News

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, continues to be detained illegally in Nouakchott’s Dar Naim prison although he should have been freed on December 24 on completing a six-month sentence on a charge of “offending public decency.” The good news is that, under pressure from his family, he has abandoned the hunger strike that was threatening his health, Reporters sans Frontières...

Pakistani authorities have been urged to explain what has happened to Mohammad Rasheed, a freelance reporter who is probably being held by the army. It is believed he was arrested after being held for several days by a Taliban group in North Waziristan. “I don’t know where he is; his entire family is very worried,” his wife told Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The authorities must quickly say...

Three press freedom activists have been prosecuted for organising a “flash mob” in support of imprisoned journalists in Kazakhstan capital Almaty on January 6. The three activists were charged with holding an illegal demonstration when they appeared before an Almaty court on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The prosecution of Raushan Esergepova, Rozlana Taukina and...

For the third time in a row, one of jailed blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman's lawyers has been denied the right to visit him in Borg Al Arab prison although he had the required permits from the Alexandria attorney-general’s office, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He is better known by the pen-name of Kareem Amer. The lawyer, Ahmed Omar, one of the Arabic Network for Human Rights...

Andis Hadjicostis, chief executive officer of Dias Media Group, was gunned down Monday in the Cypriot city of Nicosia, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP). Hadjicostis, 42, was shot dead at around 9 p.m. outside his home in Nicosia’s diplomatic neighbourhood of Engomi. Citing witnesses, Cypriot police told journalists Tuesdat that...

Tanzanian Information Minister George Mkuchika announced the suspension of leading investigative weekly Kulikoni on Friday, citing a sales and distribution ban for a period of 90 days beginning January 11, according to local journalists and news reports. The ruling was linked to a November 27, 2009, story that alleged cheating in the national exams for the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces, the...

Togolese sports journalist Stanislas Ocloo was on Friday gunned down in the attack on Togo’s national soccer team’s bus in the northwestern Angolan enclave of Cabinda, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Also killed was assistant coach Hamelet Abulo, according to Angola's official ANGOP news agency. As many as three people were killed and nine injured in the strike, CNN...

Rupert Hamer, the London-based Sunday Mirror’s defence correspondent, was killed Saturday when the US military vehicle in which he was travelling was hit by a roadside bomb in southwestern Afghanistan. Photographer Philip Coburn was seriously injured in the blast. Hamer, a 39-year-old father of three, and Coburn, 43 were embedded with a US Marine Corps unit. A US marine and an Afghan soldier were...

Syrian reporter Ali Taha and cameraman Ali Ahmed have been detained by the Department of Internal Security since January 2, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The authorities have not said why they were arrested or where they are being held. According to the information available, the security forces arrested Ahmed, who has worked for the TV station Rotana for the past 10 years, while...

Just a week after radio Línea Directa crime reporter José Luis Romero was abducted in the northern state of Sinaloa, two other journalists were abducted Thursday in Coahuila, another northern state, and one of them, Valentín Valdés Espinosa, was found dead Friday. According to his newspaper, the Zócalo de Saltillo daily, Valdés was found with a warning message pinned to his chest, a practice often...