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Scores of Iraqi journalists and political figures rallied Friday to protest what they say is a political effort to censor media that follows steps to crack down on Internet sites, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The demonstration on a Baghdad street known for its book market was held under tight security, as anger builds over government initiatives that critics say are aimed at preventing a...

Miscreants shot dead TV journalist Siddique Bacha Khan in the city of Mardan in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Unidentified gunmen ambushed Bacha Khan, news correspondent for the independent Aaj TV channel, and shot him at close range before fleeing the scene, the channel reported on its website. The journalist...

US immigration officials have detained without explanation Rahman Bunairee, a Pakistani reporter for Voice of America who said he had been targetted for attack in his home country. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on immigration officials to release Bunairee immediately and allow him to resume his work for the US government-funded broadcaster. Bunairee arrived...

Suspected government supporters attacked a dozen journalists in Venezuela on Thursday. The journalists were protesting an education bill that, they claimed, would restrict press freedom. Alleged government supporters hit and kicked the journalists, according to international news reports. At 2 p.m., several journalists from the Caracas-based dailies Últimas Noticias, El Mundo and Diario Líder...

Five of the six Gambian journalists who were jailed for two years on August 6 on charges of defaming the government – Emil Touray, Pa Modou Faal, Pap Saine, Ebrima Sawaneh and Sam Sarr – were transferred from the capital’s Mile Two prison to Old Jeshwang prison in the north of the country on August 10, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sixth journalist, Sarrata Jabbi-Didda, who has...

Two journalists in Rwanda have been given prison sentences in separate cases in the past few days. Newspaper editor Asumani Niyonambaza was sentenced to two years in prison. Reporter Amani Ntakundi got a three-month sentence. “There were absolutely no grounds for these jails sentences,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “Trials, threats, intimidation and smears are all used to...

Tuesday's roadside bomb attack that seriously wounded two Associated Press journalists highlights the dangers journalists face in covering the escalating conflict in Afghanistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. AP's report of the attack said Spanish photographer Emilio Morenatti and AP Television News Indonesian videographer Andi Jatmiko were injured while embedded with the US...

Photojournalist Majid Saeedi has been released on bail in Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Saeedi, a well-known freelance photographer who has worked for several newspapers and global photo agency Getty Images, was released on bail on Tuesday. Getty Images co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein said that Saeedi "is set to face trial on the charges set by Iranian...

A journalist known for his critical commentary has been killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, 32, was shot in his car at around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the independent Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel reported. The Dagestan Investigative Committee, the region's investigative office, has opened a...

The Kazakh supreme court has upheld the two-year ban that a court in the southern city of Taraz imposed on the weekly Alma Ata Info on August 8 at the same time as it sentenced its editor, Ramazan Esergepov, to three years in prison, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This disgraceful sentence should have been quashed because of all the irregularities during the trial,” Paris-based RSF...