News

The board of governors of the state-owned broadcaster RAI has decided to suspend all political discussion programmes on its three TV stations during the one-month run-up to regional elections scheduled for March 28 and 29, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The reason given was the difficulty of ensuring “equality of treatment.” It is extraordinary that RAI should be backing away from...

The Ingush supreme court has ordered the release of the policeman who fatally shot Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru news website, on August 31, 2008, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. By reducing the gravity of the charge on which Ibragim Yevloyev (no relation) was convicted, the court was able to commute his two-year jail sentence to two years of “supervised residence...

Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday that its transmissions to Ethiopia were being electronically jammed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The Ethiopian government has denied responsibility. VOA cited “international shortwave radio monitors” and complaints from listeners in Ethiopia since February 22 about static on the US government-funded station’s daily, hour-long...

Although a number of journalists and netizens have been freed in in Iran during the past few days, the crackdown on media and journalists is continuing. The daily Etemad was suspended on March 1 and the weekly Iran Dokht’s licence has been cancelled. At the same time, journalists continue to be arrested in Tehran and many others throughout the country have received summonses, according to...

Police in Nepal must immediately investigate Monday’s fatal shooting of publisher and business owner Arun Singhaniya, the second murder of a media executive in the country in a month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. An unidentified group on motorcycles shot Singhaniya at point-blank range near his home in southern Dhanusa district around 6 p.m. on Monday, killing him...

Two sports journalists, one South African and one Nigerian, were seized by unidentified gunmen in military uniforms in Nigeria on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The gunmen stopped a bus carrying 21 crew members of M-Net’s SuperSport channel, a South African private satellite television station, and took the three journalists hostage, local journalists told New...

Intelligence officials in Afghanistan privately issued a ban on live coverage to news outlets on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman Said Ansari told media managers not to report live from the scene of a terrorist attack anywhere in Afghanistan in a series of individual meetings held Monday, saying the order was for the...

A Zimbabwean freelance journalist was arrested Monday for the third time this year—this time for taking footage of prisoners outside a courthouse in the capital, Harare, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said quoting local journalists. Officers of Zimbabwe’s Prison Service arrested Andrison Shadreck Manyere, an award-winning photojournalist and videographer, after he filmed the...

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed Friday along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday), according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Dehah’s lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, said his client had become an embarrassment for the government. He thanked all those who fought for Dehah’s...

There has been a wave of police violence against journalists in Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. There have been a total of 13 cases of abusive treatment and physical attacks by police against media personnel in February alone. “Given that a police officer was recently suspended for hitting a Dalit woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh, it would be appropriate to punish police...