News

8 January 2010

Philippines: No let-up in violence against journalists as radio host is wounded in shooting

“Nothing seems able to stop the violence against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said today after learning that A Philippines radio commentator Eugene Paet was wounded in a shooting attack Thursday in a the northern province of Ilocos Sur, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The motive for the attempt to kill Paet is not yet clear but his family said it could be linked to...

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8 January 2010

Interrogation of journalists in Uzbekistan raises concerns about new crackdown on press

Five journalists were summoned to the prosecutor’s office in Tashkent on Thursday for a grilling about their media activities and their sources of income. It has emerged that two other journalists received similar summonses Friday, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The five journalist who were “invited” to the office of assistant prosecutor Bakhrom Nurmatov were Marina Kozlova, Sid...

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8 January 2010

Editor-in-chief of Yemen newspaper arrested

The 66-year-old editor of the daily al-Ayyam, Hisham Bashraheel, was arrested on January 6, the day after the security forces lifted a 24-hour siege of his newspaper in Aden, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. One of his sons, managing editor, Hani Bashraheel, was also arrested at the same time. Another son of Hisham Bashraheel, Mohammed Hisham Bashraheel, was arrested on January 5. It...

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7 January 2010

Afghan journalists issue appeal on behalf of kidnapped French TV crew

Several Afghan journalists’ organisations have appealed to the people who are holding a France 3 television crew hostage to free them without delay. More than 30 journalists in the provinces of Kapisa, Panshir and Parwan issued a statement Thursday call for the release of their “French colleagues.” The France 3 crew that was abducted on December 29 while investigating the construction of a road in...

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7 January 2010

Court in Chad lifts sanctions against weekly La Voix

A court in Chadian capital N’Djamena on Thursday found the privately owned weekly La Voix “not guilty” of charges against it and lifted a provisional order for automatic seizure of all copies of the paper made on December 3, 2009, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. An appeal will be heard on January 13. “We are already preparing our next issue and we think we should be able to publish...

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6 January 2010

Exiled Tunisian editor receives death threats

Repeated death threats have been made against a critical Tunisian journalist living in France. Slim Bagga, former editor of the now-defunct opposition monthly L’Audace, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) the latest threat arrived at his Paris home in December in the form of a letter mailed from Lebanon and signed by a man claiming he is a Palestinian refugee living in northern Lebanon...

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5 January 2010

20-year jail sentence for Democratic Voice of Burma video reporter

A court has imposed a 20-year jail sentence on Hla Hla Win, a freelance video reporter who provided material to the Burmese exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma. Detained since September, she was already given a seven-year sentence in October, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and Burma Media Association (BMA) have reported. “People had been expecting signs of an opening and goodwill gestures...

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5 January 2010

Chronicler of Bulgarian criminal underworld gunned down

Bulgarian prosecutors must thoroughly investigate Tuesday's murder in Sofia of Bobi Tsankov, author of a new book and a series of newspaper articles detailing the activities of reputed crime figures, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Two gunmen opened fire on Tsankov, 30, and two other men on busy Aleksandur Stamboliiski Boulevard in downtown Sofia at around 12:30 p.m. Tsankov...

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5 January 2010

Yemen: Siege lifted of newspaper al-Ayyam

Police on Tuesday lifted a siege of the newspaper al-Ayyam, after 24 hours of clashes between security forces and the newspaper’s own armed guards. Sources contacted by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said that two people were killed in the confrontation, one newspaper guard and one member of the security forces. Seven more were injured. Witnesses said that a guard mortally wounded a police...

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4 January 2010

Mexico: Crime reporter abducted in Sinaloa, investigating police chief murdered

The news of the abduction of 40-year-old radio journalist José Luis Romero in the northwestern state of Sinaloa has caused shock and anger in a region notorious for being the preserve of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the country’s leading criminal and drug-trafficking syndicates. A crime reporter for the Línea Directa radio station, Romero was out shopping in the city of Los Mochis on December 30...

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