Features

Prosecutors in Uzbekistan have opened criminal proceedings against a reporter for Deutsche Welle for tax evasion and working without accreditation, the German broadcaster has reported. Natalia Bushuyeva, an Uzbek citizen, “is charged with tax evasion and conducting her activity without a licence,” her defence lawyer, Suhrob Ismailov, told news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Uzbekistan

Jordan’s lower house of parliament Wednesday voted to endorse writing off a controversial clause whoch provided for imprisonment of journalists in the new press and printing draft law, acording to news reports. Jordanian journalists protest against the adoption of a law allowing the imprisonment of journalists, in front of the parliament in Amman March 4, 2007. The banner reads, 'A free press =

Pakistan has banned a leading prime-time television programme because of negative coverage of President Pervez Musharraf’s fight with Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, news reports have said. A Pakistani protester throws a tear gas shell towards police during fierce clashes in Islamabad. Police fired rubber bullets at protesters and arrested dozens of people as they tried

Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who fell to death from his apartment building window, had faced threats while reporting on a highly sensitive story that Russia planned to sell sophisticated missiles to Syria and Iran. Had Safronov’s story been right, it would have caused enormous embarrassment to President Vladimir Putin, who had assured Israel and the United States that the arms deal had been

Iran's Intelligence Ministry detained several journalists and women activists outside the capital city of Tehran for allegedly receiving money from abroad, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Sunday. A woman walks past a mural on a wall at Palestine Square in Tehran March 4, 2007. Women in Iran, who must respect the Islamic dress code of contour-hiding gowns or long coats

International free speech organisations are mounting pressure on the Turkish government to respect press freedom and freedom of expression leading up to presidential and general elections scheduled for later this year. A Turkish woman holds a placard that reads: 'Prosecute me too 301' during a protest outside a courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, February 23, 2007. A group of activists invited

Two years after the contract-style assassination of Azerbaijaini opposition editor Elmar Huseynov, his murderers remain at large. When Huseynov, an editor and founder of the newsweekly Monitor, was gunned down in his Baku apartment building on March 2, 2005, President Ilham Aliyev called the murder a “provocation against the Azerbaijani state” and an “act of terrorism.” But despite these

Liberian Tuesday banned the Independent newspaper from publishing for one year after it published, on its front page, a photo of a state minister involved in a sex scandal. Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh said the paper exposed Liberian children to pornography by publishing the nude photograph of former minister of state for presidential affairs Willis Knuckles having sex with two women. â

The Cuban government has now got cracking on the foreign press in the country ordering at least three of them to stop writing because of their "negative" reporting. Cuba's acting President Raul Castro applauds during the year-end session of the Popular Assembly in Havana December 22, 2006. The Cuban government issued a document updating regulations on foreign correspondents’ work. The document

Executives of the Thai satellite channel People's Television (PTV), believed to be funded by people close to deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, are planning to go ahead with the launch on March 1 despite threats from the current interim government. Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (L) with his wife Pojaman (R) at Government House in Bangkok, April 2006. A lawyer for Thaksin vowed to