2005-2014

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Zakari Alzouma, the editor the independent weekly Opinions, who has been detained since October 30 in Niamey as a result of a libel complaint by the interior minister and whose case will not be heard for another week. “Niger’s legislation on press offences comes in handy for a government that does not want to give up its bad habits,”...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Tuesday condemned Nigeria's arrest of online journalist Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, a US national, at the Muritala Muhammed international airport on his arrival from the United States on October 28 to visit his sick mother and attend to family matters. He is currently being held at the headquarters of the internal intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS)...

The struggling US News & World Report is getting out of print and will gradually shift operations to the Web, according to reports. While it will publish one print edition each month, according to staffers briefed on the decision, these will be entirely devoted to consumer guides—such as its annual rankings of colleges and hospitals—and contain no other news, the Washington Post reported. Some...

Sudanese journalists have launched a mass hunger strike and three independent newspapers stopped work for three days in the country's biggest organised media protest against censorship. Over 150 journalists began a 24-hour hungerstrike and the Ajras al-Hurriya, Al-Maidan and Rayal al-Shab newspapers halted production, saying they could no longer accept government restrictions over editorial...

The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the local press to refrain from publication of advertisements of separatists asking people to boycott the elections in the state or be ready to lose its advertisements, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported [ Link]. "You are advised to please refrain from publication of objectionable and seditious material in your newspapers failing which the...

Twelve prominent human rights activists, including three leading journalists, who advocate for reform in Syria have been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The leaders of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change—the largest opposition coalition in Syria—were sentenced on October 29 under criminal legislation that prohibits “spreading false news” and “weakening national sentiment”...

Leading Ethiopian journalist Amare Aregawi was assaulted brutally Friday last in capital Addis Ababa, an attack in which he suffered serious head injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Aregawi edits the Reporter, a big-circulation newspaper published in Amharic and English-language versions. “The Ethiopian police must investigate this attack thoroughly in order to identify both...

The Seattle Times on Monday announced plans to cut its staff by 10 per cent through a combination of layoffs and buyouts, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The cuts of 130 to 150 jobs are the third staff reduction announced by the 112-year-old, family owned newspaper this year. The company hinted in an email to staff Monday morning that there could be further cuts as the 2009 budgeting...

Bhutan has just got its first English daily newspaper, which promises to provide a new perspective to news and events for the citizens in the landlocked Himalayan country, says a Press Trust of India report [ Link]. Bhutan Today, the first English daily launched in the country, is the third private newspaper after Bhutan Times and Bhutan Observer, which are weekly and bi-weekly respectively. The...

Morocco has banned an issue of French magazine L'Express International, claiming it insults Islam in articles exploring the relationship between that religion and Christianity. Algerian and Tunisian authorities followed suit three days after the October 31 Moroccan decision. Moroccan Information Minister Khalid Naciri said Sunday that he had no choice but to ban the current issue because of the...