Features

Two newsmen, Befekadu Moreda from Ethiopia and Paulos Kidane from Eritrea, both tried to flee the region to escape government oppression. But "one life (was) saved and the other lost." In a special report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recounts their stories and provides a glimpse into the adversity facing journalists in the volatile Horn of Africa. In his native Ethiopia, Moreda was

Turkey continues to use the judicial system to curb free expression. Journalists are still being charged under Article 301 of Turkey's Penal Code, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime punishable by prison terms. In the first six months of this year, 451 people were involved in 94 trials for using their right to freedom of expression out of which 17 were under Article 301. The controversial

The Valle del Cauca department in western Colombia has one of the highest rates of press freedom violations in the country, forcing journalists into silence, the Foundation for Press Freedom (Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa, FLIP) has found. According to the analysis, from 2003 to mid-2007, 50 violations were documented: 35 journalists were threatened, five of whom fled into exile; and three

Civil society groups in more than 60 countries celebrated the International Right to Know Day on September 28. Documentation of the past year's achievements of the right to access government information in various countries were released by ARTICLE 19, Privacy International, and the Open Society Justice Initiative. "Although the global movement suffered setbacks in 2007, the bottomline is that

Press freedom and human rights organisations have renewed calls for a thorough investigation into the murder of crusading Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and an end to impunity. October 7 marked the first anniversary of the brutal murder of Politkovskaya, a renowned Kremlin critic who exposed human rights abuses by Russian forces in Chechnya. Politkovskaya, who worked with the Novaya Gazeta

Twenty members of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) have set up a Burma Action Group to support protesters and journalists in their struggle against the recent military crackdown in the country. Participants at the IFEX general meeting last week in Montevideo, led by Soe Myint of Burmese exile-run news agency Mizzima News, called for a factfinding mission to the notoriously

Two Turkish policemen went on trial Friday for their role in a scandal which saw security forces pose for pictures with the suspected murderer of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the official Anatolia news agency reported. The trial in the northern city of Samsun is the first time that members of the security forces have been brought before a court over the January 19 murder, which the

A bewspaper in the southern Russian city of Saratov is facing closure following the campaign launched against it by the United Russia party for “insulting” President Vladimir Putin in a cartoon on its front page. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the regional court of Saratov to act judiciously and avoid being manipulated when it rules on October 2 on a bid by the pro-Putin United

The Zimbabwean intelligence service has compiled a blacklist of 15 journalists working for independent news media who are to be subjected to “strict surveillance” and other unspecified “measures” in the run-up to next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. “The Zimbabwean government’s paranoia is accompanied by systematic repression,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said

An unidentified man tried Monday to murder privately-owned Radio Shabelle’s acting manager, Jafar “Kukay” Mohammed, the latest target of a wave of political killings that seems to be aimed at demonstrating that the transitional federal government is unable to guarantee security in the Somali capital. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) protested against the failure of federal and local