For immediate release - 7 March 2008

Brazil: Police detain cameraman, confiscate equipment
during land protest at frontier with Uruguay

ARTICLE 19 strongly condemns the abuses committed by military police officers against journalists covering a raid to remove peasants occupying a farm in the municipality of Rosário do Sul, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, at the frontier with Uruguay.

On 3 March 2008, around 800 women occupied a farm owned by the Finnish-Swedish paper manufacturer, Stora Enso, in the South of Brazil. The protesters are members of Via Campesina, an international peasant movement that fights for family farm-based production and decentralised food production and supply chains.

According to press reports, Stora Enso has bought 45,000 hectares of land in the frontier between Brazil and Uruguay, where it plants eucalyptus tress. The protesters argue that Stora Enso should not have bought land in that area, since Brazil’s legislation forbids foreign companies to exploit natural resources in the frontier zone. Following Via Campesina’s occupation of the farm, the company obtained a judicial order to remove them from the area.

Journalists covering the police raid on 4 March told ARTICLE 19 that military police officers stopped and isolated them more than ten kilometres away from where the raid was taking place. “It wasn’t a matter of keeping the reporters safe. We were isolated and couldn’t take pictures, film or hear what was happening in the farm”, said Eduardo Seidl, a journalist from local newspaper Correio do Povo.

Mateus Flores, a reporter for Indymedia, told ARTICLE 19 that police threatened and detained him, and confiscated his equipment. He said that he had managed to film part of the operation, and registered violent actions and the harassment of two women by one of the regional commanders of the military police. After that, a colonel confiscated his camera and detained him for around thirty minutes with no justification, he told ARTICLE 19. According to Flores, police returned his camera but kept the DVD in which the images had been registered.

The two journalists told ARTICLE 19 that police also searched other reporters.

According to Via Campesina, around fifty women were hurt during the operation by rubber bullets, pieces of tear gas bombs, and aggressions by police officers. Two of the protesters were arrested. The Military Police in Rio Grande do Sul did not comment on the case.
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For more information, please contact Maíra Magro at 55 (21) 8225-9817 or maira@article19.org

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

International Women’s Day:
Women confronting taboos and censorship

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2008, ARTICLE 19 has published a set of portraits of women activists who are speaking out against taboos, laws, and their governments. The publication entitled "Confronting Taboos and Censorship: Women Speaking Out" profiles women are claiming their right to speak and their right to impart information, including on issues which are often constructed as the most unmentionable of them all – rape and incest, reproduction and abortion, sexuality.

“Throughout the world, women are prevented from seeking, receiving and imparting information on their rights including their right to life, right to health, and sexual and reproductive rights. They confront silence and fears. They are denied information which could save their lives. They die. Pressures and taboos from our societies and cultures are enforced or re-enforced, tacitly or explicitly, by our States.” Said Dr. Callamard, ARTICLE 19 Executive Director.

“Against these historical trends, Lina Khoury in Lebanon, Sunila Abeysekera in Sri Lanka, Jacira Melo in Brazil, activists in Mexico have taken on taboos, hypocrisy and the censors, put sexuality, rape and abortion on the political and social agenda, and upheld the mantle for women’s rights.“

In Lebanon, Lina Khoury has triggered public debate about sex, harassment, domestic violence and coco, otherwise known as the vagina, through her play Hakeh neswan (Arabic for Women’s talk). In Brazil, Jacira Melo is promoting the reproductive rights of women through mass media, a difficult approach in Brazil due to the political influence exerted by conservative groups, especially the Catholic Church, which do not hesitate to refer to pro-abortion campaigners as “assassins”. In Sri Lanka, Sunila Abeyesekera is actively promoting a broad discussion on the decriminalisation of abortion, and repeal of the sodomy laws under which homosexuality is a crime. She is advancing the cause of lesbians, bisexual women and trans persons. In Mexico, access to information activists, including ARTICLE 19 Mexico, have allied their efforts with those promoting the rights of women to campaign for a proper information regime on reproductive rights, particularly on women’s right to abortion in Mexico City.

Dr. Callamard adds: “Governments must respect, protect and upheld women’s right to freedom of expression. The kind of censorship experienced by Lina Khoury, Sunila Abeyesekera or Jacira Melo is simply unacceptable.”

“Governments also bear a duty to inform women about their rights. They should as well inform the police and the medical establishment of the laws, policies, and guidelines, regarding such issues as contraception, abortion, and rape. Women are unjustly denied the proper police investigation or safe medical procedures to which they are legally entitled, because police or physicians are not properly informed about them, or are fearful and deterred from following them.”

