2005-2014

June 11, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Iranian government officials have informed lawyers for Radio Farda correspondent Parnaz Azima that they will not return her passport and that her case will have to be decided in court. Azima's lawyer, Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi, told RFE/RL by phone from Tehran on June 10 that the Iranian Information Ministry declined the latest request to return her passport, which was...

New York, June 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes as “long overdue” the release of Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist imprisoned since 2002 for criticizing the government and freed less than two weeks before Vietnam’s president is due to meet with President Bush. “For nearly five years, Nguyen Vu Binh and family have suffered needlessly because of his work as a journalist,” said Joel...

IPYS/IFEX) - On 22 May 2007, Mario Silva, host of the state-owned television station Venezolana de Televisión's (VTV) opinion programme "La Hojilla", accused a group of journalists who have been critical of Hugo Chávez's government of receiving money from the American government in order to destabilize the State. The following day, the pro-government newspaper "Vea", stated that the journalists...

Prague. Iran plans to continue holding a US-Iranian journalist kept in the country since January until her case can be decided in court, the US-funded broadcaster she works for said Monday, cited by AFP. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was quoting the lawyer for detained correspondent Parnaz Azima, who had her passport confiscated when she entered Iran in January to visit her sick mother. Mohammad...

(CENCOS/IFEX) - The disappearance of three Torreón, Coahuila-based reporters over the 2-3 June 2007 weekend was announced by Joaquín Martínez Garza, editor of "El Sol de Durango" newspaper. The announcement was made on the occasion of Freedom of Expression Day. A week after their disappearance, local and national media have reported very little on the incident. Not even the newspaper that...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conferred a prestigious award Monday on a former Brooklyn journalist and American Peace Corps volunteer who was brutally killed in the Philippines, where she taught poor villagers and helped build a center to help protect whale sharks. U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney received the Order of the Golden Heart award from Arroyo on behalf of...

Reporters Without Borders calls on the interior minister to have news photographer Ahmed Rifah of the opposition Minivan Daily released. Rifah was arrested as he left an allegedly illegal prayer meeting on 1 June in a mosque near the capital, Male, during which he took photos of participants. Scuffles broke out during the meeting. The police seized his press card and took him to Dhoonidhoo prison...

Journalism fellowship programs are feeling the fallout of the media industry’s turmoil. Some prominent universities have noticed a drop in applications from American journalists. Stanford, M.I.T. and Harvard report a decline in journalists seeking to specialize in business, science or other disciplines. But foreign applications are pouring in at a record pace. The decline comes as many newsrooms...

The role of the National Union of Journalists is to come under discussion at a public debate where former MP Tony Benn will be among the panellists. The discussion will be lead by a panel which also includes Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, and David Aaronovitch, columnist for the Times. The moderator will be Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis think tank at the London School of Economics...

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- President Roh Moo-hyun is scheduled to hold a live TV debate with senior journalists on Thursday over his government's latest decision to close almost all government-office pressrooms in August, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said Monday. "The pressroom reform debate between the president and local journalists will likely take place on Thursday, though details of...