An anchor with Russia's last big television station openly critical of President Vladimir Putin has been ordered off the air. REN TV anchor Olga Romanova said on Friday that security guards blocked her way when she arrived for work on Thursday night. SMILES TO GO: Popular anchor Olga Romanova said she has still not been allowed to enter the studio. "The studio has been put under guard. The
The publication director of the Kinshasa-based weekly "AfricaNews" has been arrested and jailed on the orders of the Prosecutor's Office of the Kinshasa/Gombe High Court. Three judicial police officers arrested Michel Mukebayi Nkosso at his home early in the morning on November 24. He was immediately transferred to a jail cell at the prosecutor's office, according to the Kinshasa-based press
The press in Bangladesh is fast being forced into a corner with all arms of the establishment ganging up to clamp down on journalists. The last move comes in the form of an annoucement of the chairman of the country's press council that all relevant political figures have agreed to amend a crucial provision of the Press Council Act. Riot police beat a group of opposition activists during a rally
Mediapersons and media houses in South Asia have suffered acute harassment during the first three quarters of 2005. They were killed, threatened with death, tortured physically and mentally, arrested, and detained both by state and non-state actors, according to a report. The report by Media Monitor South Asia has specifically referred to the pathetic condition of journalists in Nepal and Pakistan
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged Commonwealth heads of government to see that people killing journalists because of their work were duly punished, so the Commonwealth could become "a true home of democracy and freedom." The RSF said on Thursday that 15 journalists had been killed in member-states Bangladesh, Gambia, India, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka since the last summit in
Two Chechen men charged in the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov in Moscow will be tried in secret at the direction of the Russian prosecutor-general. The prosecutor's office said Monday that it was ready to proceed against the two defendants. Paul Klebnikov had written a number of books and articles that angered his subjects. In 2001 his bestseller "Godfather of the Kremlin"
Three police officers suspected of killing a journalist and his wife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this month were presented by the police at a press conference in capital Kinshasa. "We were able to catch the suspects because they took away the journalist's phone," Katsuva Wa Katsuvira, inspector-general of police, said at the National Police Headquarters on Monday, the
It seems to be a race for setting dubious records. With the killing of two journalists within a span of 60 hours in the Philippines, the country in a neck-and-neck battle with Bangladesh has zoomed ahead. It is the most murderous place for a journalist to be in outside of Iraq. BLAMING MEDIA FOR OWN ILLS: "The President (Arroyo) likes to boast � without basis, we must point out – that, on one
The brutal murder of a young journalist near the capital town of Dhaka has once again brought to light why Bangladesh remains the most dangerous place for a journalist to be in the world next to Iraq. Bangladesh was ranked 151 by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) in its Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005. HEADLINES TODAY: A youth reads a daily at a roadside vendor in Dhaka. Journalists in
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has closed down Karachi-based radio station Mast FM 103 for retransmitting a BBC World Service programme in Urdu about Pakistan's recent earthquake. The station was charged with violating PEMRA by-laws. PEMRA officials assisted by the local police raided the FM 103 radio station and seized its transponders, antennae and other broadcast
