2005-2014

For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq is the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history. Worldwide, CPJ found that 41 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2008

The News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority has announced the “guidelines for telecast of news during emergency situations”. The guidelines have been “spontaneously accepted” by all 14 broadcasters running 22 news channels, the Indian Express reported. The guidelines stipulate that no ‘live’ contact can be made with perpetrators of the crime, their hostages/victims and security...

The Press Council of India (PCI) has said it would involve stakeholders on evolving guidelines on media coverage of events like the Mumbai terror attack. Council chairman, Justice GN Ray, said in New Delhi on December 15 that PCI would organise a seminar, tentatively scheduled for January next year, in which representatives from the media, government and armed forces and others would participate...

The editor-in-chief of Alerte Info, an internet news magazine, has been arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and detained for allegedly reporting that at least three people were killed during a prison riot in Abidjan recently. The police picked up Ebenezer Viwami, over the weekend for interrogation, his staff revealed. “Our editor-in-chief was arrested by the police in front of MACA prison, where he was...

Students at Georgetown University in the US are suing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government agencies for information in the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the project began in a investigative journalism class at Georgetown in 2007. The students were supposed to find out...

The confrontation between the government and the press in Kenya has escalated. Parliamentarians on December 16 launched a scathing attack on the media and vowed to ensure it is "tamed." One member after another tore into the media, apparently angered by the all-out campaign against a controversial Bill recently passed by Parliament that seeks to give the government power to control media content...

An appeals court has allowed Joy Radio to resume operations 30 days after the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) revoked the station's broadcasting license for non-compliance with the Communications Act and its licence agreement, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The resumption of broadcasting came after the Supreme Court of Appeal reinstated an injunction...

A court in the southeastern Haitian town of Jacmel has convicted police officer Bastien Novembre for assaulting Radio Express reporter Fritzer Philogène and ordered him to pay Philogène 100,000 gourdes (approx US$2,500) in damages. If Novembre, a member of the elite Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO), fails to pay he could go to prison for one year. A report by his superiors also...

Ukraine's National Expert Commission on the Protection of Public Morality has ruled that the registration of daily Blik should be withdrawn and criminal proceedings brought against the newspaper. On October 23, the commission recommended that legal sanctions be taken against Blik, which is owned by Adevarul Holding, a Romanian media company, for publishing several photographs of half-naked women...

The Korean government must act urgently over fears for the future of press freedom in the country, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged. The call is among a number of IFJ proposals to end the deadlock between staff and management in a 154-day battle over editorial independence at the broadcaster YTN, a 24-hour news network. IFJ, which has concluded an emergency mission to...