2005-2014

Kazakhstan will become the first ex-Soviet state to assume the chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev passes by the guard of honor during a welcoming ceremony before his meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Solyom, not seen, in Budapest, Hungary Friday, November 23, 2007. Nazarbayev arrived to Hungary...

A journalist’s claim that 11 of his close relatives were murdered in Iraq last weekend is false. Amman-based Iraqi journalist Dia al-Kawwaz had claimed on November 26 that 11 members of his immediate family were shot by gunmen the previous day in Baghdad. “We are obviously relieved to learn that the Kawwaz family is safe and sound but this journalist’s behaviour is unacceptable,” Reporters sans...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: The International Olympic Committee said Friday it expects Chinese authorities to give the media full freedom to report on the Beijing Games, responding to complaints from a media rights group. The group, Reporters Without Borders, said the IOC has remained silent while China clamps down on reporters during preparations for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. "It is becoming clearer and...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has voiced deep dismay after Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled narrowly that there was "no serious violation of the individual rights" of freelance journalist Lydia Cacho when she was arrested and held in December 2005 on the orders of governor of Pueblo state, Mario Marín. Cacho brought out a book in 2004, entitled "Los Demonios del Edén" (Demons in...

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 29 — In a setback for journalistic freedom in Mexico, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the governor of Puebla did not violate the rights of a journalist when he had her jailed on defamation charges. The judges ruled 6 to 4 against the journalist, Lydia Cacho, despite an investigation by one of them that concluded that at least 30 public officials, among them Gov. Mario Marín...

MELBOURNE: Hedley Thomas, the journalist who wrote a series of stories about the Australian government's handling of Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef's arrest on suspected terror charge, has won the country's most coveted journalism award. Thomas, who is associated with The Australian newspaper, won the "Gold Walkley" award for covering and highlighting the mistakes made by the government in the...

Aboard the crowded D train, rumbling into Brooklyn on the Manhattan Bridge, the inevitable rant explodes. A rant courtesy of Faye Anderson, whom we'll call Ms CJ, a k a Citizen Journalist. A rant directed at us, Mr MSM, a k a Mainstream Media, for all our perceived faults. "It's not you, the journalist, it's the institution," Ms CJ tells Mr MSM. "You're not telling the whole story. ... You've lost...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook is good for keeping up with high-flying buddies, MySpace is for teenage offspring and the BlackBerry is a full-time addiction, according to top media executives who were quizzed on their personal media habits at this week's Reuters Media Summit. "I may be the only human being on earth who's on MySpace under his own name and I am on Facebook," said Strauss Zelnick...

Reporters Without Borders has greeted with relief the news that Riaz Mengal, a reporter with the newspaper "Intikhab", succeeded in escaping from kidnappers who abducted him on 4 October 2007 in the Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province. The journalist told a press conference in Quetta on 26 November, a day after his escape from his captors, that his "kidnapping was linked to articles about...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of several dozen journalists to prevent them from covering a failed coup attempt at a Manila hotel where around 30 soldiers had demanded the ouster of President Gloria Arroyo on 29 November 2007. The journalists were taken, their hands bound, to the National Capital Region Police Office in Bicutan, south-east of the capital. Police said they had...