2005-2014

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sorry for improperly obtaining the telephone records of US. newspaper reporters working in Indonesia. FBI Director Robert Mueller apologised Friday to New York Times editor Bill Keller and Washington Post editor Leonard Downie Jr for the 2004 incidents, in which agents used so-called national security letters to obtain the reporters' phone records, the Times...

Filipino radio broadcaster Martin Roxas was shot dead on August 7 by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle in Roxas City, according to the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). The province is approximately 411 km southeast of Manila. Roxas, programme director of dyKR-Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in Roxas City, was shot in the neck. Roxas was himself on a motorcycle. He was...

The editor-in-chief of independent news website Ingushetiya has fled Russia and is seeking asylum in Europe, daily the Moscow Times reported Thursday. Ingushetiya's lawyer, Kaloy Akhilgov, told CPJ that Roza Malsagova left Russia two weeks ago after being harassed, threatened, and beaten by Ingush authorities. She also faces criminal prosecution. Earlier this year, regional prosecutors opened...

Regional authorities in Dagestan have decided to open a criminal case against Nadira Isayeva, editor-in-chief of an independent weekly, after the newspaper quoted a former guerilla leader in an article. According to news website Lenta, regional prosecutors in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, charged Isayeva with making public calls to extremism and incitement of hatred; if convicted, she faces up...

Zimbabwean freelance photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi has decided to flee to South Africa with his family after being assaulted by the police and having his car confiscated, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Before leaving the country, Mukwazhi told MISA-Zimbabwe that the police accused him of possessing an "improperly registered vehicle" and of having used the...

The trial of a Bangladeshi editor arrested for advocating ties with Israel began in Dhaka on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post has reported. Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz, an English-language newspaper published in the Bangladeshi capital, is facing a series of charges that include sedition. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death. Details from the Post: In November 2003...

Reporters covering the aftermath of Monday's attack on a border police outpost in Kashgar have been detained, beaten, and harassed, according to international news reports. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Wednesday that police in Kashgar dragged Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper's Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for Nippon Television Network...

The police in the western Uzbek city of Nukus have brought another charge against an independent journalist to justify his arrest and detention, after initially bringing charges of drug use, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On August 2, investigators in Nukus acknowledged that Salidzhon Abdurakhmonov's blood test results revealed no sign of drug use but...

Ethiopian police in the capital, Addis Ababa, threatened on August 4 to block distribution of an independently owned newspaper if it continues its leading coverage of a new political opposition movement, according to local journalists. The Amharic-language weekly Awramba Times reported Tuesday that it had received two separate phone warnings from top police officials to stop any coverage of "anti...

President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a restrictive new media law which will allow authorities to further restrict press freedom in Belarus. The Belarusian parliament - before its adjournment in late June - rushed the bill through in three consecutive readings and passed it to the Constitutional Court for review. According to the local press, the court rubberstamped the bill in July and...