2005-2014

A British journalist and a Spanish photographer abducted in Somalia were released on Sunday after being held in a series of caves for 40 days. British reporter Colin Freeman and Spanish photographer José Cendon, both employed by the London-based Daily Telegraph newspape, were abducted as they left from their hotel in Bosasso, in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, on November 26. They...

Threats and physical attacks against Pakistani journalists in the northwestern Tribal Area of Bajaur, where fighting is continuing between the Taliban and security forces, remains as unabated. The issuing of a fatwa against two journalists and the firing of a rocket-propelled grenade at a press club are just a few recent incidents. "The Tribal Areas are being steadily emptied of their journalists

Press freedom groups have condemned the bombing of Basque public broadcaster EiTB by Basque armed separatist group ETA in the northern city of Bilbao on December 31 last. A large explosive charge left in a truck parked outside the EiTB building went off at 11:05 a.m., shattering windows but causing no injuries. An anonymous caller identifying himself as an ETA member warned the authorities in...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed disappointment at Azerbaijan's National Television and Radio Council’s decision to ban foreign radio stations from broadcasting on local FM and medium wave frequencies from January 1. The December 30 decision withdraws the licences of foreign radio stations to broadcast on local frequencies. As well as RFE/RL, Voice of America and BBC, the measure...

US troops shot and critically wounded a newly-wed Iraqi female television producer on New Year's Day after she failed to heed warnings from soldiers in Baghdad, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting the military and her station. A US military statement said that Iraqi police and US soldiers had observed Hadil Emad, who had had failed to listen to warnings, behaving "erratically" before...

The Iranian government has taken advantage of Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip to crack down harder on its critics, closing an opposition newspaper and dispatching its supporters to step up a campaign of intimidation against human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi. The Commission for the Authorisation and Surveillance of the Press ordered Kargozaraan’s suspension on December 31 under articles 5...

An Algerian court sentenced an editor-in-chief and a journalist at the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan to a three-month jail term each for defamation late last month. Omar Belhouchet, editor of El Watan, and reporter Salima Tlemcani, were found guilty on December 23 last of defaming a faith healer and Islam in a 2004 article about the "charlatan-like practices" of the Algiers healer, said...

Russian authorities should promptly investigate the attack on Zhanna Akbasheva, a correspondent for the Regnum news agency in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, in Russia's North Caucasus, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Akbasheva told CPJ that two men attacked her at around 5 p.m. on December 22 when she was walking toward the office of a state-funded Cherkess-language...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the ongoing legal harassment of BBC correspondent in Thailand, Jonathan Head. Police Lt Col Wattanasak Mungkandee filed a third criminal complaint this year against Head on December 23, alleging he had insulted the Thai monarchy in his reporting. The latest charges are related to a December 3 article in which Head speculated that the royal...

Kazakh authorities must launch a thorough investigation into the stabbing of Artyom Miusov, a reporter with the opposition weekly Taszhargan, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Miusov suffered serious internal injuries on December 30 last after an assailant approached him outside an Almaty supermarket, asked his name, and then stabbed him three times in the abdomen...