It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that the police force follows proper procedures when investigating allegations of rape or incest, and to make rights to contraception or legal abortion transparent by publicising regulations and organising mass information campaigns.“

“On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let’s make sure that women claim as theirs the information space that centuries of silence and repression have denied them, and that we hold our governments to account whenever they fail to uphold our right to free expression and information.”
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The document is available: http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/women-s-day-2008.pdf 
• For more information, please contact Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19 executive director, at agnes@article19.org, + 44-207-278 9292
 

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

Sudan: Freedom of Expression under Threat

ARTICLE 19 together with its Sudan project partners condemns the latest attempts by Sudanese authorities to silence dissenting voices and intimidate, censor and harass the Sudanese media.

From February 6, 2008 Sudanese security forces began daily visits to print press houses and newspaper offices, removing news articles and columns critical of or unfavorable to the Sudanese Government.

The independent weekly newspaper Al-Midan was prevented from publishing an issue on March 4, following the visit of a security officer to its printing press. Al-Midan was ordered to remove articles detailing the newspaper’s court victory having been found ‘not guilty’ for a case brought against it by Sudanese security forces in April 2007.

The newspaper was also ordered to remove an article discussing the Darfur Sudan Libration Movement and expressing support of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur. Al-Midan is only one of many media institutions in Sudan targeted either through confiscations of newspaper copies, inflated fines and now ‘direct pre-print censorship’.

‘ARTICLE 19 condemns the recent crackdown on freedom of expression in Sudan’ stated ARITCLE 19 Executive Director, Dr. Agnes Callamard; ‘the censorship and harassment and intimidation on journalists carrying out their duties is a serious deterioration of the human rights situation in Sudan and a clear violation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in addition to international conventions such as the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)’

ARTICLE 19 and its partners, including the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development, Norwegian People’s Aid, Olof Palme International Centre, Association for Media Development in Southern Sudan, and International Media Support have been running a project on ‘Promoting Civil Society Involvement in Developing Democratic Media Legislation in Sudan’ since 2007.
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For more information, please contact Africa Programme Officer, Roxanne Abdulali; roxanne@article19.org, tel: +44 207 278 9292
• For more information on press freedom and media legislative reform in Sudan follow this link: http://theadvocacycentre.blogspot.com/ 

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

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Armenia: State of Emergency

5 March 2008

ARTICLE 19 is deeply concerned with the state of emergency declared in Armenia for the period 1 – 20 March 2008 and its grave consequences for freedom of expression of the mass media, political parties, non-governmental organisations and citizens of Armenia.

The declaration of the “state of emergency” by outgoing President Kocahryan was preceded by violent clashes between authorities and demonstrators following the presidential elections of 19 February. On 21 February 2008, large-scale peaceful demonstrations concerning the manner in which the presidential election had been conducted began in the capital, Yerevan. On 1 March the Armenian security forces dispersed the demonstrators using truncheons, tear gas and electric stun guns. Following these events the security forces then declared their intention to search for weapons while pointing out the “illegal nature” of such assemblies. The former President and opposition candidate, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, was placed under virtual house arrest on 1 March 2008. On the same day, President Robert Kocahryan declared a state of emergency to last until 20 March, which was later approved by the National Assembly. This was immediately followed by a second violent attack on the demonstrators which reportedly resulted in the deaths of 8 people and injuries to another 131.

Under the terms of the state of emergency, “publications of mass media concerning state and internal political issues” are limited to “official information of state bodies” only. It also imposes a total ban on “leaflets and implementation of political propaganda by other means without the permission of corresponding state bodies”, and prohibits “holding meetings, public rallies, demonstrations, marches, and other mass events” and “strikes and measures to stop or otherwise suspend the activities of organizations”.

ARTICLE 19 draws attention to Armenia’s ongoing international legal obligations in the current situation. The state has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), which guarantee the fundamental human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Under Article 4 of the ICCPR, in a “state of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation”, a state “may take measures derogating from their obligations under the Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation”. To invoke Article 4, therefore, two fundamental conditions must be met: the situation must genuinely amount to a public emergency which threatens the life of the nation, and the State party must have officially proclaimed a state of emergency. While the second of these conditions has been met, it is important to emphasise that states must also provide “careful justification for not only their decision to proclaim a state of emergency, but also for any specific measures based on such a proclamation”. Any restrictions on freedom of expression (Article 19 ICCPR) of the media and on the right to peaceful protest (Article 22 ICCPR) are unlawful unless they are in accordance with these rules and interpretive principles.

