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A measure signed into law on Thursday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will expand the powers of security agents and contribute to a climate of fear among government critics, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The law grants the Federal Security Service (FSB) authority to detain for up to 15 days anyone suspected of planning a crime against Russian security, local and...

A jailed Cambodian journalist whose Appeal Court hearing is scheduled for later this month said Monday that he had been asked to pay US$1,000 before court officials would tell him the exact date, the Phnom Penh Post has reported. Speaking from Prey Sar prison, freelance journalist Ros Sokhet said his lawyer, Sam Sokong, who was provided free of charge by the legal aid NGO Cambodian Defenders...

Journalists in Papua are on edge after a reporter was found dead, naked and handcuffed in a river in the Indonesian region’s south, Radio NEw Zealand International has reported. Australia-based human rights advocate, Nick Chesterfield, said the Merauke environmental journalist had been reporting on financial irregularities and alleged military corruption. He said Ardiansyah Matra’is had become...

A Kazakh journalist threw dung at the Almaty city court building on Monday to protest the court's rejection of her lawsuit against Prime Minister Karim Masimov and other politicians, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Zhanna Baytelova had filed a case against Masimov, Senate speaker Qasymzhomart Toqaev, and lower house speaker Oral Mukhamedzhanov in the Zhetysu district court for what she termed...

Charles Atangana, a Cameroonian journalist who has been living in the UK since 2004, is facing deportation after losing his case for asylum. He believes he will be killed if he returns to Cameroon. UK's National Union of Journalists is trying to stop Glasgow-based Atangana from being deported to Cameroon where he is likely to face detention, torture or worse. The union has temporarily stopped the...

A Jharkhand court has given bail to Sudha Pathak, mother of 23-year-old journalist Nirupama Pathak who was found dead in her home April 29, after police failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days from her arrest. Sudha was arrested on May 3 after her New Delhi-based daughter Nirupama was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her home in Koderma's Chitragupta Nagar. "The...

The Afghanistan government has decided to close down the privately-owned TV station Emroz for allegedly endangering national unity and to ban two programmes on two other TV stations on the ground that they were contrary to Islamic values. When it met on 27 July, the cabinet ordered the ministry of culture and information and the attorney-general to shut down Emroz, a station launched in August...

A former Kurdish editor who has been held since January 30, 2009 and sentenced to a total of 166 years in prison with 30-odd cases, has been awarded a Journalists Association of Turkey press freedom prize. on 24 July. Vedat Kursun is former editor of Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat. Receiving the award on Kursun's behalf on July 24, his father said, “To Turkish and international public...

Criminal proceedings have been initiated in Dresden against two Leipzig journalists. The charges arise from articles written in news magazine Der Spiegel and in Zeit Online in 2008 on the “Saxony Corruption Quagmire” – a possible corruption affair that could have involved high-ranking members of the legal system. Ginzel and Datt were the authors of the Zeit Online report and co-authors of the...

A Madrid judge reissued arrest warrants Thursday for three US servicemen over the death of a Spanish journalist killed by American tank fire in Iraq in 2003. Judge Santiago Pedraz acted in response to a recent order from the Spanish Supreme Court that the case — twice shelved by a lower court — be reopened. Cameraman José Couso was one of two journalists killed when the US soldiers — members of a...