Azerbaijan: 6
Eynulla Fatullayev, Realny Azerbaijan and Gündalik Azarbaycan
Imprisoned: April 20, 2007
Authorities jailed Fatullayev, editor of the now-closed independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, after convicting him on a series of politically motivated criminal charges.
The persecution of Fatullayev began shortly after he published an article alleging an official cover-up in the 2005 slaying of journalist Elmar Huseynov, editor of the opposition weekly Monitor. Fatullayev was an investigative reporter for the Monitor, which closed after the murder.
Fatullayev launched Realny Azerbaijan as a successor to the Monitor—and he set out to find Huseynov’s killers. In March 2007, he produced an in-depth article that charged Azerbaijani authorities with ignoring evidence in the murder and obstructing the investigation. The piece, “Lead and Roses,” alleged that Huseynov’s murder was ordered by high-ranking officials in Baku and carried out by a criminal group.
Within a month, in April 2007, a Yasamal District Court judge convicted Fatullayev of defaming the entire Azerbaijani population in an Internet posting that was falsely attributed to him. The posting, published on several Web sites, said Azerbaijanis bore some responsibility for the 1992 killings of residents of the restive Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to local news reports. Fatullayev was sentenced to a 30-month term and jailed immediately, according to the independent news agency Turan.
With Fatullayev jailed, authorities evicted Realny Azerbaijan and Gündalik Azarbaycan from their Baku offices, citing purported fire safety and building code violations. Both later stopped publishing.
More charges followed. In October 2007, a judge in the Azerbaijani Court of Serious Crimes found Fatullayev guilty of terrorism, incitement to ethnic hatred, and tax evasion. Fatullayev’s sentences were consolidated, and he was ordered to serve eight years and six months in prison in all. The terrorism and incitement charges stemmed from a Realny Azerbaijan commentary headlined “The Aliyevs Go to War,” which sharply criticized President Ilham Aliyev’s foreign policy regarding Iran. The tax evasion charge alleged that Fatullayev had concealed income from his two publications.
The Supreme Court denied Fatullayev’s appeal in June 2008, ending domestic legal avenues. Fatullayev appealed to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which began reviewing the case in September 2008, his lawyer, Isakhan Ashurov, told CPJ. The case was pending in late year.
In November, CPJ honored Fatullayev with its International Press Freedom Award.
Genimet Zakhidov, Azadlyg
Imprisoned: November 10, 2007
On November 7, 2007, an unknown couple assailed Zakhidov, editor of the pro-opposition daily Azadlyg, on a Baku street. Zakhidov told local reporters that the woman started screaming as if he had insulted her; a moment later, the man tried to attack him. With the help of passers-by, the journalist said, he was able to fend them off. But the couple later filed a complaint with police, claiming that the editor had assaulted them.
Authorities acted with remarkable speed: On November 10, 2007, a judge at the Yasamal District Court of Baku placed Zakhidov in pretrial detention after police had interrogated him for nine hours. He was charged with “hooliganism” and inflicting “minor bodily harm.”
Zakhidov had long been at odds with authorities because of his work for one of Azerbaijan’s most critical newspapers. He is also the brother of prominent satirist Sakit Zakhidov, who was also jailed at the time on politicized charges. Sakit Zakhidov was released in April 2009, having served all but two and a half months of a three-year prison term.
On March 7, 2008, a Baku district court sentenced Genimet Zakhidov to four years in jail, despite contradictory testimony from prosecution witnesses and the absence of any evidence of “bodily harm,” the journalist’s lawyer, Elchin Sadygov, told CPJ. Eyewitnesses for the defense were barred from testifying, he said. Zakhidov was given the maximum penalty allowed by law.
In September 2009, the Azizbayov District Court in Baku rejected a defense bid for a lighter punishment, the independent news Web site Kavkazsky Uzel reported. The court’s stated reason: Zakhidov had been reprimanded after he refused to join a volleyball game with inmates, the Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety reported.
