News

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the two criminal defamation charges that have been brought against Alberto Loyola, a journalist with radio DxRJ in Iligan City (on the southern island of Mindanao), by local city councillor Chonilo Ruiz. Arrested on April 18, Loyola was released Tuesday on bail of 10,000 pesos (160 euros) after being held for nearly 48...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the way that Hata Wahari, the president of the National Union Of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ), is being treated by his newspaper, the Kuala Lumpur-based daily Utusan Malaysia. The newspaper is owned by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a political party that has played a dominant role in Malaysia since...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has expressed its concerns over restructurings and downsizing taking place in major public broadcasters in Europe. "Within a couple of weeks it was announced that the three major international public broadcasters in Europe, BBC World Service, RFI-France 24 and Deutsche Welle, will...

Many opposition and news websites have fallen victim to distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) in the run-up to Saturday’s election in Malaysia’s eastern state of Sarawak (on the island of Borneo), which is posing a challenge to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s 30-year-old rule of the state. “It is sad to see that election campaigns and freedom of information do not go together in Malaysia...

The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Bahraini authorities today to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation into the death in state custody of Karim Fakhrawi, founder and board member of Al-Wasat, the country's premier independent daily. Fakhrawi died Tuesday, a week after he was apparently taken into custody, according to news reports. Human rights defenders told CPJ that...

A Dakar court Thursday gave Abdou Latif Coulibaly, the editor of the weekly La Gazette, a three-month suspended jail sentenced and fined him 10 million CFA francs (15,267 euros) for allegedly defaming a Senegalese businessman close to President Wade by accusing him of acting fraudulently in his dealings with the government. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) condemned...

A new requirement by the Egyptian military that local print media obtain approval for all mentions of the armed forces before publication is the single worst setback for press freedom in Egypt since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The director of the Morale Affairs Directorate of the Egyptian military, Maj. Gen. Ismail Mohamed...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has deplored Thailand Department of Special Investigation director-general Tharit Pengdit’s suggestion that the investigation into Japanese cameraman Hiroyuki Muramoto’s death could be "delegated" to his employer, the Reuters news agency. “By doing this, any witness to the crime might be daring enough to provide tip-offs to Reuters...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the Syrian government to free nearly a dozen journalists and netizens it has imprisoned as it battles protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “The terror and arbitrary rule must end,” the media freedom organisation said, “and all those held, as well as prisoners of conscience, must be released.” Among...

Côte d’Ivoire’s ambassador in Paris, Ally Coulibaly, has promised the family of vanished French-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer that “the whole truth” will be told about his disappearance in Abidjan seven years ago. The diplomat received Kieffer’s wife Osange Silou-Kieffer and daughter Canelle, in Paris Wednesday — along with Aline Richard, president of the Association Vérité pour Guy-André...