2005-2014

Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs should stop threatening to close opposition party newspapers, reverse bans on politically sensitive books, and end harassment of independent journalists, Human Rights Watch has said. The government should also repeal the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act, which gives the Home Affairs Ministry effective censorship over all publication content, Human...

Caslav Milisavljevic, Editor-in-Chief of Radio Kosovska Mitrovica, was attacked in the Kosovo municipality of Zvecan, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has reported. According to information received by SEEMO, during the early morning hours of July 20, an explosive device was thrown in the courtyard of Milisavljevic's home. The device exploded, causing damage to three automobiles...

Colleagues of a Guinean radio journalist who was attacked by unknown assailants on July 16 are suspecting the military of being behind the attack. Etienne Mansaré, a military reporter of privately-owned Conakry-based Sabari FM, was stabbed in the back while on his way home after signing off from his political programme "Sous le Cocotier." "Mansaré must have been a victim of an action carried out...

An independent photographer and documentary filmmaker was detained and assaulted and his camera was confiscated by officers from the National Institute for Migration in Mexico. Irineo Mújica Arzate was documenting on July 16 a police action in Soltepec, Puebla, to detain undocumented Central American workers who were travelling by train to the United States, the Center for Journalism and Public...

Threats have been made against the family of senior Sri Lankan journalist Gamini Pushpakumara. Pushpakumara, who is an executive committee member of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (SLWJA) and secretary of the program producers' union of the state-owned Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), was summarily dismissed from employment at SLRC after presidential elections in Sri Lanka...

Ato Kwamena Dadzie, news editor of Joy FM, an Accra-based independent radio station, was charged with a criminal offence for refusing to reveal the station's sources of information for a July 5 news item, according to the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The station had carried a report to the effect that an umbrella body of local contractors, the Ghana Real Estates Developers Association...

A controversial article by writer Yilmaz Ozdil was within the "limits of press freedom", the Diyarbakir Public Prosecution in Turkey has decided. In the April 14 article, which was published in Hürriyet newspaper, Ozdil had defended a physical attack on Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk. The Press Council had previously reached a similar conclusion regarding Ozdil's column, IPS Communication...

Luis Hernández Núñez, an XEJTV Canal 5 cameraman in Mexico, was injured on July 15 when a bomb was set near a federal police convoy by individuals associated with organised crime. Four people were killed and at least 10 were injured in the attack in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) has reported. The incident took place around 8:00 p.m. at the 16 de...

Thai authorities, using the emergency decree, have recently shut down 26 more community radio stations in nine provinces, media reports said. The Nation said six more stations were pressured to discontinue their operations. The English-language newspaper also reported that 35 people working for these stations, like radio hosts, station managers and executives, are facing lawsuits for allegedly...

The US Senate on Monday passed a bill to shield US journalists, authors, and publishers from "libel tourists" who file suit in countries where they expect to get the most favourable ruling.The popular legislation headed to the House of Representatives, which was expected to approve it and send the measure to US President Barack Obama to sign into law despite misgivings from key US allies, Agence...