2005-2014

Malaysian authorities have seized the latest editions of two opposition newspapers. Tempers have flared since last week when the National Front government took over the northern Perak state from the opposition after several of its lawmakers switched allegiance, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Details: [ Link] Tian Chua, information chief of the People's Justice Party, said at least 20,000...

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered the state government to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to detained journalist BV Seetaramwhile partly allowing a habeas corpus writ petition by his wife challenging the detention. In her writ petition, Rohini, managing director of Chitra Publications, had sought release of her husband, editor of Mangalore-based Kannada eveninger Karavali Ale, contending...

Press freedom violations in Colombia have seen a substantial decline. In the past year, there were 130 violations of press freedom. This represents a decrease of approximately 20 per cent compared to 2007, when 162 violations were recorded. In 2008 there were no job-related murders of journalists. This is a fact worth emphasising in a country like Colombia, where more than 130 journalists have

Radio Kalima journalist Zakia Dhifawi was arrested by six plain-clothes Tunisian policemen Tuesday afternoon as she was leaving a trade union building in Tunis and was held for an hour at the Charles de Gaulle Street police station, where she was subjected to humiliating treatment. Kalima trainee journalist Faten Hamdi was meanwhile threatened with prosecution yesterday, three days after she was...

A Czech court has upheld a fine against reporter Sabina Slonkova for refusing to disclose the names of confidential sources to the state prosecutor. The case dates to February 2008, when online news portal Aktualne.cz posted video surveillance footage taken at Prague’s Hotel Savoy and leaked to Slonkova. The footage shows a clandestine meeting shortly before last year’s Czech presidential election...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Russian authorities to immediately investigate a death threat that was sent to a human rights research center. In an email, a neo-Nazi group threatened to murder a number of journalists and intellectuals in the next year, according to the recipient of the threat. The sender told Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of the human rights research center...

Six of the world’s leading newspapers dedicated to sports have come together to form the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), to defend and promote the interests and freedom of the sports press. The founding members of the IASN are the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, El Mundo Deportivo and Marca in Spain, L’Equipe in France, Olé in Argentina, and Lance in Brazil...

Press freedom groups in the Philippines have called on the Senate to withdraw its invitation to a reporter to appear before the inquiry into the alleged corruption in World Bank (WB)-funded road projects, saying doing so might be “undue interference” in his work as a journalist. The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has summoned Newsbreak senior writer...

The police in Gabon arrested two European journalists on Tuesday, accusing them of posing as tourists to dig up a story on French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "They arrived on February 5 as tourists.... They must answer (charges of) bypassing procedure," Gabon Communication Minister Laure Olga Gondjout told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The two were named on Gabon television as French...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has confirmed the new dates for its World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo, the global meetings of the world’s press, which will now be held in Hyderabad, from November 30 to December 2, 2009. WAN announced last month that the events, originally scheduled for March, would be postponed until later in the year due to the impact...