News

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned last week’s seizure of all 40,000 copies of Izvestia Kaliningrada, a weekly published in Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad. It was the latest example of regional governors abusing their power to silence media that annoy them. “We are disturbed to see this form of censorship used more than once in a short space of...

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a threat in a phone call to the chairman of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge, on July 19 because of an article reporting that China had given the president and his son, parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, money to be used “at their discretion.” “We are extremely shocked that the president personally phones journalists in order to threaten them.” Paris...

NATO carried out airstrikes on the Tripoli headquarters of the state-owned national TV broadcaster Al-Jamahiriya and two of its installations on July 30. According to Al-Jamahiriya, three of its journalists were killed and 21 others were wounded in the airstrikes but this could not be immediately verified. The impossibility of immediate verification is yet another reminder of the difficulty of...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has caleld for a swift and thorough probe into the July 31 arson attack on the home of Oleksiy Matsuka, a well-known investigative journalist based in the eastern city of Donetsk. Matsuka edits the regional news website Novosti Donbassa. “The authorities must react with firmness and, as this journalist’s life is clearly in serious...

There has been an increase in threats and acts of intimidation against journalists in the southwestern port city of Karachi. Two TV reporters, Syed Shahryar Asim of Aaj TV and Malik Munawar of Channel 5, have been attacked in connection with their work in the past 10 days alone. “We urge the authorities to break the cycle of violence and impunity by investigating both of these cases thoroughly...

A savage attack was carried out July 29 on Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, 59, the editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan, who was beaten by unidentified men with iron bars in the northern city of Jaffna. He was rushed to hospital, where he was in a critical condition with serious head injuries and still unconscious. “We demand a rapid and thorough investigation into this appalling crime,” Paris...

Ahamad Omid Khpalwak, a reporter for the BBC and the Afghan news agency Pajhwok, was killed July 28 during Taliban attacks on several buildings in Tarin Kot, the capital of the southern province of Oruzgan. Khpalwak was in one of the targeted buildings, the provincial headquarters of the national radio and TV station. “We offer our condolences to Khpalwak’s family and friends,” Paris-based press...

There has been a series of attacks, threats and demonstrations since mid-June targeting the Agence France-Presse bureau in Amman and its chief, Randa Habib, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The protests against AFP in Amman have taken a disturbing turn, with the demonstrators using threats and violence,” RSF said. “Intimidation attempts of this kind...

Riven by conflicts between influential groups, Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. The Taliban, politicians and religious leaders are all guilty of press freedom violations and attacks on journalists. The violations take many forms including threats, physical attacks, arbitrary detentions, abusive trials and convictions, and kidnapping. The violence against...

The discovery of the body of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a crime reporter and columnist for the regional daily Notiver on July 26 in the east-coast port city of Veracruz, adds her name to the long list of journalists who have been murdered or have disappeared in Mexico. A total of 77 have been killed since 2000 and 23 have gone missing since 2003. According to a Paris-based press freedom group...