2005-2014

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for the release of Aboubacar Gourouza, the editor of independent bimonthly L’Eveil Plus, after a Niamey court today sentenced him to a month in prison for allegedly “discrediting” a court decision in an article in his newspaper by comparing the decision with one taken in a similar case. “Our concern is mounting as the space for free...

Two journalists employed by Urdu-language Baloch daily Azadi went missing in the Pakistan province of Balochistan within three days of each other, on February 29 and March 3, according to delayed reports received by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The two are feared to have been abducted. “The current deterioration in press freedom in Balochistan has become quite intolerable," Paris-based RSF...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed concern at the safety of tabloid newspaper reporter Jet Sinocruz after death threats were sent to his mobile phone via text message. Sinocruz, a reporter for Abante, received a text message from an unknown sender on his birthday, warning him to enjoy his birthday celebrations as they would be his last. According to the National Union...

The state of emergency which Armenian President Robert Kocharyan proclaimed in capital Yerevan on Saturday last is having a serious impact on the activity of the news media, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. The emergency was declared after clashes between security forces and opposition protesters who say last month’s presidential election was rigged. “This authoritarian decision to liable...

Press freedom violations marred Russia’s presidential election on March 2, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The incidents that occurred during the election are indicative of the nervousness that the authorities feel towards independent journalists,” Paris-based RSF said in a statement. In South Sakhalin, reporter Pavel Abakumov of the weekly Yuzhno Sakhalinsk Tvoya Gazeta was...

Those might have been bad times for press freedon in Pakistan. The number of newspapers and other periodicals in the country has decreased rapidly, but circulation has doubled from 1997 to 2006, the Daily Times has reported. According to a survey conducted by the Statistical Department of Pakistan over a period of ten years, there were 4,455 newspapers and other periodicals in all languages spoken...

It is an irony of sorts. BBC is launching its Arabic TV, says a Guardian report, at a time when Arab governments are seeking to censor existing satellite TV channels that "negatively affect social peace, national unity, public order, and public morals" or "defame leaders, or national and religious symbols". Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and Lebanon's Al-Manar TV, owned by Hezbollah, are seen as the main...

As riots tore through Armenian capital Yerevan, the country's journalists remained preocupied with the presidential elections in neighbouring Russia. The people of the city had to fall back on outside news sources to know what was happenning in their own backyard. And now, with Armenian President Robert Kocharian declaring an emergency to control the violence, among the first to face its brunt has

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned two physical attacks on journalists on February 27 that seem to be linked to their coverage of a December incident in which Labour Minister Mervyn Silva stormed into the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), a state-owned television station, and assaulted its news director. “Physical attacks and acts of intimidation against SLRC journalists for...

Soldiers raided three radio stations in Somalia on Sunday and detained the director of one of the stations, according to journalists who witnessed the events. The raids occurred after heavy fighting and looting over the weekend in the central area of the capital, Mogadishu. Journalists from Horn Afrik, Radio Shabelle, and Radio Simba told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)