2005-2014

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has initiated steps to simplify accreditation procedures for foreign journalists in India, according to the Times of India. They will now be able to apply for it online from their respective countries even while applying for a visa, officials said. "We have taken steps to cut down on the time taken for security clearance," said Neelam Kapur, principal director...

An editor and several journalists of Shanghai's National Business Daily were attacked Friday by men claiming to work for a shampoo maker whose products have been alleged to contain toxic chemicals, the newspaper said. The newspaper's spokeswoman Xu Yuanyuan said police detained a man claiming to be a sales manager for BaWang International and three others after the attack at the newspapers' office...

US newspaper publisher McClatchy Co has reported that second-quarter revenue fell 6.4 per cent, as advertising and circulation continue to suffer. The revenue decline, however, was an improvement from steep drops during the worst of the recession. It's also the latest sign that the weak advertising market that has hurt most media companies is slowly reviving. Other newspaper publishers, including...

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) has expressed concern at the growing tendency towards enactment and enforcement of more repressive, complicated legal sanctions against journalists. In Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Burundi, journalists and their leaders face constant harassment and threats to their safety as part of a brazen campaign to curb the right to freedom of expression in Africa...

Amer Abu Arfa, a correspondent for the Shihab news agency, has been convicted and imprisoned in connection with his news coverage. The agency, based in the Gaza Strip, is perceived by the Palestinian Authority as being pro-Hamas. Abu Arfa was arrested on May 11 by Palestinian security forces, according to his father, who told Shihab that his son was taken from their home by the Palestinian...

An Indonesian search team on July 30 recovered the body of reporter Ardiansyah Matra’is in a river in the small town of Merauke, on the southern tip of Papua province, according to news reports and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AIJ). Matra’is, who had been missing for two days, worked as a stringer for the national television broadcaster Anteve, before joining local broadcaster Merauke...

Two employees were injured in an arson attack Friday on the offices of the Voice of Asia Network in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. The fire destroyed the studios of the group’s Siyatha TV station, but the network’s three radio stations have been able to remain on the air. The Associated Press, quoting a spokesman for the company, said a dozen men, armed with assault rifles and gasoline...

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Nasser AlAhmad AlSabah has filed a complaint against Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Egyptian daily Al-Dustour and Kuwaiti journalist Mohammed Alweshaihi accusing them of insult and libel. Lately, Al-Dustour had reported on the trials of Kuwaiti journalist Mohamed AlJassim, and slammed the Kuwaiti PM for being behind them, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has...

ARTICLE 19 has welcomed the bill to decriminalise defamation in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The approval of the bill on July 22 by the local Congress, actively promoted by ARTICLE 19, significantly advances efforts to persuade the Mexican government to fully decriminalise defamation nationwide, in accordance with Human Rights Committee’s observations. Mexico is one of the most restrictive and...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has accused the authorities in Tunisia of engaging in a "relentless campaign" of intimidation and harassment of a journalists' leader. IFJ says Zied-el-Heni, a member of the leadership of the Syndicat national des journalistes tunisiens (SNJT) and of the steering committee of the African Federation of Journalistes (FAJ), the IFJ regional group, is...