2005-2014

Chinyeke Tembo, a Malawian freelance journalist who was arrested Thursday for calling a lady police officer 'beautiful', was Friday charged with 'insulting the modesty of a woman'. Tembo was arrested when he was among a group of journalists who had gone to a police station in the capital, Lilongwe, to give 'moral support' to a colleague, Maxwell Ng'ambi, who was arrested earlier, Panapress news...

Police in Somalia have released five journalists and allowed their radio station to resume broadcasting, Agence France-Presse (AFP0 has repored quoting its staff. The Radio Voice Peace journalists were released overnight hours after they were detained for the station's coverage of an attack on Wednesday night by Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu's KM4 neighbourhood. The station reported that the...

A British journalist was deported from Zimbabwe on Thursday after being detained for eight nights and fined 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (about $250), Reuters reported quoting his newspaper. Jonathan Clayton, a correspondent for the Times, was arrested in the southern city of Bulawayo in the aftermath of elections last month. The Times said Clayton had been cleared of the initial charges of...

Shareholders of Kasturi and Sons Ltd, the publisher of the Hindu newspaper, are believed to be in talks with Australia’s Fairfax Media Ltd for a possible sale of a minority stake in the Chennai-based company, a first for the 130-year-old, family-owned group, says a report in Mint. Some details: The financial details of Kasturi and Sons could not be obtained as it is an unlisted and closely held...

Kasturi and Sons Ltd are believed to be in talks to sell a minority stake to Australia's Fairfax Media Ltd, the Mint paper said on Wednesday, citing sources close to the Indian firm. The paper cited sources close to Kasturi shareholders as saying discussions were on to sell a stake. Under Indian law, the maximum foreign holding permissible is a stake of up to 26 percent. The family-owned Indian...

Police in Somalia raided and closed an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, arresting five journalists, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. "A dozen of policemen aboard minibus entered the building and they arrested five of my colleagues including the editor," said Omar Habeb, a producer at Radio Voice of Peace. Mohamed Ali Irole, the radio station's director, said...

A young Afghan journalist, sentenced to death in January for spreading feminist criticism of Islam, has been granted an appeal, according to one of the international organizations monitoring his case, Bloomberg News has reported. Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, 23, was transferred on March 28 from prison in the remote province of Balkh, in northern Afghanistan, to capital Kabul, according to Jean...

A court in Zimbabwe on Wednesday acquitted a US journalist and a British freelancer of covering the country's March 29 elections without accreditation, saying the state had failed to prove the offence and ordered them to be released, news agencies have reported. Magistrate Gloria Takundwa said the state's evidence against New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak and Britain's Stephen Bevan, a...

A Reuters cameraman was killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli military strike, the news agency reported. Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old Palestinian, was covering violence in the enclave. Two bystanders were also killed in an explosion after Shana stepped from his vehicle, apparently to film Israeli forces positioned several hundred meters (yards) away. His soundman...

The US military released Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges. Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left US custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health. "I want to thank all...