News

The air transport office (ATO) prevented aerial news coverage by a local television news network of one of the largest protest rallies against Phillipines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently. ATO declared the air space above Makati City, where the rally was held, a "no fly zone" on February 29, according to the Manila-based Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The news helicopter of...

Blasphemy laws are on their way out of the United Kingdom (UK). The House of Lords voted Wednesday night in favour of abolishing the criminal offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel from the common law. By a vote of 148-87, the lawmakers adopted Amendment 144B to the government-sponsored Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. The full Bill has not yet received final approval from parliament...

Four members of the military police have been in connection with the May 2007 murder of Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho, a journalist based in São Paulo state of Brazil. “These arrests constitute the first step in a victory over impunity, one that could not be taken for granted given that those arrested are police officers,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said in a statement. “It is an...

An Algerian court of appeals has upheld two-month jail terms for two journalists, including a Golden Pen of Freedom laureate, at the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan. The issue of decriminalising defamation in the country is once again back in the limelight. An appeals court, ruling on March 4, upheld defamation convictions against Omar Belhouchet, publisher of El Watan, and columnist...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for the release of Aboubacar Gourouza, the editor of independent bimonthly L’Eveil Plus, after a Niamey court today sentenced him to a month in prison for allegedly “discrediting” a court decision in an article in his newspaper by comparing the decision with one taken in a similar case. “Our concern is mounting as the space for free...

Two journalists employed by Urdu-language Baloch daily Azadi went missing in the Pakistan province of Balochistan within three days of each other, on February 29 and March 3, according to delayed reports received by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The two are feared to have been abducted. “The current deterioration in press freedom in Balochistan has become quite intolerable," Paris-based RSF...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed concern at the safety of tabloid newspaper reporter Jet Sinocruz after death threats were sent to his mobile phone via text message. Sinocruz, a reporter for Abante, received a text message from an unknown sender on his birthday, warning him to enjoy his birthday celebrations as they would be his last. According to the National Union...

The state of emergency which Armenian President Robert Kocharyan proclaimed in capital Yerevan on Saturday last is having a serious impact on the activity of the news media, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. The emergency was declared after clashes between security forces and opposition protesters who say last month’s presidential election was rigged. “This authoritarian decision to liable...

Press freedom violations marred Russia’s presidential election on March 2, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The incidents that occurred during the election are indicative of the nervousness that the authorities feel towards independent journalists,” Paris-based RSF said in a statement. In South Sakhalin, reporter Pavel Abakumov of the weekly Yuzhno Sakhalinsk Tvoya Gazeta was...

Those might have been bad times for press freedon in Pakistan. The number of newspapers and other periodicals in the country has decreased rapidly, but circulation has doubled from 1997 to 2006, the Daily Times has reported. According to a survey conducted by the Statistical Department of Pakistan over a period of ten years, there were 4,455 newspapers and other periodicals in all languages spoken...