Freedom of expression in Yemen remains in peril. there have been a series of blows to press freedom in the past few days in this peninsular country. Authorities banned distribution of the monthly Abwab and the weekly Al-Sabah on March 14. The website www.aleshteraki.net, the mouthpiece of the main opposition party, has been inaccessible since March 12. At the same time, the daily Al-Sharea, its
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed serious concern over four Afghan journalists being held in detention. Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, Ghows Zelmay, Jawed Ahmad and Ali Mohaqiq Nasab have been denied human rights including legal representation, the ability to receive visitors and access to time outdoors. Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, 23, a journalism student and reporter for the
The mainstream media in the US isn't really losing audience as much as it had been hyped. Certainly not because of people switching over to the Internet as a news source. The Internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago. It was believed at one point that the Net would democratise the media, offering many new voices, stories and
The first anniversary of a landmark UN Security Council call for an end to the killing of journalists worldwide has passed—and the deaths continue to rise. The International News Safety Institute (INSI) counted 171 news media fatalities in 2007, outstripping the previous record of 168 set in 2006. Indeed, each year since the millennium has set new levels in blood. What is happening? On December 8
Nine years after King Hamad bin-Issa al-Khalifa’s installation as head of state of Bahrain, the Gulf island nation is yet to implement the legislative reforms that it has been promising for several years. While Bahraini journalists are able to speak out a bit more than their colleagues in many other Gulf countries, the press freedom situation is far from satisfactory. No journalist has been
The Belarus government has been making selective use of politically motivated civil libel lawsuits against critics. Intolerant officials punish what remains of Belarus’ independent media with lawsuits that result in exorbitant fines, further debilitating the outlets. Since 1999, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented such targeted attacks against at least five
As riots tore through Armenian capital Yerevan, the country's journalists remained preocupied with the presidential elections in neighbouring Russia. The people of the city had to fall back on outside news sources to know what was happenning in their own backyard. And now, with Armenian President Robert Kocharian declaring an emergency to control the violence, among the first to face its brunt has
Soldiers raided three radio stations in Somalia on Sunday and detained the director of one of the stations, according to journalists who witnessed the events. The raids occurred after heavy fighting and looting over the weekend in the central area of the capital, Mogadishu. Journalists from Horn Afrik, Radio Shabelle, and Radio Simba told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
A Canadian court has overturned a landmark 2004 court ruling that recognised journalists have a broad right to protect confidential sources, even in the context of police investigations. The Ontario Court of Appeal's decision last week resurrects a search warrant giving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) the authority to seize a document from a National Post reporter that went to the heart
It seems to be becoming a habit of the US — an Afghan journalist working for Canada's CTV television network in Afghanistan has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant. The journalist, Jawed Ahmad, has been held without charge for the past four months at the US military compound in Bagram, 50 km north of Kabul. Major Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, said that an "enemy
