2005-2014

ACAPULCO — Five evenings a week, Amado Ramirez fielded complaints from his radio listeners on everything from corrupt public officials to the booming drug trade in this famous resort city. Then, on a Friday night, just blocks from a beach-side strip of bars where thousands of tourists were partying, a gunman ambushed Ramirez in his car as he attempted to leave his Radiorama office. Bleeding...

The Media Alliance has given evidence calling for greater uniform safety training for journalists at the NSW Coroner's inquest into the deaths of five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo, East Timor, in 1975. Deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch is examining the murder of Brian Peters and four of his colleagues during the Indonesian invasion of Balibo. The official line has always been that the five...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has voiced concern about gruesome threatening messages aimed at journalists and the fact that one of the latest messages, which are being blamed on drug traffickers, was followed four days later by an apparent attempt to kill a leading investigative journalist by sabotaging her car. On 3 May 2007, World Press Freedom Day, the head of a corpse was left on a street in...

Global newspaper circulation rose nearly 2 per cent in 2006 and the number of newspaper titles also increased significantly, according to provisional data revealed today by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Paid-for newspaper circulation went up 1.9 per cent year-on-year to more than 510 million paid-for copies in 2006 and the number of new paid-for titles grew to more than 11,000 for the...

May 9, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Some Afghan journalists have expressed fears that media are facing new restrictions and increased government control. The Afghan parliament is currently debating an amended media law that critics warn could signal authorities' desire to tighten their grip on news outlets. Backers of the draft changes dismiss the criticism, arguing that limits are in place to prevent...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 9, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's murder of an Iraqi journalist, his driver, and two passengers, who were gunned down outside the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Gunmen riding in an Opel without a license plate intercepted a vehicle carrying Raad al-Mutashar, 43, owner and director of a media company, on a road southwest of Kirkuk at around 2...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (May 9, 2007) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today described as a very serious setback for freedom of the press in Uruguay a judge's sentencing of journalist Gustavo Escanlar Patrone to three months' imprisonment on a criminal libel charge. On April 18, after the appeal in lower courts failed, the Uruguayan Supreme Court upheld the May 18, 2006...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 9, 2007 - The Palestinian militant group Jaish al-Islam has issued a recording in which it claims to be holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and demands the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United Kingdom in exchange for the journalist's freedom. The audio and visual recording, published on an extremist Web site and sent to the local office of Al-Jazeera, comes...

(Globe International/IFEX) - Globe International and the Open Society Forum in Mongolia organized a roundtable, "Against censorship!", on 2 May 2007, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. This day also witnessed several members of Parliament submitting a draft law on freedom of information. A public discussion on the draft law took place in the Open Society Forum's premises on 7 May. During...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists, which is hosting a meeting in Iraq to devise a national safety strategy for journalists and media staff, today condemned the killings of three journalists and their driver, who were reportedly tortured and shot in Northern Iraq. "These killings bring the media death toll to more than 200 and underscore just how urgent it is to confront the...