News

There have been new developments in the investigation into the 1997 death of Jean-Pascal “JPK” Couraud, a leading investigative journalist based in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia. According to a report on Le Monde’s website on June 6, the Papeete judge now in charge of the case, Jean-François Redonnet, searched the Paris headquarters of the General Directorate for External Security (DGSE...

The Sri Lankan defence ministry has initiated a campaign against independent news media, especially journalists who cover military affairs. The ministry’s website is carrying virulent attacks on journalists critical of the government, accusing them of being in cahoots with the “terrorist enemy,” the Tamil Tiger rebels. Two long articles—headlined “Stop media treachery against armed forces members...

Five kilos of explosive were set off early Sunday outside the daily El Correo’s premises in Zamudio, in Spain’s northern Basque region, destroying an external wall but not injuring any of the 50 employees inside. The Basque armed separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) is suspected to have been behind the incident. El Correo deputy editor José Miguel Santamaria told Paris-based Reporters sans...

The criminal case against Andrei Dumler, the head of the information agency Baikal Media Consulting (BMK), has been thrown out of court, the Moscow-based Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES) has reported. The journalist was charged with slandering the department of the Federal Service for the Enforcement of Punishments (UFSIN) for the Republic of Buryatia. In November 2007, a report...

The publisher of a daily newspaper critical of the Arroyo government has been found guilty of libel and sentenced to a minimum of six months to a maximum of two years in prison. She was also ordered to pay P5 million (US$113,480) in moral damages and P33,732.25 (US$765) in civil damages, the Manila-based Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has reported. Makati Regional Trial Court...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the Cameroonian government to end the intimidation of journalists reporting on corruption scandals in the country after five journalists and media industry leaders were interrogated by police in connection with the publication of articles on a defective aircraft bought for President Paul Biya. "Police harassment of our colleagues is...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the Cuban government for the arrest of and threats made to independent newsman Carlos Serpa Maceira, reminded it to observe tolerance of press freedom and called on it to free 25 journalists still imprisoned. In a telephone call to the IAPA Serpa Maceira, of the Sindical Press news agency and Cuba correspondent of the Sweden-based magazine...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) Monday called for light to be shed on a murder attempt against Aristeo Abundis Hernández, editor of the weekly Frente y Vuelta, in Panuco, Veracruz state in eastern Mexico who was shot at as he was driving home. It also condemned a threat against the daily El Correo de Tabasco and its editor Juan Padilla Herrera in which a severed human head—a typical drug-gang...

An Afghan reporter working for the Pashtu service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been killed in the southern province of Helmand, Afghan officials said on Sunday. The body of 25-year-old Abdol Samad Rohani, was found near the city of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, one day after he was abducted. Rohani disappeared after his vehicle was stopped...

A man arrested on suspicion of being a member of a militia that abducted and tortured a reporter, photographer and driver of the O Dia newspaper in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Batan on May 14 was shown to the press on June 4 by members of a police unit known as the Delegation for Repression of Criminal Actions and Special Investigations (DRACO). He was identified as Davi Liberato de Araújo, 32...