News

As journalists face ongoing attacks and detentions in Cairo, they are increasingly concerned that state broadcasts are creating an atmosphere that is encouraging violence against the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. State television and radio, along with pro-Mubarak private stations, are giving frequent airtime to presenters and guests who claim that foreigners, including...

Members and supporters of the international press freedom NGO Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Paris at midday today to express their outrage at the systematic use of violence against journalists in Egypt since February 2. Chanting “The news is being killed” and “Egypt, stop violence against journalists,” the RSF activists brandished posters showing...

Harsh prison sentences given to two journalists Friday under Rwanda's vague and sweeping laws against "genocide ideology" and "divisionism" will have a chilling effect on the Rwandan press, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. A panel of three High Court judges in the capital, Kigali, sentenced Agnès Uwimana, former editor of the now-defunct private weekly Umurabyo, to 17 years in...

The International Federation of Journalists today mourned the loss of the first journalist to die in the social unrest in Egypt. Journalist Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud died in hospital in Cairo from injuries suffered after he was shot in the eye by a sniper on Monday last week. The journalist, aged 39, worked for the A’wada newspaper, a part of the Al Ahram media group. His death comes after a week of...

Pedro Argüelles Morán, one of four journalists in jailed Cuba, began a hunger strike February 1 to protest against the authorities’ efforts to force him into exile as the price for freeing him. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has appealed to him and another jailed journalist Albert Santiago du Bouchet, who has also started a hunger strike, to call off their action....

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Friday called on the Egyptian regime to end all targeting of journalists on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities. "The hostage taking, beatings, and intimidation have deeply shocked the world of journalism and must be stopped immediately" said Aidan white, IFJ General Secretary. "We hold the Egyptian authorities responsible. They must act...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association have hailed the release of Aung Kyaw San, the editor of the now closed magazine Myanmar Tribune, from Taunggyi prison, in the eastern state of Shan, after his sentence was reduced from eight to two years. Arrested on June 15, 2008 along with 16 other people near the city of Bogale for helping to bury the bodies of Cyclone Nargis...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its regional group, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), have appealed to the European Heads of State meeting in Brussels to vigorously protest to the Egyptian authorities over the systematic violence against media staff and targeting of journalists covering the current protests and civil unrest in Egypt. The last 48 hours has been a...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has posted a provisional tally of cases of abuses against journalists and media since the start of the violence on February 2, above all in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The tally is far from final or definitive. Additional cases keep on being reported and it is very difficult to compile a comprehensive inventory of the situation. It will be...

Ecuadoran authorities interrupted a news program critical of the Ecuadoran government on Monday to air an official rebuttal, a practice that has become standard in the administration of President Rafael Correa, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ called on Ecuadoran authorities to stop this practice, which has a chilling effect on public discourse. Last week during...