News

(CMFR/IFEX) - Barely a month after a receiving death threat, a hard-hitting radio commentator was shot dead on 22 May 2006 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan province, 586 kilometers south of Manila. Fernando "Dong" Batul, a radio journalist working for Palawan-based radio station dyPR, was killed in the early morning by two unidentified gunmen, who shot him repeatedly, just 200 meters from the station...

MIAMI, Florida (May 23, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today described as "a serious attack on press freedom" the sentencing of Uruguayan journalist Gustavo Escanlar Patrone to three months in prison on a libel charge. Criminal Court Judge Roberto Timbal handed down the sentence on May 18 after Public Prosecutor Enrique Möller called for the prison term. The sentence was...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Hamada Abdul Latif, the correspondent of the independent weekly "Al Karama" in the province of El-Dakahleya, who was arrested on 21 May 2006 while covering peasants being evicted in Dekernis, 150 km north of Cairo. He is accused of "taking photographs without permission" and "confronting the authorities." "The charges do not in...

(MISA/IFEX) - The secretary of the North West District Council (NWDC), Paulos Nkoni, says he intends to ban the weekly "The Ngami Times" of Maun (northwestern Botswana) from reporting anything about his Council "after being pressured by councilors and staff". "The Ngami Times" Managing Editor Norman Chandler told MISA-Botswana that the looming ban was due to a belief that the newspaper was not...

This weekend, the Tunisian authorities demonstrated once more their complete disregard for human rights and freedom of expression. On May 20-21, the Tunisian branch of Amnesty International (AI) was holding its General Assembly in the Amilcar Hotel, in Tunis. They had invited Mr.Yves Steiner, board member of International Amnesty Switzerland, to participate in the General Assembly. In the early...

(JED/IFEX) - The Kinshasa-based Radio Television Message of Life (RTMV) started broadcasting again on 17 May 2006 at 3:00 p.m. (local time) following three days of interruption after armed Congolese special services police cut its signal. Contacted by JED, director of the channel, Thoms Mwanza, declared: "We had to purchase another circuit breaker to replace the one torn off by the police. We...

(CMFR/IFEX) - A local correspondent for an international magazine has been put on the government's watch list to oblige her cooperation in providing information on an alleged coup plot against the president in February 2006. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate "Time" magazine correspondent Nelly Sindayen, who reported on an alleged...

(JED/IFEX) - The president of the Chad Union of Privately-Owned Radio Stations (URPT), Tchanguiz Vatankhah, was released on 19 May 2006 at approximately 3:00 p.m. (local time), after 20 days in detention at the police headquarters (Services Généraux des Renseignements) in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. JED joined Tchanguiz by telephone after he left the prison. Tchanguiz said that he had been...

New York, May 19, 2006 - Authorities in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan today finally implemented a Supreme Court ruling to free editor Viktor Shmakov from pre-trial detention after a 48-hour delay, local media reported. Shmakov, the 63-year-old editor-in-chief of Provintsialniye Vesti (Provincial News), said he believed he was kept in jail for an extra two days to prevent him from attending...

New York, May 22, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of four Colombian journalists who were detained on May 17 while covering indigenous protests against a free trade pact with the United States in Cauca province. Two days after the arrest, police released Richard Calpa, director of the radio station La Libertad in the city of Totoró, Marcelo Forero, a reporter with...