The committee’s attention this month has been dominated by two countries, Russia and the Philippines.
And the three cases in Russia have all turned on the same story – the building of a highway through a forest in the Moscow suburb of Khimki.
The story goes back at least two years, when Mikhail Beketov, editor of the local newspaper, Khimkinskaya Pravda, criticized plans to build the highway, which was to run from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Beketov and other critics complained that it would needlessly destroy old trees and valuable environment. First, his car was blown up; then he was beaten in front of his home so viciously that a leg and three fingers had to be amputated and he is still unable to speak.
Two more journalists covering the same story got the same treatment this month. Oleg Kashin, a respected reporter for the daily, Kommersant, came home to his apartment to find two men waiting for him, carrying a bunch of flowers. The flowers were concealing a length of reinforcing bar, which they used to give Kashin a concussion, a fractured jaw, two broken legs and several mashed fingers; he spent several days in an induced coma. Kashin’s beath included youth groups, and he had roused the ire of a group connected with Prime Minister Putin’s United Russia Party by criticizing the Khimki highway project.
The next victim was Anatoly Adamchuk, a reporter for a suburban weekly, who suffered a concussion and head injuries when he was similarly attacked from behind. Adamchuk had reported on the arrests of children who had been protesting the cutting down of the Khimki forest.
Putin and President Medvedev deplored the attacks in grave terms, and directed high officials to supervise the investigation personally. The, the Russian authorities gave another signal. Mikhail Beketov – remember him, the first reporter beaten in the case” Beketov was convicted of slander for accusing the mayor of Khimki of having been involved in the blowing up of Beketov’s car before his beating. Beketov was fined a nominal amount, and the fine was suspended.
To the Philippines, where, as you may remember, the worst massacre of journalists in history took place just a year ago. Thirty two journalists were among 57 people slaughtered on their way to deliver official candidacy papers for a politician who had the effrontery to run against the Apatuan clan, long-time rulers of the southern province of Maguindanao. A year later, to hardly anyone’s surprise, the official investigation is going very slowly. True, several members of the Ampatuan family have been arrested, and one is actually being tried. But only 19 people have been charged, 47 are being held without charges, and 130 suspects are still at large. There are credible reports that witnesses have been offered bribes, other have been intimidated, and that evidence has been compromised by sloppy handling. We asked the new president, Benigno Aquino, Jr., to name a special prosecutor to get this case moving.
The committee also protested a case in Singapore, which remains as touchy as ever about criticism of either the island nation or its ruling Lee family. This time, the ax fell on Alan Shadrake, an ailing and elderly British journalist, who had the temerity to write a book, “Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock.” Among other cases, Shadrake wrote of one in which a rich, well-connected drug lord was allowed to leave Singapore while the young mules who had carried his drugs were executed. Shadrake, who is 76 and without means, was sent to jail for six months and fined $20,000. We told Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that he shoud respect free speech and accept criticism.
Respectfully submitted by: Larrry Martz