2005-2014

Two years after a court imposed a news blackout on a terrorism case that includes charges of a plot to storm Canada's parliament, several media organisations have asked an appeals court to lift ban. Lawyers for the Associated Press (AP), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV television, and the Toronto Star appealed the blackout before Ontario's Court of Appeal earlier this week. They argued...

Press freedom organisaitons have deplored the censorship and harassment to which Sudan’s privately-owned media have been subjected since the start of the year. Arrests, summonses, threats and outright bans on certain news items — the campaign waged by the government against the independent press is reducing the space for free expression even more. “It should be an honour for Sudan to let the many...

The Belarus government has been making selective use of politically motivated civil libel lawsuits against critics. Intolerant officials punish what remains of Belarus’ independent media with lawsuits that result in exorbitant fines, further debilitating the outlets. Since 1999, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented such targeted attacks against at least five

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has welcomed the surrender of a suspect to police in the 2004 murder of Filipino broadcaster Herson Hinolan, but is concerned that the move came shortly after the withdrawal of an important prosecution witness from the case. Alfredo Arcenio, a former mayor of the town of Lezo, turned himself in to the Regional Trial Court in the nearby town of Kalibo...

Sudan has reimposed daily censorship of newspapers after they published reports accusing the government of backing Chadian rebels, Reuters reported Thursday. Journalists and local human rights activists criticised the move, which they said had begun nearly three weeks ago after rebels stormed the Chadian capital N'Djamena in a failed attempt to topple President Idriss Deby. Journalists said...

The Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 18 member organisations of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, are appalled at the treatment of human rights activists Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri upon their arrival in Tunisia on March 3. Bensedrine is Secretary-General Observatory for the Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation in Tunisia (OLPEC), IFEX's...

The air transport office (ATO) prevented aerial news coverage by a local television news network of one of the largest protest rallies against Phillipines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently. ATO declared the air space above Makati City, where the rally was held, a "no fly zone" on February 29, according to the Manila-based Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The news helicopter of...

Blasphemy laws are on their way out of the United Kingdom (UK). The House of Lords voted Wednesday night in favour of abolishing the criminal offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel from the common law. By a vote of 148-87, the lawmakers adopted Amendment 144B to the government-sponsored Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. The full Bill has not yet received final approval from parliament...

Four members of the military police have been in connection with the May 2007 murder of Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho, a journalist based in São Paulo state of Brazil. “These arrests constitute the first step in a victory over impunity, one that could not be taken for granted given that those arrested are police officers,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement. “It is an...

An Algerian court of appeals has upheld two-month jail terms for two journalists, including a Golden Pen of Freedom laureate, at the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan. The issue of decriminalising defamation in the country is once again back in the limelight. An appeals court, ruling on March 4, upheld defamation convictions against Omar Belhouchet, publisher of El Watan, and columnist...