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A Sri Lankan journalist working in the war-torn northern region and his friend have been hacked to death, a media rights group said Thursday. P Devakumar, 36, a correspondent for the privately-run Sirasa television, was murdered on Wednesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. Devakumar is the ninth media worker to have been killed in Jaffna since 2006, FMM said. Three more journalists have also...

An award-winning New Zealand photo-journalist has been bashed to death and his body dumped in a drainage ditch in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Trent Keegan, in his early 30s, was based in the west of Ireland and had spent the past decade travelling around the world while developing his business, the Irish Independent newspaper reported. An internet site for freelance photographers said he had...

(Reuters): Afghan television journalist Niloufar Habibi never wore the all-enveloping burqa until she was stabbed on her doorstep. Now it is her disguise. More than six years after the overthrow of the Taliban, Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative country where many still oppose women working in public, visible roles. "If I go outside people will see where I'm going and see what I'm doing,"...

A prison official has refused to release a radio commentator in the Philippines jailed for libel in 2007, despite a court order calling for his release on parole, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). The warden of the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) in Davao del Norte refused on May 26 to release radio broadcaster Alexander "Alex" Adonis, despite his having been...

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has condemned the attack on Montenegrin sports commentator and journalist Mladen Stojovic. Stojovic, a journalist with the daily Danas and Belgrade correspondent of the Podgorica-based daily Vijesti, was assaulted Friday May 23, in his apartment in Bar. Heavy blows on his head caused amnesia, and Mladen Stojovic cannot remember exactly what...

Radio Television Mwangaza (RTM), a privately-owned station broadcasting in Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province (southeastern DR Congo), has been the target of a slander campaign organised by Honoré Kazadi Lukonde, alias Ngube Ngube, a reported supporter of Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi Chapwe, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. During a May 24 press conference held at the Makutano...

The FMM reports with deep sadness that yet another journalist has been murdered in Jaffna, in the embattled Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The FMM vehemently condemns this dastardly act and extends its condolences to the late journalist's wife and family. P. Devakumar, a correspondent for Sirasa TV, Shakthi radio and the MTV Television Network-Jaffna district, was hacked to death on the evening...

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has expressed concern over the ongoing harassment and intimidation of journalists and media executives in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in north-eastern Somalia. On May 25, the governor of Eyn region in Puntland ordered the arrest of journalist Ali Osman of the Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in Buhodle District. The...

Guinea's media regulator, the National Communication Council (CNC), has suspended La Croisade, a privately-owned Conakry-based newspaper, for two months for publishing an alleged falsehood. The newspaper, suspended on May 19, will be out of circulation until July 19, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has reported. In addition, the newspaper's managing editor, Fadjimba Sayon Keita, has...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of The Zimbabwean On Sunday newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of May 24, and a freelance reporter was attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare. "These attacks must not remain unpunished", the press freedom organisation said. "Since the March 29...