News

Doha: Journalists in Qatar face a number of challenges in dealing freely with local issues, says a former editor-in-chief of Al Sharq. One of the major obstacles faced by reporters and editors-in-chief of local newspapers is that they are called in by the police if there is a problem with some local coverage and that prevents free reporting, says Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud. Currently editor-in-chief of...

An unmarked police Land Rover left the Nairobi Police headquarters under the cover of darkness on Thursday night to transport seized Standard Group equipment to an unknown destination. The green Land Rover, Registration Number KAL 029G, which was followed by an unmarked white Hyundai, left the former Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters on Milimani Road at 8.45 pm and was driven...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has defended this week's unprecedented police raid on a major media group which brought a torrent of accusations from at home and abroad that President Mwai Kibaki's government was behaving like a dictatorship. "We have actually committed no crime," Internal Security Minister John Michuki told a news conference late on Friday. "The police are within the law." In the most...

The Standard Group yesterday wrote to the Commissioner of Police expressing fears that attempts could be made to manipulate the contents of the files in computers confiscated from its premises on Wednesday night. But no sooner had the letter been dispatched than Internal Security Minister John Michuki alleged that the Group was involved in subversive activities. He told a news conference late in...

NEW YORK: The International Herald Tribune is in the process of eliminating 36 positions in its Paris offices in a number of departments including production, IT, and circulation. The editorial department will not be affected. In a written statement obtained by E&P, executives at the IHT have approached the company's "Work Council" with a reorganization plan in compliance with French laws. "We are...

New York, March 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by sedition charges pending against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the tabloid weekly Blitz. Choudhury, who spent 17 months in jail before his release on bail in May 2005, is due to be tried in a Dhaka court next week. Choudhury told CPJ he believes the prosecution is related to his journalistic work...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said Friday it had asked U.S. Federal courts to force IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc, Oracle Corp and Novell Inc to give it documents in its battle against the European Commission. Microsoft is fighting a fine of up to 2 million ($2.4 million) a day for failing to carry out sanctions that the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, imposed on it in 2004 for...

Civil society, Members of Parliament and human rights lobbyists have condemned the brutal destruction of Standard Group property by the Government. They described the closure of KTN television station and burning of newspapers as a cowardly act by a desperate government and urged the media house to work round the clock and resume services even more boldly. "That sounds like old Romania or some...

There is a genuine shock and amazement in Kenya that hooded armed police were used to raid media houses. For the past three years, the government has been applauded for opening up "democratic space", and allowing a fair degree of press freedom. The fact that the only response to come from government so far has been the colourful retort of Internal Security Minister John Michuki that "if you rattle...

NAIROBI - Fallout from a police raid on a major media group put Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s weakened government further on the defensive on Friday, with newspapers denouncing the action as "state thuggery". Yesterday’s heavy-handed raid sparked a storm of domestic and foreign condemnation and split Kibaki’s cabinet, heaping more pressure on his administration. The operation was particularly...