Emin Milli, freelance
Adnan Hajizade, freelance
Imprisoned: July 8, 2009
Baku police detained Milli, 30, publisher of the blog ANTV, and Hajizade, 26, a video blogger and coordinator of the Azerbaijani youth movement Ol! (Yes!), after the two reported that they had been attacked at a local restaurant.
Milli and Hajizade were debating politics with friends when two unknown men interrupted their conversation and started a brawl, they said. When the bloggers went to report the assault to local police, they were arrested for “hooliganism,” a criminal charge that carries up to five years in jail. A second charge of “inflicting bodily harm” was added in August. On November 11, a Sabail District Court judge pronounced the bloggers guilty, sentencing Milli to two and a half years in jail and Hajizade to two years.
Shortly before their detention, Milli and Hajizade had posted video sketches that criticized Azerbaijani government policies. They interviewed local residents and posted their opinions online, sharing them through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Among the issues discussed on their blogs were education, corruption, and poor infrastructure in Azerbaijan, according to multiple news reports and CPJ sources.
Domestic and international rights groups condemned the arrests of Milli and Hajizade as staged by authorities in retaliation for the critical content of their blogs. According to multiple sources, a satirical video the bloggers produced and posted on YouTube in late June may have prompted their arrests. The video criticized the country’s importation of donkeys, supposedly at high prices. The sketch depicted a fictional press conference at which Hajizade, wearing a donkey suit, talked to a group of Azerbaijani “journalists.”
Sardar Alibeili, Nota
Faramaz Novruzoglu (Faramaz Allahverdiyev), Nota
Imprisoned: October 8, 2009
Editor-in-Chief Alibeili and reporter Novruzoglu were sentenced to three months in prison on charges of insulting the chairman of the pro-government organization Azadlyg Harakatchilari (Freedom Movement) in six Nota articles, according to local press reports and CPJ sources. The articles, published in February and March, accused the group and its chairman, Tahmasib Novruzov, of being government mouthpieces, according to CPJ sources.
In October, the Baku Court of Appeal upheld a trial court’s guilty verdict. Alibeili and Novruzoglu, who is also known as Faramaz Allahverdiyev, were taken to prison immediately after the appellate verdict was read.
Novruzoglu and Alibeili had been targeted with criminal defamation complaints in the past. In January 2007, Novruzoglu was given a two-year prison term and Alibeili an 18-month corrective labor sentence on charges of defaming Interior Minister Ramil Usubov in a series of articles that discussed friction and alleged corruption in the ministry. Novruzoglu’s health deteriorated in prison and, after a barrage of domestic and international protests, he was released on a presidential pardon in December 2007.
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Burma: 9
Ne Min (Win Shwe), freelance
Imprisoned: February 2004
Ne Min, a lawyer and a former stringer for the BBC, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on May 7, 2004, on charges that he illegally passed information to “antigovernment” organizations operating in border areas, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, a prisoner assistance group based in Thailand.
It was the second time that Burma’s military government had imprisoned the well-known journalist, also known as Win Shwe, on charges related to disseminating information to news sources outside of Burma. In 1989, a military tribunal sentenced Ne Min to 14 years of hard labor for “spreading false news and rumors to the BBC to fan further disturbances in the country” and “possession of documents including antigovernment literature, which he planned to send to the BBC,” according to official radio reports. He served nine years at Rangoon’s Insein Prison before being released in 1998.
Exiled Burmese journalists who spoke with CPJ said that Ne Min had provided news to political groups and exile-run news publications before his second arrest in February 2004.
Nay Phone Latt (Nay Myo Kyaw), freelance
Imprisoned: January 29, 2008
Nay Phone Latt, a businessman also known as Nay Myo Kyaw, wrote a blog and owned three Internet cafés in Rangoon. He went missing on the morning of January 29, 2008, according to exile-run news groups.
The New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency reported that police had detained Nay Phone Latt at an Internet café and that he was being held at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The journalist, whose Web site offered perspectives on Burmese youth, had been a youth member of the opposition group National League for Democracy, Reuters said.
