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The latest addition to a list of terrorist suspects published by the Saudi Interior Ministry, includes a surprising addition according to the English language Arabic daily, Asharq Al-Awsat. Obaida Abdul-Rahman Al Otaibi, a journalist with a degree in journalism from the Imam Mohamed Bin Saud University, is the 50th name on the list of 85 terror suspects. A former colleague describes him,

“In terms of professionalism and news-reporting he was an ordinary journalist, but he had good writing ability. He was also one of the first journalists to add his email address to his articles at a time when the Saudi Arabians were new to the internet…” [said Al Qasim, a senior journalist with the Saudi Al-Jazirah newspaper]… [He] was focused on social and local topics, and neither he nor his writing had anything to do with extremist ideology. There were also no black marks with regards to his personal discipline at work.” link

The Saudi Ministry of the Interior says Al-Otaibi went to the UAE in 2005 and his current whereabouts are unknown. Al-Otaibi is alleged to have ties with Eisa Al-Awsham, a former Al Qaeda commander in Saudi Arabia who was killed in 2004. Al Qasim says the two were classmates at the Al Shifa Religious Academy during their school years. All those appearing on the list and encouraged to give themselves up to the authorities.

Four female journalists were attacked and forced to strip before being marched through the eastern city of Kenema on Monday. The perpertraitors of the attack were reportedly a pro-female genital mutilation (FGM) group. Police and human rights groups intervened to set them free,

“We are still in a daze,” one of the victims, who works for the local United Nations radio, told reporters by telephone… “We had received threatening telephone calls on our lives, that we will be taught a lesson not to report on FGM,” journalist Manja Balama-Samba said. “We were only undertaking a reporting assignment and have no hand in any campaign.” link

In January 2009, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists complained of the increased number of attacks on journalists.

The Committee to protect journalists launched Attacks on the Press 2008 today. The CPJ will be holding a press conference at the United Nations later to publicize the report. You can watch the livestream on the UN website at 9.30am EST Tuesday 10 February. Taking part will be, Joel Simon, CPJ Executive Director, Paul Steiger, CPJ Board Chairman, and Carl Bernstein, journalist. Here’s a snippet from Joel Simon in the introduction to the report,

Forty-one journalists died in 2008, down notably from previous years. A sharp drop in the number of journalists killed in Iraq led to the overall decline. Improved security conditions in Iraq and, possibly, a rollback in foreign bureaus in Baghdad helped lead to the lower numbers there. Many journalists killed in previous years were targeted because of their ties to Western media outlets. link

If you use use Twitter, you can follow the press conference in 140 character text snippets with the CPJ Twitter channel. And don’t forget, the Frontline Club uses Twitter too.

According to the Foundation for Liberty and Freedom of the Press (FLIP), no Colombian journalists were killed in 2008 for the first time in 23 years,

A total of 130 journalists were killed in Colombia in the past 30 years. The organisation notes that Colombian journalists are still regularly threatened by terrorist organisations. FLIP reports that death threats are still a highly effective way of preventing independent reporting. link

However, 2009 has already got off to a bad start for Colombian journalists. According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, Maria Eugenia Guerrero, a Colombian journalist was found dead on the outskirts of the Ecuadorian city of Tulcannear earlier this month,

[Guerrero] who was working for the Integracion Estereo station in the southern Colombian city of Ipiales, was brutally assaulted and killed and her body was left in a remote area outside Tulcan… The body, according to the forensics report, showed signs of sexual assault and it is presumed the journalist was killed in a violent manner because a portion of her skull was not found and had presumably been detached as a result of a severe blow. link

The Committee to protect journalists (CPJ) requests a probe into the death of Ando Ratovonirina in Madagascar last week. The 26 year old reporter and cameraman was killed while working for Radio Télévision Analamanga at an antigovernment demonstration in the capital, Antananarivo,

“We are shocked by the killing of Ando Ratovonirina and extend our condolences to his family and colleagues,” said CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, Tom Rhodes. “President Marc Ravalomanana’s government must immediately investigate the shooting by members of the presidential guard and hold those responsible to account.” link

Ratovonirina is the first journalist to have been killed since the CPJ started keeping death records in 1992.

