2005-2014

Amid an increasing crackdown on the media in Yemen, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for Yemeni authorities to disclose the whereabouts of a journalist who has been held incommunicado since May 4 after he was arrested in southern Yemen. CPJ also called on the authorities to drop a series of lawsuits against an independent critical newspaper. Security forces arrested Fuad...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to the DRC communication and media minister Lambert Mendé condemning the government’s decision to suspend local retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the northeastern city of Bunia, and voicing concern at the possibility that the measure could be extended to the rest of the country. “We easily understand...

Radio Mada sports reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina has been retained in detention and charged with “inciting revolt against the republic’s institutions,” defamation and disseminating false information, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He was arrested on May 5 and forced to reveal the location from which the radio was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order. “Even if...

Yemen has banned eight newspapers that have covered unrest in the southern part of the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Dozens of journalists gathered on May 7 in front of the country's press syndicate in the capital, Sana'a, to protest the government's decision to suspend the newspapers, the Associated Press reported. A similar demonstration was held in the...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the safety of journalist Tuver Wundi Muhindo following an armed attack on his home in the North Kivu capital of Goma on April 12. The incident followed the 2007 murder of Goma photojournalist Patrick Kikuku Wilingula, which is still unsolved. CPJ has urged the province, Julien Paluku Kahongya, to use his influence to ensure...

The Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision to strike down the 1967 Press Law, a measure that imposed harsh penalties for libel and slander, is a crucial step forward in the campaign to eliminate criminal defamation laws in the Americas, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. CPJ and other groups had long urged that the anachronistic law be removed from the books. Brazil's highest...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the administration's increasing pressure on the Republic of Korea's media. The arrest on April 28 of four staff members with the country's second-largest broadcaster, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), is only the most recent step in what appears to be a broader effort to stifle independent reporting critical of government...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has hailed the provisional release of French photographer Jean-Paul Ney, who had been held in Abidjan since late December 2007 in connection with a conspiracy to overthrow the Ivorian government known as the “Christmas in Abidjan” affair. The provisional release of Ney on Wednesday and all the other persons held in connection with the case was ordered this afternoon...

Authorities in Rostov-on-Don must launch a criminal investigation into a possible attack on the editor-in-chief of an independent newspaper who was found unconscious with a head wound in the early morning of April 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, editor of Korruptsiya i Prestupnost (Corruption and Crime), was found at the foot of a staircase in...

American reporter Diane Bukowski, who was found guilty on May 1 of two felony counts of resisting, obstructing, opposing, and endangering two Michigan state troopers while covering a crime scene, is facing prosecution. Bukowski, 60, will face sentencing, which may include a fine of up to $4,000 as well as up to four years in prison or both, on June 1. Bukowski is a freelance reporter for the...