Arrest in Mexican reporter's killing met with doubt

MEXICO CITY -- Veracruz state authorities announced an arrest in the killing of a well-known reporter, but the slain woman's colleagues and friends greeted the news with skepticism and scorn.

Regina Martinez, a veteran reporter for the muckraking national newsmagazine Proceso, was killed in her home in the Veracruz capital, Xalapa, about six months ago. She was one of more than half a dozen journalists and former journalists who have been slain or gone missing in Veracruz in the last two years. Local reporters --  many of whom have fled to Mexico City in fear of their lives --  blame drug traffickers and corrupt authorities.

Late Tuesday, the Veracruz state prosecutor announced the arrest of a two-bit thief, Jose Antonio Hernandez, and said he had confessed to beating Martinez to death. The motive was robbery, prosecutor Amadeo Flores Espinosa said, and a second suspect remains at large.

With that, the authorities in Veracruz declared the case solved. But many of those close to Martinez, along with press freedom advocates, were not buying it.

As one Somali journalist is buried, a top poet and comedian is slain

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — They buried Somali radio journalist Mohamed Mohamud Turyare on Monday, a week after he was killed by unknown gunmen near a mosque in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. On Monday night, killers struck again, this time shooting dead one of Somalia's famous poets and radio comedians, Warsame Shire Awale, near his Mogadishu home.

Awale, in his 60s, was the 18th Somalia media figure killed this year. Turyare, 22, of the Shabelle Media Network, died days before TV journalist, Ahmed Farah Sakin, 25, was shot dead by unknown assailants in northern Somalia.

Dozens more journalists and media personalities have been injured in the deadliest year on record for Somali journalists. In 2009, the next deadliest year, nine were killed.

“In Mogadishu, the atmosphere is very fearful and people wonder how they can continue doing their jobs. Many have stopped. They're afraid of being killed,” said Rashid Abdullahi Haydar of the National Union of Somali Journalists, in a phone interview. Haydar was among the hundreds of mourners who laid Turyare to rest at the city's Al Jazeera cemetery Monday.

“Families are afraid too. They are saying, 'Please stop this [journalism] because you have no rights and no protection.' It's very precarious working conditions we have right now.”

As Somalia makes a delicate political transition, a new president has been elected and Mogadishu is more peaceful and stable than it has been in decades. Yet the rash of assassinations of Somali journalists continues, evidence of the country's  ongoing security problems and the new government's impotence against targeted killings and suicide bombings.

In September, three journalists were killed and four were injured when suicide bombers attacked a cafe in central Mogadishu that was a popular hangout for news reporters and civil servants.

Al Shabab, the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group that has been pushed by African Union forces from urban strongholds, is thought to be responsible for a number of the attacks. But many believe that powerful warlords or businessmen may be behind some of the killings.

Awale was well-known for his role on Radio Kulmiye lampooning Al Shabab. He was the second Radio Kulmiye comedian to be shot dead by gunmen. Abdi Jeylani Marshale, who performed on the same program, was killed in August.

“He was well known in Somalia's literature and culture. He was a musician and he was an intellectual,” Haydar said, describing Awale.

Haydar said Awale and others on the show  had received death threats by phone in recent months. He said the journalists' union believed that like Marshale, Awale was assassinated for poking fun of Al Shabab.

“They were calling them all the time, saying, 'Why are you insulting the insurgency?''' Haydar said.

Awale, long famous as a playwright and musician, was a member of the  musical group Onkod that performed in Mogadishu before the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. Later, he was known for his romantic and patriotic songs and he has since written songs calling on people to reject violence and to join the police force instead of militant groups. The Somali journalists' union has called on the government to carry out a full investigation into the killing of Awale and all other media workers.

Haydar said the government appeared to have no power to protect targeted journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international press freedom organization, ranks Somalia as Africa's most dangerous country to be a journalist.

Radio Kulmiye's website ran a recent commentary saying that if not for the brave reporting of Somali journalists, the world would not have known about the country's suffering during more than two decades of chaos and violence.

“All Somali journalists and the general public as well as the international media and human rights watchdogs and the world community at large agree that the vast majority of Somali journalists are targeted in attempt to silence the only independent, neutral voice from a country mired by 21 years of chaos and lawlessness,” read the article, published Oct. 22.