Daud Abdi Daud, the General Secretary of the Somali Journalists Rights Agency (SOJRA), defends the report earlier this week of a possible escape attempt by kidnap victims Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan. The report was quickly dismissed by the Paris-based Reporters without borders,

“I think [Reporters without borders] mean somebody in France can be more reliable than somebody who could hear the sounds of the bullets fired at the two journalists at that particular day. If we reported about what we witnessed, will it mean that we are connected to the kidnappers, or a person who is in a luxury hotel in Paris is more reliable than us?” [said Daud Abdi Daud] link

Meanwhile, Leonard Vincent, the Africa desk chief at Reporters Without Borders, said the “middlemen” involved in the negotiations for the release of the two journalists are getting “angry” at the Canadian authorities refusal to pay ransom,

“Obviously, there’s some kind of obstruction on the fact that Canadians are sitting on the principle that they don’t pay for terrorism, which is something that is crazy because somebody will have to pay… There has to be a clan agreement. There has to be a money agreement. There has to be money delivery and then there has to be a scenario of getting out, who does it, who gets the credit, who films it,” he said. link

There’s an unconfirmed report circulating that kidnapped journalists Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan tried to escape their Somali captors late last month. The allegation comes from a “prominent Somali contact for western journalists”

Daud Abdi Daud, Executive Director of Somali Journalists Rights Agency says the pair, in his words, “came close to being killed” on January 26th. Daud says Lindhout and Nigel Brennan escaped in Mohgadishu and ran to the shelter of a mosque.

He says, “they appealed to the holy men in the mosque for protection and were told to hide behind the chair of the senior Mulla who was reading the Holy book". Daud claims two gunmen fired shots inside the mosque and when the militia arrived Amanda Lindhout and Brennan were forcibly removed and were pushed into a car. Daud also says Lindhout reportedly tried to throw herself out of the car without success. link

We continue to update the kidnap story on this post.

UPDATE: Reporters without Borders refute the claim and denounce the source,

Leonard Vincent, [who heads the Africa desk of Reporters Without Borders…] is sceptical. “The source that it comes from is absolutely not reliable. In fact, we think that might be, in one way or the other, related to the kidnappers,” he said from Paris. link

Salam al-Dosaki, a journalist with the al-Hadba newspaper in Mosul, Iraq, was shot dead by a policeman on Thursday afternoon, 5 February according to Reuters,

Mohammed Yunis Mohammed, a Mosul policeman, had been drinking when he approached the home of neighbour Salam al-Dosaki, a journalist with the local al-Hadba newspaper, police said. An argument ensued between the two men and Mohammed, an Arab, shot and killed Dosaki, a Kurd, on his doorstep. Mohammed was in police custody on Thursday evening, police said. Police said it was a personal dispute. link

The media’s role - or lack of - in the recent Gaza conflict is up for debate at the Club tonight. We start at 7pm GMT / 11am PST Thurs 5 Feb. If you can’t make it to the club in person, do please tune in to the Frontline Club live channel.

In one of the most complicated and polarised conflicts in the world, we examine the media coverage of the recent war and ask it it’s ever possible to achieve balance. While each side uses the media to present its own perspective to its own people in the Middle East, America, Britain and beyond, who are we to believe? link

Taking part will be Jonathan Miller, Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Channel 4 News, Alan Fisher, who is Al-Jazeera’s correspondent on the Israeli-Gaza border, Harriet Sherwood, Head of international news at Guardian News and Media, Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, features editor and columnist at the Jerusalem Post and Lior Ben Dor an Israeli affairs specialist based in London. Roy Greenslade, a leading commentator and columnist on the media and former editor of The Daily Mirror will chair the discussion.