News

Ten to 15 men armed with AK-47 rifles stormed the offices of the Ugandan tabloid daily Red Pepper on Saturday, setting fire to a generator and the printing press, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The men, riding in a convoy of five vehicles, carried out a well-orchestrated raid that lasted no more than 15 minutes, Red Pepper Managing Editor Arinaitwe Rugyendo told CPJ on Tuesday. Four...

Sri Lankan media owners Wednesday offered a cash reward to catch assailants involved in an attack on a journalist, while the country's media protested against the increasing wave of violence against them, says a Reuters report. A defence analyst attached to Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), along with a British High Commission official, was brutally assaulted on Monday, prompting media groups to...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern over the attack Monday evening on Namal Perera, freelance journalist and deputy head of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), a media rights advocacy group. Perera was attacked by men with iron bars in Colombo while travelling in a car with a British diplomatic official, according to international news reports. Perera is recovering from...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the four-year prison sentence handed down to Nanjing journalist Sun Lin, who was charged with possessing illegal weapons and assembling a disorderly crowd. Sun’s sentence was delivered on Thursday in a hearing closed to his lawyers and family, according to the Associated Press (AP). In his trial, Sun and his lawyers argued that the charges...

Burma’s military government should immediately release all journalists arrested in connection with the Cyclone Nargis disaster, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Four journalists are being detained by Burmese authorities, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners Burma (AAPP), a Thailand-based assistance and rights monitoring group, and the Burma Media...

The man suspected of killing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 is hiding in Western Europe, Russia's chief criminal investigator said Tuesday, according to Reuters. Some details: "According to our information, the murderer is hiding in Western Europe," Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Prosecutor-General's investigation unit, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. "We even...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Philippine government to fully investigate the shooting death of Robert "Bert" Sison Tuesday in Sariaya town, about 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Manila. Sison reported for the weekly Regional Bulletin, which has published articles on crime and stories critical of local officials. Sison, 60, was shot in his car by two unidentified gunmen...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has protested the adoption by the Romanian Senate of a draft law obliging radio and television stations to transmit positive and negative news "in an equal proportion." "One can hardly think about a more absurd proposal than a 'good news and bad news' law," said EFJ Chairman Arne König on Tuesday. "This is obvious political interference in the editorial...

South Korean newspaper readership is falling, the Korea Press Foundation (KPF) said Monday. Only three to four people in every ten surveyed said they were newspaper subscribers, the media watchdog said, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). Details: KPF said it conducted the survey in one-to-one interviews with 5,000 adults between May 3 and June 9. KPF added that in 1996, seven in ten...

Wage board Saturday recommended an interim relief of 30 per cent of basic salary for journalist and non-journalist newspaper employees with effect from January 8, 2008. Briefing reporters after a meeting of the board under the chairmanship of Justice Narayan Kurup, board members said the decision was taken through voting after a detailed discussion. While representative of employees and...