It followed a polemic published Oct. 11 in Britain's Guardian newspaper by London-based Somali Jamal Osman, arguing that many journalists were killed because they were corrupt and accepted payments to write good things about certain politicians or businessmen.

“The profession needs to be cleaned up. The media owners should do it to save the lives of their employees,” he wrote. Somali journalists staged protests in Mogadishu condemning the article.

ALSO:

Western diplomats see danger in Mali

Taliban's attack on Pakistan education goes beyond one girl

At Afghanistan university, disputed name turns into fighting word

— Robyn Dixon, reporting from Johannesburg 

 

 

 

 

Senior British police officer faces charges in phone-hacking scandal

LONDON -- A senior British counter-terrorism officer appeared in court Monday to face charges tied to the police investigation into phone hacking by tabloid journalists.

In a brief pretrial hearing, Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn, the former head of Scotland Yard's National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit, was accused of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act.

Authorities allege that in September 2010 Casburn took home secret police documents relating to an inquiry into phone hacking and contacted the News of the World tabloid, offering it information on the police probe, then known as Operation Varec. 

Police at the time had new information from the New York Times concerning illegal phone tapping by journalists from the News of the World, although authorities did not reopen the phone-hacking investigations until July 2011.  

Casburn, 53, is also charged with misconduct in public office following a police investigation into illegal payments to public officials by journalists in return for information. That probe, known as Operation Elveden, is one of three police inquiries into the suspected widespread use of phone and computer hacking by the media over the past decade.

Casburn, who is reported to be the first defendant facing charges related to the Elveden probe to appear in court, was released on bail and ordered to appear in the Central Criminal Court on Nov. 2. She has been suspended from duty.

Trials are just beginning after more than a year of investigations and civil inquiries into illegal communication interceptions by the news organizations, which have resulted in more than 70 arrests of high-profile figures in the media and public service.

Last week saw the pretrial appearance in court of a dozen high-profile editors and executives from Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World and from News International, the paper’s publisher and the British branch of the huge News Corp. conglomerate.

The tabloid was closed down by the Murdoch family following public outrage over revelations that News of the World journalists in 2003 had hacked into the mobile phone messages of a missing teenager who was later found slain.

 ALSO:

 Vatican court blocks evidence in trial of pope's ex-butler

 Unfortunately for Germany, it's "a wonderland for raccoons"

 Ex-tabloid editors Brooks, Coulson in court for British phone-hacking case

 -- Janet Stobart

Photo: pril Casburn arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday. Credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press

 

 

Rebekah Brooks appears in court on phone-hacking charges

LONDON -- Rebekah Brooks, former News International executive and editor of the now defunct Murdoch-owned tabloid News of the World, appeared in court Monday to hear three charges against her relating to illegal phone hacking.

Brooks, 44, was charged earlier this year along with a private investigator and seven other executives, editors and journalists of the paper. The group was charged with conspiring to hack into the phones of 600 potential victims.

In Brooks’ case she faces two more specific charges of hacking into the phones of murdered teenager Milly Dowler who died in March 2003, and of Andy Gilchrist, a former militant leader of the Fire Brigades Union who lead a controversial firefighters’ strike in 2002. She has denied the charges.

Brooks, wearing a short-skirted dark suit, made no comment as she walked to and from Westminster Magistrates court in central London. Throughout the brief hearing she listened in silence as presiding judge Howard Riddle Brooks read out the three charges.  

Her seven former colleagues who appeared in court last month, included Andy Coulson, former chief press officer to Prime Minister David Cameron, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator.

Police arrest ex-London Times journalist in computer hacking case

LONDON -- Police arrested a former London Times journalist, named by the British press as 28-year-old Patrick Foster, Wednesday morning on suspicion of illegal computer hacking. 

The arrest is the latest in ongoing investigations into phone hacking-related crimes which began last July, after revelations of illegal hacking into the cellphone of a murdered teenager by the popular tabloid the News of World caused public outrage.

Police said the arrest “for suspected offenses under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and suspected conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,” was part of their “investigation into criminal breaches
of privacy, including computer hacking which is being carried out in conjunction with MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] phone-hacking inquiries.”

