Features

Independent journalists in many countries throughout the Americas continue to face violence, government harassment and an array of legal attacks that have constrained their abilities to exercise fully their rights to free expression, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has concluded during its annual mid-year meeting. ALWAYS RED ALERT: Policemen patrolling in voilence-ridden Nuevo Laredo

The release of two journalists in Venezuela during the past few days even as they await trial provides an opportunity to take another look at the country's press laws, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. OVER-RIDING POPULARITY: Columnist Ibéyise Pacheco is accompanied by supporters as she walks to court to turn herself in, in response to a warrant for her arrest in Caracas, Venezuela

The new repressive resolution of Uzbekistan that targets journalists working for foreign news media who dare to criticise government policies has found its first victim. THERE'S THE FOREIGN HAND: Protestors demonstrating against the Andijan incident in UK. The new media restrictions follow a government crackdown on independent journalists since foreign media carried news of a May 13, 2005 massacre

Conditions for Nigerian journalists are as trying as ever despite the military regime's fall in 1999, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. In the past 30 days RSF has registered three physical attacks on journalists, one arbitrary arrest, one case of intimidation, one unfair dismissal and one censorship order. END OF THE JUNTA: On May 29, 1999, military president Abdulsalam Abubakar, right

Press freedom organisations have hailed the Tokyo High Court's decision overturning the city federal court's action against a journalist on national TV and radio NHK for refusing to reveal his sources. The high court ruling on March 17, 2006 was similar to one taken by the Niigata federal court in October 2005, which upheld his right not to reveal the sources which allowed him to report on a case

There is a yawning gap in the level of press freedom experienced by Brazil's national media and the media in the provinces, which have been subjected to a lot of violence as well as harassment and abuse of power by local officials in so far this year. ATTENTION READER: Locals reading a newspaper at a kiosk in Brazil. "The governments of the states where journalists are most exposed should, as a

If the harassment of journalists in the run-up to the presidential election in Belarus was not enough, the regime has upstaged itself in its intensified crackdown against independent journalists with the arrest of many more, bringing to 22 the number rounded up since the start of the week, 19 of whom are still in prison. READY TO STORM: Supporters of Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich gather

Colombian radio commentator Gustavo Rojas Gabalo died Monday of injuries he suffered in a February 4 shooting outside a local supermarket in the northwestern city of Montería, Córdoba province. Rojas, known as "El Gaba," died in the Salucoop Clinic in Medellín, the local press reported. TALKING PEACE: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe gives a speech during the opening ceremony of an

Iran's most prominent jailed dissident, Akbar Ganji, has been released. Ganji, a journalist, was jailed in July 2001. Ganji, whose jail term ended late Friday night, has been allowed home for the Iranian New Year holiday which starts Monday night. WITH OPEN ARMS: Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji being greeted at his residence after being released from Tehran's Evin prison. Ganji was arrested in

With just a day to go for the March 19 presidential election in Belarus, there are growing international concerns about the institutionalised harassment of the news media by present incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko. Lukashenko is seeking a third term in a vote that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said "fell significantly short" of democratic standards. LOOMING LARGE