2005-2014

Journalist Habib Papy Boudendji, popularly known as Habib Bilalou, of satirical weekly Le Nganga, left hospital on December 10 after treatment for serious injuries from a brutal beating by soldiers within the presidential palace on December 5. In one of his articles, carried by Le Nganga on November 27, he pointed the finger at the head of state’s eldest daughter and director of the presidential...

Journalists in the Gambia still live in fear of authorities who have allowed continuing impunity to the killers of Deyda Hydara, co-founder of the Point, four years after his murder on December 16, 2004. Hydara, who was also correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen from a taxi as he was driving his car in an outlying...

Contrary to initial claims by the Mozambican police, Aníbal “Anibalzinho” António dos Santos Junior, the convicted killer of journalist Carlos Cardoso, was not recaptured after escaping from prison for the third time on December 7 and is still on the run. “We are puzzled and worried,” Paris-based Reporters sans frontières (RSF) reacted. “How can a convict of this kind escape three times...

The police in Burkina Faso on Monday summoned four leaders of the Collective against Impunity, two days after they organised a march calling for a renewed investigation into the unsolved 1998 murder of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo. Among those questioned was Jean-Claude Meda, the president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso, who told the New York-based Committee to Protect...

A plenary session of the Damascus appeal court has refused to grant journalist and human rights activist Michel Kilo early release, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The judges on December 15 overturned an earlier ruling by the court in favour of Kilo’s release from Adra prison, in a Damascus suburb. Overturning a Damascus criminal court’s decision, the appeal court had ruled on...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of Milton Chacaguasay Flores, owner and editor of the weekly La Verdad, based in Machala, south-western Ecuador. The journalist, who had been acquitted in a lower court, was sentenced on appeal on November 15 to 10 months in prison for “insulting” a judge and imprisoned two weeks later. This came one month after Freddy Aponte...

Press freedom groups are calling for transparency in the investigation of two journalists arrested on bribery charges in northern Shanxi province. Shanxi public security officials told local journalists on Monday that Guan Jian, a reporter for Beijing-based weekly Wangluo Bao (Network News) who had been missing for 15 days, is in custody in neighbouring Hubei province on suspicion of accepting...

Press freedom groups have called for the release of Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi who has been arrested for throwing his shoes at George W Bush at a Baghdad press conference during a surprise visit by the US president on Sunday. “We obviously regret that the journalist used this method of protest against the politics of the American president," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said...

Protests are being held across the Middle East demainding release of the Iraqi journalist who is being held for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush on Sunday. Huge crowds have been demonstrating in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities to demand TV reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi's release and echo his message to Bush, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Ordinary Iraqis are...

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush was hit on the head with a rifle butt and had an arm broken in chaotic scenes when he was leapt on by Iraqi security officers, his brother said Tuesday. According to Reuters, TV reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi, who called Bush a "dog" at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday, was in a hospital in the...