News

4 September 2009

Vietnam newspaper dismisses reporter over blog entry critical of Soviet Union

A Vietnamese reporter, Huy Duc, has been dismissed by the governmental daily Sai Gon Tiep Thi for posting criticism of the Cold War-era Soviet Union on his personal blog, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). One of the newspaper’s editors, Tran Cong Khanh, said Huy Duc was fired on August because of what he had posted online. Huy Duc confirmed in his blog that he had been dismissed and...

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4 September 2009

Official investigating journalist’s death is himself murdered in Mexico city

For the second time in less than a month, the lead federal investigator in the case of a journalist murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, has been shot and killed in the streets of that city, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The second investigator, Pablo Pasillas Fong, was shot 13 times on August 26. In addition, on August 28, the head of the office in charge of investigating...

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4 September 2009

Mexican newspaper editor goes into hiding after shooting attack on home

The editor of a weekly in the southern state of Oaxaca in Mexico has gone into hiding after a shootout at his residence, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The police and judicial authorities investigating a the attack on the home of Guillermo Soto Bejarano, the De Opinión’s editor, on August 30 in Salina Cruz should work on the assumption that it was linked to his journalist activities...

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4 September 2009

Zambian paper's staff summoned on contempt charges over Kabwela article

A magistrate in Zambia issued a summons for the entire editorial staff of the southern African country's largest independent newspaper to appear in court on Wednesday on contempt charges, according to local journalists and news reports. The ruling was prompted by an op-ed commenting on the prosecution of the paper's news editor. The Post published on Thursday an op-ed by a US-based contributor...

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4 September 2009

Ailing editor taken to remote prison in Niger

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the health of imprisoned editor Abdoulaye Tiémogo after his transfer from a hospital in Niger's capital, Niamey, to a prison in a remote town on Monday. Tiémogo, editor of the weekly Le Canard Déchaîné, is suffering from malaria and is no longer receiving adequate medical attention in a prison in Ouallam, 55 miles (88 km) to the...

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4 September 2009

Investigation to continue in Politkovskaya case, reopening of probe rekindles hope

The Russian supreme court Thursday ordered that the case against three alleged accomplices to journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder should be returned to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation, overturning a lower court ruling on August 7 blocking this possibility. A representative of the prosecutor general said the investigation into the accomplices would be combined with the...

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4 September 2009
French journalist who made docu film on Salvadoran street gangs murdered

French journalist who made docu film on Salvadoran street gangs murdered

The bullet-ridden body of journalist Christian Poveda, whose new documentary on a violent Salvadoran street gang was scheduled for wide release this month, was discovered Wednesday afternoon just north of the capital, San Salvador. Salvadoran police found Poveda's body sprawled near his car on an isolated road in the town of Tonacatepeque, about 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the capital, the New...

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4 September 2009

Vietnam cracks down on critical online journalists over China criticism

The Vietnam government has launched a crackdown against online journalists and political bloggers for criticising the ruling Communist Party’s policies towards China. The move comes as Web-based journalists and bloggers' independent reporting challenges the tightly censored state-run media's traditional monopoly on local news and opinion, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On...

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4 September 2009

Uzbek appeals court should overturn harsh sentence, says CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Samarkand Regional Court in central Uzbekistan to overturn on appeal a 12 and a half year jail sentence given to independent journalist Dilmurod Saiid. His appeal is scheduled for review September 8. On July 30, the Tailak District Court in Samarkand sentenced Saiid on charges of extortion and forgery, regional news website Ferghana...

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4 September 2009

Gabon: Media targetted in political violence after disputed election results

Five journalists and a TV station covering Gabon's disputed presidential election, which has already been marred by media censorship, have been attacked since Wednesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists. Official results announced Thursday declared Ali Ben Bongo—son of Omar Bongo, the late 41-year ruler of the oil-rich, equatorial...

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