(FXI/IFEX) – Please note that the inquest court hearing on the death of gang leader Rashaad Staggie in Cape Town was postponed on 2 September and not 3 September, as was mistakenly reported. The IFEX Clearing House regrets the error. Iraj og Hege Nouri Torstadbakken 29, 1364 Hvalstad – NORWAY Tel: 66 98 08 69 […]
(FXI/IFEX) – Please note that the inquest court hearing on the death of gang
leader Rashaad Staggie in Cape Town was postponed on 2 September and not 3
September, as was mistakenly reported. The IFEX Clearing House regrets the
error.
Iraj og Hege Nouri
Torstadbakken 29, 1364 Hvalstad – NORWAY
Tel: 66 98 08 69
e-mail: hnouri@online.no
of the privately-owned news agency Trans Press, to a
10-month prison term for “defamation.” On 22 August, he was arrested and
detained at Baia-Mare prison. Sabou was convicted of “defaming” Judge
Mariana Iancu, presiding judge of the Baia-Mare court (in northern Romania),
in an article published on 3 April 1997 in the newspaper “Ziua” (“The Day”).
The journalist quoted rural villagers’ protests against Judge Iancu, who was
accused of having used her influence to take twelve hectares of farm land
from a village (see IFEX alert of 25 August).
On 23 July, Ovidiu Scultelnicu and Dragos Stangu, journalists with the local
independent daily “Monitorul”, were sentenced to one year in jail by the
Iassi court (in northeastern Romania). The two also had their civil rights
and their right to work as journalists suspended for one year, and they were
fined 1.5 billion lei (160,000 US dollars). Scultelnicu and Stangu were
found guilty of “defaming” Police Colonel Petru Susanu in a 27 May
“Monitorul” article. The article criticized Susanu’s work methods and raised
doubts as to the origins of his personal fortune. The journalists have
appealed the conviction (see IFEX alerts of 10 and 4 August).
On 29 August, “Monitorul” journalists Florentin Florescu and Radu Burlacu
were convicted of “defamation” in Botosani (in northeastern Romania) and
fined 100 million lei (11,250 US dollars). The two were found guilty of
“defaming” a local politician for having revealed how he pressured
magistrates during his son’s trial for the destruction of a historical
building.
RSF strongly condemns the prison sentences, and notes that they were handed
down despite Justice Minister Valeriu Stoïka’s promises. In a recent letter
to RSF, Stoïka said he was ready to intervene on behalf of the convicted
journalists. RSF recalls that the use of detention to punish the expression
of opinions is a serious attack on press freedom. According to RSF, in using
prison terms against journalists for expressing their opinions, the current
government in Romania is flagrantly contravening Romania’s international
commitments related to the respect of freedom of expression. Romania is a
member of the Council of Europe and a candidate for entry into the European
Union,
RSF is calling for the immediate release of Cornel Sabou, and for the trial
of journalists Ovidiu Scultelnicu and Dragos Stangu to be reviewed.
For further information, contact Alexandre Lévy or Ludovic Brun at RSF, 5,
rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1
45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr/.
