Zaldy Ampatuan petition because of doubts over their impartiality.”

They said the media victims’ families noted in their petition that both justices “had inhibited themselves from hearing the petition of Ampatuan patriarch Andal Sr. They should have disclosed their reasons for doing so as mandated by the new code of judicial conduct, but did not. Why should they then be part of a panel that will decide the Zaldy Ampatuan petition which is intimately related to the first petition?”

While stressing that they were “not prejudging the guilt or innocence of Mr. Ampatuan” and assumed that “the justices of the Court of Appeals will base their decision on the strength and credibility of the evidence Mr. Ampatuan has submitted,” the media groups also said “it is imperative that the process be perceived as credible and beyond question.”

They cautioned that “should the perpetrators of the massacre, whoever they are, literally get away with murder, it will send the strongest message yet that neither the murder of journalists in such numbers, or that of politicians’ families and their partisans, can move the justice system to begin to dismantle the culture of impunity, or exemption from punishment, that has taken deep roots in Philippine society.”

“It will also encourage further killings,” they added. “It is crucial not only to the media, but … even more importantly, to Philippine democracy, that the Ampatuan Massacre trial deliver to the kin of the slain the justice that has eluded so many in this country.”

The Philippines ranks among the worst countries in the world in terms of journalists’ safety, with 142 media workers killed since the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.

In 2010, the IFJ delivered an action plan to President Benigno Aquino III calling upon his government to bring an end to the culture of impunity that plagued the country during the presidency of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.