2005-2014

The situation in the Swat Valley has turned alarming with the Pakistani armed forces stepping up their operations against the Taliban there. Newspapers had already stopped publishing after the military imposed a curfew. Now journalists are fleeing to safer areas. The Khyber Union of Journalists has now urged the government to allow the media access to Mingora, the largest city in the valley. At a...

A year after the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province, journalists are still being persecuted. After the recent harassment of several foreign journalists and the arrest of least one local writer, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Sichuan province to allow journalists to report freely in the area on the one-year anniversary

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías should refrain from making threatening statements and ensure the press is allowed to work without government interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Chávez accused private media outlets of destabilising democracy in comments earlier last week. During his weekly radio and TV programme "Aló, Presidente" on Sunday, Chávez said...

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following a new round of revelations about the spying on journalists and news media by the DAS, an intelligence agency that reports directly to the president’s office. The phone-tap scandal was first exposed by the weekly Semana in February. “Ever since...

Cuban dissident journalist Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet, a reporter for the Habana Press news agency, was sentenced to three years in prison on May 12, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has learnt. Arrested on April 18 on a charge of “disrespect for authority,” he had been transferred to a prison on May 10. RSF does not expect his appeal to be successful. “Hastily tried just two days...

A murder attempt was recently made against Mohamed Ould Zeine, editor of the independent Arab-language daily in Mauritania El Wattan and star presenter on Radio Mauritania, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The journalist was left for dead after being battered and slashed by two men wielding baseball bats and knives on the evening of May 12. He suffered a very serious...

The scheduled arraignments of former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Yusuf Bey IV, and his associate Antoine Mackey have been postponed again on May 13 until May 29, after Mackey’s court-appointed attorney expressed doubts about being able to take on the case, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . Bey’s lawyers also won a court motion temporarily preventing anyone involved...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of Cuban independent journalist Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet, who was arrested after a verbal exchange with a policeman in Artemisa (in Havana province) on April 18. Du Bouchet, who is a reporter for Habana Press, an independent news agency, was previously jailed from August 2005 to August 2006 for a similar reason. “The brakes...

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has sent emergency funds to help the dozens of Swat valley journalists who have been forced to flee the area because of fighting between the Pakistani army and the Taliban. More than 30 journalists and their families have had to seek refuge in Peshawar and other cities since the army launched its offensive against Islamist militants in the Swat valley...

US President Barack Obama intends blocking the court-ordered release of photos depicting the abuse of prisoners by US military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Given the administration’s pledge last month not to fight the court ruling, as well as President Obama’s emphasis on promoting transparency and open government when he took office, the decision is very disappointing,” Paris-based...