Some 21% of online adults used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace in the months leading up to the November 2010 US elections to connect with a campaign or the election itself, and 2% of online adults did so using Twitter, according to the Pew Research Centre's Internet & American Life Project. That works out to a total of 22% of adult internet users who engaged with the political...
A Zagreb criminal court’s decision on Monday dismissed the charges that prosecutors had brought against the journalist Zeljko Peratovic at interior minister Tomislav Karamarko’s request, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). For the past two years, Peratovic has been target of several prosecutions initiated by Karamarko accusing him variously of defamation...
Two journalists employed by Télévision Notre Patrie (TVNP) – a pirate TV station based in the northern city of Bouaké that supports the former rebel New Force – were arrested on their arrival in Abidjan on January 28, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The two journalists – Sanogo Aboubakar, aka Abou Sanogo, and Kangbé Yayoro Charles Lopez, aka Gnahoré...
The press freedom scene is worsening in Sudan, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The country is already hostile to the work of journalists and seizures of journals and arrests of media professionals yesterday in connection with popular demonstrations raise fears of a major return of repression. “We condemn the wish of the Khartoum government to censor...
The European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday banned Ukrainian President Alexander Lukashenko and 157 other Belarusian officials from visiting the EU and extended an existing asset freeze in response to the detention of 37 opposition figures and government critics since a disputed presidential election on December 19, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...
Egyptian authorities have taken unprecedented measures to block media coverage of widespread protests against the government, which are on their fourth day. Cairo's news blackout has been widely condemned and authorities have been urged to immediately restore Internet and mobile phone services, end the targeting of the press, and allow media to conduct their work freely. Since Tuesday, Egypt has...
A senior journalist of a daily and his wife were murdered as the police recovered the bodies from their Purana Paltan residence in capital Dhaka on Friday, according to Financial Express newspaper. The victims were identified as Forhad Khan (60) and his wife Rahima Khatun (50). Forhad was the joint news editor of Dainik Janata and also the president of Bangladesh Writers' (Lekhok) Association...
Chinese journalists are to undergo six-month training courses that will teach them how to “eradicate false news, improve the feeling of social responsibility and reinforce journalistic ethics.” The initiative comes from the Propaganda Department, directly linked to the Communist Party, and follows its announcement of 10 directives relating to the press in 2011. “In short, to make journalists...
Two newspaper journalists based in the eastern city of Port Sudan have been accused of trying to overthrow the constitution, a charge punishable by hanging, just for raising the possibility of eastern Sudan’s secession in an article, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The press freedom organization calls on the judicial authorities to see reason. It is...
The Kiev administrative supreme court on Wednesday decided to uphold a lower court’s decision to withdraw the over-the-air broadcast frequencies that were assigned to two privately-owned TV stations, TVi and 5 Kanal, in January 2010, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The lower court’s decision was issued on June 8, 2010 in response to a complaint by...
