2005-2014

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...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 28 November 2007, the police captured Nazario Coronel Ramírez, a.k.a. "Chamaya", the alleged perpetrator of the murder of journalist Miguel Pérez Julca, which took place in March 2007 in the city of Jaén, northeastern Peru. Coronel Ramírez was detained in Saposoa, a town in the province of Huallaga, San Martín region. After a week of surveillance, 10 policemen sent from Jaén...

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the way news media are being harassed to prevent them reporting the activities of the opposition parties taking part in this weekend’s parliamentary elections and by the way the public TV stations have systematically promoted Vladimir Putin’s candidacy. “Public opinion is being crudely manipulated,” the press freedom organisation said. “The international...

(RSF/IFEX) - New draconian restrictions on the coverage of fighting between government forces and rebels by the few media still operating in the capital are "unacceptable," RSF said on 28 November 2007. The restrictions were ordered on 26 November by Mogadishu mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb, a former warlord and governor of the central city of Jowhar who is also known by the nom de guerre of "Mohamed...

(RSF/IFEX) - Mahjoub Ourwa, the chairman of the independent Arabic-language daily "Al-Sudani", and Noureddine Medani, the newspaper's editor, were released on 29 November 2007 after spending 11 days in Omdurman prison, located north of Khartoum. The two journalists had been detained on 18 November for refusing to pay court-ordered fines of 10,000 Sudanese pounds (approx. 3,500 euros) each for...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 27 November 2007, supporters of a regional prefect who oppose the national government threatened journalists of the radio stations Digital and Pando for reporting negatively about the regional strike they organized, which began that day in the town of Cobija, northern Bolivia, according to information provided by the Governmental News Agency (Agencia Gubernamental de Noticia, ABI)...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned a 29 November 2007 search at the home of journalist and blogger Zhai Minglei, who was due the following day to answer an official summons linked to an investigation into the "illegal publication" of the magazine "Minjian" (Civil Society). Zhai posted on his blog, Yaobao, nominated for the international Best of the Blogs (BoB) awards, an account...

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi journalist Wednesday challenged government denials that 11 of his relatives were slaughtered in their Baghdad home, urging authorities to show that his claim was false by letting "all my family appear on television." Dhia al-Kawaz, editor of the Jordan-based Aswat al-Iraq news agency, had said masked gunmen stormed the family home and killed two of his sisters, their...

Guardian journalists today voted in favour of an "enabling deal" that offered backing for the company's 24/7 integration plans. The National Union of Journalists' Guardian chapel endorsed the deal by 211 votes to 27, with two abstentions. Today's agreement gives staff a two-year, 4.8% pay rise effective from the current financial year, with an additional inflation-linked boost from April 2008...

Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned a murder attempt against Danilo Bautista Hernández, presenter of a news programme on Radio California in Nueva Cajamarca, San Martín, north-eastern Peru by two men who aimed a gun at him before fleeing when they were disturbed. The incident may be linked to the journalist’s repeated criticism on his programme, El Informativo de Mediodía, of the...