News

Raúl Wiener, the head of the investigative section of the left-wing Peruvian daily La Primera, has been charged with a “crime against public peace” and “terrorism” after revealing that the same charges had been brought against 13 leading Peruvian leftists with alleged links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Wiener is due to be...

Unidentified individuals shot and injured a Venezuelan journalist outside the offices of the local daily El Regional in the southwestern Portuguesa province on Tuesday evening. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has today on Venezuelan authorities to investigate the attack and bring all those responsible to justice. At 6:20 p.m., unidentified individuals in a car shot Rafael...

The Vietnamese government has announced the imminent early release of journalist Nguyen Viet Chien of the daily Thanh Nien, who was sentenced to two years in prison on October 15, 2008 for “abusing democratic freedom to damage state interests”, after he investigated a major corruption scandal in 2006. Public security vice-minister Le The Tiem announced that he would be released on January 17 along...

A bomb was exploded at around 1 a.m. on January 16 at the foot of a television transmitter in the Basque country causing limited damage but no injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The transmitter was located in the Santa Barbara hills near the city of Hernani, in Guipúzcoa province. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but police found a message inside the...

Press freedom groups have welcomed the release of a freelance Somali photojournalist and two Somali drivers on Thursday but remain concerned over the fate of two foreign freelance reporters who have been held since their abduction on August 23, 2008, by unknown gunmen. Photojournalist Abdifatah Elmi was working as a fixer and translator for Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the sabotage attempt against LT6 Radio Goya in Corrientes, capital of the province of the same name in Argentina. Saboteurs cut through the cables of the radio’s aerial, preventing it from broadcasting on its usual frequency and reaching all its listeners. The 70-metre structure supporting the aerial collapsed suddenly on January 12 taking programmes...

A charge has been brought at the behest at interior minister Tomislav Karamarko against a journalist who writes about war crimes in the 1990s. Zeljko Peratovic is accused of “disseminating information likely to upset the population” under article 322/1 KZA of the criminal code, which carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison as well as a possible fine, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has...

USA Today publisher Gannett Co has imposed one-week unpaid furloughs for most of its US employees, saying the move could help minimize the need for further layoffs amid a severe advertising downturn, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Wednesday. USA Today also declared a one-year freeze on wages effective February 1. Although Gannett is regarded by many analysts as one of the most financially...

A Russian oligarch and former KGB agent is expected to strike a deal to buy a controlling stake in the London Evening Standard, the Guardian has reported. Alexander Lebedev is to buy 76 per cent of the newspaper with the Associated Newspapers group retaining 24 per cent. In May last year Forbes ranked Lebedev the world's 358th richest billionaire, with a fortune of 3.1 billion US dollars. His...

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) has backed a call by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for the United Nations to investigate the targeting of media by Israeli forces in Gaza. Israeli military actions in Gaza appear to amount to a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1738 which demands all parties in armed conflict comply with their obligations under...