News

Reporters Without Borders today condemned death threats made against five journalists in the northwestern province of Tocache by Sergio Gonzales Apaza, the leader of the “Saúl Guevara Díaz” group of cocaleros (coca growers). The cocaleros have been on strike since 2 November in protest against the eradication of their crops by the government, which accuses them of cooperating with drug traffickers...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders regrets that Iran continues to snub appeals from the international community on human rights, as one journalist was imprisoned and two publications suspended. "Less than a week after the European Parliament passed a resolution urging Iran to respect its "obligations in line with international norms and instruments on human rights", Yaghoub Salaki Nia was...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 5 November 2007, twelve journalists from the town of Tocache, in San Martín region, northeastern Peru, asked the local government for protection and filed a complaint with the Provincial Prosecutor's Office after receiving threats. Sergio Gonzáles Zapata, head of the coca growers' association "Saúl Guevara Díaz", apparently threatened the journalists during an association meeting...

(CESO-IFJ/IFEX) - On 6 November 2007, at 10:30 a.m. (local time), after she finished her programme on Sensación Estéreo community radio station, journalist Olga Bru received two threatening phone calls warning her she would be sorry if she stayed in the Caribbean coastal town of Coveñas, located in the department of Sucre. This is not the first time Bru has been threatened. In October 2006, when...

(CMFR/IFEX) - A gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle shot at two "block time" radio broadcasters after they emerged from their radio station on 25 October 2007 in Digos, Davao del Sur, a province approximately 680 kilometres south of Manila. The Philippines had its baranggay (village) elections on 29 October. "Block timing" is a widespread practice in radio broadcasting in the Philippines, where...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the outcome of the trial of Abdel Fattah Ould Abeidna, managing editor of the privately-owned paper "al-Aqsa", sentenced, on 7 November 2007, to one year in jail for "false accusation" of a businessman whom he accused him without proof of being a drug-trafficker. The editor, who is currently out of the country, has decided to appeal against his...

(CMFR/IFEX) - A radio journalist claimed that he was attacked in his broadcast booth by a local politician, his wife and their daughter on 24 October 2007 in Compostela Valley. The broadcaster was on air at the time. Compostela Valley is a province approximately 900 kilometres south of Manila. Roel Sembrano said he was in the middle of his radio show "Ang Haring Lungsod, Ikaw Nasayod" ("Nation...

(FNJ/IFEX) - The body of murdered journalist Birendra Kumar Shah was found at around 2:00 p.m. (local time) on 8 November 2007 in Dumarwana village, near Tangiya colony in Bara district, about 160 kilometres south of Kathmandu. Binod Pyakurel, president of FNJ's Bara district chapter, said the police administration informed him that the body was found buried at a place called Bhaimathghat in the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemns the action of the Afghan authorities in holding three journalists for two days after they visited an area controlled by the Taliban in the south of the country. The three journalists - Abdul Wadood Hejran of the privately-owned TV station Ariana, Aziz Ahmad Tassal of the journalists' organisation IWPR and BBC stringer Aziz Ahmad Shafe - were arrested...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the death sentence for Kurdish-Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour for "spying." The ruling was issued on 22 October 2007, but was not revealed until this week. The court quashed the conviction of another journalist convicted in the same case, Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar, on the grounds of procedural...