News

A Swedish freelance photographer, Lars Björk, was arrested Monday in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara after he took photos of a demonstration by young Sahrawis waving the flag of the pro-independence Polisario Front. During the four hours that Lars Björk was detained in the centre of El Aaiún, his camera and passport were confiscated and he was interrogated for four hours in the city’s main...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed by reports of self-censorship and heavy handed treatment of journalists at Sisa Journal, a major weekly magazine in Korea. According to the Journalists Association of Korea, over the past seven months there has been ongoing conflict between media staff and the magazine's President, Keum Chang-Tae. The conflict started when...

New York, February 21, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns criminal convictions handed down on Friday in Benin against three journalists and an executive of private Golfe media group over a February 2005 story alleging governmental corruption. A court in the capital Cotonou sentenced Golfe media group President Ismael Soumano, former Golfe FM Director Euloge Aïdasso, former Director...

(CMFR/IFEX) - Fifty-two journalists are now facing libel charges from Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Arroyo sued seven staff members of the "Philippine Daily Inquirer", including the publisher and several editors, and demanded P11 million (approx US$220,000) in damages, on 20 February 2007, adding these seven to 45 others he has sued (see IFEX...

CALGARY – The tabloid market in Alberta got more crowded today when Torstar Corp. (TSX: TS.B) and Metro International SA announced the launch of free Metro daily newspapers in Calgary and Edmonton, raising the stakes in a battle with CanWest and Sun Media to attract readers in Canada's rapidly growing energy heartland. The Torstar-Metro announcement comes a day after CanWest MediaWorks...

The Andhra Pradesh police today conducted searches at the office of Margadarsi Financiers, owned by media baron C Ramoji Rao, following allegations of financial irregularities against the firm, according to news reports. Armed with a search warrant issued by a local court, a team of 17 CID officials went to the head office of Margadarsi Financiers at Saifabad here and carried out the search to...

The prosecution in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case today confronted main accused R K Sharma with evidence allegedly linking him as well as the other accused Sri Bhagwan to the murdered journalist, acording to a report in the Delhi Newsline supplement of the Indian Express. Some details of the report: In the court of Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar, the prosecution confronted Sharma with...

US troops raided the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists in central Baghdad and arrested armed 10 guards, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has reported. IFJ condemned as “outrageous and inexcusable” the action of American soldiers who carried out an armed raid on the Baghdad offices of the journalists syndicate. Iraq Syndicate of Journalists chairman Shihab al-Timimi...

Sometimes simply being in the trenches isn't enough to keep up with an industry, especially when one is battling for users and advertisers in the ever-morphing local media business. Newspaper publishers and local TV outlets know it. Now some are transferring their staffers out of the school of hard knocks and sending them back to the books. Ninety editorial and sales people from Lee Enterprises...

New York, February 20, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the severe deterioration in the health of independent journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, 39, who has been imprisoned since 2002. When Binh’s family visited him in Nam Ha prison on February 15, he was so thin and weak that he could not hold a conversation, walk well, or lift his 5-year-old daughter, according to human rights...