Radio journalist Julio Castillo Narváez’s murder in Virú (in the northwestern department of La Libertad) on May 3 has cast a further shadow over a day that is meant to be a celebration for journalists and media all over the world, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Unidentified gunmen shot him six times while he was having lunch in a restaurant. His death was...
Journalist Siamak Pourzand, 80, a major cultural figure in Iran, has committed suicide. Detained and under house arrest for ten years, banned from leaving the country and separated from his family, Pourzand killed himself on April 29 in Tehran. "We hold the Iranian authorities responsible for this gesture of despair. Despite several appeals to the authorities by his family and various human rights...
Consider some of the past week's headlines: "Two photojournalists killed, two seriously injured in mortar fire in Libya; Journalists still being harassed as protests get stronger in the Middle East; Another Sri Lankan journalist arrested." Every day across the world, journalists, editors and publishers are murdered, assaulted, detained or harassed. Their publications are censored, fined, suspended...
The number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade, according a Freedom House study released today. The report, Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence, found that a number of key countries—including Egypt, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine—experienced significant...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed the appeal of its affiliate in Colombia, the Federación Colombiana de Periodistas (FECOLPER) for a silent march throughout the country on World Press Freedom Day to denounce continuing threats against journalists and to call on the government to provide them with protection. The appeal followed recent threats made against FECOLPER...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is marking this year's World Press Freedom Day by focusing on the legacy of the terrorist attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington ten years ago. The Federation calls for a reversal of the tide of legal and official intimidation of journalism and attacks on civil liberties that has followed the events of 2001. "The last ten years have...
(ARTICLE 19): From Morocco to Bahrain, everyday people have taken on the cast iron hold of dictatorships and absolute monarchies resulting in an extraordinary collective awakening that has paved the way for epochal change in the region. The youth movement, which lies at the core of the uprisings, continues to play a prominent role in the pro-democracy and pro-reform demonstrations, which have...
(Article 19): Free speech, media and information flows increasingly ignore and elude physical frontiers or national boundaries. Many governments, fearful of this lack of control, are trying hard to restore or fortify barriers to trace, block, target and censor those who champion the truth. No Frontiers Throughout the last year a series of revelations have sent shockwaves across the world. Photos...
The kingpins of repressive machinery, political leaders of regimes hostile to civil liberties and direct organizers of campaigns of violence against journalists – they are the predators of press freedom. They prey on the media. There are 38 predators this year, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Pride of place goes to North Africa and the Middle East...
The Saudi government issued a decree on April 29 imposing new restrictions on the media and drastically limiting press freedom. The decree, which amends five articles of the 2000 press and publications law, is clearly designed to ensure that the protests sweeping the Arab world since the start of the year do not take any greater hold in Saudi Arabia than they have already. The decree bans...
