News

Journalists in Assam have served a seven-day ultimatum to the state government for arresting those responsible for the killing of Anil Mazumdar, executive editor of daily Aji on Tuesday night. The Journalists Action Committee (JAC) has warned that lackadaisical attitude on the part of the government to carry the investigation forward will compel the journalists fraternity to take up vigorous...

The father of imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi says he and his wife are making plans to go to Iran to see her in a couple of days. "I'm hoping if she sees us, it will lift her spirits," Reza Saberi said told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The AP report said: [ Link] The Iranian government has said Roxana Saberi was imprisoned for doing reporting work in the country after her press...

A court in Colombia has issued an arrest warrant for prominent journalist Daniel Coronell for contempt of court after he failed to correct for a second time a story linking a local businessman to drug trafficking, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learnt. CPJ has called on the judge to withdraw the contempt ruling until an appeal is heard. On March 18, the Penal Court of the Granada...

More than 200 civil society organizations from 46 countries, including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Secular, Humanist and Atheist groups, have endorsed a statement jointly sponsored by IHEU, UN Watch, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, urging member states of the UN Human Rights Council to reject the resolution: "Combating Defamation of Religions" due to be voted on in Geneva...

GENEVA - More than 180 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called Wednesday on the United Nations human rights body to reject moves to combat "religious defamation", arguing it threatened free speech. The 183 signatories said they were deeply concerned by a draft resolution tabled on March 11 by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which in their view seeks to "restrain and not...

The junta in Mauritania must immediately halt its increasing persecution of critical journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. On March 15, police arrested Abbass Ould Braham, a journalist with the independent news Web site Taqadoumy, ‎in a Nouakchott cafe after he wrote an article critical of military rule, a local journalist told CPJ. Taqadoumy was blocked until March...

Cote d’Ivoire authorities on Thursday last abruptly jailed a journalist who was scheduled to appear in court next week on libel charges related to a column critical of the government, according to local journalists and press reports. The imprisonment appeared to violate the 2004 Ivorian press law, which decriminalised press offences and banned pretrial detention of journalists, the Committee to...

Russian authorities should thoroughly investigate the March 12 beating of Maksim Zolotarev, an editor at the independent newspaper Molva Yuzhnoye Podmoskovye in the town of Serpukhov, Moscow Region, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Zolotarev told Radio Svoboda—the Russian Service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—that three unidentified men in hooded jackets...

Ecuadoran journalist Emilio Palacio has told local reporters that he had received threats against himself and his family following a March 1 article criticising President Rafael Correa's weekly radio address. According to reports in the Ecuadoran press, Palacio, editor of the Guayaquil-based daily El Universo, said he has received multiple death threats via e-mail since late 2008. The journalist...

On February13, 2009, Venezuelan authorities arrested Rafael Segundo Pérez, a former sergeant for the Carabobo police, in connection to the January 16 killing of journalist Orel Sambrano, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. Pérez is accused of working as a hired assassin and conspiring to commit a crime. Police Commissioner Robinson Castillo told...