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The Uruguayan Senate has approved a bill that provides for modifications to several articles of the country's press law, in addition to articles in the Criminal Code. The modifications include significant elements affecting defamation and the offence of "insult to authorities" (desacato), the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has reported. The bill was unanimously approved...

Two journalists and three leading civil society members have been detained at the Libreville headquarters of the criminal investigation police of Gabon for the past week—longer than the legal period for police custody—without any explanation being given. Other journalists have been questioned in connection with the case in the past few days, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The...

Adnan Demir, editor of liberal Turkish daily Taraf is facing trial for publishing confidential military information. The prosecutor at the Istanbul higher court on January 6 called for a sentence of 3-5 years against Demir, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The newspaper in October 2008 had carried a series of articles on an attack on October 4, carried out and claimed by...

Press freedom groups have called for a full "independent and exhaustive" inquiry into the shooting of an Iraqi woman journalist in Baghdad by American soldiers. Hadil Emad, 25, an editor with Biladi TV was shot and critically wounded by America soldiers as she was heading home in the al-Karrada district of Baghdad on January 1, 2009. A statement by the US military said that on New Year's Day US...

Masked gunmen in the Mexican city of Monterrey opened fire and tossed a grenade at the Televisa network's studio as it aired a nightly newscast. The assailants left behind a message warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs. During a live broadcast at 8:35 p.m. on Tuesday night, at least five masked gunmen riding in two pickup trucks fired high-caliber weapons and tossed a grenade...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern at the ongoing police persecution of two Ugandan journalists. The police's Media Offences Department has repeatedly interrogated the two over a story critical of the government's handling of an international security operation against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army last month, according to a local lawyer and journalists. The two...

Ramazan Yesergepov, ailing editor of independent weekly Alma-Ata Info, was seized from an Almaty hospital on Tuesday by government agents, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The Kazakh National Security Committee (KNB), whose agents seized Yesergepov, said in a statement that the editor was being investigated for allegedly disclosing state secrets, a crime...

International press freedom groups have urged the Israeli military to put an end to targetting Palestinian media in the Gaza Strip and allow international journalists to enter the region to cover the conflict. On Monday, the eighth day of its military campaign, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fired two missiles into the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala newsweekly, according to multiple...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed the decision of Belgian prosecutors to dismiss a complaint of bribery brought by the European Anti-Fraud Office against a Brussels-based journalist. After five years Belgium has finally cleared journalist Hans-Martin Tillack, a reporter for Stern magazine, over a complaint against him launched from within the European Union (EU) hierarchy....

The chairman-director of the Chitra group, publisher of daily Karavali Ale, who has been held in a defamation case, was brought to the court premises in handcuffs, tied to a chain held by a policeman in Karnataka's Udupi on Monday. BV Seetaram, who is also the editor-in-chief of the group, was declined bail as he feared arrest by the Mangalore police on other charges, the Hindu reported. “If I...