News

Authorities should immediately release Congolese radio journalist Robert Shemahamba, who has been held in the eastern city of Uvira since Friday in connection with a political program critical of local officials, the New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Shemahamba, director of the community station Radio Télé Mitumba, was taken into custody by the...

With just days to go to the first anniversary of the abduction of French TV journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier and three Afghan assistants in northeastern Afghanistan, the French foreign ministry announced Monday that it has received and authenticated a video from their captors showing that they are still alive. “This is of course good news for the families, who have been reassured...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Thai authorities to release Sun Shucai, an 87-year-old refugee activist and journalist who was arrested in Bangkok on December 8. He is now in a Bangkok immigration detention centre after a judge fined him 3,000 Baht (75 euros) on December 9 and ordered the authorities to examine the possibility of deporting him. “We are...

Online advertising in the US is expected to exceed newspaper advertising in 2010. For the year, online ad spending is expected to rise about 14 per cent to $25.8 billion, while print advertising spending in newspapers is expected to decline about 8 percent to $22.8 billion. Research firm eMarketer includes everything from Google and eBay to the New York Times in its online advertising category...

A French government spokesman indicated Tuesday that progress being made to secure the release of two French TV journalists abducted in Kabul nearly a year ago. Spokesman Francois Baroin told the broadcaster RTL: "The liberation process is ongoing, but this will still take some time." His remark came after a video surfaced in which the two journalists sent private messages to their relatives...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) has launched a mirror website for the US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks. Its address is http://wikileaks.rsf.org. “This is a gesture of support for WikiLeaks’ right to publish information without being obstructed,” RSF said in a statement. “We defend the free flow of information on the Internet and the...

A 35-year-old local journalist was shot dead by unidentified persons in the district in the wee hours Monday, police said. The incident occurred when Sushil Pathak, a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was returning home from work at around 0200 hours, they said. Pathak had parked his car in a nearby street and decided to walk down to his house when the assailants fired at him before fleeing, the...

Around 20 journalists were arrested and a similar number the victims of police violence during the demonstrations that followed Sunday’s announcement of President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection victory. The protesters and journalists arrested were being tried Monday. Ilya Kuzniatsu, for example, was sentenced to 15 days in prison on a charge of “participating in an illegal demonstration.” Paris...

Sun Hongjie, a newspaper reporter based in Kuitun, in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang, is in deep coma since Monday as a result of the head injuries he received when he was attacked by four or five men on the night of December 18. Sun worked for the provincial daily Beijiang Chenbao (Beijang Morning Newspaper), Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has...

Posters have appeared near the parliament building in central Athens listing journalists accused of being “thugs” and “rogues” for their perceived support for the government in the current crisis. Leaflets with the names and photos of some of the journalists were also scattered in the same area, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “In an already tense and...