2005-2014

A climate of hostility towards the French news media is being encouraged by Côte d’Ivoire’s state-owned radio and TV stations and certain privately-owned newspapers in Abidjan that support President Laurent Gbagbo, such as Le Temps and Notre Voie, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “Our priority is respect for the safety of journalists,” RSF secretary...

Some 40 people – including Radio Nizkor journalist Claudia Julieta Duque – on November 30 filed complaints against former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe linked to his alleged responsibility in the “Dasgate” illegal phone-tapping, threats and sabotage laid at the door of the intelligence services. Uribe is due to appear before a special congressional committee which will allow him to escape more...

Belarusian prosecutors have closed their investigation into the September death of Aleh Byabenin, founder and director of the Minsk-based, pro-opposition news website Charter 97. Authorities said Wednesday that they did not find evidence of foul play, according to New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Byabenin's brother found the journalist hanged in a stairway of his summer house...

Ivorian authorities imposed Thursday a ban on France-based news broadcasters covering the contested presidential election, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The National Council of Audiovisual Communication (CNCA) ordered the local affiliate of France-based satellite television operator Canal+ to suspend all international news channels offered on subscription...

Nikol Pashinian, an opposition activist and editor-in-chief of the independent Armenia daily Haykakan Zhamanak, was recently beaten in custody and moved into solitary confinement, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Tuesday, authorities moved Pashinian into the strict-regime Artik prison. Pashinian's lawyer, Vakhe Grigorian, told CPJ that the move was in...

Nepalese journalist Shreedeep Rayamajhi is being subjected to violent attacks and continuing threats in connection with his online reporting, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Rayamajhi told CPJ that he began receiving threatening emails from an unknown sender in June, warning him to stop writing and to erase his profile from online news outlets. The email's...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), its partner organization in Iraq, have condemned the threat of a wave of Al-Qaeda bombings against news media that has just been reported by the Iraqi interior ministry. Asking not to be named, a ministry official said on November 30 that Al-Qaeda was planning a campaign of car-bombings...

Al-Baghdadia, an Iraqi satellite TV station that has its headquarters in Cairo, has announced that it is ending all activities in Iraq as a result of a decision by the Iraqi government’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) on November 1 to suspend the operations of all its bureaux, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “In view of the prime minister’s...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the six-month jail sentence that a military court imposed on blogger Ahmed Hassan Basiouny on November 29 on charges of disseminating defence secrets online and “disclosing information relating to the Egyptian armed forces.” Basiouny was arrested for creating a Facebook page in 2009 that provided advice and information...

The Post newspaper’s assistant news editor George Chellah was threatened by a group of political party supporters while attending a United Party for National Development (UPND) press conference on November 24 in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, he told IPI by phone today. According to Chellah, he was personally invited to the UPND press conference by a member of the party's leadership. Once he arrived...