News

Russia's Orthodox Church has cursed and excommunicated a journalist for "satanic lies" in accusing the abbess of a monastery of intimidating locals into selling their homes for "peanuts." Says a Reuters report: [ Link] The Russian Orthodox Church used excommunication and the anathema ecclesiastical curse as powerful weapons against its enemies under the tsars, but rarely imposes the sanctions...

More serious charges have been brought against three bloggers and activists who have been held since June 26 in the southwestern China province of Fujian for reporting that a young woman died after being gangraped in February 2008 and that some of the rape participants had links with local officials, according to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). The three detainees – Fan Yanqiong, Wu Huaying and...

There has been rapid progress in the investigation into an attack on 12 journalists employed by the Cadena Capriles press group in Venezuela capital Caracas on August 13. The employee of a parastatal foundation was arrested two days later and the prosecutor-general’s office said nine other people were being sought on the basis of statements by victims and video and photos taken during the attack...

A new wave of violence hit the media in Honduras last week, even as the country appeared to be farther than ever from resolving the crisis resulting from President Manuel Zelaya’s removal in a coup on June 28. “The de facto government has again illustrated its concept of press freedom by pitting soldiers and police against news media that are critical of the coup,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF)...

The National Intelligence Agency has issued a warning to the managers of three local radio stations in the eastern DRC province of Nord-Kivu saying that their stations will be closed down unless they stop retransmitting the programmes of French public broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI). “This threat is unacceptable,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) reacted. "It confirms that...

A three-month jail sentence has been passed by a Niamey court on Abdoulaye Tiémogo, the publisher of the independent weekly Le Canard Déchaîné, on a charge of “discrediting a judicial decision.” “It is the decision (on Tuesday) to sentence a journalist to imprisonment that discredits Niger’s judicial system,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) said. “This comes just two weeks after eight newspaper...

Pro-government journalists have ousted the board of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The syndicate was the only independent organisation of its kind in Tunisia for critical journalists, providing them with syndication services among other benefits. In the latest in a long string of actions meant to eliminate critical...

Kenyan police are attempting to intimidate journalists at private daily, the Star, to reveal their sources for a June 20 article that said the Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit had lost crucial files about an accused al-Qaeda member, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. In July, officers of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit interrogated Investigations Editor Andrew Teyie and...

Iranian newspaper Itmad e Milli, which is owned by defeated presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, was banned from newsstands on Monday, the daily reported on its website. It was not clear how long the ban would be in place. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), government agents prevented copies of the paper from leaving the printing press apparently because of an article by...

The editor of a now-defunct Azerbaijani newspaper, in state custody since February 2007, has died in a Baku prison hospital, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. According to Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov, Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, appeared Tuesday to have suffered a stroke. Results from an...