A court charged Nay Phone Latt in July with causing public offense and violating video and electronic laws when he posted caricatures of ruling generals on his blog, according to Reuters. He was being held in Insein Prison, according to a joint report by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma and the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
During closed judicial proceedings held at the Insein compound on November 10, 2008, Nay Phone Latt was sentenced on several counts under the penal code to a total of 20 years and six months in prison, according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom advocacy group, and news reports. In late 2008, he was transferred to Pa-an Prison in Karen state, news reports said.
In February 2009, the Rangoon Divisional Court commuted the sentence to a total of 12 years. Nay Phone Latt’s lawyers continued to challenge the conviction and appeared before the High Court on June 22, according to Mizzima. The court turned back the appeal.
Sein Win Maung (Ko Soe), Myanmar Nation
Imprisoned: February 15, 2008
Police conducting a raid on the offices of the weekly Myanmar Nation arrested editor Thet Zin and manager Sein Win Maung, according to local and international news reports. Police also seized the journalists’ cell phones, footage of monk-led antigovernment demonstrations that took place in Burma in September 2007, and a report by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, according to Aung Din, director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma. The report detailed killings associated with the military government’s crackdown on the 2007 demonstrators.
The New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency cited family members as saying that the two were first detained in the Thingangyun Township police station before being charged with illegal printing and publishing on February 25.
On November 28, 2008, a closed court at the Insein Prison compound sentenced each to seven years in prison.
Police ordered Myanmar Nation’s staff to stop publishing temporarily, according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom advocacy group with representatives in Bangkok. The news Web site Irrawaddy said the newspaper was allowed to resume publishing in March 2008; by October of that year, exile-run groups said, the journal had shut down for lack of leadership.
Thet Zin was among 7,000 prisoners released as part of a government amnesty on September 17, 2009, according to international news reports. His colleague remained behind bars in late year.
Maung Thura (Zarganar), freelance
Imprisoned: June 4, 2008
Police arrested Maung Thura, a well-known comedian who used the online and stage name Zarganar, or “Tweezers,” at his home in Rangoon, according to news reports. The police also seized electronic equipment at the time of the arrest, according to Agence France-Presse.
Maung Thura had mobilized hundreds of entertainers to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Rangoon and much of the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008. His footage of relief work in hard-hit areas was circulated on DVD and on the Internet. Photographs and DVD footage of the aftermath of the disaster were among the items police confiscated at the time of his arrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma and the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
In the week he was detained, Maung Thura gave several interviews to overseas-based news outlets, including the BBC, criticizing the military junta’s response to the disaster. The day after his arrest, state-controlled media published warnings against sending video footage of relief work to foreign news agencies.
During closed proceedings in August 2008 at Insein Prison in Rangoon, the comedian was indicted on at least seven charges, according to international news reports.
On November 21, 2008, the court sentenced Maung Thura to 45 years in prison on three separate counts of violating the Electronic Act. Six days later, the court added 14 years to his term after convicting him on charges of communicating with exiled dissidents and causing public alarm in interviews with foreign media, his defense lawyer, Khin Htay Kywe, told The Associated Press. The sentence was later reduced to a total of 35 years by the Rangoon Divisional Court.
Maung Thura had been detained on several occasions in the past, including in September 2007 for helping Buddhist monks during antigovernment protests, according to the exile-run press freedom group Burma Media Association. He had maintained a blog, Zarganar-windoor, which his supporters continued to update in 2009.
The Democratic Voice of Burma reported that Maung Thura had been transferred to a remote location, Myintkyinar Prison in Kachin state, in December 2008, where he was reported in poor health. His sister-in-law, Ma Nyein, told Irawaddy that the journalist suffered from hypertension and jaundice.
Zaw Thet Htwe, freelance
Imprisoned: June 13, 2008
Police arrested Rangoon-based freelance journalist Zaw Thet Htwe on June 13, 2008, in the town of Minbu, where he was visiting his mother, Agence France-Presse reported. The sportswriter had been working with comedian-blogger Maung Thura in delivering aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis and videotaping the relief effort.
