News

A Moscow-based English language newspaper which poked fun at Russia and the West has closed after its backers stopped funding it, its editor said on Monday, according to Reuters. Officials from a Russian government agency responsible for the media visited the offices of the Exile on June 5 and took away copies for analysis, scaring investors who have withdrawn their support, editor Mark Ames told...

Mohamed Nema Oumar, the publisher of the privately-owned, Arabic-language weekly Al-Houriya, was released on the evening of June 13 after being held for 30 hours in a police station in the Nouakchott district of Tevragh Zeina, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). He was charged two days later with "libel and insult" and was ordered to report to the police twice a week pending trial...

Traditional authorities in Swaziland continue to harass and intimidate the media, particularly in instances when the Swazi monarchy faces criticism, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). On June 14, the traditional governor, Jim Gama, who is regarded as the traditional prime minister, launched a scathing attack on the print media and threatened journalists for what he claimed...

Fátima Monterrosa, an investigative journalist for the Mexican magazine Emeequis, has been subjected to threats after publishing an article entitled "A Viceroyalty Named Tlaxcala". The article exposed a series of anomalies in the administration of the state government of Tlaxcala. The work of Monterrosa is well known in the journalistic community in Mexico. She has worked as a press correspondent...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner to raise the problem of risks to journalists covering fighting in the Palestinian territories at the Israel-EU Association Council meeting in Luxemburg on June 16. "The death of Fadel Shana, of the British news agency Reuters, on April 16, has reawakened our concern about the lack of...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged authorities to drop charges against Hassan Rachidi, the head of Al-Jazeera's bureau in Morocco, accused of broadcasting false information and conspiracy. IFJ said in a statement Monday that it believed the court case, stemming from Al-Jazeera reporting incorrectly on Saturday that there had been deaths during protests in the south-western...

US soldiers who killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq acted within military rules, but the Army's probe of the incident was tainted by its failure to preserve evidence, a Pentagon investigation said on Monday. The Defense Department's inspector general, the Pentagon's watchdog agency, found that U.S. soldiers who fired on a Reuters car in west Baghdad in August 2005, killing Reuters Television...

A Colombian journalist has been threatened and asked not to distribute his magazine in a remote town, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). On June 14, at 2:20 p.m. (local time) in the national capital, Bogotá, journalist Pedro Antonio Cárdenas was stopped by two men travelling on a motorcycle. After pointing a revolver at him, they threw him to the ground and beat him up...

Thailand's interior minister is under fire for moving to pull a private television channel off of cable networks nationwide, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA). Cable operators, opposition senators, and free expression advocates are calling a directive by Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung - which media reports say threatens cable operators with imprisonment unless they pull...

Three Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) employees were released Wednesday last from detention without charges being laid, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Abel Chikomo, Maureen Kademaunga and Abel Kaingidza were arrested and detained for three nights by Binga Police in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland North province before their release. The three, together with another...