2005-2014

Two journalists accused Arkansas officials in a lawsuit Friday of violating the state's Freedom of Information Act by withholding information about which government computers were to used to edit entries on the Wikipedia Web site. Arkansas News Editor Kelly P. Kissel and writer Jon Gambrell filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court against Gov. Mike Beebe, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel...

SALT LAKE CITY: A federal judge yesterday rejected the news media’s request for access to the government’s investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said there’s nothing in the Constitution that gives reporters the right to watch interviews or get other access to an active investigation. He denied a request for an injunction. “While it may be true that...

The murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkov­skaya "has been solved," a senior investigator told Politkovskaya's colleagues in an interview in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper this week, as Polit­kovskaya, who was gunned down one year ago last Sunday, was commemorated in Russia and Europe. The investigator added that Politkovskaya was killed for political reasons. "[The murder] has been solved,"...

(JED/IFEX) - Paul Harera Sebikali and Robert Isaur, Ugandan journalists with the independent weekly "The Monitor" published in Kampala (capital of Uganda), were released on 9 October 2007 at 8:00 p.m. (local time), by Colonel Delphin Kayimbi, assistant commander of the 8th Military District in Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu, in eastern DR Congo. No charges were held against them. The...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 10, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the press freedom implications of proposed Australian legislation that would give the federal police commissioner powers to unilaterally block Internet content that he or she "has reason to believe . . . is crime or terrorist related." The Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The European Federation of Journalists, the European group of the International Federation of Journalists, has pledged its full support to journalists' organisations in Moldova in their struggle for a fair and transparent attribution of broadcasting frequencies after the ban of Romanian RTV1 in Moldova. "This ban is simply political manipulation", said EFJ General Secretary Aidan...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 10, 2007 - An Al-Jazeera cameraman held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay for five years without charge is in deteriorating health as a result of a hunger strike, his lawyer told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The lawyer also revealed that the U.S. military, in a recent hearing, cited cameraman Sami al-Haj's professional training for the Qatar-based...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 10, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued detention of at least three Burmese journalists and expresses strong concern about recent news reports that government authorities have consulted media images to identify and detain people who participated in recent street protests. According to CPJ sources, Win Ko Ko Lat of Rangoon-based journal...

(Mizzima/IFEX) - Internet access in Burma has been re-established for day use since 9 October 2007, after more than two weeks of interruption, but users in Rangoon said the connection faltered after a few hours. A Rangoon-based journalist says the frequent failure of Internet connections could be the junta's way to continue controlling the flow of information out of the country. According to an...

Reporters Without Borders today expressed deep concern about the disappearance of Riaz Mengal, of the newspaper Intikhab based in Khuzdar, Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan. His family and colleagues have said they suspect a minister is implicated in his abduction. Just before his disappearance, Mengal had written articles about mafia trafficking of stolen cars. "Riaz had received...