2005-2014

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Tajikistan’s justice system to overturn a ruling against the weekly Asia Plus and its editor, Olga Tutubalina, in a case brought against them by three intellectuals over an article quoting Lenin’s criticism of the intelligentsia. A court is about to hear Tutubalina’s appeal against a February 25 decision ordering her to pay the three plaintiffs 30...

Peruvian journalist César Quino Escudero was sentenced on March 21 to a six-month suspended prison sentence for defaming the governor of the northeastern state of Ancash, according to delayed news reports. Quino was also fined US$8,400 in damages and sentenced to 120 days of community service. Judge Alejandro Mena Quispe ruled that Quino had defamed Gov. César Álvarez Aguilar in a cover story...

A tabloid reporter in the Philippines has been murdered in her own home. Two assailants fired multiple shots at Rubylita Garcia, 52, after entering her home in Bacoor City in the province of Cavite on April 6, according to news reports. The suspects fled the scene on a motorcycle. The journalist's family members rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she died, the reports said. Garcia was a...

A Burmese journalist was sentenced to one year in prison on April 7 on charges of "trespassing" and "disturbing an on-duty civil servant" while reporting a news story, according to local reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for the verdict to be overturned on appeal. A court in the country's central Magwe region convicted Zaw Pe, a reporter with the Democratic Voice of...

Unidentified individuals attacked the house of Jamshed Baghwan, bureau chief of Express News in Peshawar, Sunday at approximately 6:25 a.m. leaving the main gate damaged. The Express Tribune reported that two masked men riding on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at the gate of the house. Police reportedly arrived at the site of the incident quickly to collect evidence and an investigation is...

A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the Associated Press was killed and a reporter from the news agency was wounded by a police officer in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, according to news reports. Anja Niedringhaus, 48, a photographer who had covered numerous conflicts, and Kathy Gannon, 60, the reporter, were shot in Khost Province in eastern Afghanistan, where they had traveled to cover...

Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its support for Uruguay’s Broadcasting Communication Services Law (LSCA). Submitted by the government to the chamber of deputies in May 2013 and approved by the chamber in December, it is now awaiting approval by the senate. Described last year as exemplary by UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression Frank La Rue, the LSCA is expected to bring a...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the inhuman and degrading treatment of Bheki Makhubu, the editor of The Nation, an independent news monthly, who has been held for the past two weeks on a contempt of court charge for criticizing Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. Makhubu was brought into court in leg irons on April 1 on the grounds that he represented a “security risk.” When relatives...

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum have launched an exciting online campaign to highlight the plight of jailed journalists worldwide. In the 30-day lead-up to May 3, World Press Freedom Day, daily profiles of imprisoned journalists will be published on www.worldpressfreedomday.org and linked to protest letters calling for their release...

A police officer in the remote town of Khost, near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, reportedly shot and killed one foreign journalist Friday and seriously wounded another. Veteran AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus, a German national, was killed in the attack and veteran reporter, Kathy Gannon, a Canadian national, was seriously injured. According to BCC News, Gannon was being given medical...