News

(CEPET/IFEX) - Miguel Domínguez Gallegos, the "Reforma" newspaper correspondent in Reynosa, a city in Tamaulipas state, was verbally attacked by Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, the acting mayor of the city, which is located in Mexico's northeast. The incident took place during an 11 November 2007 event at which local members of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN)...

(FXI/IFEX) - The Freedom of Expression Institute is disturbed by the growing number of violations of the freedom of expression of workers. Four cases have been brought to the FXI's attention of workers who are either being disciplined for utterances they have made, or who have already been dismissed. These cases point to a growing trend where attempts are being made by employers to silence...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - On 17 November 2007, three journalists from the "Voice of Peace" newspaper in Kampong Thom province were arrested for alleged theft after they took pictures of an illegal farm rearing snakehead fish in the district of Kampong Svay, Kampong Thom province, bordering Tonle Sap (Great Lake). Thorng Channa, 45, Lim Thau, 35, and Pen Rithy, 32, were out on bail the same day, thanks to the...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - A photographer from a local daily was allegedly assaulted by members of the dominant ruling political party, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), while covering a press conference organised by an opposition Member of Parliament on 16 November 2007. Koh Chun Seng, 27, a photographer with the Chinese-language "Guangming Daily", claimed he was attacked for taking pictures of two...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - The Cambodian Ministry of Information has confiscated a new magazine for allegedly violating the constitutional provision protecting the monarchy, though local reports said other "sensitive" articles featured in the magazine could have triggered the action. Authorities in the capital city and Battambang province seized all 2,000 copies of the inaugural issue of monthly "Free Press...

(BIANET/IFEX) - The Gendarmerie Public Order Corps Command Military Court in Van, in southeast Turkey, has put in place a broadcast and print ban concerning the investigation of the eight soldiers taken hostage by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on 21 October 2007 and released two weeks later. The decision was also announced on the website of the Radio and Television Supreme Commission (RTÜK)...

(BIANET/IFEX) - Following a complaint of the General Staff, "Sabah" journalist Umur Talu was investigated for an article in which he had reported on the dissatisfaction of sergeants within the army. Now Istanbul Press Prosecutor Nurten Altinok has decided to drop proceedings against the journalist. In his decision, he said: "(The author) had stated that, as part of the journalistic profession and...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has called on all participants in next summer’s Beijing Olympics — the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors and other partners — to "exert serious pressure" on China to hold the government to its promises of reform. A pedestrian walks past a banner promoting 2008 Olympic Games tickets in Beijing, April 2007. Massive demand caused the Beijing...

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti and two newspaper associations — the Catalan Newspaper Association in Spain and the European Association of Daily Newspapers in Minority and Regional Languages — have joined the World Association of Newspapers, which groups 77 publishers associations and 18,000 newspapers world-wide. The three organisations were formally admitted at a meeting of the WAN Board in...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has appointed IPI Deputy Director David Dadge as the new director of IPI. He will succeed Professor Johann P Fritz, who is retiring at the end of 2007. Dadge (41) has worked at the IPI secretariat in Vienna, Austria, since April 2000 as the editor of the IPI World Press Freedom Review and the press freedom advisor for Africa. Dadge specialises in security...