2005-2014

A Vietnamese journalist has been awarded a jail sentence on charges that she spread anti-state propaganda, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Pham Thanh Nghien, a freelance writer, was arrested during a government crackdown on dissidents in September 2008 and originally charged with staging a protest against Vietnamese policy on a maritime dispute with China, according to...

A Moscow court has ruled against freelance journalist and former Soviet dissident Alexandre Podrabinek in a lawsuit by Second World War veteran Viktor Semenov, who claimed he was offended by an online article last September criticising government attempts to paint a rosy picture of the Soviet era. In its ruling, issued on January 27, the court ordered Podrabinek to pay Semenov 1,000 roubles (23...

Tthe Supreme Court in Israel on Thuesday overturned prison sentences of eight months, six of them suspended, against Khader Shahin, correspondent for Iranian Arabic-language television al-Alam, and his assistant Mohammed Sarhan, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After the Israeli army launched operation Cast Lead on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, Shahin, living in Jerusalem, was...

The latest series of bombings in Baghdad, Tuesday afternoon, were targeted at the city’s main hotels, which house many Iraqi and foreign news media. The offices of the Al-Hurra TV station were damaged and many journalists suffered minor injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF condemned this indiscriminate violence against Iraqi civilians but pointed out that the situation for...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the reported disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a political reporter for the Sri Lankan news website Lanka eNews. Lanka eNews Editor Sandurwan Senadeera told news organisations that Eknelygoda was last seen leaving the office on Sunday evening. He told news outlets that he fears the reporter may have been abducted. In its own account...

Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing Sunday night in Colombo. A senior police official told Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) he was too busy with Tuesday's presidential election to make the case a priority. Eknaligoda, who writes political analyses for the Lankaenews website, left work at about 9 p.m. but did not arrive home and has not contacted any family members or friends. He...

Venezuelan regulators have ordered cable and satellite operators to stop carrying one of the country’s best known broadcasters, RCTV International, along with five other stations, alleging that the broadcasters violated a requirement to air President Hugo Chávez’s speeches., according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On orders from the National Telecommunication Commission (CONATEL)...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Uzbek authorities to immediately drop all charges against Umida Akhmedova, a prominent photojournalist and documentary filmmaker who covers gender, ethnic, and cultural issues, and allow her to continue to do her work without fear of reprisal. On January 13, investigators with the city police department in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent...

Flouting a January 15 supreme court ruling, state-owned TV stations Rupavahini and ITN continue to openly favour President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign to win another term in the presidential election to be held on January 26 with a total of 21 candidates taking part. Detailed monitoring by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has established that 98.5 per cent of the news and current affairs air-time...

There has been an increase in press freedom violations and violence against independent journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan since the July 25 regional elections, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Both of the two political parties that control the region have had a hand in these violations, of which there have been several recent cases. The most recent is that of freelance journalist Sabah...