One of several arrests following the News of the World exposure and subsequent judicial investigations among employees of News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and other tabloid papers, it is the first to strike the Murdoch's flagship daily, The Times.

Press reports said ex-Times home affairs writer Foster was arrested on suspicion of using illegal email hacking to expose the identity of a police blogger known as Night Jack in 2009. The police statement says the arrested man "is being questioned at a North London police station about alleged computer hacking relating to the identification of a previously anonymous blogger in 2009."

In a court case brought against the Times by Richard Horton, a police officer revealed
by Foster as the author of the award-winning Night Jack blog, which recounted the day-to-day realities of police work, Foster’s evidence disguised the fact he originally discovered Horton’s identity by hacking into his email.

Before his exposure, Horton lost a plea for an injunction to protect his identity resulting in his outing by the Times, the judge ruling he had been exposed by legitimate means.

The Leveson inquiry, a judge-led civil investigation that is one of the several probes into media practices opened last summer, heard from Times editorial and legal representatives this year that they were aware of but ignored the real origins of Foster’s disclosure of Horton’s identity. 

The Leveson inquiry is expected to file its findings in coming weeks, after a year’s questioning of
media and media-related figures.  

ALSO:
 
Italy Prime Minister Mario Monti faces growing pressure over debt
 
Russia's Putin lives like a 'galley slave' with jets, yachts, limos, report says
 
Norwegian leader apologizes for poor police response to massacre
 
  -- Janet Stobart

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange urges U.S. to end 'war on whistle-blowers'

LONDON -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Sunday called on the U.S. to end its "war on whistle-blowers" and demanded the release of Bradley Manning, the American soldier suspected of passing thousands of classified documents to Assange's secret-spilling website.

Assange made the appeal from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for two months in an effort to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault. It was the 41-year-old Australian's first public appearance since seeking refuge inside
the embassy June 19.

He was careful to remain on embassy property and thus out of reach of British police, who have vowed to arrest him the instant he crosses into the public domain. By international convention, embassies are the sovereign territory of the countries they represent.

Assange thanked Ecuador for granting him political asylum Thursday and said President Rafael Correa had displayed courage, although Correa has been criticized for cracking down on journalists in his own country.

Assange made no mention of the actual allegations he is fleeing –- namely, that he sexually assaulted two women in Stockholm in August 2010. The Swedish government had asked for his arrest and extradition from Britain so that investigators could question Assange, who acknowledges having sex with the women but insists that it was consensual.

Assange and his supporters say the allegations are merely a pretext for his eventual extradition to the U.S., which they believe wants to try him -– and perhaps execute him –- for espionage. As yet, no charges have formally been brought against Assange in the U.S.

"We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America," Assange told a crowd of supporters who waited outside the Ecuadorean Embassy, in one of London's toniest neighborhoods.

"Will it return and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it lurch off the precipice and bring us all into a dangerous world in which journalists fall silent from the fear of prosecution?" Assange said. "I ask President Obama to do the right thing."

ALSO:

Afghanistan attacks kill dozens of civilians

Panetta urges Karzai to stop "insider shootings"

7 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange delivers a statement Sunday from a balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has sought asylum in London. Credit: Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

 

Alleged killers of journalists in Mexico captured

MEXICO CITY  -- Authorities in the troubled, coastal state of Veracruz announced Wednesday that they had arrested members of a drug-trafficking gang responsible for the slayings of five Mexican journalists.

Veracruz authorities said seven members of a branch of the Sinaloa cartel, recently moving into their state, were captured and had confessed to killing the journalists. Until recently, the state was controlled by the Zetas cartel, bitter enemy of the Sinaloa group.

The Veracruz justice ministry said Isaías Flores Pineda, whose nicknames include "The Maniac," was the head of the local Sinaloa operation and had been captured, leading to the chain of confessions that broke the case.

Veracruz has seen a bloody spike in violence in recent months. The port city has long been a stronghold of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which in July was reelected to the presidency after a 12-year absence. A number of journalists in Veracruz say they are as afraid of the local government as they are of drug traffickers.

