News

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm at Iran's continued persecution of independent journalists. Reporters Shiva Nazar Ahari and Emadeddin Baghi have each been sentenced to six years in prison, while authorities are said to be considering the death penalty for blogger Hossein Derakhshan, according to news reports. On Saturday, Iranian authorities sentenced Nazar Ahari, a...

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has condemned the alleged mistreatment of a reporter and cameraman working for KohaVision in Decan/Decani in Kosovo, by Lieutenant Sejde Krasniqi. According to information received by SEEMO, on September 8, a reporter working for KohaVision, Arta Avdiu and her cameraman Veton Veha were locked inside Lieutenant Krasniqi's office and not...

A Baghdad court gave two alleged Sunni militants life sentences Wednesday after convicting them of the 2004 abduction of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot and their Syrian guide, who were held hostage for 124 days, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We hail this conviction and we hope that the impunity so long enjoyed by the...

Three Afghan journalists based in the provinces have been arrested in separate cases in the past four days because of their coverage of the parliamentary elections or for having contact with the Taliban, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager and head of a journalists’ association, was arrested by police in the...

Authorities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa must thoroughly investigate Thursday's murder of Mujeebur Rehman Siddique, the second killing of a journalist in the province in one week, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Gunmen shot Siddique, local correspondent for the Islamabad-based, Urdu-language daily Pakistan in the town of Dargai as he was leaving a mosque on Thursday evening...

In a constitutional board meeting on Monday, following IPI’s 59th General Assembly, IPI’s Executive Board reconstituted itself, appointing as new Chairman Prof Carl-Eugen Eberle, Director of Legal Affairs, ZDF German Television, Germany. Prof Eberle takes over from former IPI Chairman Janne Virkkunen, Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, who had held the position since June 2008. The newly...

The largest newspaper in Mexico’s most violent city has decided to restrict its coverage of the ongoing drugs war after one of its photographers was shot dead. In an editorial printed on the front page of Sunday’s edition, El Diario newspaper, in Ciudad Juárez, asked “What do you want of us?” Directed at the drug cartels, the editorial said: “We ask you to explain what you want from us, what we...

Tension is brewing between Kurdistan’s ruling parties and security forces, on the one hand, and its journalists and news media, on the other. Magazine editor Hemn Karim’s detention for more than 24 hours during the weekend and a spate of libel actions are the latest examples of this fraught climate. A wave of defamation suits seems to be eroding press freedom, especially as they often are being...

Journalists in Belarus are being hounded in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for December 19. Harassment by the authorities is severely curtailing the already limited freedom of the Belarusian media, which are still reeling from journalist Oleg Bebenin’s mysterious death at the start of September, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The...

Chinese investigative journalist Xie Chaoping was released on bail in Weinan (in Shaanxi province) on September 17 for lack of evidence. After being held for 29 days for writing a book about the Sanmenxia Dam titled The Great Migration, he has been able to return to Beijing. “Xie’s release is excellent news but now he must he now be quickly cleared of the charges of illegal commercial activity...