News

(FNJ/IFEX) - Bhasa Sharma, treasurer of FNJ's Baglung district chapter, was attacked by a group of youths led by Khim Bahadur Purja, of Sukhaura village, Baglung district, in central Nepal, on 23 October 2007. The group broke into Sharma's house at night and beat her. They also attacked her with a "khukuris" - a sharp weapon. Her mother, Harimaya Sharma, and brother, Pawan, sustained injuries in...

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police on Tuesday filed the charge sheet against the reporter, Prakash Singh, who had allegedly carried out a fake sting operation in which a female school teacher was purportedly shown to be involved in a prostitution racket. Prakash’s co-accused Virender Arora has also been named in the charge sheet. In the charge sheet filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate...

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the continuing threats to Claudia Julieta Duque, a UNICEF consultant and correspondent of Radio Nizkor (a station operated by the human rights group Equipo Nizkor), and about government doubts as to whether she should continue to receive special protection. On 29 August, an interior ministry offshoot, the Committee for Risk Evaluation and...

New York, October 31, 2007—Haitian authorities must fully investigate multiple death threats made against prominent journalist and press freedom advocate Joseph Guyler Delva, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. “We call on Haitian authorities to conduct a speedy and thorough investigation into the threats against Joseph Guyler Delva and to bring all those responsible to justice,” said...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of Americans surveyed said it should be illegal for a company to own both a newspaper and a television station in the same market, a coalition of consumer and telecommunications advocacy groups said on Wednesday. The Media and Democracy Coalition released its survey the same day the Federal Communications Commission was due to hold a public meeting on media...

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the suspended sentence of two months in prison passed by Casablanca court yesterday on AIC Press agency director Mourad Bourja for “disrespect for agent of the state in the exercise of his duties.” “Judicial harassment of the Moroccan press since the start of the year has dispelled any illusions about the government’s talk of a political opening,”...

Reporters Without Borders calls on the government to redouble its efforts to obtain the release of Birendra Shah, a journalist who was kidnapped in the Bara region on 5 October. “The authorities and the leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) must do everything possible to ensure that Birendra Shah is rescued,” the organisation said. “The absence of any news about Shah is very...

(APG/IFEX) - Since 24 October 2007, journalists Enrique Castañeda and Hilda Mérida, of the morning newspaper "El Periódico", have been receiving death threats. They believe the threats are in response to an investigation they have been carrying out in recent weeks of members of the Patriot Party (Partido Patriota, PP) who have been publicly linked to organised crime in the country. The PP's...

(JED/IFEX) - Eleven journalists working for various media outlets in Kinshasa were briefly detained and beaten, on 30 October 2007, in Kinshasa/Kasa-Vubu, by the police while covering an "unauthorised" demonstration of the opposition. According to information obtained by Journaliste en danger (JED), this demonstration organised by two members of the Union for the Nation (UN, Union pour la Nation...

(Adil Soz/IFEX) - The International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech "Adil Soz" expresses its deep concern over the recent mass repression against independent media in Kazakhstan. Websites http://www.zonakz.net, http://www.geo.kz, http://www.kompromat.kz and internet radio station http://www.inkar.info remain blocked since 23 October 2007. The website http://www.kub.kz was removed...