2005-2014

Several journalists of the Reporter, an independent monthly magazine in Burkina Faso, as well as journalist Newton Ahmed Barry of privately-owned weekly newspaper l'Événement have received death threats via e-mail for allegedly criticising three top government officials. In a February 2009 edition of the Reporter, the magazine published a letter from an anonymous source that identified himself as...

China's decision to establish a list of reporters who break reporting rules and prevent them from continuing to report or edit news is a cause for concern, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The decision to create a blacklist was reported in an article on the website of the official China Press and Publishing Journal. The journal's report, titled "Strengthen oversight and service...

A judge in the Philippines has lifted the warrant of arrest he himself had issued against the alleged killers of radio broadcaster Dennis Cuesta. Judge Isaac Alvero Moran, of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 36, of General Santos City, on February 12 revoked the February 3 warrant of arrest issued against Police Inspector Redempto "Boy" Acharon and several other suspects in the killing of...

The Tanzanian minister of information, sports and culture has ordered three newspapers to provide reasons why they published what he calls "defamatory" news reports. The newspapers in question are Taifa Letu, Sema Usikize and Taifa Tanzania. The minister on February 13 accused the three newspapers of writing defamatory reports against three prominent figures, namely Reginald Mengi, the executive...

Hearings in the murder case of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya continue at the Moscow District Military Court. On February 4, the judge announced yet another adjournment of the proceedings, this time because of the sudden loss in court of a DVD featuring video materials that the prosecutor wanted to present as evidence against the defendants, the Glasnost Defence Foundation (GDF)...

Two journalists, the daily Milliyet's Gokcer Tahincioglu and Vatan newspaper's Kemal Goktas, are on trial in Turkey over allegations related to articles revealing the unlawful authorization of security forces, police, the gendarmerie and the national intelligence service to monitor all electronic communication between citizens. Tahincioglu and Goktas are accused of "acquiring classified...

The Jericho Church, an indigenous Christian denomination, has moved an application at the High Court of Swaziland to ban the media from reporting on the split that has rocked the Church as a result of a leadership dispute, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The Church wants to gag the country's two daily newspapers, the Times of Swaziland and the Swazi Observer, as well as...

An unidentified Pretoria News journalist was shot six times by the police during a standoff between the police and students at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria on February 11. Several people were injured when police fired a barrage of rubber bullets at hundreds of students protesting at the university. The journalist was rushed to hospital by paramedics, according to the Media...

Press freedom groups in Paraguay have condemned the death threat and assault against Aldo Lezcano, a correspondent for the daily ABC Color in Ybycuí, as well as the assault suffered earlier by Richard Villasboa and Blas Salcedo, of the Canal 13 television station. The Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay (SPP) has called on authorities to investigate these incidents and punish those found to be...

The publisher and editor of the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ayam were arrested and questioned for wanting to do a report about the king’s mother, a subject regarded as off-limits in Morocco, delayed reports said. “Police measures of this kind result in abuses that we find very disturbing,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “Political and judicial harassment of the Moroccan news media is...