ARCHIVES: Ethics and Freedom
Authorities in Uzbekistan have barred Abdumalik Boboyev , a stringer for the US government-funded broadcaster Voice of America, from traveling to Germany by denying him the exit visa required for travel outside Uzbekistan, according to the independent news website Uznews and the Uzbek service of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Boboyev filed his application to travel on March 2 and was denied it in early April. He is barred from travelling because he was prosecuted last... MORE
New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the conviction and sentencing of Irina Khalip , the Minsk-based correspondent for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta , and called on Belarusian authorities to acquit her on appeal. The Zavodskoi District Court in Minsk May 16 declared Khalip guilty of "organising and preparing activities severely disruptive of public order," and gave her a two-year suspended prison term, local and international... MORE
An appeals court in the Philippines has decided to curb outside scrutiny of legal proceedings against suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, in which 32 journalists and media practitioners were systematically shot and murdered, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On April 12, Manila Court of Appeals Justice Danton Bueger ordered Monette Salaysay, a widow of one of the journalist victims, and Rowena Paraan, a director of the National Union... MORE
Bulgaria's Parliament has adopted changes to the penal code that have introduced jail time for journalists and writers who instigate hatred, discrimination or violence - and could be used to impose controls on the media, says the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI). While the previous law covered only racial discrimination, the changes allow the possibility of prison sentences of one to four years for journalists convicted of... MORE
Journalists Federico Rosaldo , Jesús Coa and Jorge Álvarez chose to resign from their positions at the Líder radio station on April 27, rather than comply with an order issued by the station's owner, Santiago Ortiz. Ortiz had instructed the journalists to stop criticising presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori. The incident occurred in Arequipa, southern Peru. The journalists co-presented a morning news program until, according to Coa, Ortiz phoned him to "order" them to stop referring... MORE
Chinese authorities should clarify the whereabouts of two Chinese journalists who reported on detained artist and social commentator Ai Weiwei, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Family and colleagues have been unable to reach Caijing magazine journalist Zhang Jialong since the evening of April 28, according to Radio France Internationale. He was believed to have gone for a "talk" with Beijing police, but no notice of formal detention has... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over the fate of Somyot Pruksakasemsuk , editor of the magazine Voice of Thaksin , who was arrested by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on April 30 and was placed in pre-trial custody Monday by a Bangkok criminal court on a charge of lèse-majesté. A request for release on bail was rejected. “This arrest confirms that a crackdown on the opposition media is under way,” RSF said. “Once again it is a... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is concerned about all the libel actions being brought against Armenian newspapers and the disproportionate damages being demanded, which threaten their survival and create a climate that encourages self-censorship. This tendency to use lawsuits to throttle news media must be reined in. The repeal of jail sentences for libel and slander in April 2010 was hailed as a democratic advance but judicial harassment of the media continues... MORE
The BBC and the Associated Press Television News (APTN) censored satirical coverage of Friday’s royal wedding in London by The Chaser, an Australian comedy team. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) was forced to cancel The Chaser’s alternative coverage of the wedding after the BBC threatened to withdraw its feed from the national broadcaster if it did not stop the programme. The BBC was apparently responding to directions from Clarence House, the private office of the Prince of Wales... MORE
The Rwandan government has been hounding one of its media bugbears, Jean Bosco Gasasira , editor of the bimonthly newspaper Umuvugizi and one of the country’s most outspoken journalists, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Prosecutors Thursday asked Rwanda’s supreme court to sentence him to ten years in prison on charges on which the Kigali high court acquitted him last September. The request was made at a hearing at which he was not represented by a lawyer... MORE
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