News

Authorities in Somaliland should immediately lift a suspension order imposed against the UK-based satellite broadcaster Universal TV, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The order bars the station's correspondents from reporting in the breakaway republic in northern Somalia, Khadar Mahamed, Universal TV senior newscaster and producer, told CPJ. "This abrupt order...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Chinese government to end its pointless attempts to block the news by blacking out domestic and foreign media coverage of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement awarding jailed human rights activist Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. According to foreign news agencies' reports from China, news of the award is almost non...

A Panamanian court of appeals has convicted two TV journalists of criminal defamation and banned them from professional work for one year, news reports said. While President Ricardo Martinelli said he would pardon the journalists, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that lawmakers should repeal all criminal penalties for defamation. The case stems from a 2005 story...

The press freedom situation has been deteriorating in Egypt ahead of November's parliamentary elections and next year's presidential vote. In particular, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the firing on Tuesday of Ibrahim Eissa, the editor-in-chief and founder of the independent daily Al-Dustour. Eissa has long been one of the government's biggest...

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has expressed concern about and condemned the recent telephone and email threats to the Croatian weekly Novosti. On October 6, the weekly Novosti, which is published by the Serbian national minority in Croatia, received numerous phone calls and emails in which anonymous persons went as far as posing death threats to the Novosti staff members...

Detectives with the federal Investigative Committee, the Russian agency responsible for investigating serious crimes, say they are probing a widening circle of suspects in the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Agency officials made the disclosure during a September 28 meeting in Moscow with a delegation from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)...

Four years after Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow her killers have yet to be brought to justice. Repeatedly criticised by rights groups over its handling of the case, the Russian government recently announced it was reinvigorating the investigation, and those involving 18 other...

A Panama City court has banned TVN Canal 2 news editor Sabrina Bacal and Justino González, a former TVN Canal 2 reporter who is now a KW Continente commentator, from working as journalists for one year as well as fining them $6,000, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Issued on appeal on September 27 and announced on October 4, the sentences replaced the...

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has condemned the physical assault on Blic newspaper correspondent Gvozden Zdravic in Aleksandrovac, Serbia. On September 30, Gvozden Zdravic was physically assaulted while on duty. Zdravic was photographing the local courthouse when the driver of the mayor of Aleksandrovac allegedly ran out of the courthouse and physically abused Zdravic by...

Ivorian authorities have expressed the determination to ensure that all candidates in this month’s presidential election have fair access to the public media during the campaign. Prime Minister Guillaume Soro stressed this point at a meeting with state media executives and media regulatory officials four days ago, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The...