News

A freelance journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in the Kurdish city of Erbil for writing an article about health and sex for independent weekly Hawlati. Adel Hussein, a doctor and a freelance journalist, was found guilty of violating "public custom" on November 24 by a court in Erbil for publishing an article in April 2007 in Hawlati about health and sex, Tariq Fatih, the weekly...

Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of Al Dustour, the daily newspaper in Egypt, has been awarded the 2008 Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) that honours an editor or publisher in the Arab region. The prize, which is made in memory of Gebran Tueni, the Lebanese publisher and WAN Board Member who was killed by a car bomb in Beirut in December 2005...

An Australian television correspondent who said he was traumatised from covering wars and natural disasters has been sentenced to jail for 10 months by a Singapore court for drug offences. Peter Lloyd, 42, New Delhi-based correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was arrested while on holiday in Singapore on July 16, and pleaded guilty to three drug-related offences. In...

A radio commentator was shot dead as he was leaving work, becoming the eighth journalist killed in the Philippines this year, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Leo Mila, 38, of Radio Natin in San Roque township in Northern Samar province, was heading to the gate of the station's compound on his motorcycle when shots rang out late Tuesday. More from the AP report: [ Link] Authorities found...

Abdel Fettah Ould Abeidna, the editor of the privately-owned Arabic-language weekly Al-Aqsa, has been imprisoned in Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on a criminal libel charge. Abeidna was immediately jailed Tuesday on his arrival from Dubai, from where he was extradited. “Abeidna’s imprisonment is disproportionate and counter-productive, and confirms the urgent need for a reform of Mauritania’s...

The remains of Jagat Prasad Joshi, a journalist with Maoist daily Janadisha in Nepal's Kailali district who went missing on October 8, have been found. Skeletal remains were found in a nearby forest on November 28, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After a 52-day search, Joshi’s skeleton was found in Pragati Mahila forest, 500 metres from his home in Malakheti and less than a kilometre...

Iran has lifted a ban on a film magazine which was ordered to halt publication in March for printing "decadent and corrupt" articles on foreign film stars, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting Fars news agency. Branch 27 of Tehran's public court has lifted the ban on Donya-ye Tasvir (World of the Image), Fars said. The AFP report said: [ Link] "We now hope to publish the new issue of...

Police officers beat journalist Mohamed Hussein with batons because he was covering the suddenly-imposed dawn-to-dusk curfew in Batticaloa on November 29, the Colombo-based Free Media Movement has reported. Hussein is associated with the Kalmunei media house, run by Inter News. According to FMM sources, on the morning of November 29, Hussein took a bus from Eravur to go to his work at the Kalmunai...

The government-controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC) censored the BBC Sinhala and Tamil service programmes broadcast on November 27, five press freedom groups have said. Sections of the programme on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V Prabhakaran's "Hero's Day" speech and a Defence Watch press conference were censored, making them inaudible to listeners. Defence Watch...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the action of a British coroner investigating the killing of a journalist in Somalia who called on BBC to ensure journalists are never put under pressure to go on dangerous missions. Coroner Dr Peter Dean said he would be writing to BBC to stress that managers must recognise staff had an overriding right to turn down dangerous jobs...