Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, editor of the Net Press news website in Burundi, has been acquitted of defaming President Pierre Nkurunziza in a story claiming that the president spent €71,000 during his visit to Beijing for the Olympic Games opening ceremony. He had been in detention since last September as a result of a complaint brought by the government secretary-general.
The director of a community radio station in Paraguay was shot dead in his home in January. Martin Ocampos Paez’s death has been linked to comments he made about the complicity of the police and local officials with drug traffickers.
Photographer Jean Paul Ibarra Ramirez of the Mexican daily El Correo was shot dead in February while covering a road accident. A colleague, crime reporter Yenny Yuliana Marchán Arroyo of the daily Diario 21, was seriously wounded when they were attacked by gunmen as they travelled to the scene. Since 2000 at least 29 Mexican journalists have been killed and eight are missing.
Russian journalist Sergey Protazanov of the newspaper Grazhdanskoye Soglasiyel died on March 31, two days after being beaten up in the street in the town of Khimki, near Moscow. His wife reported the attack to police, who allegedly failed to record the incident and told reporters that the journalist died of poisoning.
The International Federation of Journalists has called for the release of two US journalists detained in North Korea. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters with San Francisco-based Current TV, were arrested in March and accused of illegally entering North Korea. They had been in China to report on refugees fleeing North Korea. They face up to 10 years in a labour camp.