Features

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

A detailed indictment used to charge leading journalist Moussa Kaka with “complicity in a conspiracy against state authority” is being seen as “inconsistent and absurd.” The manager of privately-owned Radio Saraouniya and correspondent of Radio France Internationale and Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), Kaka was arrested on 20 September. “The details of the case against him are

The Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) decreed on Tuesday that journalists should not be jailed over their work, two days after two were jailed for libel, the state WAM news agency reported. Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum "has issued instructions ... not to imprison journalists for reasons related to their work," said the head of the National Media Council, Sheikh Abdullah bin

An Indonesian reporter who went to Malaysia to write a special report on allegations of abuse and exploitation of Indonesian workers in the country was last week assaulted and raped by a man who tricked her into believing that he could provide her with information. According to reports, the 34-year-old magazine journalist was lured by a man, believed to be also Indonesian, to a rumah kongsi (a

Seven years after the muder of Ukranian journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, the lack of political will and sabotage are being seen as the reasons why his killers remain scot-free. People hold candles during a ceremony in memory of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze at Independence Square in central Kiev September 16, 2007. People gathered to mark the 7th anniversary of Gongadze's disappearance. (Reuters

One year after the coup in Thailand, the media and free expression environment remains compromised, with martial law, lèse-majesté rules, and new and proposed laws governing the Internet and national security concerns keeping the media footing problematic in the future. According to a report by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), this has happened despie the fact that the newly approved

A 14-year-old boy was assaulted last week in Islamabad for his father's reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Hassan Sharjil, son of prominent journalist Shakil Ahmad Turabi, editor-in-chief of the South Asian News Agency, was beaten September 14 by a man outside his school as he was dropped off for classes in the morning. Another man remained at the wheel of a four

Moscow prosecutors have closed the criminal investigation into the March death of Kommersant defence correspondent Ivan Safronov because of “an absence of foul play,” the business daily reported Wednesday. The Central Administrative District prosecutor concluded that Safronov took his own life “for subjective, private reasons,” Kommersant said. The prosecutor’s office disclosed few

Pakistani journalists were among those beaten up by security personnel during the Monday morning arrival of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad. According to reporters at the scene, the violence went far beyond the pushing and shoving that can occur at such breaking news events. A Pakistani Police car follows buses carrying journalists and the staff members of the former prime minister

A Moroccan journalist sentenced to eight months in prison in August for publishing secret military intelligence documents was released on probation Tuesday by the appeals court in Casablanca. "I am happy to be free and to rejoin my family after being unjustly deprived of my freedom for several weeks," Mustapha Hurmatallah said after emerging from Casablanca's Okacha prison. A visibly relaxed Allah