News

Globo TV programme host Julio Ernesto Alvarado will now be able to avoid serving a 16-month jail sentence by paying a fine of 10 lempiras a day (for a total of 246 US dollars) but the Supreme Court of Justice could still ban him from working as a journalist during the 16-month period. The court imposed the sentence on Alvarado last December after finding him guilty of criminally defaming Belinda...

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ruled that Burkina Faso failed to properly investigate the 1998 murder of Norbert Zongo, the editor of the Ouagadougou-based weekly L’Indépendant. The burned bodies of Zongo and three other people were found in a car on December 13, 1998. At the time of his death, Zongo had been investigating the suspicious death in prison of David Ouédraogo...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned an attack early April 3 on Adrián López Ortiz, general director of the Grupo Noroeste, a media group that owns the daily Noroeste, in the state of Sinaloa. CPJ also expressed alarm at a series of threats and harassment against the paper in recent weeks and called on authorities to bring those responsible to justice. "The Mexican authorities must...

An independent paper, the Assandi Times, was suspended indefinitely in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned recent measures taken by Kazakh authorities to shut down independent news outlets in the country. Three court marshals in Almaty raided the offices of the Assandi Times and ordered the journalists to stop working, accusing the...

Sudanese security forces have carried out routine attacks on the country’s newspapers through confiscations of press runs in an apparent attempt to financially cripple independent media. Journalists and human rights advocates have told the International Press Institute that the seizure of newspapers has gone on for months but has intensified in recent weeks with no public explanation given. â...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the European and African Heads of State attending the Africa-EU Summit in Brussels on April 2 to include the continuous imprisonment of journalists in many African states in their discussions. In an open letter sent to the leaders in attendance, the IFJ said that in order to foster long term development in African states a free and...

Two Spanish journalists held more than six months in Syria arrived home Sunday, Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported. El Mundo staff correspondent Javier Espinosa and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova embraced family and friends during a joyous reunion on the tarmac of the Torrejon de Ardoz military airport in Madrid. Javier Espinosa, a veteran correspondent for the Spanish daily El...

Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern at a bill amending article 1087.1 of the civil code that Armenia’s parliament is to debate on Monday. It would hold media responsible for comments posted on their websites and for content they reproduce from elsewhere on the Internet. The parliamentarians who drafted the amendments say their goal is to combat the spread of defamatory or insulting...

The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) has expressed shock at the reported gangrape of a female journalist in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The journalist was reportedly abducted by three persons after she had visited the Ashtabhuja temple to do a story on historic temples of the Vidyachal region. The NWMI expressed support and solidarity to the colleague who suffered...

A female woman journalist from Uttarakhand was abducted and raped by two persons in Vindhyachal area of Mirzapur district, the police said Friday. The incident occurred when the victim had gone to Ahstabhuja hill Thursday evening, DIG Vindhyachal range R K Srivastava said, according to the Indian Express newspaper. A case has been registered and one of the accused arrested. Efforts are on to...