2005-2014

15 February 2010

Cameroon: Two journalists held by intelligence agency freed after seven days

Simon Hervé Nko’o and Serge Sabouang, two journalists who were arrested by members of the General Directorate for External Investigation (DGRE) on February 5 without any reason being given, were finally released on the evening of February 12, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).

More
15 February 2010

Yemen: Opposition newspaper reporter murdered in northwest

Mohammed Shu’i Al-Rabu’i, a correspondent for several news media including the opposition newspaper Al-Qahira, was gunned down on February 13 in the district of Beni Qais (in the governorate of Hajja), 120 km northwest of Sana’a, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Those allegedly responsible have already been arrested. “We offer this journalist’s colleagues and family our heartfelt...

More
12 February 2010

Turkey: Kurdish newspaper editor sentenced to 21 years in prison

A court in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, has passed a 21-year jail sentence on Ozan Kilinç, the owner and editor of the country’s only Kurdish-language daily, Azadiya Welat, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After finding Kilinç guilty of criminal propaganda in support of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the court sentenced him in...

More
12 February 2010

Bulgaria: Broadcast licence blackmail and disturbing increase in violence

There have been renewed cases of threats and physical violence against Bulgarian journalists in the past few days, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). An assault on TV reporter Dimitar Varbanov on February 10 and a police spokesman’s threats against news agency reporter Ivan Yanev in the city of Stara Zagora on February 8 show that a climate of intimidation continues. These incidents and...

More
12 February 2010

CPJ condemns police harassment of Nigerian editor

Mallam Tukur, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the independent weekly, Desert Herald, based in Kaduna State of Nigeria has been arrested for defamation, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Two plainclothes police arrested Tukur on defamation charges at his office in Kaduna on February 8 and took him to a police station in Bauchi State. He was released on bail the following...

More
12 February 2010

Costa Rica eliminates prison terms for defamation

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called on the Costa Rican legislature to remove criminal defamation provisions from its penal code after a recent Supreme Court decision eliminated prison terms from its 1902 Printing Press Law. The provisions were eliminated from the Printing Press Law—known as Ley de Imprenta—which imposed prison sentences of up to 120 days for defamation in...

More
11 February 2010

Peru: Former mayor acquitted again of ordering journalist’s murder

Luis Valdez Villacorta, the former mayor of Pucallpa (the capital of the east-central region of Ucayali), has been acquitted for the second time of masterminding the murder of radio Frecuencia Oriental journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández in Pucallpa on April 21, 2004, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Valdez was acquitted on February 8 by a Lima criminal court at the end of a...

More
11 February 2010

Turkey: Supporters of Hrant Dink's alleged killer hack into newspaper’s website

Hackers broke into the website of the Turkish and Armenian-language newspaper Agos Thursday and succeeded in posting a photo of Ogün Samast – the youth who is on trial for the January 2007 murder of the newspaper’s founder, Hrant Dink – together with a Turkish flag background and around 10 lines of ultra-nationalistic comments, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Headlined “Our good...

More
11 February 2010

Confusion and disappointment at 12th hearing of Hrant Dink murder trial

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Thursday expressed shock at the conditions in which the trial of the alleged killers of Hrant Dink was being held after attending the 12th hearing in the case on February 8. Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was shot dead in Istanbul on January 19, 2007. He was the editor of the bi-lingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos and a critic of Turkey’s...

More
11 February 2010

Two journalists missing in Sri Lanka

Two journalists have disappeared in Sri Lanka, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Chandana Sirimalwatte, chief editor of the Sri Lankan weekly newspaper Lanka, was detained by police around noon on January 30, according to his wife, Hemali Abeyratne, and staffers at the paper. Lanka e News journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda has been missing since January 24. Lanka, the weekly...

More