News

(FMM/IFEX) - The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply concerned and vigorously condemns the continuous custody of Mawnasamy Parameshwaree, a 23-year-old female freelance journalist working for the weekly Sinhala newspaper "Mawbima" ( http://www.mawbima.org ), who has been in police custody for 60 days without any charges being brought against her. After she appeared in court on 23 January 2007, the...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF today welcomed the international warrant issued by a Madrid judge yesterday for the arrest of three US soldiers for the "murder" of Spanish cameraman José Couso of the privately-owned television station Telecinco, who was killed on 8 April 2003 when a US tank fired a shell at a Baghdad hotel used by the international media. "We hope that judge Santiago Pedraz's decision to issue...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the expulsion of US journalist Phillip Wellman on 19 January 2007 and a decision to ban him from returning to the Maldives for two years on the grounds that his visa was not in order. Wellman works for the office of the news website http://www.Minivannews.com that is located in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. "The Maldivian government's...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF today welcomed the international warrant issued by a Madrid judge yesterday for the arrest of three US soldiers for the “murder” of Spanish cameraman José Couso of the privately-owned television station Telecinco, who was killed on 8 April 2003 when a US tank fired a shell at a Baghdad hotel used by the international media. “We hope that judge Santiago Pedraz’s decision to issue...

(IFEX-TMG) - Hosting the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia, a country where repression of human rights - in particular freedom of expression - is rampant, remains controversial. Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the UN, stated that the holding of the WSIS in Tunisia offered "a good opportunity for the Government of Tunisia to address various...

(PROBIDAD/IFEX) - The Transparency and Access to Public Information Law (Ley de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública), which was approved on 27 November 2006, was published on 30 December, in number 31,193 of "La Gaceta", the official record of Congress, with substantial modifications that may well limit its effectiveness. Some of its articles and definitions seem to imply that the law...

Ryszard Kapuscinski, a globe-trotting journalist from Poland whose writing, often tinged with magical realism, brought him critical acclaim and a wide international readership, died Tuesday in Warsaw. He was 74. His death, at a hospital, was reported by PAP, the Polish news agency for which he had worked. No cause was given, but he was known to have had cancer. Mr. Kapuscinski spent some four...

New York, January 23, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the bomb attack targeting the Gaza City office of the Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiya on Monday night. No causalities were reported, but the office was severely damaged, Al-Arabiya reported. A bomb exploded around 9 p.m. outside the entrance to Al-Arabiya’s office in the Al-Shurouq towers building, which houses...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - As many as 100,000 people filed silently through Istanbul on Tuesday to pay their last respects to Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink, whose murder has stirred debate about the influence of hardline nationalism in Turkey. From early morning, tearful mourners, many holding identical black-and-white signs reading "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all Armenians", gathered...

Reporters Without Borders reiterated his call for the release of journalist and writer Michel Kilo after his trail was postponed for the second time today. A new hearing has been set for 19 February. “Kilo is 67 years old and has now been held for more than nine months awaiting trial,” the press freedom organisation said. “There is no justification for his detention, which seems to be the prelude...