News

Freedom of the press and of expression in the hemisphere underwent a marked deterioration in the last six months due to a significant increase in direct and indirect censorship and physical attacks on journalists, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has said. Violence carried out by organised crime, drug traffic hitmen and police-style groups on the orders of several governments of the...

Global support for investigative journalism in Australia and New Zealand is a welcome response to law changes and a police raid, according to the Pacific Freedom Forum. "Particularly welcome is the call from the Freedom of the Press Foundation in the United States for worldwide fundraising for legal defence," said PFF Chair Titi Gabi. PFF is calling on Australia and New Zealand to urgently review...

Nguyen Van Hai, a citizen journalist better known by the blog name of Dieu Cay, was released Tuesday. Reporters Without Borders, however, pointed out that 26 other citizen journalists are still held in Vietnam, the world’s third biggest prison for netizens. The Vietnamese authorities confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Dieu Cay, who had been held since April 19, 2008, was taken to Hanoi’s Noi...

Newspaper publisher Mike Mukebayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been held without any justification for the past two months because of a libel suit. The length of his pre-trial detention is out of all proportion, especially as judicial examination of the case has not yet begun, according to Reporters Without Borders. The publisher of Congo News, Mukebayi was arrested exactly two months...

The Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) has called for swift and decisive action from the Papua New Guinea Police following the abduction and sexual assaults of three female journalists on Monday, October 13. While police say they are 'waiting' for medical findings and talks with the victims to guide their investigation, news reports say that a bus doing evening drop-offs for National Broadcasting...

The Superintendence of Information and Communication (Supercom) sanctioned on October 6 the TV station Canal Uno with two fines, a total of USD 10,200 dollars, and issued a written reprimand for allegedly violating multiple articles of the Communications Law (LOC), concerning the reporting of restricted information about children, teenagers and ethical standards, according to Fundamedios - Andean...

Pablo Medina Velázquez, a Paraguayan journalist who wrote about the country's illegal drug trade, was shot dead on Thursday last along with his assistant, according to news reports. He is the third journalist murdered for his work in Paraguay this year. A regional correspondent for Paraguay's largest independent newspaper, ABC Color, Medina, 53, was returning from a reporting trip outside the...

Three journalists and two publishers were sentenced on Thursday last to two years in prison on anti-state charges in Burma, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists C(PJ) condemned the harsh verdict and calls for their release on appeal. The Pabedan Township Court in Rangoon ruled that Bi Mon Te Nay reporter Kyaw Zaw Hein, editors Win Tin and Aung Thant, and publishers Yin...

After three years of proceedings marked by many irregularities, a court in the southern district of Kalangala has found journalist Ronald Ssembuusi guilty of criminal defamation for mentioning an allegation linking former Kalangala district chairman Daniel Kikoola to the theft of solar panels. The case has revived Reporters Without Borders’ concern about media freedom in Uganda. Ssembuusi is...

Azerbaijani authorities should immediately lift the travel ban imposed on Khadija Ismayilova and cease all legal proceedings against her. Against the backdrop of the unprecedented crackdown on civil society, Khadija Ismayilova’s arrest on criminal defamation charges seems imminent and would confirm the authorities’ intent to silence all critical voices in the country. As part of the...