Thai Red Shirts Stage Anti-Government Rally

Thai Red Shirts Stage Anti-Government Rally

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – In one of the biggest demonstrations to take place in the recent months, more than 30,000 Thai “red shirts” gathered in Bangkok for an anti-government rally.  The “red shirts” were silenced when the government threatened a crackdown back in April after the protest led to the worst street violence in 15 years.

Thai red shirts “Red shirt” protesters in Bangkok (Source: AP)

“Red shirts” are members of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD).  Thai society is divided into either “red” or “yellow” shirts, the “reds” representing Thais in rural areas who support the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the “yellows” comprising Thai’s urban elite who consider the red shirts as a threat to the Thai monarchy.

Thaksin, who is currently in exile, addressed the crowd via telephone saying, “We come here because we want to see true democracy.  We loathe injustice.  We loathe double standards.  We’re here to say if you want us to stop, then return justice and true democracy.”

Supporters of Thaksin said they are calling for the current prime minister’s resignation, the dissolution of the government and for general elections.  The protesters also accuse the “yellows,” which include the military, judiciary and other unelected officials, of undermining Thailand’s democracy and orchestrating a coup back in 2006.

Nuttawut Saikua, one of the organizers of this rally, said, “We rally today because we want to get rid of the government, the aristocracy and bring back true democracy to people.”

UDD has planned three more protests in addition to this rally in Bangkok although the timing for the next rallies has not been set.  UDD’s leader Jatuporn Promphan explained that his group will evaluate several factors such as the political situation before determining the date for each rally.
For more information, please see:

BBC – Thai protesters return to streets – 27 June 2009

China View – Renewed Thai anti-gov’t rally peaceful, to disperse on Sunday morning – 27 June 2009

MSNBC – Thousands of anti-govt protesters mass in Bangkok – 27 June 2009

Palestinian Journalists Caught in Political Power Struggle

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RAMALLAH, West Bank – On June 22, Palestinian government forces shut down the offices of As-Subeh (The Morning) and detained the newspaper’s chief editor, Sari Al-Qudweh.

The closure and arrest are the latest in a troubling trend in the Palestinian Territories, as journalists are entangled in the power struggle between the competing Hamas and Fatah parties.  In May 2009, Oussid Amarena of the Al-Aqsa television network was arrested, as was Mustapha Sabri, bureau chief for the pro-Hamas newspaper Filasteen.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a report in May 2009 that since Hamas gained power in Gaza in 2007, media organizations in the Palestinian Territories have increasingly split along party lines, and have suffered threats on both sides.  While journalists in pro-Hamas organizations are detained in the West Bank, those working for pro-Fatah outlets are threatened by Gaza police.  Many journalists have been repeatedly arrested, while others have had passports revoked.  Those arrested are rarely charged with any crimes.  Reporters Without Borders has condemned the targeting of reporters by the opposing parties.

“Journalists are again paying the price of the political tension between the different Palestinian factions,” the press freedom advocacy group said in a recent statement.  “The Palestinian Authority does not allow any view but its own to be voiced in the West Bank and does not hesitate to harass pro-Hamas journalists.  The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is no better.”

The Palestinian journalists’ union has also openly criticized the recent arrests and has called for the release of the detained journalists, saying in a statement that journalists should not be the target of political conflicts.  Both Hamas and Fatah have bans on publications they perceive as partisan.  The UNHCR reports that coercive measures by both parties have forced Palestinian journalists into self-censorship and have stifled freedom of information in the Palestinian Territories.

For more information, please see:

Ma’an News Agency – De Facto Government Shuts Down Gaza Newspaper, Detains Chief Editor – 24 June 2009

Reporters Without Borders – More Journalists Arrested as a Resule of Tensions Between Palestinian Factions   – 29 May 2009

UNHCR – World Report 2009—Palestinian Territories – 1 May 2009    

Committee to Protect Journalists – Two Journalists Released in West Bank, One Still in Prison – 3 March 2009

CNW Telbec – Palestinian Territories: Arbitrary Detention of Journalists Continues as a Result of Tension Between Hamas and Fatah – 29 August 2008

Kazakhstan to Tighten Internet Control

By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan’s parliament has approved a law tightening government control of the internet. The new bill will subject chat rooms, blogs, and other social networking sites to potential criminal prosecution.

Media activists in Kazakhstan have been opposing the law and say it will vastly limit freedom of speech, and is designed to allow arbitrary crackdowns on anyone opposing Nursultan Kazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s president.

