News

(SEAPA/IFEX) - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is concerned with the latest interference in the media by the Malaysian government through a directive to downplay news of an increase in highway toll charges. SEAPA joins its local partner, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in calling for a stop to executive interference in media editorial matters. Independent news site http:/...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today renewed its call for an end to the violence and threats against journalists in Somalia, a day after the arrests of a journalist and two union leaders. The journalist, Mohamed Amin Adan Abdulle, was arrested and detained on Sunday related to accusations of biased reporting. The reasons for the arrest of the two leaders of the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Omar Faruk Osman, the secretary general of its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), and Ali Moalim Isak, the NUSOJ organising secretary. The two journalists were arrested by the security forces of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) at Mogadishu airport on the morning of 17 December 2006...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 3 December 2006, journalist Heyra Zerpa and cameraman Carlos Idogro, both from the private television company Globovisión, were assaulted by a group of government supporters who were trying to stop the reporters from covering the closing of the presidential election polls in an area in Bolívar state, southern Venezuela. Zerpa told IPYS that she had received a telephone call...

(RSF/IFEX) - French journalist Didier François, the correspondent of the French newspaper "Libération" and the French international TV news station France 24, sustained a bullet wound to the leg during the clashes that began early on 17 December 2006 in Gaza between the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and Fatah militants. "We urge President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister...

A representative body of Pakistani newspaper editors has flayed the government for trying to 'control the press' through the formation of a proposed regulatory authority with punitive clauses. The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) rejected the formation of the proposed Press and Publication Regulatory Authority (PPRA), dubbing it as 'yet another attempt to control the press' in Pakistan...

CNN, one of the world's leading news channels, gave awards to Indian journalists who with their outstanding stories and reporting capability have created an impact on society. The award - CNN Young Journalist (CNN YJA) - which was instituted in 2003 this year saw the entry of two new categories - CNN Aspiring Journalist Award and CNN Citizen Journalist Award. "India is full of talent and in events...

(FLIP/IFEX) - On 17 December 2006, it will be 20 years since the death of "El Espectador" editor Guillermo Cano Isaza, murdered in Bogotá by drug trafficking cartels. Cano Isaza was born in Medellín in 1925, and was a journalist for over four decades. At the age of 17 he began writing for the Bogotá daily "El Espectador", now a weekly. He later became the newspaper's director, a position he held...

Russian authorities have expelled Christoph Wanner, a reporter for Deutsche Welle, from the conflict-wracked republic as he was working on a report about a German aid organization. Wanner had been taken into custody on Thursday, accused of working without the required oversight by Russian authorities. He had been in Chechnya working on a report for Deutsche Welle television, DW-TV, highlighting...

Wellington - Military leaders in Fiji, who ousted the government in a coup earlier this month, have ordered the editor of the daily Fiji Post newspaper deported, according to reports from the capital Suva on Friday. The editor, Robert Wolfgramm, was born in Fiji but has been an Australian citizen since 1989. He told the Fiji Times his removal was probably because the paper has been 'a voice for...