News

Thailand authorities have arrested Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the popular Thailand news website Prachatai, on charges of insulting the royal family, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Prachatai said police at Suvarnabhumi Airport detained Chiranuch at 2:30 p.m. as she arrived from Hungary, where she had attended an Internet freedom conference. Police...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced Algerian authorities' harassment of two Moroccan journalists who were effectively detained for four days in the town of Tindouf in southwestern Algeria. Lahcen Tigbadar and Mohamed Slimani, journalists with the Moroccan weekly Assahra Ousbouiya, returned home on Wednesday, according to news reports. Algerian police had prevented them from...

Three journalists detained in Afghanistan have been released over the past week, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) released Rahmatullah Nekzad, a freelance contributor to Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press detained Monday in Ghazni province, and Mohammed Nader, an Al-Jazeera cameraman taken Wednesday...

NATO forces have freed one of three detained Afghan Al-Jazeera journalists, AP and other media outlets announced on Friday. The three had been detained on suspicion of spreading Taliban propaganda, by among other things filming insurgent attacks. Two still remain in custody. Al-Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Nadir was released early on Friday, AP reported. IPI and other press freedom organisations had...

Three journalistswho had been arrested in the past few days by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan police have been released. Their release was requested by President Hamid Karzai, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) reported. “We are extremely relieved that these three arrests, which we had described as a serious mistake, have...

Calling the right to free expression a priority of his government, Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa pledged on Wednesday to push for legislation that would make attacks on journalists a federal crime. In a lengthy meeting with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association, the president also said federal authorities will soon implement a...

Two Afghan journalists were seized by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in early-morning raids at their homes this week, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Rahmatullah Nekzad, a freelancer who contributes to Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press,was arrested just after midnight Monday in Ghazni, according to local and international media reports...

A Ukrainian television station, which had its broadcast frequencies cancelled over allegations of irregularities in the manner in which the stations were awarded their licences, has decided not to abide by the decision and will continue its terrestrial broadcasts. Channel ТVі called the action by the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting - which issues the licences -...

As the leaders of the ruling African National Congress meet this week in the eastern city of Durban, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the South African government to abandon two projects, one to create a media tribunal and one to pass a bill protecting information involving “national security.” The press freedom organisation offers South Africa’s media and...

The arbitrary detention of Yemeni journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was extended Wednesday by a special court responsible for trying cases of endangering state security, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. The court ordered he remain a further 30 days in custody officially in response to the requirements of the police investigation. The journalist was arrested at...