2005-2014

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the Cameroonian government to end the intimidation of journalists reporting on corruption scandals in the country after five journalists and media industry leaders were interrogated by police in connection with the publication of articles on a defective aircraft bought for President Paul Biya. "Police harassment of our colleagues is...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the Cuban government for the arrest of and threats made to independent newsman Carlos Serpa Maceira, reminded it to observe tolerance of press freedom and called on it to free 25 journalists still imprisoned. In a telephone call to the IAPA Serpa Maceira, of the Sindical Press news agency and Cuba correspondent of the Sweden-based magazine...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) Monday called for light to be shed on a murder attempt against Aristeo Abundis Hernández, editor of the weekly Frente y Vuelta, in Panuco, Veracruz state in eastern Mexico who was shot at as he was driving home. It also condemned a threat against the daily El Correo de Tabasco and its editor Juan Padilla Herrera in which a severed human head—a typical drug-gang...

An Afghan reporter working for the Pashtu service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been killed in the southern province of Helmand, Afghan officials said on Sunday. The body of 25-year-old Abdol Samad Rohani, was found near the city of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, one day after he was abducted. Rohani disappeared after his vehicle was stopped...

A man arrested on suspicion of being a member of a militia that abducted and tortured a reporter, photographer and driver of the O Dia newspaper in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Batan on May 14 was shown to the press on June 4 by members of a police unit known as the Delegation for Repression of Criminal Actions and Special Investigations (DRACO). He was identified as Davi Liberato de Araújo, 32...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has accused the judicial authorities of a “crude manipulation” in the case of reporter Agil Khalil’s stabbing on March 13. A Sergey Strekalin appeared before a Baku court Thursday on charges of stabbing Khalil and consuming drugs. “Despite international criticism, the Azerbaijani authorities are still trying to discredit Khalil by turning this stabbing into a vice...

NTV and other Turkish media have for the past four days been airing footage of the surveillance cameras of a bank and a shop near the Istanbul-based weekly Agos that was recorded on January 19, 2007, the day the newspaper’s editor, Hrant Dink, was gunned down outside. The footage shows other people with the alleged killer, Ogün Samast, and proves that the Dink family’s lawyers were right to...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has applauded a regional court’s ruling on Thursday declaring the 2006 arrest of Gambian journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh to be illegal and ordering his immediate release. The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States also ordered the Gambian government to pay US$100,000 in damages to Manneh’s family, according to Funmi...

China has begun to restrict local and foreign coverage of the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake. Several international media outlets have reported the harassment and temporary detention of reporters at the hands of local officials, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The moves come after a brief period in which the government appeared to relax its normally...

A high-ranking police official has filed two separate criminal complaints alleging that a BBC correspondent insulted the monarchy—charges that the journalist and the BBC have called unfounded. The police official, Lt Col Wattanasak Mungkandee, reportedly brought the complaints in a personal capacity against BBC correspondent Jonathan Head. Violations of lese majeste laws are a criminal offence...