News

Authorities in Ethiopia expelled an American journalist on Thursday who had been reporting near a rebel area in the east of the Horn of Africa country, according to local journalists. Heather Murdock had been reporting with the US international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) in the eastern region of Harar, near an area where there was reported skirmishes between the army and rebels of the...

Expressing concern over the alarming proportion of paid news in the Indian media, the Election Commission on Thursday directed officials to closely monitor poll-related media reports. In a communication to the state election commissions, the Election Commission of India described paid news as a serious electoral malpractice, Asia News International (ANI) has reported. "The recent phenomenon of...

The Tunisian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday adopted a bill that reinforces an existing arsenal of legislation used to silence critical journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). President Ben Ali is expected to sign the bill after its anticipated approval by the Chamber of Councilors. The change is unconstitutional since it violates freedom of expression as guaranteed by...

Philippine radio commentator Joselito Agustin was fatally shot by two motorcycle riding assailants while heading home from work late Tuesday evening near Baccara town in the northern Philippines, according to local and international news reports. The murder occurred just one day after the murder of radio journalist Desidario Camangyan in southern Mindanao. Agustin died from four gunshot wounds on...

A Moroccan court passed a prison sentence Friday to Taoufik Bouachrine, editor of independent daily Akhbar al-Youm, on politicised criminal charges, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). A court in Rabat sentenced Bouachrine to six months in prison on charges of real estate and sales fraud, the editor told New York-based CPJ. He was also fined 500 Moroccan dirhams (US$56) and...

An unidentified attacker gunned down TV journalist Luis Arturo Mondragón late Monday night in the city of El Paraíso, eastern Honduras, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Mondragón, 53, owner and news director for the cable television station Channel 19, was shot to death as he left work at around 10 p.m. in El Paraíso, near the border with Nicaragua. A police spokesman...

A gunman shot broadcast journalist Desidario Camangyan from behind at close range while he was on stage hosting an amateur singing contest in Manay town, Davao Oriental province, on the southern island of Mindanao, Monday, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Camangyan died at the scene from a single shot to the head in front of the contest’s audience, which included his wife and 6...

Local television stations in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh were ordered to cease transmission on Friday by the city government in the wake of interethnic violence in the region, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Osh residents now have access only to the state television channel, KTR, and several Russian television channels, the independent news agency Zpress reported. “We...

Venezuelan columnist Francisco “Pancho” Pérez has been sentenced to prison on defamation charges, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Friday, a court in Carabobo found Pérez, a columnist with the daily El Carabobeño, guilty of defaming Valencia’s mayor Edgardo Parra, the local press reported. He was sentenced to three years and nine months. In two columns published in...

The Dhaka high court has stayed the cancellation of Amar Desh’s licence for three months, which allowed the opposition daily to bring out an issue Friday for the first time in 10 days, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Amar Desh was back on the newsstands with a special four-page edition that was welcomed by the newspaper’s regular readers. In the same ruling, the high court also...