ARTICLE 19 is also concerned about the reported arrests of a number of members of the opposition, including Members of Parliament. It appears that some individuals have also been denied access to legal assistance, an essential element of the right to a fair trial (Article 14 ICCPR). MPs from the Heritage Parliamentary Group have consistently and unlawfully been refused any response to their enquiries about the condition of the detainees leading them to believe that the detainees may have been treated contrary to international and European human rights law.

Finally, ARTICLE 19 notes that international and regional intergovernmental actors – including the UN Secretary General, the Council of Europe Secretary General and the Presidency of the European Union, have expressed alarm at the human rights situation in Armenia.

ARTICLE 19 calls upon the Armenian government to:

• Ensure that freedom of expression is effectively realized by all in Armenia, including media, non-governmental, political parties as well as ordinary citizens;
• Guarantee that any restrictions of such rights are strictly proportionate to the exigencies of the situation and are in compliance with the constitutional and international obligations of the Republic of Armenia;
• Initiate prompt and effective investigation on all incidents of attacks on and intimidation of media representatives during the elections and ensure that all those responsible are prosecuted;
• Ensure that media representatives are not attacked or deprived of their belongings while carrying out their professional responsibilities;
• Ensure that the people of Armenia have access to the media, including the internet;
• Ensure that all detainees enjoy the right to a fair trial (Article 6 ECHR, Article 14 ICCPR) and are not subjected to torture or other cruel or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (Article 3 ECHR and Article 7 ICCPR), which are non-derogable rights.

For more information please contact: Sejal Parmar, Senior Legal Officer, ARTICLE 19, + 44 20 7239 1192 sejal@article19.org

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

Tunisia: ARTICLE 19 strongly condemns assault on human rights activists by Tunisian customs

Members of the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 18 member organisations of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, including ARTICLE 19 are appalled at the treatment of human rights activists Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri upon their arrival in Tunisia on 3 March 2008.

Bensedrine is the Secretary General of the Observatory for the Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation in Tunisia (OLPEC). Bensedrine is also spokesperson of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT). Mestiri is the managing editor of “Kalima” online newspaper.

According to OLPEC’s vice-president Naziha Rjiba, the two activists arrived from Europe in the port of La Goulette. Upon arrival, they were held by customs for six hours, during which time Bensedrine was violently attacked, leaving bruises on her body. The customs agents confiscated cell phones, documents and computer hard discs from both Bensedrine and Mestiri – copying files and passwords from their laptops.

Bensedrine has previously been assaulted on numerous occasions, including while in prison in 2001. She has suffered broken ribs and other injuries, and been called vicious names in the pro-government media for her outspoken campaign for democracy and free expression in Tunisia. For her work, she has been awarded the 2008 Danish Peace Award, as well as other awards including the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) 2004 International Press Freedom Award.

This assault follows a recent attack on Samia Abbou and Fatma Ksila, two women activists who were assaulted by police in Sousse on 18 February.

All 18 members of the TMG calls on the Tunisian government to cease these repeated brutal attacks on human rights activists in Tunisia. TMG members further support the complaint being registered by Bensedrine and Mestiri against the customs agents for “brutality” and “false imprisonment.”

Members of the IFEX-TMG:
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRINFO), Egypt
ARTICLE 19, United Kingdom
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), Canada
Cartoonists Rights Network (CRN), United States
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Egypt
Index on Censorship, United Kingdom
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Belgium
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Netherlands
International Press Institute (IPI), Austria
International Publishers' Association (IPA), Switzerland
Journaliste en danger (JED), Democratic Republic of Congo
Maharat Foundation, Lebanon
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia
Norwegian PEN, Norway
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Canada
World Association of Newspapers (WAN), France
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), United States
Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC), United Kingdom
 

Seven Key Problems Remain in Draft
European Convention on Access to Official Documents

ARTICLE 19, Access Info and Open Society Justice Initiative are deeply concerned that the current version of the draft European Convention on Access to Official Documents fails to guarantee a full right of access to information.

The three organisations call on the Steering Committee for Human Rights, which will consider the draft text of the Convention on 26th March, to address these concerns and to reform the treaty accordingly to ensure that it provides genuine guarantees for the right of access to information.

Following the final drafting session of the Group of Specialists in Strasbourg on 12-15 February 2008, the three organisations have identified seven main problems to the draft Convention:
1. Failure to include a clear opening guarantee of the right of access to official documents and the principle of publicity.
2. Failure to include information held by legislative bodies under the scope of the right of access to official documents;
3. Failure to include information held by judicial bodies under the scope of the right of access to official documents;
4. Failure to extend the right of access to official documents to private bodies that exercise public functions or operate with public funds;
5. Absence of a requirement that states set statutory maximum time-limits within which requests must be processed;
6. Absence of a guarantee that when requests for information are denied, the requestor will have access to an appeals body which has the power to order public authorities to disclose official documents;
7. Failure to define which provisions of the Convention may or may not be subject to reservations.

