2005-2014

The Moroccan government should allow the news media to report on human rights abuses committed during the reign of King Hassan II, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said after a court ordered an independent newspaper to stop publishing victim testimony given to a royal truth and reconciliation commission. Ali Anouzla, editor of Al-Jarida al-Oula, a newly established daily, was ordered to...

The (Baltimore) Sun will cut about 100 jobs, including 55-60 in the newsroom, through buyouts, layoffs and the closing of open positions, says an Associated Press (AP) report. The latest in a series of cuts to the venerable newspaper were announced Wednesday in a memo from publisher Tim Ryan to the newspaper staff. "These actions are necessary for us to remain competitive and win in the future...

Burmese authorities on Sunday deported South Korean freelance journalist Lee Yu Kyong and confiscated four compact discs containing photos she had taken of damage caused by Cyclone Nargis. Lee was met in the early morning of June 22 by five police officials at her guesthouse in Rangoon and told she must leave the country that same day because she had entered on a tourist rather than journalist...

The row between the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) and daily Andhra Jyothi took a turn for the worse Tuesday with the arrest of editor K Srinivas and two reporters under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Hindu has reported. Some details: The arrest of the journalists was based on a complaint lodged by MRPS leader Manda Krishna Madiga alleging that the action...

A woman journalist covering the plight of Cyclone Nargis victims seeking aid from international NGOs in Rangoon has been detained by for over two weeks, according to her publication, Mizzima News has reported. Eint Khaing Oo, 24, a journalist with the weekly journal Ecovision, was arrested on June 10 as she covered the story of cyclone victims approaching NGOs for aid, according to an executive...

Angolan journalist Felisberto da Grâça Campos was sentenced Monday by an Angolan court to six months in prison for allegedly defaming former justice minister Paulo Tjipilika. The journalist was sentenced on charges of defamation, libel, and abuse of the press, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Grâça Campos is the director of the weekly Semanario Angolese. The state argues...

A 10-day prison sentence has been handed down to independent journalist Mazen Darwish, President of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, according to the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). He was sentenced under Article 387 of the criminal code for "defamation and insulting state administrative bodies". The verdict will appear on his record for a period of three to...

An 11-year prison sentence has been imposed on Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand for "activity against national security." The former editor of Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan, a weekly closed down in 2005, Kabovand received his 11-year sentence on June 22 from a Tehran revolutionary court for creating a human rights organisation in Iran's Kurdish region. Since his arrest in July 2007, he has...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has welcomed the "transparency" of a US Defence Department report released on June 16 confirming that US soldiers were responsible for the fatal shooting of Reuters soundman Waleed Khaled in Baghdad on August 28, 2005. Khaled drove with Reuters cameraman Haider Kadhem to the Baghdad district of Al-Adil to cover a situation in which an Iraqi police unit had been...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the arrest of journalist Ahmed Al-Majoun in a raid by US and Iraqi soldiers on his home in Tikrit (180 km north of Baghdad) early on June 24. His son was also arrested. Majoun heads a journalists union based in Salah El Din, the province of which Tikrit is the capital. No reason has been given for their arrests. "We are disturbed to see that, just a...