News

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about governmental hostility towards the privately-owned media after Chris Ojow, a photographer with the daily "The Nation", was roughed up by President Mwai Kibaki's bodyguards when he tried to take pictures of the president during a Sunday service in church on 7 January 2007. "Every year there are cases of violence against the press in...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, January 9, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that an Iranian journalist has been held in Tehran's Evin Prison for more than 40 days without charge. Ali Farahbakhsh, a former economics and foreign affairs reporter for the banned reformist dailies Yas-e No and Shargh, was detained by security officers after he returned from a civil...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned about the steady erosion of press freedom in Sri Lanka, following reports of the media being denied access to war zones, incidents of self-censorship and intimidation, and news journalists were forced to flee the country out of fear for their safety. "The Sri Lankan media is increasingly struggling to operate freely...

BOGOTA, Colombia: A reporter for a state-controlled television network in Venezuela was released Tuesday from a Colombian jail, almost two months after his arrest for allegedly plotting a series of bomb attacks with leftist rebels, authorities said. Freddy Munoz, a reporter for the Telesur network majority controlled by the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez, was arrested Nov. 19 as...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (January 9, 2007) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed surprise and regret that a convicted murderer of journalist Héctor Félix Miranda in Mexico could be freed from prison before serving his full sentence, a move it called "a new transgression that only increases impunity and does nothing to end the violence that has been unleashed against...

New Delhi, January 7: TEN months back, a Sessions Court acquitted the five accused in the murder of Outlook journalist Irfan for lack of evidence, pointing out that there had been lapses in the investigation. Till now, even as a fresh appeal in the case awaits admission in the High Court, no steps have been recommended against the three police stations connected to the case. The case dates back to...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - Government officials in Malaysia tore pages from the international weekly, "The Economist", and blacked out a paragraph whose content they alleged contravened Islamic teachings, according to the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), SEAPA's partner in Malaysia. Missing in the locally circulated 23 December 2006 edition of "The Economist", which is published by the Economist...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced its support for the Ouagadougou-based bi-monthly "L'Evénement", which is accused of libelling the president's brother, François Compaoré, by linking him to the 1998 murder of journalist Norbert Zongo. The trial is due to start on 8 January 2007 in Ouagadougou. "After last year's outrageous decision to dismiss all charges and close the Zongo case...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, January 8, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release in Gaza Sunday night of Agence France-Presse photographer Jaime Razuri, who had been held by kidnappers since January 1. Razuri, 50, was dropped off at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' compound in Gaza City by Palestinian security forces, according to AFP. Razuri was unharmed and said he was well...

New York, January 8, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release in Gaza Sunday night of Agence France-Presse photographer Jaime Razuri, who had been held by kidnappers since January 1. Razuri, 50, was dropped off at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ compound in Gaza City by Palestinian security forces, according to AFP. Razuri was unharmed and said he was well treated by his...