journalist

Human rights defender and journalist Serge Maheshe was gunned down on 13 June 2007 in Bukavu, in the Province of Southern Kivu. Serge Maheshe was the editor of Radio Okapi in Bukavu, a radio station supported by the United Nations.  

A group of journalists and human rights defenders launched a hunger strike on 20 October in protest “against the government’s undeclared war on the free press”, since 9 November representatives of all the leading independent media in Azerbaijan are taking part.

“This hunger strike is drastic method of protest that shows how difficult the situation has become for Azerbiajan's independent media,” the press freedom organization said. “We are worried that the state of health of several of the hunger strikers, including Sakit Zahidov's brother Ganimat, the editor of the opposition daily Azadlig, who was adamant in his refusal when asked to stop by the Union of Journalists.”

Sakit Zahidov is a recent victim of the governments crackdown on press freedoms, a prominent independent journalist, he was sentenced on 4 October to three years in prison for “possession of drugs for personal consumption” ensuing a trail described as 'chaotic'. Zahidov has insisted that the police planted the heroin and that the charges are politically motivated. A court will hear his appeal on 1 December. Sakit joined in solidarity with the hunger strikers on 23 November.  

Freddy Munoz a prominent human rights defender and high profile journalist was arrested by intelligence agents for “rebellion and terrorism” on 19 November 2006 in Bogotá airport on his return from a Telesur workshop in Venezuela.

Freddy Munoz is a prolific journalistic currently working for Telesur, a channel founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavev to counteract the influence of north-American TV channels. Prior to working with Telesur he worked with leading Colombian newspapers, El Universa and El Periódico and has written extensively on the situation of forced displacement in Colombia and on drug trafficking. He has also documented reports of alleged government payments to paramilitaries during the peace negotiations.

In 2005, Telesur broadcast interviews with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), seen as terrorists by Colombia and the United States. Telesur also broadcast footage of demonstrations against President Alvaro Uribe, who at the time expressed his “disquiet” and the United States called “provocation”.