2005-2014

A Jharkhand court has given bail to Sudha Pathak, mother of 23-year-old journalist Nirupama Pathak who was found dead in her home April 29, after police failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days from her arrest. Sudha was arrested on May 3 after her New Delhi-based daughter Nirupama was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her home in Koderma's Chitragupta Nagar. "The...

The Afghanistan government has decided to close down the privately-owned TV station Emroz for allegedly endangering national unity and to ban two programmes on two other TV stations on the ground that they were contrary to Islamic values. When it met on 27 July, the cabinet ordered the ministry of culture and information and the attorney-general to shut down Emroz, a station launched in August...

A former Kurdish editor who has been held since January 30, 2009 and sentenced to a total of 166 years in prison with 30-odd cases, has been awarded a Journalists Association of Turkey press freedom prize. on 24 July. Vedat Kursun is former editor of Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat. Receiving the award on Kursun's behalf on July 24, his father said, “To Turkish and international public...

Criminal proceedings have been initiated in Dresden against two Leipzig journalists. The charges arise from articles written in news magazine Der Spiegel and in Zeit Online in 2008 on the “Saxony Corruption Quagmire” – a possible corruption affair that could have involved high-ranking members of the legal system. Ginzel and Datt were the authors of the Zeit Online report and co-authors of the...

A Madrid judge reissued arrest warrants Thursday for three US servicemen over the death of a Spanish journalist killed by American tank fire in Iraq in 2003. Judge Santiago Pedraz acted in response to a recent order from the Spanish Supreme Court that the case — twice shelved by a lower court — be reopened. Cameraman José Couso was one of two journalists killed when the US soldiers — members of a...

Two reporters working for Nippon Television Network Corp. were confirmed dead Sunday after they had climbed to a mountain in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture of Japan to cover the fatal crash a week earlier of a rescue helicopter, local media reported. Kyodo News said the two men, with whom the broadcaster had lost contact, are Yuji Kita, a 30-year-old reporter who lives in the city of Saitama, and...

A radio reporter died on Saturday, three weeks after he was shot by a gunman in the eastern Philippines, a provincial police chief said, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Miguel Belen, 48, died two days after his third operation at a hospital in Iriga City, 350 kilometres south-east of Manila, Senior Superintendent Jonathan Ablang said. "He died before dawn," he said. "His body could no...

Iran's deputy culture minister lashed out at Western media on Sunday, branding them "dishonest, cocky cheats," who will be banned from an annual press fair in the autumn, the ILNA news agency reported. "This year none of the Western media are allowed to participate in the fair," said Mohammad Ali Ramin, who is also a press watchdog official. "We have eliminated them, because Western media are...

China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has voiced its support for journalists' rights of supervision after police in an east China county wrongly issued an arrest warrant for a journalist, official news agency Xinhua has reported. "News organisations have the right to know, interview, cover, criticise and monitor events regarding national and public interests. Journalistic...

Mexican police raided a drug gang safe house before dawn on Saturday and rescued two television journalists abducted by cartel members who demanded networks broadcast their messages, according to news reports. Security Minister Genero Garcia Luna said cameramen Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernandez were being held in the northern state of Coahuila by members of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most...