News

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 2, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the recent arrest of freelance writer Lü Gengsong on subversion charges and calls for his immediate release. Lü's wife, Wang Xue'e, received notice on Sunday of her husband's arrest on charges of "inciting subversion of state power," according to Chinese human rights groups and news reports. The notice, from the...

(CEMESP/IFEX) - The Government of Liberia, through the Executive Mansion Press Bureau and the Ministry of Information has imposed what has been described as "media censorship" on the independent media in Liberia. The disclosure was made on 1 October 2007 at the regular press conference hosted by Presidential press Secretary Cyrus Badio. Mr. Badio said his bureau will collaborate with the Ministry...

(FMM/IFEX) - 2nd October 2007, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Free Media Movement (FMM) expresses its serious concern and takes strong exception to recent remarks by the official military spokesperson of the Government and also those published on the Ministry of Defense website naming and shaming journalist Iqbal Athas for his coverage on defense related matters in Sri Lanka. Mr. Athas is the Associate...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - A looming humanitarian crisis in Burma is being exacerbated by the junta's determination to cut all news and information flowing out of the country. At a forum on 1 October 2007 in Bangkok, members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, officers of civil society groups and diplomats from various governments monitoring the situation in Burma were equally helpless in updating...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a campaign of death threats against singer and radio host Karim Sama, which took a disturbing new turn with an arson attack on his car on 28 September in Ouagadougou. Also known as “SAM’S K Le Jah,” Sama hosts a successful programme on privately-owned Ouaga FM in which he often criticises President Blaise Compaoré. The programme is popular outside of...

Reporters Without Borders today accused the Zimbabwean authorities of escalating repression after they arrested two actors and a journalist on the evening of 28 September during the performance of a satirical play about the country’s political situation. “With the privately-owned press already under permanent threat, the police are now targeting the theatre,” the press freedom organisation said....

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the prolonged detention of Syrian journalist Ata Farahat, the Golan Heights correspondent of the daily newspaper Al-Watan and Syrian public televison. The organisation wrote to justice minister Daniel Friedman yesterday requesting his release. “We are all the more concerned as Palestinian journalists have in the past been kept for long periods in...

The Press Complaints Commission has made an example of the Wigan Evening Post and Wigan Observer in its first enforcement of the new rules on reporting suicide. The press watchdog found that the local papers in Greater Manchester breached its voluntary code by breaking Clause 5, which covers intrusion into grief or shock and was amended last year to restrict coverage of suicide. The clause now...

NEW YORK: Editor Joe Cannon of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City defended his decision to attend a conservative policy conference this past weekend that barred media coverage, saying the event was a good place to touch base with sources and local leaders. "Would I do it again? I would do it again," said Cannon, who was criticized by the rival Salt Lake Tribune for the appearance. "I would...

HSBC and the China Charity Foundation celebrated a decade of working together in July, bringing in the global bank's chairman and renting a room in the Great Hall of the People. Organisers of the event extended the charity to Chinese reporters: donating Rmb200 (EUR19.33) to each of those who attended, according to people present. Such payments - called "transport money" by public relations firms -...