Kazakh authorities have denied the media’s allegations, and instead maintain that the new law is aimed to curb the distribution of child pornography, extremist literature, and other “unsuitable” material. “The law is not a regulation of the internet. The amendments introduced to the law are aimed at stopping the dissemination of illegal information on the internet,” the government’s state information agency said.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Europe’s main human rights and security agency, has criticized the bill. Miklos Harszti, a representative on media freedom, said the law “limits the freedom of the internet and media freedom in general. Its adoption would be a step backwards in the democratization of Kazakhstan’s media governance.”

He further said that Kazakhstan is due to take over chairmanship of the OSCE in six months and “refusing to enact this law will send a strong signal that the forthcoming OSCE chairmanship of Kazakhstan in 2010 intends to fully honor the country’s OSCE media freedom commitments.”

Several leaders from Kazakhstan’s political opposition as well as the media community have started to stage small protests in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Kazakhstan to Tighten Internet Law – June 26, 2009

Daily Times – Kazakhstan Adopts Tough Internet Law – June 25, 2009

Radio Liberty – Kazakhstan Adopts Controversial Internet Law – June 25, 2009

French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veterans Denied Compensation

By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PAPEETE, French Polynesia – French Polynesia’s Nuclear Workers’ Association, Moruroa E. Tatou, is dismayed that the Papeete labor court has thrown out compensation claim cases by eight former test site workers. This morning, the court found that under local law the complaints cannot be ruled on.

However, the court found that the Atomic Energy Commissariat had failed in its obligation as an employer to provide security and awarded 11,000 US dollars to each of the three children of a deceased local veteran.

French Polynesians who have had their claims for compensation for the effects of nuclear testing rejected say they won’t give up their bids for redress.

John Doom, of Moruroa E. Tatou, says eight people who took their cases to French Polynesia’s industrial relations tribunal were unsuccessful.

He says the three surviving workers have leukemia, and they and the five widows will consult with lawyers over how to continue with their bids.

“We will not give up anyhow, we will continue this fight and represent again the three who were not accepted, and these three have leukemia,” said Doom.

For more information, please see:
New Zealand International Radio – Former Moruroa workers fail in nuclear testing compensation bids – 26 June 2009

New Zealand International Radio – French Polynesian test veterans dismayed at Tahiti court decision – 26 June 2009

Radio Australia – French Polynesia rejects nuclear compensation – 26 June 2009

Journalists Arrested Daily in Iran

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – The BBC, Newsweek, and the Washington Times are among several western news organizations that have recently announced that their correspondents in Iran have disappeared or been detained, allegedly as a result of the Iranian government’s crackdown on media freedom.

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates for freedom of the media, condemned the disappearances, along with the arrests of several Iranian journalists.  The organization also reported that the entire editorial staff of Kalemeh Sabz, a newspaper owned by opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, was arrested by plain clothes agents from the office of Tehran’s prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi.  Mortazavi has previously come under international scrutiny due to implications of torture, illegal detentions, and the coercion of false confessions.

“Iran is in the midst of a violent and arbitrary crackdown on reformist protesters that has already claimed lives and has led to over a thousand arrests,” said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.  “The role of Mortazavi in the crackdown suggests that the authorities are preparing to bring trumped-up charges against its opponents.”

Some Iranian reporters have begun to publicly advocate for media freedom.  On June 23, 180 Iranian journalists wrote an open letter to Iran’s government and the public, protesting the “deplorable and critical” state of Iran’s media and calling upon the government to abide by the Iranian constitution and to allow reporters to do their duty.  As of June 25, the Committee to Protect Journalists estimated that approximately forty journalists and media workers had been arrested by the Iranian government since the election on June 12.  One media outlet has declared that Iran is now the world leader in imprisoning journalists.

President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, said that he planned to visit Iran, on an invitation of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.  Ebadi told Reporters Without Borders that she has urged Pottering and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, to condemn Iran’s media repression and to investigate human rights abuses against journalists.

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists – More Journalists Arrested in Iran; CPJ Seeks Their Release – 25 June 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Confessions, Arrests and a Campaign Against the Media – 25 June 2009

Washington Times – Washington Times Reporter Arrested in Iran – 24 June 2009

Human Rights Watch – Iran: Violent Crackdown on Protestors Widens – 23 June 2009

IFEX – Three More Journalists Detained, BBC Correspondent to be Deported – 22 June 2009