News

Reporters Without Borders energetically condemns the sentence of a year in prison or “optional” fine of 1,850 dollars (1,375 euros) which a magistrate’s court in the town of Kanifing today imposed on reporter Lamin Fatty for getting facts wrong in a story for the now banned, privately-owned biweekly The Independent. “Fatty was already held illegally for two months in this case,” the press freedom...

In her newsroom in Afghanistan's only independent news agency, Pajhwok, Farida Nekzad sits worrying about information-gathering. Greater curbs from government and greater threats to her reporters have made her task more difficult. Earlier this month she compered a function on world press freedom day when Ajmal Naqshbandi's father limped onto the stage on crutches to receive an honour on behalf of...

(FNJ/IFEX) - On 29 May 2007, Daya Ram Dahal, a Jhapa district-based journalist with "Janaganatantra Daily" and "Janabidroha Radio", was arrested by Indian security personnel at Mechi Bridge. The bridge connects India and Jhapa district in eastern Nepal. Dahal was detained as he was reporting Bhutanese refugees' "long march" to their homeland via India. The Indian government has filed a writ...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, June 5, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on prosecutors in the Kazakh financial capital, Almaty, to rescind their decision to close the Web sites of the weekly newspaper Karavan and the online news agency Kazakhstan Today. On Monday, the prosecutor general ordered the indefinite closure of Karavan's Web site for a May 18 article headlined "Chronicle of...

An obscure Islamist group has threatened to behead female television broadcasters if they do not wear strict Islamic dress. The threat to "cut throats from vein to vein" was delivered by the Righteous Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops. The new threat was the first time the organisation targeted a specific group...

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets after the Pakistan government blocked three private television news channels. Geo TV, Ary one TV, and Aaj TV said they had been kept off air because of their coverage of the political crisis over Musharraf's March 9 ouster of the country's chief justice, according to news reports. President Pervez Musharraf Monday imposed fresh curbs on the electronic...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is shocked to learn of the cold-blooded murder of an Afghan reporter last week. Ms Shokiba Sanga Amaaj, a reporter and presenter for the Pashtu-language channel, Shamshad TV, was shot by unknown gunmen at her home on the night of June 1. Her father has informed IFJ sources in Kabul that he is unaware of any possible motive for the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has welcomed amendments to the press and publications law that were approved on 28 May 2007 by the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council), the upper house of the Bahraini parliament. If the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, approves the amendments, press offences will no longer be punishable by imprisonment. "Three years ago, the lower house rejected an...

(RSF/IFEX) - Madrid investigating judge Santiago Pedraz announced on 24 May 2007 that he has rejected an appeal by the prosecutor's office against his decision to indict three US soldiers for the murder of Spanish cameraman José Couso, who was killed when a US tank shelled the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003. Prosecutor Jesús Alonso had appealed against the indictment on the grounds...

(MFWA/IFEX) - Abdel Fettah Ould Abeidna, managing editor of "Al-Aqsa", a daily Arabic-language newspaper, was granted bail on 28 May 2007 by a Nouakchott court after spending four days in prison for allegedly defaming a businessman, Mohamed Ould Bouammatou. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reported that the journalist had been granted bail to allow for further...