News

Reporters Without Borders condemned judicial harassment of the Arabic-language daily “Al Watan Al An” on 24 July 2007, after the Casablanca prosecutor’s office released its editor, Abderrahim Ariri, but sent one of his reporters, Mostapha Hurmatallah, to Okacha prison pending trial. Arrested on 17 July after publishing a leaked internal security memo, both have been charged with “receiving...

The Senate Commerce Committee has passed a strict bill that would allow the FCC to penalize and/or fine a radio or television station for a single word or image found to violate the agency's indecency regulations. The bill, titled the "Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act," was introduced by Democratic Senators John D. Rockefeller and Mark Pryor, and was cosponsored by Committee...

New Delhi, July 24: The national wage boards for working journalists and non-working journalists of newspapers and news agencies will hold their first meeting at Kochi in Kerala on August two. During the meeting, the boards will meet representatives of newspaper establishments, working journalists, non-journalist newspaper employees and other stakeholders interested in the fixation/ revision of...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the release of journalist Mohammad Asif Nang, but renewed its call for the government to provide a legally justified explanation for why Nang was detained. Nang, the chief editor of Peace Jirga magazine, was held in detention by security officials for 13 days after reportedly publishing an article that angered the Afghan...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Korean government's plans to restrict journalists' access to information by closing all but three of their press rooms in government offices. IFJ affiliate the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) has refused to accept the proposal amid mounting criticism of the plans, but the government has vowed to go ahead with...

NEW YORK: Two journalists working for a British tabloid newspaper were arrested Tuesday after trying to plant a fake bomb on a train, the newspaper said. The Daily Mirror said the men were caught by railway staff at the Stonebridge Park depot on the London Underground's Bakerloo line. The staff called police, and the men were arrested. The newspaper said the men were engaged in a "legitimate and...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The English-language Bangkok Post newspaper must reinstate an editor who was fired for a controversial report two years ago on the construction of Bangkok's new international airport, Thailand's Labor Court ruled Tuesday. Sermsuk Kasitipradit reported in a front-page story _ citing an unidentified source _ that U.S. aviation experts told the Thai government the new airport...

KANO, Nigeria: Niger's government is struggling to control information about a nascent rebellion in its northern desert — suspending local media accused of backing the fighters and banning foreign reporters from the area. The rebels, though, have a Web site and satellite phones. The Niger Movement for Justice started a campaign against the government early this year. They charge that the...

Authorities in Iran's northwestern Kurdistan Province have condemned two ethnic Kurdish journalists to death for acting against the country's national security, according to delayed reports. Journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar were sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on July 16. Hassanpour worked for the magazine...

New York, July 23, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for greater transparency in the arrest of a Chinese reporter accused of fabricating news. Police arrested Beijing TV reporter Zi Beijia last week and are holding him in criminal custody following accusations that he faked a report on contaminated steamed buns, according to state news reports. “Whether or not Zi Beijia was guilty of...