2005-2014

(RSF/IFEX) - The Public Security Bureau's formal refusal on 17 May 2006 to allow detained blogger and documentary filmmaker Hao Wu access to a lawyer on national security grounds is "absurd," Reporters Without Borders has said, as Hao began his fourth month in detention. "Hao's case is emblematic of the PSB's methods," the press freedom organisation said. "It is farcical to treat this blogger as a...

New York, May 23, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the closure today of an Iranian state newspaper, and the arrest of its editor-in-chief and a cartoonist who published a cartoon that sparked riots by ethnic Azeris in the northwestern city of Tabriz. Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, ordered the arrest of Mehrdad Qasemfar, editor-in-chief of "Iran Friday", the...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 22 May 2006, several journalists denounced the fact that unknown persons had hacked into their e-mail accounts and distributed lists of the e-mail passwords of at least 20 reporters. The accusation comes only a few days after the surreptitious monitoring and private information theft from the e-mail account of "Clarín" journalist Daniel Santoro was made public. The information in...

New York, May 23, 2006 - The Ivanovo regional prosecutor's office in central Russia has opened a criminal libel investigation against Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor-in-chief of the news Web site Kursiv, for allegedly insulting President Vladimir Putin, according to Russian press reports. On Thursday, Kursiv published an article headlined, "Putin as Russia's phallic symbol," in which Rakhmankov...

(IPI/IFEX) - The summary of a review examining payments made to the Iraqi media by the US military has concluded that such operations should be re-examined. Prepared by Rear Admiral Scott Van Buskirk, the review was requested after media reports in the Los Angeles Times during late November 2005 showed that the US military was writing pro-American stories, translating them into Arabic and then...

New York, May 23, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at a spate of attacks on the press in the run-up to the July 30 elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Monday, armed assailants smashed and looted equipment at Kinshasa-based broadcaster Radiotélévision Message de Vie (RTMV), forcing it off the air for the second time this month, according to CPJ sources. The press...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called on Ethiopia's information and culture minister, Hailu Berhan, to explain why several websites critical of the government have been inaccessible in the country since 17 May 2006. Ethiopians have also seen all publications hosted by http://www.blogspot.com disappear from the Internet. Even though the authorities have made no announcement, it is...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has welcomed a Supreme Court ruling on 18 May 2006 suppressing article 8 of the 1992 National Broadcasting Act and article 15 (1) of the 1991 Publications and Newspapers Act as incompatible with a constitutional provision guaranteeing press freedom. The first article gave the government the right to cancel the licences of radio and TV stations that broadcast...

(FMM/IFEX) - On 24 May 2006, three Tamil-language trainee journalists of the Sri Lanka College of Journalism (SLCJ) were harassed by students protesting recent violent activities by the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The trainees had to take shelter in a police station for more than three hours, on a complaint made by them against video filming by the trainees. The protest was...

An expert witness today told a city court, trying the journalist Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, that a polygraph test of the main accused suspended IPS officer R K Sharma was never conducted, saya a Zee News report. Deposing before the Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar, Vibha Rani Ray stated that she had conducted the polygraph tests of Shivani’s husband, Rakesh Bhatnagar, her sister...