More attacks on journalists’ unions
Journalists’ unions have come under attack by forces willing to use violence to silence unfavourable reporting.
An assault on the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Poddala Jayantha, left him in hospital with head and leg injuries in May. A group of men bundled him into a van near his home and beat him up before dumping him by the roadside. Politicians had accused him of tarnishing the name of the government.
Sergey Goos, Vice President of the Independent Media Trade Union in Ukraine, has been sacked from his job at an investigative magazine for union activity. He was leading negotiations for a collective agreement to regulate editorial rights and salaries.
Police raided the headquarters of the Gambia Press Union, arresting five staff members, in June. National Intelligence Agency agents in plainclothes arrested the editor and a reporter from opposition newspaper Foroyaa. All were charged with “seditious publication” and six have been detained pending further hearings; only GPU Vice President Sarata Jabbi-Dibba, who has a young child, was granted bail.