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The Malaysian government’s decision to suspend a newspaper for a month over printing a picture of Jesus smoking is being seen as a blow for free speech A woman walks past a newspaper stall in Kuala Lumpur in 2004. The Malaysian government's decision to temporarily shut down a newspaper for printing a picture of Jesus smoking is a blow for free speech, opposition leaders and a media watchdog said....

Hamas is planning to enforce a 12-year-old Palestinian press law designed to silence dissident journalists amid a crackdown that has raised fierce protests from the local media. "We are all bound by this 1995 press law, and its articles carry the force of the law," said a statement from what was described as Hamas's "information ministry" in the Gaza Strip, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to explain why Gérard M. Manzi, the editor of the privately-owned weekly Umuseso, has been held since 22 August on a charge of raping an unidentified young girl despite having an alibi supported by many witnesses. “The charges brought against Manzi are so improbable that it seems a crude attempt was made to frame him,” the press freedom...

Less than a week after a Radio-Canada journalist was seriously injured in Afghanistan, the Canadian military has announced new requirements for journalists embedded with soldiers there. Journalists covering the mission will start wearing dogtags for identification, just like soldiers. Military officials said Monday the dogtags would help make identification easier if journalists are killed while...

Ten suspects have been arrested in the October 2006 assassination in Moscow of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika told reporters Monday that the detained suspects include current and former police and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, along with members of a criminal gang that “specialises in contract killings” and is led by a Chechen crime...

New York, August 28 2007— A court in Cameroon’s northwestern town of Kumbo sentenced in absentia, on August 13, the publisher of a small English-language newspaper to a year in prison, according to the national secretary of the Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union. The sentence was related to alleged press offenses by the newspaper, which published a series of stories claiming corruption in the local...

Who's the Google of social networking sites? The obvious answer may seem to be Facebook, given its rapid growth, successful cooperation with application developers, and ever-smarter ad targeting. But by some measures, the real answer is even more obvious: Google itself. This week, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) is drawing attention to its often-ignored social networking site, Orkut.com...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A translator for CBS News in Iraq has been found dead after being abducted from his home by eight to 10 armed men a week ago, CBS said on Monday. Anwar Abbas Lafta, an Iraqi who had worked for CBS News for 10 months, was abducted on the evening of August 20 by men who entered his home, fought with him and his brother and shot his sister in the arm, CBS said in a statement. His...

Hamas is planning to enforce a 12-year-old Palestinian press law designed to silence dissident journalists amid a crackdown that has raised fierce protests from the local media. "We are all bound by this 1995 press law, and its articles carry the force of the law," said a statement from what was described as Hamas's "information ministry" in the Gaza Strip, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

Artist Lars Vilks has made three drawings ridiculing the prophet Mohammed. The prophet is portrayed as a “roundabout dog”. So far three art exhibitions have declined to publish his pictures. The Art Association in Tällerud said no. Then the school Gerlesborgsskolan in the county of Bohuslän said no. Now the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm has also said no. This is unacceptable self-censorship. A...