2005-2014

BAGHDAD (AP) — Bilal Hussein’s career as a photojournalist nearly ended soon after it began. Hussein, who had been working for The Associated Press for about three months, volunteered to stay in his native Fallujah as U.S. forces prepared to assault the city to drive out Sunni religious extremists. It was a decision not taken lightly. Once known as the “city of mosques,” Fallujah had become the...

RAJAVOLU: A reporter of a Telugu daily, Y Viswanatham, faced the wrath of a villager, for allegedly taking the pictures of his house renovated with the funds diverted from the Indiramma Housing scheme at Rajavolu under Rajahmundry Rural mandal on Monday. According to sources, Raju, a driver of former sarpanch of Rajavolu, and his followers attacked Viswanatham causing severe injuries to him. Later...

Li Changqing, a Chinese journalist who was imprisoned for alerting the public to an outbreak of dengue fever before the authorities, has been awarded the 2008 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers. Li, a reporter and deputy news director of the 'Fuzhou Daily' in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, was sentenced to three years in prison in January...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF condemns the arrest of three activists of the pro-democracy party Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), including Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, a renowned freedom of expression activist. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van is a regular contributor to the Vietnamese community media in exile: the monthly "Viet Nam Dan Chu" ("Democracy in Vietnam") and Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon - the voice of...

(BIANET/IFEX) - Gün TV, a local station in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, is the only channel to have broadcast Kurdish programmes for the past year and a half. However, the channel, which is legally allowed to broadcast four hours a week in Kurdish, has faced many difficulties, both over its news and music programmes. Gün Radio-TV representative Ahmet Birsin says that, because they are obliged...

(CEPET/IFEX) - Miguel Domínguez Gallegos, the "Reforma" newspaper correspondent in Reynosa, a city in Tamaulipas state, was verbally attacked by Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, the acting mayor of the city, which is located in Mexico's northeast. The incident took place during an 11 November 2007 event at which local members of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN)...

(FXI/IFEX) - The Freedom of Expression Institute is disturbed by the growing number of violations of the freedom of expression of workers. Four cases have been brought to the FXI's attention of workers who are either being disciplined for utterances they have made, or who have already been dismissed. These cases point to a growing trend where attempts are being made by employers to silence...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - On 17 November 2007, three journalists from the "Voice of Peace" newspaper in Kampong Thom province were arrested for alleged theft after they took pictures of an illegal farm rearing snakehead fish in the district of Kampong Svay, Kampong Thom province, bordering Tonle Sap (Great Lake). Thorng Channa, 45, Lim Thau, 35, and Pen Rithy, 32, were out on bail the same day, thanks to the...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - A photographer from a local daily was allegedly assaulted by members of the dominant ruling political party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), while covering a press conference organised by an opposition Member of Parliament on 16 November 2007. Koh Chun Seng, 27, a photographer with the Chinese-language "Guangming Daily", claimed he was attacked for taking pictures of two...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - The Cambodian Ministry of Information has confiscated a new magazine for allegedly violating the constitutional provision protecting the monarchy, though local reports said other "sensitive" articles featured in the magazine could have triggered the action. Authorities in the capital city and Battambang province seized all 2,000 copies of the inaugural issue of monthly "Free Press...