News

Journaliste en danger (JED) has applauded the February 19 release of Bwamputu Akienzin Zéphyrin, a correspondent for the public broadcaster RTNC in Bandundu province, western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Zéphyrin had been facing charges of making damaging allegations against a former RTNC director. A Bandundu court declared the charges pending against the journalist unfounded, acquitting...

The Zambian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) has with immediate effect stopped issuing broadcasting licenses to new applicants, saying it is working towards the establishment of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that will soon take over the licensing function of all broadcasters in the country, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. MISA...

Death threats have been made against TV journalist Farid Alam by the underground Islamist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) following the publication of Alam's book Islamic Militancy: Bangladesh Context, according to Reporters sans Frontières. Blamed by JMB for the death sentence imposed on its leader, Alam fled the country and is currently in exile in Europe. The death threats were made...

China should open Tibetan areas to independent monitors and journalists as a means of diffusing ethnic tensions and preventing violence on the eve of a string of politically sensitive anniversaries, Human Rights Watch has demanded. One year after the largest Tibetan protests for more than two decades, the presence of such observers would serve as an incentive for good behavior for crowds, which...

Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico newspaper recently accused the government of Álvaro Colom of censoring the press by using government advertising funds in a discriminatory fashion to punish or reward media outlets. As a result, the newspaper has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights's (IACHR) Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression to intervene in the situation. On...

A case brought against Radio Dunya for playing the Kurdish folk song "Mihemedo" in 2007 has ended in acquittal, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported quoting broadcasting editor Mehmet Arslan. However, another case against the station is still in court. Radio Dunya broadcasts in the province of Adana, in southern Turkey. On February 23, the radio station's lawyer, Tugay Bek, learnt...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) have condemned the threats and attack against Vladimir Vjestic, the editor-in-chief of Radio BUS in Kovin. Radio BUS announced on Monday that its editor-in-chief, Vladimir Vjestic, was threatened on Saturday, February 21, by Predrag Milovanovic, a private entrepreneur from Kovin...

Police arrests of two Jamaican journalists in one week were an abuse of power, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said, and called for a full investigation of the two cases. Those arrested by police in Kingston were: Julian Richardson, financial journalist for the daily Jamaica Observer and Ricardo Makyn, a photographer for the daily the Gleaner. Richardson was arrested and threatened with death...

The semi-private Swazi Observer newspaper has successfully challenged a High Court ruling which had restrained the newspaper from reporting on a leadership dispute in the Jericho Church, an indigenous Christian denomination, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The order, granted by Judge Stanley Maphalala on February 12, was set aside by another High Court judge, Justice...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has condemned pressures exerted on the daily newspaper Borba after publication of an article about the decision made by the Government of Serbia to pay one million dollars to ensure that the trial of Miladin Kovacevic, accused of inflicting injuries on American student Brian Steinhauer, will be held in Serbia instead of in the US. The police...