Access Info Europe, ARTICLE 19 and the Open Society Justice Initiative are seriously concerned that the proposed draft of the future Convention still sets standards that fall below prevailing law and practice in Council of Europe member states, and is below the standards of other international instruments in this area.

For instance, the Aarhus Convention on Access to Environmental Information, guarantees a right to “information” (rather than the more limited concept of “documents”), establishes maximum time-frames for responding to information requests, and requires a binding appeals mechanism.

The European Union’s Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on regarding Public Access to European Parliament, Council and Commission Documents also apply to the legislative branch (European Parliament) – an essential requirement if the public is to participate in decision-making and know what laws and rules are being developed.

Comparative study of laws in the Council of Europe region confirms that most of the legal regimes of member states establish a broad definition of access to information and almost always apply to the legislative branch of government.

One recent survey found that out of 26 European countries, relevant legislation in 22 of those countries refers to access to information rather than documents. Of these 26 countries, 21 grant a right of access to information held by the legislative branch, and others have specific legislation on publicity of legislative acts.
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

For more information, please contact
• Helen Darbishire, Executive Director, Access Info Europe
+ 34 667 685 319 helen@access-info.org 
• Sejal Parmar, Senior Legal Officer, ARTICLE 19,
+ 44 20 7239 1192 sejal@article19.org
• Darian Pavli, Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative
+ 1 646 247 4504 dpavli@justiceinitiative.org
 

Russia: Following Presidential Elections, Freedom of Expression Remains Under Severe Threat

ARTICLE 19 expresses strong concern at trends in Russia that threaten the right to freedom of expression and information. Inconsistent application of unduly restrictive legislation, in particular new provisions on extremist activity, physical attacks and harassment of non-governmental organisations and independent media have created a climate in which the right to free expression cannot fully be exercised.

Attacks on journalists continued in the run up to last Sunday’s elections. Since January at least four attacks on journalists have been recorded, and in no case have the attackers been found or charged. The murders in 2004 and 2006 of prominent journalists Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya remain unsolved.

Journalists continue to be detained by law enforcement agencies in the normal course of their work. Since January 2008, two oppositional newspapers, in St Petersburg and Tolyatti have had their computers seized on suspicion of using counterfeit software. On 26 January ten journalists were detained while covering an opposition rally in Nazran and deported to a neighbouring region. Later, on 13 February, Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the opposition website Ingushetiya.ru was detained and charged with organising disturbances that occurred at the rally.

The organisation Voice of Beslan, a pressure group formed to represent the victims of the Beslan school hostage tragedy in 2004, is the subject of three ongoing cases. It is charged with extremist activity for a statement which appeared in 2005 on its website accusing the government of incompetence in the handling of the Beslan tragedy and Vladimir Putin of being a supporter of criminals. In an administrative case it is charged with illegal placing of a road sign: during a November 2007 protest activists erected a sign reading ‘Putin’s Way’, with an arrow pointing to Beslan’s destroyed school No. 1. Three of Voice of Beslan’s leaders are also charged with disturbing the order of a court over an incident on 8 February in which they accused a judge of using forged documents as the basis for an earlier decision to liquidate the organisation, which was eventually overturned by the Russian Supreme Court.

Under amendments to the Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity made in 2007, libel or slander of a public official may be classed as an extremist activity. Defamation is a criminal offence punishable by up to four years in prison. Of particular concern is that defamation legislation affords special protection against insult to government officials while carrying out their duties, potentially allowing the law to be used to shield them from criticism.

ARTICLE 19 calls upon authorities to:

• Take effective measures to prevent attacks against, killing and disappearances of media workers and, when they do occur, carry out thorough and impartial investigations with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice;
• Ensure full investigations of unsolved murders of journalists;
• End legislative harassment of Voice of Beslan;
• Amend the Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity, to ensure that individuals are not found guilty of extremist activity unless they intend to incite terrorism and there is a likelihood that violence will occur imminently as a result of the statement. Similarly, if these conditions are not met, literature should not be subjected to bans;
• Decriminalise defamation, or at a minimum abolishing imprisonment as a penalty for defamation, and ensure that any financial penalty imposed on the defendant is proportionate;
• Ensure that defamation provisions are not abused to shield the authorities, including courts, from criticism.

NOTES TO EDITORS

For more information: please contact Catrina Pickering, Advocacy and Communications Officer, catrina@article19.org, +44 207278 9292