News

Singapore's attorney-general's office has initiated legal action against the Wall Street Journal Asia and two editors over articles allegedly casting doubt on the judiciary's integrity, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A statement on the website of the Attorney-General's Chambers on Friday said the articles "impugn on the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore judiciary...

The information and broadcasting ministry has issued advisories to India TV and Aaj Tak for spreading "misinformation, fear and horror" among people. It has advised the channels to exercise restraint in presenting issues. According to the Times of India, the ministry has also written to the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) to advise its members to...

Opposition activists in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra stormed the offices of two state-owned media outlets on Tuesday, destroying equipment and forcing them to halt broadcasts in the wake of two-week long antigovernment protests. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attacks and called on Santa Cruz's governor to ensure that all media can work freely without fear of...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a Vietnamese court decision on Wednesday to imprison blogger Nguyen Van Hai, better known by his penname Dieu Cay, on charges of tax evasion. The court in Ho Chi Minh City, in southern Vietnam, convicted Hai, 55, in a closed-door trial, sentencing him to 30 months in prison, according to news reports. He was first arrested on April 19 and...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm at the shooting of Sri Lankan journalist Radhika Devakumar on Monday evening. A gunman or gunmen fired on Devakumar, an ethnic Tamil, at her home in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka. She was in critical condition Thursday after being transferred to a Colombo hospital, the reports said. Initial reports differed on details of the attack...

Police summoned the news editor, Raja, Sun TV for an enquiry in connection with a complaint filed by a leading Tamil daily Dinamalar, accusing the channel of resorting to 'provocative' coverage, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported. Raja was summoned for an enquiry on Tuesday night, a senior police official told PTI. The daily had filed a complaint with the state government on Tuesday...

An Egyptian court sentenced an editor to one year in jail on Wednesday for publishing a newspaper without a licence, the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported, Reuters has reported. The ruling permitted Ahmad Baker Seleem, editor of the Cairo Today newspaper, to pay 10,000 Egyptian Pounds ($1,845) in bail pending appeal, MENA reported. The sentence was handed down after the Cairo court...

The Sacramento Bee is giving buyouts to 87 employees, including 23 in its newsroom, the Associated Press (AP) has eported. It's the second time this summer the newspaper has shed jobs, as it faces significant declines in advertising revenue. The buyouts will eliminate about 7 percent of the newspaper's overall work force and 10 percent of the newsroom staff, the Bee reported Thursday. The paper...

A contractor, who assaulted a television journalist, was arrested by the Mahadevapura police in Bangalore on Monday, the Times of India has reported. Recently, a television journalist had gone to report a tender process in Mahadevapura town municipality. Seeing journalists on the premises, contractor Prakash Reddy assaulted and pushed them out of the municipality office. A complaint was lodged...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has welcomed the release of a cameraman held by US forces in Iraq, and called on the military to release a freelance journalist working for Reuters who has been held since Tuesday. Omar Husham, 28‎, a cameraman with Baghdad TV‎, a satellite channel owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, was freed on Friday without charges after one day in custody, according to...