News

Hamas security forces attacked local journalists covering a peaceful demonstration calling for Palestinian national unity on Tuesday. At least one journalist was taken to the hospital after being beaten, according to CPJ research. New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the violence used against the press and calls on the authorities in Gaza to allow...

Armed assailants stormed the Manama printing facility of the Bahraini independent daily Al-Wasat early Tuesday morning, damaging the press and hindering production of the day's edition. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack, which came just as military contingents from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were enlisted to help contain political unrest in the kingdom. In...

Angola's ruling MPLA government must allow the press to freely cover public events, the Committee to Protect Journalists demanded Wednesday after a number of recent incidents in which authorities barred journalists from covering public events related to the country's opposition party. On Tuesday, police officers and clerks at Angola's National Assembly arbitrarily denied reporters access to a...

A multicultural, international news service wants to change the adage that no news is good news, says an IJNet report. Istanbul-based non-profit Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridges wants to promote peaceful co-existence amongst nations, cultures and religions of the world. The news service started out as a project for an International Center for Journalists online course called Reporting Across...

About 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Budapest Tuesday to support press freedom in the third and largest protest of its kind and despite amendments to controversial laws governing the media, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The demonstration was organised over the Internet and was much bigger than its January 14 predecessor, which brought out about 10,000 people. The details: [...

La Voz de Zacate Grande, a community radio station based on the southern island of Zacate Grande, has again been the target of persecution for siding with local peasant groups in their land disputes with biofuel manufacturer Miguel Facussé Barjum, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). In the latest aggression, Franklin Meléndez, the president of the board...

Iran has intensified its crackdown on media professionals. Agence France-Presse (AFP)’s bureau chief was expelled at the end of last week. In addition, accreditations for foreign media journalists have been revoked by the Iranian ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Abdolreza Tajik, who was awarded the RSF-FNAC press freedom prize in 2010, was given a six-year jail term for his work with the...

A trial has been opened against Radikal newspaper reporter Ertugrul Mavioglu following the filing of a complaint with the Istanbul Chief Prosecution, according to press freedom group BIANET. Mavioglu stands accused of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation" on the grounds of his interview with Murat Karayilan, leader of the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), at the Qandil...

A raid was conducted on the headquarters of the state TV station Česká Televize (ČT) on the evening of March 11 by around 10 armed and masked members of the military police, who searched the offices of investigative journalist Karel Rozanek and two colleagues for several hours and left with computers, notebooks, CD-ROMs, diaries and other personal items. “We are deeply shocked by both the purpose...

A three-year jail sentence has been imposed by a Damascus military court on writer and journalist Ali Al-Abdallah on a charge of “intending to harm Syria’s relations with another state” under article 278 of the criminal code. The court ruled that he would have to serve 18 months of the sentence, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The charge was based on...