News

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday announced the setting up of a media commission for safety and security of journalists in Pakistan, the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), has reported. “This commission will propose measures to be adopted by the government to protect journalists in the field and to ensure their well being,” an official statement quoting the PM as saying during...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Rwandan government’s lack of transparency and its unacceptable acts of harassment and intimidation of journalists with the aim of suppressing freedom of information and independent reporting. Rwandan journalists have been the victims of the government’s harassment for years, but the targets have for some also included foreign journalists, especially...

A security guard, Kemba Azizi (26), has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for assaulting a Red Pepper journalist, Solomon Hamala, in Uganda, the Human Rights Network for Journalists - Uganda has reported. "Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. I therefore find the accused guilty of assault contrary to Section 236 of the Penal Code Act and since he has been remorseful...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have brought together the representatives of their Ukrainian affiliates, Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine (IMTUU) and the National Union of the Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), and their Russian affiliates, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), for a roundtable meeting in Brussels where they...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the March 19 attack on two senior media executives in Hong Kong by four masked men armed with metal bars. The executives work for Hong Kong Media News, which is preparing to launch a Chinese-language newspaper, and have been identified in reports as Lei Iun-han, director and vice-president, and Lam Kin-ming, news controller. The two sought...

Journalists and editors in Samoa need to overcome their industry differences if they are to have any hope of ensuring plans for a Media Council do not suffer political interference, the Pacific Freedom Forum has warned. "Unity is key," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi. "Whatever professional and personal differences exist between the media players in Samoa, they need to find common ground in the fact that...

Authorities in Swaziland should immediately release Bheki Makhubu, editor of the independent newsmagazine The Nation, and Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer, who were imprisoned earlier this week in connection with articles published in The Nation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Swaziland's Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi issued an arrest warrant for Makhubu and Maseko on...

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union and industry advocate for Australia's journalists, has welcomed the decision by Justice Janine Pritchard in the West Australian Supreme Court to order Gina Rinehart's company Hancock Prospecting to pay the legal costs incurred by senior Fairfax Media journalist and MEAA Media member Adele Ferguson. Rinehart, who has the largest individual...

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has decried security forces’ mounting prosecution of anti-government journalists in Egypt, as well as harassing them for the purpose of muzzling voices of dissent. On March 17, security forces apprehended Mohamed Madni, Misr 25 channel correspondent in Alexandria. Prior to his arrest, security forces had invaded his house, and then took him...

The Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has filed 60 Right to Information (RTI) requests to know about the progress and status of the cases of journalists murdered across the country in the line of duty during 2002-2013. In a statement issued, Secretary General PPF, Owais Aslam Ali said that Pakistan was among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and violence against journalists...