The journalist, who formerly edited the popular sports newspaper First Eleven, was indicted in a closed tribunal on August 7, 2008, and was tried along with Maung Thura and two activists, AFP reported. The group faced multiple charges, including violating the Video Act and Electronic Act and disrupting public order and unlawful association, news reports said.
The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma said police confiscated a computer and cell phone during a raid on Zaw Thet Htwe’s Rangoon home.
In November 2008, Zaw Thet Htwe was sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison on charges of violating the Electronic Act, according to the Mizzima news agency. The Rangoon Divisional Court later reduced the prison term to 11 years, Mizzima reported. He was put in Taunggyi Prison in Shan state in 2009.
Zaw Thet Htwe had been arrested before, in 2003, and given the death sentence for plotting to overthrow the government, news reports said. The sentence was later commuted. AFP reported that the 2003 arrest was related to a story he published about a misappropriated football grant.
Aung Kyaw San, Myanmar Tribune
Imprisoned: June 15, 2008
Aung Kyaw San, editor-in-chief of the Myanmar Tribune, was arrested in Rangoon along with 15 others returning from relief activities in the Irrawaddy Delta region, which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPPB) and the Mizzima news agency.
Photographs that Aung Kyaw San had taken of cyclone victims appeared on some Web sites, according to the Burma Media Association, a press freedom group run by exiled journalists. Authorities closed the Burmese-language weekly after his arrest and did not allow his family visitation rights, according to the association. On April 10, 2009, a special court in Insein Prison sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for unlawful association, Mizzima reported.
Aung Kyaw San was formerly jailed in 1990 and held for more than three years for activities with the country’s pro-democracy movement, AAPPB said.
“T,” Democratic Voice of Burma
Imprisoned: July 2009
The video-journalist known publicly as “T” reported news for the Oslo-based media organization Democratic Voice of Burma. He was one of two cameramen on an award-winning international documentary, “Orphans of the Burmese Cyclone,” according to news reports.
The Rory Peck Trust announced the arrest on November 18 as it honored “T” and his Burmese colleague, “Z,” with the Rory Peck Award for Features for their work on the documentary. The independent UK-based Rory Peck Trust supports freelance journalists. It said “T” had been arrested four months earlier and had recently been charged under the Electronic Act with filming without government permission. Khin Maung Win, deputy executive director of the Democratic Voice of Burma, confirmed the arrest in a November 30 report on the organization’s Web site. He said "Z" was in hiding.
“T” was arrested as he left an Internet café in Rangoon six months after completing the documentary, according to UK-based The Independent. The exact date was not reported. He was being held in Insein Prison, according to The Independent. “T” faced a jail sentence of 10 to 15 years, news reports said.
Thant Zin Soe, Foreign Affairs
Imprisoned: October 27, 2009
Police and military intelligence officials arrested Thant Zin Soe, an editor and translator at the newsweekly Foreign Affairs, at his home in Rangoon, according to the exile-run groups Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPPB) and Burma Media Association.
Thant Zin Soe was also a member of the Lin Let Kye (Shining Star) volunteer relief group, which provided unsanctioned relief to Cyclone Nargis survivors and has been targeted by authorities for persecution. No formal charges had been filed against him by December 1, according to the groups. He was being held at the Aung Thabye Detention Center in Rangoon, according to the Burma Media Association.
Paing Soe Oo (Jay Paing), freelance
Imprisoned: October 28, 2009
Six officials arrested Paing Soe Oo in his apartment in Rangoon, according to the exile-run Mizzima news agency. Officials searched his home and seized one of the journalist’s notebooks, the report said.
Paing Soe Oo, who formerly worked for the weekly news publications Favorite and Pyi Myanmar, is a freelance online commentator writing under the name Jay Paing. He also was a member of the volunteer relief group Lin Let Kye (Shining Star), which provided unsanctioned relief to Cyclone Nargis survivors and has been targeted by authorities for persecution.
Maung Thura, an organizing member of Lin Let Kye, was serving a total of 35 years for communicating with exiled dissidents and giving interviews to foreign media that criticized the government’s disaster relief efforts.
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