FREE EXPRESSION: Journalists around the world under pressure; Sudanese women resist mutilation with henna tattoos

Indian news covered an Indian journalist attacked in Australia, while the Bangkok Post published an investigation into the dangers of journalism. In the Americas, the Washington Post reported on journalists in Cambodia and Afghanistan, and the Bolivian press reported brutal attacks on a cameraman in La Paz. Other publications reported on threats to journalists in Sudan and Maldives.

Cambodian government tough on journalists

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen/Bloomberg

Washington Post 29 July 2009
A heightened crackdown on journalists and opposition activists in recent weeks by Cambodia’s leaders has provoked new concern that the government is engaging in widespread abuse of the nation’s legal system to muzzle its detractors.

Financial Times
Bolivian cameraman brutally attacked in La Paz Committee to Protect Journalists
Sudanese woman journalist faces flogging AFP
Bracing the media for battle The Bangkok Post
Karzai campaign keeps young Afghan Writer in Jail Bloomberg.com
Journalists in Maldives subjected to abuse and intimidation Globalvoices.org

SUDAN: Female genital mutilation countered by henna-dyed hands

Huffington Post 28 July 2009
NGOs are training midwives and henna artists to cooperate using a secret code communicated through henna tattoos. Called the henna technique, a special design dyed temporarily on the skin can indicate to a midwife that a mother wants to avoid genital mutilation on her daughter. The tattoos serve as a bridge to discuss what is traditionally taboo. In turn, a midwife can stage a fake circumcision.