News

Pyuthan based radio journalist Keshav Bohara was released Thursday night, according to nepalnews.com. This followed sustained pressure from organisations like the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Bohara, who is a radio journalist associated with Radio Mandavi of Pyuthan, contacted a police post at Gorusingay of Kapilvastu district at around 10...

Rwandan authorities said Monday they have arrested two people in connection with the killing of a journalist critical of President Paul Kagame's government, and that one of the two has confessed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. Jean-Leonard Rugambage, who had accused the Rwandan government of being behind an assassination attempt on a dissident general in South Africa, was gunned down in...

Shortly after the death threats issued to journalists of Manipur by a rebel group, which prompted them to launch a two day ceasework , Yumnam Ibomcha, a staff reporter of a local daily, was beaten up by paramilitary troopers in the Collector's office in Imphal West district on Wednesday, the Hindu has reported. The details: [ Link] In an emergency meeting of the All Manipur Working Journalists'...

The Somali Islamist insurgent group Hizbul Islam warned Somali media against covering celebrations of the country’s 50th anniversary Thursday, according to news reports. Hizbul Islam chief Mo’allin Hashi Farah told local radio stations that if they covered today’s celebrations they would “face bad consequences,” a report from Sapa-AFP said. “We call on the Muslim people to avoid commemorating what...

Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz on Monday announced a decision to delay a vote on a number of media bills which critics have warned constitute a throwback to state control in the former Soviet satellite state. Hungary’s parliament was due to vote on Monday on the proposed creation of a powerful Media Council – strongly criticised by opposition politicians and journalists – which would operate within...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has demanded action to secure the immediate release of two French journalists and their three Afghan assistants who have been held hostage since their abduction six months ago and a Japanese journalist missing for three months. Stéphane Taponier, Hervé Ghesquière, and their three Afghan assistants, working for France 3, were taken hostage in the...

The principle of press freedom has been enshrined in Guinea’s new constitution with the promulgation of two new laws by the country’s military leader, Gen Sékouba Konaté on June 22. The first decriminalises press offences while the other creates a new media regulatory body. The laws were published in the government gazette on June 28, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The new laws...

Syrian authorities continue to crack down on journalists and human rights activists in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of Bashar Al-Assad’s installation as president, despite government claims of greater freedoms in the past 10 years, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). RSF called for the immediate and unconditional release of journalists Ali Abdallah and Kamal Sheikhou ben Hussein...

A radio reporter in Nepal, Keshav Bohara, was abducted on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) told CPJ in an email message that a group claiming to have abducted Bohara contacted the secretary of the FNJ chapter in Pyuthan, Deepak Bhandari, by phone at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. FNJ quoted Bhandari as saying: “In the background I...

A legislative committee in Pakistan has forwarded a bill to the National Assembly that would restrict coverage “of suicide bombers, terrorists, bodies of victims of terrorism, statements and pronouncements of militants and extremist elements and other acts which, may, in any way, promote, aid or abet terrorists or terrorism.” According to The News International, the report of the committee was...