News

Two close associates of Syed Saleem Shahzad, an Islamabad-based investigative reporter for the Asia Times online newspaper whose dead body was found in Punjab province on 31 May, have given interviews to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) in which they accuse the authorities of showing little interest in investigating his murder. “We voice our support for Shahzad’s...

Haileyesus Worku, the editor of the state-owned Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA), and one of his reporters, Abdulsemed Mohammed, were finally released on bail of 5,000 birr (205 euros) on July 22 after being held for 15 months on charges of illegally selling state-owned news content for personal gain, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The...

An Istanbul court for minors on July 25 passed a sentence of 22 years and 10 months in prison on Ogün Samast after convicting him of being the trigger-man in the January 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink. Aged 17 at the time of the shooting, Samast was also ordered to pay to a fine of 600 Turkish lira (300 euros), Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières...

Auro Ida, a renowned political journalist in the west-central state of Mato Grosso and editor of the Midianews website, was gunned down in Cuiabá, the state capital, on July 22, becoming the fourth journalist to be murdered in Brazil since the start of the year. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) offered its condolences to his family and colleagues, and called on the...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the latest arson attack on a car displaying the colours of the Podgorica-based daily Vijesti on the night of July 23. It was the third such attack on a Vijesti vehicle in the space of a week . In the latest incident, an unidentified individual tried to set fire to a Vijesti car parked on the street but a policeman who...

At least seven journalists covering protests that took place in several cities during the past two days have been attacked by the police in Malawi. Some of the journalists were briefly detained. The government expressly banned radio stations from covering the demonstrations, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We are very disturbed by the particularly...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the closure of the investigations unit at the daily China Economic Times at the behest of the newspaper’s management on July 18 and is concerned about the fate of Wang Keqin, the respected journalist who had run the unit for years, and the five other people in his team. The unit’s closure, which defies all editorial...

Hakimeldostu Mehdiyev, a correspondent of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, has repeatedly been harassed by officials for the past week. It is the latest example of the intolerance that the local authorities show towards the media in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and Iran, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans...

While hailing Tunisia’s progress in respect for civil liberties, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is disturbed by the violence that the security forces deliberately used against journalists during a demonstration in central Tunis on July 15 and by the fact that the Prime Minister Béji Caïd Essebsi held the media partly responsible July 18 for the current social and...

There has been a sharp decline in relations between the government and the media in Senegal amid a wave of protests against President Abdoulaye Wade, who announced on July 14 in Dakar that he planned to “keep hold of the helm come hell or high water.” Harassment of the Walfadjri media group has intensified in the past month or so. Four journalists with the daily Walfadjri l’Aurore were summoned to...