News

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF condemns the kidnapping of Moussa Gueye, the editor of the privately-owned daily "L'Exclusif", who was arrested, beaten and taken off to an unknown location by plain-clothes police on 8 October 2007 after being lured into a trap. His abduction came just hours after he published a story headlined "President's nighttime escapade." "Such archaic methods do no honour to Senegal," the...

(MISA/IFEX) - On 10 October 2007, "Sunday Times" editor Mbongeni Mbingo was cleared of contempt charges brought against him by the House of Assembly. The Select Committee found that the editor did not in any way abuse freedom of the press, but was legitimately expressing his journalistic opinion. His right to do so is enshrined in the Constitution of Swaziland under the Bill of Rights, Section 24...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has expressed its "astonishment" at "hostile statements" made by information minister, Madobe Numow Mohamed, towards its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), on 3 and 6 October 2007. Madobe Numow Mohamed said in a letter on 3 October, addressed to all international and local non-governmental organizations, that his ministry was the...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea cut Internet connections to a string of ministry press rooms on Thursday, the latest step in a drive to close down what it says are collusive and cosy clubs. The aim of herding Seoul's journalists into a few centralised briefing rooms has provoked outrage in media organisations and brought accusations that the government is trying to muzzle the press. Some reporters...

Two journalists accused Arkansas officials in a lawsuit Friday of violating the state's Freedom of Information Act by withholding information about which government computers were to used to edit entries on the Wikipedia Web site. Arkansas News Editor Kelly P. Kissel and writer Jon Gambrell filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court against Gov. Mike Beebe, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel...

SALT LAKE CITY: A federal judge yesterday rejected the news media’s request for access to the government’s investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said there’s nothing in the Constitution that gives reporters the right to watch interviews or get other access to an active investigation. He denied a request for an injunction. “While it may be true that...

The murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkov­skaya "has been solved," a senior investigator told Politkovskaya's colleagues in an interview in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper this week, as Polit­kovskaya, who was gunned down one year ago last Sunday, was commemorated in Russia and Europe. The investigator added that Politkovskaya was killed for political reasons. "[The murder] has been solved,"...

(JED/IFEX) - Paul Harera Sebikali and Robert Isaur, Ugandan journalists with the independent weekly "The Monitor" published in Kampala (capital of Uganda), were released on 9 October 2007 at 8:00 p.m. (local time), by Colonel Delphin Kayimbi, assistant commander of the 8th Military District in Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu, in eastern DR Congo. No charges were held against them. The...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 10, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the press freedom implications of proposed Australian legislation that would give the federal police commissioner powers to unilaterally block Internet content that he or she "has reason to believe . . . is crime or terrorist related." The Communications Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The European Federation of Journalists, the European group of the International Federation of Journalists, has pledged its full support to journalists' organisations in Moldova in their struggle for a fair and transparent attribution of broadcasting frequencies after the ban of Romanian RTV1 in Moldova. "This ban is simply political manipulation", said EFJ General Secretary Aidan...