News

The results of an Israeli Army investigation, clearing a tank crew of any wrong-doing in the killing of Reuters' cameraman Fadel Shana in April in the Gaza Strip, could endanger all media professionals working in the Palestinian Territories, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said. "This inquiry, which has been farcical in its nature, is likely to make life even more dangerous...

Stan Storimans, a cameraman with Netherlands-based television channel RTL Nieuws, was killed Tuesday during bombing in the central Georgian city of Gori. His colleague, reporter Jeroen Akkermans, suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and was hospitalised in a Tbilisi clinic, Jaspir Teijsse, a spokesman for RTL Nieuws, told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Storimans was 39...

The Israeli military has decided to detain Ibrahim Hamad, a soundman employed by the Palestinian news agency Ramattan, for six months without bringing charges and without taking him before any court, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Israeli soldiers arrested him at his home in Qalandiyah, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on July 15. "The Israeli military may not under any...

The US government's attempts to flout news-gathering privilege hit another road-block on August 11 when a court denied its request to block an amicus curiae brief signed by numerous news organisations in support of CBS in its effort to quash a government subpoena. The case concerns an interview with US Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich by Scott Pelley, aired on March 18, 2007 on "60 Minutes". Wuterich...

The Committee to Protect Journalists' website, www.cpj.org, is blocked in the Main Press Centre and at least one other Olympic press venue, according to a number of foreign journalists there. CPJ is calling on the Chinese authorities to provide the free Internet access they promised foreign reporters when they were awarded the Games. “We call on China and the International Olympic Committee to...

Two journalists were reported killed, at least eight were injured, and two have gone missing since fighting erupted between Georgian, Russian, and local forces in the disputed region of South Ossetia, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). No press-related casualties have been immediately reported in the conflict in another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia. The...

The Labour Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to reinstate immediately, without loss of salary or benefits, six journalists who were suspended in June 2008, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The six - Lawrence Maphosa (television production manager), Patrice Makova (news editor), Sibonginkosi Mlilo (executive producer, Nhau/Indaba), Monica...

There was little violence directed against the press during the August 10 recall referendum on the mandates of Bolivian President Evo Morales and eight regional governors, although there was a series of physical attacks on journalists during the preceding days. "We are relieved by the relative calm in which the voting took place, especially as the political tension had led us to fear the worst,"...

Security service agents in Egypt recently confiscated copies of the independent newspapers Al-Dustour and Al Badil from stores, following the newspapers' publication of a story about an Egyptian businessman's connection to the murder of the well-known Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has reported. The seizure of...

A prominent Iranian journalist of Arab ethnicity has been sentenced to five years in jail, according to ADN Kronos International (AKI). Yousuf Ben Azizi, was found guilty of 'subversive activities' after he published several articles three years ago after protests in the city of Ahwaz and other southern Iranian cities inhabited by Arabs. "My client was found guilty of subversive activities with...