2005-2014

MIAMI, Florida (May 19, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at what it called a ridiculous action aimed at silencing the press - the decision of the Bolívar State Legislature in Venezuela to begin administrative proceedings for the eviction and demolition of the plant of the Correo del Caroní newspaper. The action was taken after a special commission of the...

(MISA/IFEX) - On 19 May 2006, South African photographer John Liebenberg was arrested for trying to take photographs of the Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are due to have their first baby soon. Liebenberg was arrested in the yard of a police station in the coastal town of Walvis Bay, some 400 kilometres west of the capital, Windhoek. The police station adjoins a private clinic...

(RSF/IFEX) - The abduction and severe beating on the night of 18 May 2006 of Bahaddin Khaziyev, the editor of the daily "Bizim Yol", was the second apparent murder attempt against an opposition journalist in the past three months, said Reporters Without Borders. "The same exceptionally violent methods were used," the press freedom organisation said. "Both journalists were kidnapped by an...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than one billion people in the world have access to the Internet, with a quarter of them with broadband, or high-speed connections, according to a survey. The report by the firm eMarketer said the milestone of one billion was reached in late 2005, and that nearly 250 million households had broadband connections. The firm estimates that of these people, 845 million use the...

New York, May 17, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that Colombian journalist Pedro Antonio Cárdenas Cáceres was forced to flee his hometown after getting death threats in the wake of his reports on government corruption in central Tolima province. Cárdenas, director of the biweekly La Verdad in the city of Honda, left for Bogotá with his family on Saturday after finding...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued imprisonment of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, who has been re-indicted on charges of fraud and revealing state secrets. The Times reported the reinstated charges today. Zhao has been imprisoned for 21 months without once appearing before a judge. Charges against Zhao were dropped in March prior to the visit to the United States of...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has tightened restrictions on foreign press traveling to Darfur and has not issued any travel permits to its violent western region since a peace deal was signed earlier this month. Experts who have watched Darfur since the conflict erupted in early 2003 say this is the most restrictive the government has been on access since the height of the conflict in 2004. U.N...

Manila - A Filipino correspondent for Time magazine was barred from leaving the Philippines on Thursday to compel her to shed light on the alleged plot to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in late February, a justice official said. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Nelly Sindayen was placed under the immigration bureau watch list until she responded to the summons of the National Bureau of...

Three Kushtia-based journalists had to flee the south-western district last week and take refuge in the capital in the face of what they said were death threat from a local BNP lawmaker and false cases filed by him against them. Shahidul Islam, lawmaker from Kushtia-2, and his accomplices became hostile to them for reporting about their corrupt and criminal activities including extortion...

Baghdad - A journalist working for the independent Iraqi News Network has been killed in Iraq, witnesses said Thursday. Sadek al-Shammari of the German-based news organization was shot dead by insurgents in Jisr Diyala, south of the Iraqi capital. More than 100 foreign and local journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US-led occupation of the country in 2003. The US army meanwhile reported...