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	Tasers – potentially lethal and easy to abuse. by Amnesty International (USA)   Jan 2009   Amnesty International has said that industry claims that Taser stun guns are safe and non-lethal do not stand up to scrutiny. The organization called on governments to limit their deployment to life-threatening situations or to suspend their use.   The call came as the organization released one of the most detailed reports to date on the safety of the stun gun. The report "USA: Less than lethal?" is being published as the number of people who died after being struck by Tasers in the USA reached 334 between 2001 and August 2008.   "Tasers are not the "non-lethal" weapons they are portrayed to be," said Angela Wright, US researcher at Amnesty International and author of the report. "They can kill and should only be used as a last resort.   "The problem with Tasers is that they are inherently open to abuse, as they are easy to carry and easy to use and can inflict severe pain at the push of a button, without leaving substantial marks."   Amnesty International’s study – which includes information from 98 autopsies – found that 90 per cent of those who died after being struck with a Taser were unarmed and many did not appear to present a serious threat.   Many were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks – far more than the five-second "standard" cycle – or by more than one officer at a time. Some people were even shocked for failing to comply with police commands after they had been incapacitated by a first shock.   In at least six of the cases where people died, Tasers were used on individuals suffering from medical conditions such as seizures – including a doctor who had crashed his car when he suffered an epileptic seizure. He died after being repeatedly shocked at the side of the highway when, dazed and confused, he failed to comply with an officer"s commands.   Police officers also used Tasers on schoolchildren, pregnant women and even an elderly person with dementia..   * Visit the link below to access the report.
	Mexico journalists face ''self-censorship, exile or certain death'' by Agence France Presse (AFP)   21 Jan, 2009   Journalists in the violent north Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez face self-censorship, exile or certain death, media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a joint report yesterday.   More than 5,300 people died in Mexico in escalating drug-related attacks last year, including over a quarter in Ciudad Juarez, despite a Government crackdown involving some 36,000 troops deployed across the country.   Mexico is considered one of the world''s most dangerous countries for media workers, and five journalists were killed there in 2008 out of 45 killed in the past eight years, according to the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), which also produced the report.   "This report highlights the terrible dilemma that the (Ciudad Juarez) region''s journalists face - censor themselves, go into exile or risk an almost certain death that will go completely unpunished," said RSF journalist Balbina Flores Martinez on presenting the report.   The study was prompted by the November 13 murder of crime reporter Armando Rodriguez Carreon of the El Diario newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, a major hub for drug traffickers across the border from El Paso, Texas.   The report "also points out that the deployment of many federal personnel - civilian and military - to this major drug trafficking stronghold has not made the city any safer and has even exacerbated the violence".   Government workers, including soldiers and police, committed most attacks on journalists countrywide, but the most violent, including gruesome beheadings, were carried out by drug gangs, the two groups said. "The situation for journalists in Mexico will not improve, it will rather worsen, because drug violence is not likely to diminish soon," Martinez said.
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