Press Freedom Committee Report February 24, 2009

Good news to lead the Committee's report: Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, a reporter for El Diario del Noroeste in Mexico, was released from federal prison on January 29, pending an immigration hearing in March.

When there’s good news, we like to lead the Committee’s report with it. It may be recalled that in June, 2008, Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, a reporter for El Diario del Noroeste in Mexico, fled to the United States. Gutiérrez made enemies in the Mexican Army as far back as 2005 by reporting that soldiers were involved in crimes. On May 5, 2008, several dozen soldiers raided his home (allegedly in search of drugs and weapons). Gutiérrez subsequently reported on the home invasion in El Diario del Noroeste. Weeks later, a friend told him the Army had marked him for death. On June 15, Gutiérrez entered Columbus, NM, with his son and they identified themselves to the U.S. border patrol. They were arrested, and Gutiérrez was sent to federal prison in El Paso.

Over the next five months, repeated appeals for his release were denied. On December 5, the Freedom of the Press Committee of the Overseas Press Club of America approached Robert E. Jolicoeur, the field office director for the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement in El Paso, Texas. The Committee vigorously argued the case for Gutiérrez. In January, Reporters Without Borders added its voice. On January 29, Gutiérrez was released pending an immigration hearing in March.

Since our last meeting, we were among several media rights groups around the world who protested to President Hugo Chávez on the continuing pattern of press freedom violations in Venezuela. The most serious in recent months was the assassination of Orel Sambrano, editor of the political weekly, ABC, in Valencia on January 16. Sambrano had been covering drug trafficking n Venezuela, including a case involving the influential Makled family. He was also vice president of the privately owned radio station, Radio America, and was a columnist for the regional daily, Notitarde.

In addition, we struggled to put into words a finally inexpressible horror at the brutal murder in Kenya of Francis Kainda Nyaruri, whose slashed and decapitated body was found January 29. Nyaruri wrote for the Weekly Citizen newspaper, and had recently produced a series of articles exposing financial scams and other malpractice by the local police department. As we told Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, the possibility that members of the local police force in Nyaruri may have been involved in the killing only adds to the horror of his murder.

We wrote to Sierra Leone to protest the abduction of four women journalists by members of Bando, a secret society that practices female genital mutilation. The reporters had been interviewing townspeople in Kenema about genital mutilation, and the Bando members saw this as disrespectful of their traditions. They forcibly undressed one of the reporters, Manjama Balama-Samba of UN radio, and made her walk naked through the streets. We told President Ernest Bal Koroma that this incident called into question his recent boast that Sierra Leone is now a “shining example” of a stable African country, a place where “one can find paradise on earth.”

Finally and inevitably, we have written – again -- seeking justice for Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in Moscow, as you know, in 2006. Last week, the four men accused in the killing were all acquitted. The only possible reaction is indignation, and we said as much in a communication to Russian Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev.

Given the incompetent investigation of Politkovskaya’s murder and the bungling prosecutors in the case -- who managed to lose vital bits of evidence in the course of the trial -- we observed that we could not fault the jurors for their verdict. The defendants were, in any case, peripheral figures in the conspiracy. From the beginning, the investigation of Politkovskaya’s killing has skirted the single most important question: Who ordered it done?

The only bright spot, if it can be called that, is that the presiding judge in the Politkovskaya case ordered it re-opened the day after the acquittals, promising that he would give investigators material evidence.