2005-2014

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not understand or appreciate the role of press freedom in Philippine society, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) said yesterday. In a strongly worded statement sent to the Inquirer ahead of World Press Freedom Day today, the group said Filipino journalists still had "reason to worry" despite the lifting of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017...

MIAMI, Florida (May 3, 2006) - A call to people throughout the Western Hemisphere to become involved in the right to inform and be informed was issued today by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in commemorating World Press Freedom Day. The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper...

(WiPC/IFEX) - On 3 May 2006, World Press Freedom Day, in Turkey trials continue against writers, journalists and publishers who have been charged with "denigration of Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. International PEN is calling for an end to all trials against writers for the peaceful expression of their views, and for the repeal of Article 301 that is in direct...

SANA’A, May 3 – Editor-in-Chief of Al-Balagh weekly was arrested last Wednesday morning and thrown in the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s prison without any obvious charges. From the jail cell, Abdullah Al-Wazeer told the Yemen Times on Telephone: "security authorities summoned me to the Criminal Investigation Bureau and told me that I am detained and will be referred to prosecution for a criminal...

ALGIERS - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned journalists sentenced to prison for defamation and insulting officials in the first such step since he took office seven years ago, his office said on Wednesday. The move, to mark World Press Freedom Day, covers reporters convicted of "gross insult to state officials, offending the president of the republic, injuring state institutions...

The "Danish cartoon crisis" was quietly revisited at a conference at the Christiansborg Palace -- the beautiful building that accommodates the Danish Parliament -- in Copenhagen over the weekend. The conference, organized by the Danish Free Press Society and Jyllands Posten, the paper that printed the controversial caricatures, has revealed, sadly, that not only in Turkey but even in "more...

Copenhagen (Denmark), May 03: A Danish newspaper has said it had filed a defamation lawsuit against a lawyer representing a group of Muslim organisations that sued the daily for publishing Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which sparked riots across the world. The Jyllands-Posten sued Michael Christiani Havemann for saying its top editors ordered a cartoonists to deliberately make a "gross" drawing of...

A lawsuit filed this week alleges that Yahoo is charging advertisers for "premium" ads that are displayed on illegal sites that show spyware pop-up ads and typosquatter sites that appear when a surfer misspells a Web address. Instead of the "highly targeted" sites the ads are supposed to appear on, the ads end up on low-quality sites that show random ads and little or no bona fide content...

Media NGO Reporters Without Borders has published a saddening report on the state of play for independent journalists around the world, with the finger also pointed at European countries. According to the Paris-based organisation, at least 63 journalists were killed worldwide in 2005, the highest total in ten years, and over 1,300 media workers were injured with 100 jailed. In the report, issued...

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim heavyweight Malaysia has proposed setting up an international Islamic journalism center to counter mounting Islamophobia and coach non-Muslim journalists about Islam and Muslims, reported the official Bernama news agency. "This center can be set up along the lines of several international journalism institutes that are already in...