News

(IMI/IFEX) - On 23 May 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence delivered by Luhansk regional court of law against the murderers of journalist Ihor Aleksandrov. The General Prosecutor's Office had asked the sentence to be reconsidered as they held that the prison terms, ranging from three to 15 years, were too soft a punishment for the killers, Oleksandre and Dmytro Rybak, Oleksandr Onyshko...

(CJES/IFEX) - On 21 June 2007, Mikhail Afanasyev, editor of the website Novy Fokus, was found guilty of slander and insulting a police officer under Articles 129 and 319 of the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced by an Abakan court (Republic of Khakassiya) to a fine of 50,000 rubles (approx. US$2,000). The charges stem from a lawsuit filed in September 2006 by Natalya Sunchugasheva, former senior...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - A reporter at a government-run radio station was fatally shot on a southern island Monday, the latest victim in a string of killings of journalists in the Philippines, a colleague and officials said. Vicente Sumalpong died of gunshot wounds in a hospital in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi after two gunmen on a motorbike fired at him while he was picking up his...

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Clad in what appeared to be an explosive vest, kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston warned Sunday that his captors would turn their hideout into a "death zone" if any rescue attempt is made. "I do appeal to the Hamas movement and the British government not -- not -- to resort to the tactics of force in an effort to end this," Johnston said in a video clip released by his...

New Delhi, June. 23 (PTI): The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) today condemned the attack on the office of Malayalam daily ‘Mathrubhumi’ and asked the government to take urgent steps to bring the culprits to book. Reacting with “shock and horror” to the attack on the Mathrubhumi office, INS President Hormusji N Cama said, “if criminal elements and miscreants are allowed to get away with...

BUDAPEST, June 23 (Reuters) - A Hungarian journalist, who had reported on the illegal oil dealings of the 1990s, has been beaten and is in hospital with life-threatening injuries, national news agency MTI reported on Saturday. A spokesman for Budapest police told Reuters an angler had found a woman bound up on Friday night by the Danube river and she was taken to hospital with life-threatening...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which represents about 600,000 journalists around the world, is marking Sunday as a global day of solidarity with Iraqi journalists to highlight the increasing danger and uncertainty their colleagues face as the conflict in Iraq worsens. “In these dark and dangerous days, the journalists of Iraq are showing great courage and professionalism in...

COLOMBO, June 22 (Xinhua ) -- An international media freedom delegation said here Friday that journalists in Sri Lanka have become increasingly under threat in the environment of violence in the island's separatist armed conflict. The International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission, consisted of some 11 international media freedom organizations, highlighted the unhealthy culture of...

A documentary about the Air India tragedy, which took place 22 years ago this Saturday, is set to begin filming next month. To be called Flight 182, the film will be directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, who also helmed Beowulf & Grendel. CBC-TV has commissioned the two-hour documentary, which will include interviews with people involved in the events, Gunnarsson and her producer, David York, announced...

You can't tell the players without a scorecard, and today The Audit will spell out where the economic interests of business-side and news-side executives at Dow Jones & Co. and its prized asset, The Wall Street Journal, stand in regard to the News Corp. bid. Basically, the interests of key figures both at DJ and, unusually, at the WSJ are geared toward a sale, and not just a sale, but a sale to...