News

A Slovenian journalist was allegedly threatened with death on October 10 by a prominent Ljubljana-based businessman after investigating his company, the journalist told the International Press Institute on Thursday. Jaka Elikan, a reporter for Slovene business daily Finance, had been conducting investigations into Electa, a company owned by Jure Jankovic, son of Ljubljana mayor Zoran Jankovic...

The police and judicial authorities in the southeastern state of Chiapas on October 12 raided Radio Proletaria, a community radio station in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in which arrests were made and the station was summarily dismantled, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The raid was carried out at night by around 30 armed and masked members of the...

Abdulmalik Boboyev, one of Uzbekistan’s few remaining independent reporters, was fined 10,000 dollars by a Tashkent court Friday on charges of defamation, insult and threatening public order. Boboyev, who pleaded not guilty, had been facing a possible five-year jail sentence, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). A journalist who is renowned for the quality...

Tajik authorities have launched an offensive against media critical of the government, in which several newspapers have been forced to stop printing and access to many websites has been blocked, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. In an open letter published by the official news agency Khovar on October 4, defence minister Sherali Khairullayev accused 17...

Mexican journalists in the drug-violence-wracked city of Ciudad Juarez called on Mexican President Felipe Calderon on October 12 to take action against the climate of impunity shrouding attacks on journalists, joining calls made by freedom of expression groups last month. In an open letter to the president, who was visiting the northern Mexican city, the Association of Journalists of Ciudad Juárez...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iranian authorities to immediately disclose the names of two Germans who were arrested on Sunday and described as journalists in several news reports. CPJ also asked Iranian officials to clarify the circumstances surrounding the arrests of the two individuals and to state what, if any, charges were filed against them. The head of the German...

The investigation into illegal telephone-tapping by the Colombian intelligence agency known as the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) entered a new phase Wednesday when the House of Representatives initiated a procedure that could result in former President Alvaro Uribe being questioned about his presumed involvement, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières...

Cuban journalist Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, left, was freed from prison on Friday and exiled to Spain as part of a July agreement between the Havana government and the Catholic Church. Seventeen journalists jailed in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown have now been freed and exiled as part of the agreement. "I feel as if I was born again, trying to get used to cell phones, personal computers and emails...

Iran has decided to expel Tehran-based journalist Ángeles Espinosa, the correspondent of the Spanish daily El País. The authorities cancelled her residence permit on October 10 and gave her two weeks to leave Iran, where she has been an accredited journalist for the past five years. No explanation was given. Espinosa’s press card was withdrawn when she was arrested in Qom in July after...

The bolivian law against racism was approved by the senate on October 8 and was immediately promulgated by President Evo Morales. The senate adopted the lower house’s version of the law without any changes despite major protests by media and journalists’ organisations against two articles that make it an offence for the press to publish racist comments or statements that incite racism, according...