ALSO:

Mexico's Monterrey still ranks as top city, despite violence

What downturn? More people worldwide have $100 million

Japan, China, S. Korea stir old resentments on war anniversary

-- Tracy Wilkinson

 

 

 

 

Julian Assange of WikiLeaks gets extradition letter from British police

This post has been corrected. See note below.

LONDON -- Julian Assange, whose WikiLeaks website angered American officials by releasing official U.S. documents, on Thursday received a letter demanding his presence at a London police station the following day to begin the process of extradition.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London last week, seeking political asylum in a last-ditch attempt to evade extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on allegations of rape and sexual assault. 

The 40-year-old Australian was first arrested in London in December 2010 at the request of Swedish prosecutors asking to question him on allegations of sexual abuse committed in Sweden the previous August.

He denies the accusations but has lost a string of appeals in British courts to avoid being handed over to Sweden’s judiciary for questioning. Assange says his chief fear is that this would lead to further extradition to the United States, where he could face trial for Wikileaks’ actions.

Former British prime minister contradicts Murdoch's statement

LONDON -- Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied Monday that he had ever “declared war” on media mogul Rupert Murdoch's company after learning that its popular tabloid the Sun would not be supporting his 2010 election campaign.

Speaking to a civil inquiry into media standards and ethics in Britain, Brown attacked the coverage by Murdoch's tabloid of his term as prime minister from 2007 to 2010. He accused Murdoch of misleading the panel about an alleged conversation about political support.

“This conversation never took place,” Brown said. “I’m shocked and surprised that it should be suggested.”

Murdoch told the same inquiry in April that Brown had reacted with anger when the media chief told him the high-circulation Sun would back the opposition Conservative Party in May 2010 elections.  Brown, who led the Labor Party at the time, answered by threatening his company with “war,” Murdoch said. Some news reports said Brown then slammed the phone down.

“There was no such conversation. I never asked them for support directly,” Brown told the panel. “I'm surprised that first of all there's a story that I slammed the phone down, and secondly that there’s a story from Mr. Murdoch himself that I threatened him. This did not happen.”

Andy Coulson, former aide to Britain's leader, detained by police

LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron's former press aide was taken into custody by Scottish police Wednesday on suspicion of perjury during a 2010 trial related to Britain's phone hacking scandal.

Scottish police gave no details on the arrest beyond the customary statement that officers had "detained a 44-year-old male in London this morning ... on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow.” However, he was widely identified by British media as Andy Coulson, Cameron's former aide.

The detention was related to testimony Coulson gave in the trial of Tommy Sheridan, a former Scottish member of the European Parliament who was convicted of lying during a legal hearing.

Coulson was editor from 2003 to 2007 of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, which was closed down last year by media owner Rupert Murdoch amid revelations that the newspaper had been involved in phone hacking.

In a 2006 civil case, Sheridan had successfully sued the News of the World for libel over stories of his  adulterous conduct in swinging clubs. Although awarded about $300,000, Sheridan was later convicted of perjury and sentenced to three years in jail.

During his time as Cameron’s press officer, Coulson took the witness stand in Sheridan’s perjury trial in which Sheridan claimed he had been targeted by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, known to have carried out phone interceptions for the News of the World. Coulson denied knowledge of phone hacking during his term as editor.

On Wednesday, Coulson was taken by Scottish police from his London home for questioning in Glasgow, Scotland.  Unlike in England, Scottish law decrees that suspects are not arrested but detained when under suspicion.

Coulson had previously been arrested but released on bail on suspicion of illegal phone hacking and illegal payments to police officers in the London-based investigations into the widespread phone hacking and surveillance carried out over the last decade by News International and other papers in search of scoops. He is one of more than 40 people to have been arrested in the scandal by British police.

The revelations that the News of the World had hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler last summer triggered public outrage and led to the paper’s closure, several civil and police inquiries and compensation payments by the Murdoch empire amounting so far to millions of dollars.

 RELATED:

Rupert Murdoch sorry about phone hacking but is also defiant

 Rebekah Brooks, five others to be charged in phone-hacking case

 

News Corp. revelations rock U.K. gov't: Special advisor to media minister ankles

-- Janet Stobart

Photo: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson leaves the High Court in central London where he gave evidence at an inquiry into press ethics on May 10. Credit: Miguel Medina / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images.