News

Two American journalists went on trial trial Thursday in North Korea on accusations of illegal entry and "hostile acts" in a case that could send them to a labour camp for 10 years. US television journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were on assignment for San Francisco-based Current TV when they were picked up on March 17. They were later charged with illegally entering the Democratic Peoples...

US-led coalition forces have arrested Noorajan Bahir, of radio Killid in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, along with his two brothers, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Bahir was arrested on Tuesday by coalition forces and members of the Afghan military and is now reportedly being held in the NATO base at Bagh-e-Sara. “It is essential and urgent that coalition forces’ officials provide...

The death of Gen Edvard Fere, a potential key witness in the investigation into the disappearance and murder of online journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, has dealt a blow to the case. Fere died on Monday in hospital after six years in a coma without ever being questioned by the police. Gen Fere, who fell into a coma after suffering a heart attack in 2003, acted as chief of staff for President...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the decision of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to withdraw legal action against a website after an IFJ call for restraint by Iraq's political leaders in their dealings with media. At a historic meeting of journalists' leaders from 30 countries in Baghdad ten days ago IFJ had called for more professionalism from Iraqi media...

Elena Maglevannaya, a Russian journalist who was recently ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 roubles (4,500 euros) and to publicly retract her articles about the torture of a Chechen detainee, has asked for political asylum in Finland, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. She filed her asylum request while in Helsinki to attend a civic forum organised by the Finnish human rights group...

The general secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Poddala Jayantha, was abducted in Sri Lanka, beaten, and dropped by the side of a road in a Colombo suburb on Monday. The attack came on a busy road during rush hour at 5:15 p.m. Jayantha's colleagues said witnesses at the scene told them six unidentified men in a white Toyota Hi Ace van with tinted glass windows grabbed...

An Iraqi sports reporter, Alaa Abdel Wahab, was killed in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday by a car bomb that injured another journalist. Two journalists employed by Al-Iraqiya TV were also injured in a separate car bombing in Baghdad, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We are saddened and appalled by these two bombings,” RSF said. “It is time the slaughter of...

A Paris appeal court has ruled that the latest issue of the monthly magazine Choc can go back on sale only if a photograph of murder victim Ilan Halimi on the cover and inside pages is blacked out, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Halimi’s alleged murderers are currently on trial. The ruling was the result of Choc’s appeal against a court order issued at the request of Halimi’s family...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on all parties to pursue diplomatic efforts to gain the release of detained US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who are facing trial in North Korea this week. The families of the two journalists spoke out Monday morning on US television to urge diplomatic talks to resolve the detentions independent of the larger geopolitical issues on the...

The European Federation of Journalist (EFJ) has protested against proposals for the draft legislation in Finland which would compel journalists to reveal their sources in certain criminal cases. "This bill is unbelievable. Protection of sources is a cornerstone of independent journalism and the free flow of information. Journalists have to be certain that media freedom is secured and journalists'...