News

(MFWA/IFEX) - On 26 March 2007, Thierry Nabyoure, a journalist with the privately-owned, Ouagadougou-based newspaper "San Finna", was detained by police for allegedly defaming Colonel Mamadou Traoré, chief of staff of the National Gendarmerie. Thierry was forced to disclose his source of information and explain his motive. MFWA's correspondent reported that Nabyoure was released on 27 March after...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, April 2, 2007 - A criminal court in the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, today sentenced to prison the president of a private press group, who has been jailed since March 12 in connection with statements critical of the governmental High Communication Council (HCC), according to news reports. Michel Alkhaly Ngady - who heads a group of private press editors known...

Omar Mestiri, the editor of the opposition online newspaper Kalima , is the victim of judicial harassment, Reporters Without Borders said today of a libel suit that could result in a three-year prison sentence. The organisation also called on the authorities to stop blocking the video-sharing site Dailymotion, which has been inaccessible in Tunisia since 1 April. “The lawsuit against Mestiri is...

DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say. "I support al-Jazeera because al-Jazeera has done more to propagate democracy in the Middle East region than anybody else, certainly more than the American government has done," media specialist Hugh Miles told IPS. "It's strange to me that...

Thai media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul has been sentenced to two years in prison for slandering a government official during a live television broadcast on in November 2005. A Bangkok criminal court on Thursday last sentenced Sondhi in relation to comments he made on November 25, 2005 on his popular Muang Thai Rai Supda television talk show which accused former Deputy Transport Minister Phumtham...

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya will be psthumously awarded the prestigious 2007 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. This is the first time the honour has been bestowed posthumously in its 10-year history. Politkovskaya was killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006. Anna Politkovskaya Kavi Chongkittavorn, President of...

Afghan interpreter and freelance journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi kidnapped by the Taliban a month ago has appealed to President Hamid Karzai to release three junior Taliban members to secure his freedom, Reuters has reported. Naqshbandi made the appeal to Karzai 10 days after an Italian journalist who was captured with him was freed following the release of five senior members of the Taliban. “You...

Tools designed to allow users to upload content to news sites are making web publishers increasingly vulnerable to computer hacking, according to a report. The trend for uploading users' text, photos and videos has created more opportunity for hackers, who can hide viruses or malicious software in seemingly innocent files, according to the research by security consultancy the NCC Group. NCC Group...

The trickle of foreign money into India’s print media sector is fast turning into a flood. India’s economic growth story is attracting foreign money into its print media sector. Earlier this week, the India Today Group, with interests in magazine publishing and television channels, entered into a joint venture agreement with Associated Newspapers that publishes the Daily Mail in the UK to launch a...

Suddenly the media scene seems to be undergoing a dramatic metamorphosis in Agra, all to the advantage of the readers who have many more choices now. A new mid-day daily tabloid called DLA has finally entered Agra’s media ‘mandi’ with a bang, leading to intense competitive war with all kinds of innovative schemes and discounts. Local journalists never had it so good, with ample opportunities...