News

(MISA/IFEX) - The Mozambican chapter of MISA welcomes the decision by the Supreme Court to reject the appeals made by the six men who were found guilty in January 2003 of the murder of the country's top investigative reporter, Carlos Cardoso. Three of the six - Vicente Ramaya, and the brothers Momade Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini") and Ayob Abdul Satar - are business figures. Ramaya was manager of a...

(MFWA/IFEX) - Journalists from five international media organizations and a local counterpart were on 20 February 2007 chased out of a meeting by the Battalion Autonome de la Securite Presidentielle (BASP), guards of General Lansana Conte. Two of the guards threatened the journalists with guns. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reported that the security men stationed at...

New York, February 22, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the fate of Vladimir Chugunov, founder and editor of the independent weekly Chugunka, who has been imprisoned since January 21, according to his family and the independent Moscow daily Novaya Gazeta. Chugunov was summoned to police headquarters in Solnechnogorsk, 40 miles (64 kilometers) north-west of...

(CJES/IFEX) - Bailiffs seized the property of Georgy Borodyansky, a reporter for the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", in Omsk on 14 February 2007, the radio station Ekho Moskvy reported. The seizure was made on the orders of the Omsk Kuibyshevsky District Court, which ruled in favour of the lawsuit filed by Omsk region's governor, Leonid Polezhayev, against "Novaya Gazeta" and Borodyansky in mid-January...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed concern over government decisions in both Pakistan and Afghanistan which will potentially jeopardise advancements made towards free and democratic media in these countries. Afghan media laws are set to be reviewed over the next month, which, according to reported statements by parliamentarians, will result in firmer...

(RSF/IFEX) - "Vitebsky Kurier", an independent biweekly based in the northeastern city of Vitebsk, appealed to the commercial Supreme Court on 20 February 2007 against an order issued by a lower court on 12 January under which it should be evicted from its premises on 23 February, Reporters Without Borders has learned from Zanna Popova, the head of the company that publishes the newspaper. The...

New York, February 22, 2007—Unidentified gunmen fired shots outside the offices of the Cali-based bimonthly publication La Razón on Tuesday, injuring three people. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether the incident was an attack against the paper’s director, Édgar Buitrago Rico, who had been threatened with death. At 3: 45 p.m. on Tuesday, two armed men approached La Razón...

Google has shut down a controversial blog because of threats posted on the site Wednesday against New Zealand Green MP Sue Bradford. A Google official said the US-based giant had previously censored postings that breached its terms of service but had now closed the site permanently because of "repeat violations". With New Zealand's so-called anti-smacking bill, which would make it an offence for...

Two months after announcing new controls on the foreign press in Cuba, the island's government has kicked out a reporter for The Chicago Tribune and given him 90 days to leave the island, the paper reported today. Veteran journalist Gary Marx has reported from the paper's Havana bureau since 2002. The Tribune is one of a handful of U.S.-based news organizations with permission to work in Cuba. '...

When it comes to the fight for journalistic integrity, decisive battles are not often played out on the field of the celebrity interview. But recent events led a German pop culture and lifestyle magazine to take a stand on what has become a standard practice in the German press: allowing a subject to a chance to "authorize" -- and often revise -- an interview before it appears in print. 'Shocked...