News

The Kuwaiti government's issuing of a resolution to prevent official staff from writing in newspapers is a harsh blow to press freedom and freedom of expression, taking Kuwait back decades and violating several constitutional articles that ensure the freedoms of opinion and expression. Al Qabas newspaper revealed a governmental document, which has been under preparation since February 2008, that...

Simone Gbagbo, wife of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, and former Ivorian economy minister Paul-Antoine Bohoun Bouabré failed to respond to a summons from French investigating judge Patrick Ramaël for questioning on July 10 in Paris as witnesses in his probe into the disappearance of journalist Guy-André Kieffer, a dual French-Canadian national, in Côte d'Ivoire in 2004. Paris-based Reporters...

Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa's government has ordered Forum magazine be denied government advertising contracts in retaliation for its critical stance, the magazine's director, Eduardo Ibarra Aguirre, has alleged. In a July 2008 editorial, Ibarra Aguirre said that members of the presidential press team have instructed all government agencies to not place announcements in Forum/...

Aaj Kal, an Urdu-language daily published from Lahore, has been threatened by Islamic activists angered by the publication of a cartoon about Umme Hassaan, wife of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz and also an editorial criticizing the religious militancy. The Lal Masjid, located in Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, was the centre of a stand-off between the mosque...

Three South African nationals employed by Sky News - Bernet Hasani Sono, Resemate Chauke and Simon Musimani - who were serving a six-month jail term in Zimbabwe have since been released after a High Court judge reviewed the sentence and commuted it to a fine. The three were convicted on their own plea to contravening Section 33 (1) of the Postal and Telecommunications Chapter 12:03 by illegally...

Fourteen media outlets have been fined in 2008 by the electoral courts for publishing interviews with those seeking office in the upcoming municipal elections, scheduled for October, or in some cases, even just their photographs. Electoral judges deemed that the media outlets and the politicians were carrying out election advertising before July 6, the official starting date of the campaign...

Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi died five years ago on July 10, 2003 from a cerebral haemorrhage following beatings she received in Evin prison, Tehran. In January, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial because of irregularities that affected the appeal court's verdict in November 2005. "Five years after the death of Zahra Kazemi and despite the decision to reopen the case, we have...

Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller and Chicago Tribune Editor-in-Chief Ann Marie Lipinski have resigned, seven months after real-estate billionaire Sam Zell completed his buyout of the company, says a Bloomberg News report. A successor to Hiller is expected to be named by late September, Tribune Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels said on July 14 in a memo to employees. Lipinski became...

An associate of Kotak Mahindra Group has bought 27.76 per cent stake in publisher Business Standard Ltd that was held by Great Eastern Shipping Co Ltd, the publisher said at the weekend, according to Reuters. Infina Finance Pvt Ltd, an associate of Kotak Mahindra Group, which controls Kotak Mahindra Bank, which bought the holding did not disclose financial details. The Mint newspaper on Monday...

Cameroonian authorities have lifted a ban on three private broadcasters summarily closed in connection with their critical coverage in February, but police are withholding equipment seized from one station, according to local journalists and news reports. Equinoxe Télévision, sister radio station Radio Equinoxe, and Magic FM were authorized to return to air on July 4 by Communications Minister...