News

Al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj, who was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay, plans to launch a joint legal action with other detainees against former US president George W Bush and other administration officials, for the illegal detention and torture he and others suffered at the hands of US authorities, the Guardian has reported. The case will be initiated by the Guantánamo Justice Centre, a new...

Police officers have led organised attacks against Alaa Al Gamel, a reporter for weekly Sout Al Ouma, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has reported. Security forces repeatedly stormed his house in Giza between June 30 and July 11. Between July 10 and 11, they broke into his house six times. Moreover, the perpetrators spread rumors in Alaa's neighbourhood that the journalist...

The Órbita TV station, which operates in the northern region of the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui, has ceased to operate. The station was in financial trouble due to the pressure exerted by the regional government on advertisers, the Lima-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) has reported. The station ceased operations on July 10. The station's Operations Manager, Marcos Figueroa, told IPYS...

Canal Plus Bénédiction (CB Plus), a faith-based television station broadcast from Brazzaville, was reauthorised to broadcast on July 3 following a five-month suspension, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. CB Plus was suspended on February 12 on orders from the state-run national media regulator, the High Council on Freedom of Communication (CSLC), after it aired archival footage of a 1991...

Two journalists were killed in Mexico within a span of 24 hours earlier this week, according to delayed reports received by Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Martín Javier Miranda Avilés, a reporter on the daily Panorama and correspondent for news agency Quadratin, found dead at his home in Zitacuaro, Michoacán state in the south-east on July 12. Ernesto Montañez Valdivia, an editor of...

There have been continuing threats against journalists working for the Charter 97 news and opposition website (charter97.org) in Belarus, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). In the latest case, site editor Natallya Radzina received a threatening email message on July 15 that was prompted by a report about a pro-Russian neo-fascist group. The email that Radzina received on...

Eight photographers and cameramen have been arrested in a recent crackdown in Iran, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Following the expulsion of almost all foreign reporters, seven photographers have been jailed since June 12. They include Mehdi Zabouli (arrested on June 20), Tohid Bighi (July 11), Majid Saidi (July 11), Satyar Emami (July 11), Marjan Abdolahian (July 11)...

Distributors blocked the July 4-10 edition of the Economist from entering Thailand over an article that covered the mounting threat of lese majeste complaints to the country's Internet freedom and freedom of expression, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This is the third time since December that distributors have opted not to distribute the British weekly newsmagazine...

A Yemeni court has found journalist Anis Mansour from suspended daily Al-Ayyam guilty of "harming national unity, provoking sedition and rebellion, and ‎inciting people in the streets" and "taking part in unauthorised protests and promoting ‎secessionist slogans." He was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 months imprisonment, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The case was...

Jarnail Singh, the Sikh journalist who created a stir by flinging a shoe at Union home minister P Chidambaram, was on Thursday sacked by his employers. Singh, who was a defence correspondent with Hindi daily Dainik Jagran for nearly a decade, said his services with the newspaper were terminated following a show-cause notice issued about 4 months ago. “I have been victimised for raising a genuine...