News

The Madagascar government has closed down Viva TV after it broadcast a message by former president Didier Ratsiraka on December 13, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The authorities accused the station, owned by the mayor of Antananarivo, of broadcasting statements liable to “disturb public order and security.” Ratsiraka has lived in exile in Paris since 2002. “Viva’s closure signals a...

The Iraqi journalist arrested for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush has written to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki apologising over the incident. Muntadar al-Zaidi, who relatives and colleagues said acted because he "detested" Bush and America, is being held for possible trial for aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit. "In his letter, he asks the...

A “defamation” of religion resolution stating that “Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism” passed in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday – but with fewer votes than in previous years. Over the past year opponents ranging to media watchdogs and free speech advocates to Christian and humanist groups have stepped up lobbying against the Organization...

Attacks on journalists throughout the world—by organised crime groups in Latin America, autocratic regimes in the Middle East, repressive governments in Africa and by combatants in war zones—pose serious threats to press freedom, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has said in its half-year review of press freedom worldwide. The report, presented Monday to the Board of the Paris-based WAN...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has appealed to the United Nations to help bring Gebran Tueni’s murderers to justice. A parliamentarian and publisher of one of the Middle East’s leading Arabic-language dailies, Tueni was killed in a targeted car-bombing in the Beirut suburb of Mkalles three years ago, December 12, 2005. “We join the Tueni family and all of An-Nahar’s staff in voicing our deep...

Kenyan police arrested several journalists and a large number of civil society activists on December 12 as they broke up a protest against the passage of the Communications Act, which allows the government to interfere with the independence of the media, the Nairobi-based Media Institute has reported. The morning crew for Kiss FM radio station, led by Kenya'a top female presenter, Caroline Mutoko...

A Sri Lankan court has ruled that an alleged confession made by senior Tamil journalist JS Tissainayagam while detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) was voluntary and admissible as evidence in his trial on terrorism charges, according to delayed reports. It is widely believed that Tissainayagam was forced to make a statement to TID under extreme duress. Giving evidence in Colombo...

Journalists are frequently being summoned for questioning by the Special Services of Kyrgyzstan, Adil Soz has reported. On December 5, the founder of the local Buran radio station, independent journalist Rakhmanzhan Islamov, was summoned for questioning at the Department of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in the city of Tokmok. The independent press agency 24.kg reported that...

Obrian Rwafa, a news assignment editor with the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), was on December 13 abducted and severely assaulted by unknown assailants in Harare, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Rwafa, who was admitted at a private hospital, reportedly suffered head injuries and bruises. He said three unidentified men who were driving a white...

The permanent secretary for information and publicity, George Charamba, and President Robert Mugabe's spokesperson have threatened to ban accredited foreign bureaus or local reporters working for foreign news organisations after accusing them of embarking on a propaganda assault on Zimbabwe, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. In an interview during the Zimbabwe...