News

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (July 19, 2006) - An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) declared today that the climate of press freedom and free speech in Venezuela has deteriorated sharply and is marked by restrictive legislation, prosecution of journalists in the courts and harassment of news media. The IAPA mission, headed by the organization's president...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, July 13, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the Pakistani province of Sindh to clarify immediately whether they are holding journalist Mehruddin Mari, who has been missing since July 2. CPJ has confirmed that Mari, a correspondent for the Sindhi-language newspaper The Daily Kawish, was taken by police, according to journalists who witnessed...

(AJI/IFEX) - AJI is calling for an international appeal to respond to the detention of Teguh Santosa, chief editor of "Rakyat Merdeka Online" (RMOL), on 19 July 2006, at 6:00 p.m. (local time). He is being held at Cipinang Prison in Jakarta. Teguh was questioned at the Jakarta Police Office a few weeks ago based on a report made by a group of people regarding a cartoon published in the 2 February...

(HRinfo/IFEX) - HRinfo welcomes the orders issued by the newly appointed public prosecutor to release the two prisoners of opinion, Mohammad Al-Sharqawy and Kareem Al-Shai'r, who have been unjustifiably jailed for two months. They were arrested for supporting the Egyptian judges' movement calling for judiciary independence. The release orders were issued 18 July 2006. Al-Sha'ir and Al-Sharqawy...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of Sam Obi, the managing director of a new, privately-owned newspaper based in Banjul, the "Daily Express", and one of his journalists, Abdul Gafari, who were held from 14 to 18 July 2006 at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The organisation also voiced concern about the disappearance of two other...

(MISA/IFEX) - Journalists Ndamu Sandu and Godwin Mangudya, who were arrested in Harare on 19 July 2006, were released together with members of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), after spending a night and almost an entire day in police cells at the Harare Central Police station. The journalists were released on 20 July, together with 17 members of the CHRA, after they each paid an...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders said it suspected the Uzbek authorities of being behind threats that forced a website editor to close his online publication and that he and his family had suffered years of harassment. Alo Khodjaev, editor of Tribune-uz ( http://www.tribune-uz.info ) received regular telephone threats after he posted reports about the 13 May 2005 bloody crackdown on the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced strong condemnation of a 19 July 2006 Israeli army attack on Al-Jazeera TV reporter Jevara Al-Budeiri and her crew in the West Bank town of Nablus, in which one of the crew's technicians, Wael Tantous, was hit in the foot by rubber bullets. The crew was broadcasting live at the time. "We are very concerned about repeated, deliberate acts of...

JERUSALEM: Here's some news you may never hear about Israel's war against Hezbollah: a missile falls into the sea, a strategic military installation is hit, a Cabinet minister plans to visit the front lines. All these topics are subject to review by Israel's chief military censor, who has -- in her own words -- "extraordinary power." She can silence a broadcaster, block information and put...

Australia's leading publishers have established an $2 million independent industry body tasked with promoting newspapers to advertisers and finding ways to boost readership. The Newspaper Works, founded by News Ltd, John Fairfax Holdings, Rural Press, APN News and Media and West Australian Newspapers Holdings, aims to modernise the public perception of newspapers. News chairman and chief executive...