2005-2014

(Reuters): Afghan television journalist Niloufar Habibi never wore the all-enveloping burqa until she was stabbed on her doorstep. Now it is her disguise. More than six years after the overthrow of the Taliban, Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative country where many still oppose women working in public, visible roles. "If I go outside people will see where I'm going and see what I'm doing,"...

A prison official has refused to release a radio commentator in the Philippines jailed for libel in 2007, despite a court order calling for his release on parole, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). The warden of the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) in Davao del Norte refused on May 26 to release radio broadcaster Alexander "Alex" Adonis, despite his having been...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has condemned the attack on Montenegrin sports commentator and journalist Mladen Stojovic. Stojovic, a journalist with the daily Danas and Belgrade correspondent of the Podgorica-based daily Vijesti, was assaulted Friday May 23, in his apartment in Bar. Heavy blows on his head caused amnesia, and Mladen Stojovic cannot remember exactly what...

Radio Television Mwangaza (RTM), a privately-owned station broadcasting in Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province (southeastern DR Congo), has been the target of a slander campaign organised by Honoré Kazadi Lukonde, alias Ngube Ngube, a reported supporter of Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi Chapwe, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. During a May 24 press conference held at the Makutano...

The FMM reports with deep sadness that yet another journalist has been murdered in Jaffna, in the embattled Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The FMM vehemently condemns this dastardly act and extends its condolences to the late journalist's wife and family. P. Devakumar, a correspondent for Sirasa TV, Shakthi radio and the MTV Television Network-Jaffna district, was hacked to death on the evening...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of The Zimbabwean On Sunday newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of May 24, and a freelance reporter was attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare. "These attacks must not remain unpunished", the press freedom organisation said. "Since the March 29...

A newspaper editor was assaulted and another was threatened by Maoist activists annoyed by critical coverage, in separate incidents in Kailali, in far western Nepal, according to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). In the first incident, Hemanta Paudel, editor of the Kailali-based newspaper Sudur Sandesh Daily, was threatened by the Maoist party-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) on...

Rehmat Shah Afridi, the editor of Pakistani dailies Frontier Post and Maidan, has been released after nine years in prison on trumped-up drugs charges. He was freed on parole on May 24 on the orders of Punjab’s interior ministry. "Afridi’s release is excellent news for his family and friends and is a first step towards redressing a case that lacked transparency and led to his being given two death...

A Tehran revolutionary court's decision to hold Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand's trial behind closed doors under article 188 of the criminal code has been condemned by his lawyer, Masomeh Sotoudeh. The trial began on 25 May 2008. "This article can only be used for trials in which the details discussed could offend public morality, such as the trials of rapists," Sotoudeh said. She...

Yet another Senegalese journalist has been sentenced on criminal defamation charges within a week. This journalist, according to Afrol News, was found guilty of "publishing false news." Papa Moussa Guèye, director of the private daily L'Exclusif, was handed a six-month suspended prison term by a court in the capital Dakar. His troubles began after his paper published an article on President...