Asia

Two TV employees have been killed in Quetta and an investigative journalist has been abducted in Islamabad. A cameraman and a TV station driver were killed and six other journalists seriously injured in a suicide bombing on September 3 in Quetta and the ensuing acts of revenge violence by demonstrators who were targeted by the bombing. The overall death toll was 59. In Islamabad, an investigative...

A Japanese journalist who was abducted by militants in Afghanistan five months ago has been freed by his captors and left the country, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. Kosuke Tsuneoka, a freelance journalist and veteran of war zones, was abducted on April 1. He was released Saturday night to a Japanese embassy and appeared tired but otherwise unharmed, the ministry said in a statement. "Thank you to...

A Norwegian journalist has been granted unprecedented access to the Taliban army for the first time. The journalist, Norwegian Paul Refsdal, says Taliban leader Commander Dawran granted him the access and allowed him to film the enemy soldiers while they attacked a US convoy. The Taliban leader also allowed Refsdal to film him with his two children. The children were later allegedly killed in a US...

An attempt has been made on the life of Dunya TV reporter Hafiz Muhammad Imran Shehzad in Sialkot, in the northeastern Pakistan province of Punjab. This followed his coverage of the lynching of two brothers in the presence of police officers in Sialkot, which shocked Pakistani public opinion. Aged 27, Imran has been hospitalised with the injuries he received when he was attacked and badly beaten...

Since the start of the economic crisis, up to 6000 journalists and media workers in Romania have lost their jobs, journalists are being forced to renounce their contracts in favour of royalty payments, and the main journalists union in the country is fighting over 50 cases against illegal and indiscriminate dismissals. "Romanian journalism is under siege from the country's economic woes and...

Vineet Jain, managing director of the Times of India group, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the Press Trust of India (PTI). MP Veerendrakumar, chairman and managing director of Mathrubhumi Group, was elected vice-chairman following the 62nd Annual General Meeting of the PTI’s shareholders in New Delhi on Monday. Jain, who was vice-chairman of the board, succeeds Vijay Kumar...

Two-year jail sentences have been imposed on Sonam Rinchen and Sonam Dhondup, two students who helped to edit the Tibetan student magazine Namchak. Two other editors of the magazine, who were arrested at the same time as them in March, are still awaiting trial, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Their conviction has coincided with other cases of...

Ridwan Salamun, a cameraman working for SUN TV, was hacked to death in Tual, in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku, on August 21 by a group of villagers who did not welcome his attempt to cover a clash with residents of a neighbouring village, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “A thorough investigation is urgently needed so that those responsible...

The Bangladesh supreme court has imposed a six-month jail sentence on Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor of the opposition daily Amar Desh, and a one-month jail sentence on Oliullah Noman, one of his reporters, for contempt of court, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, the supreme court panel on Thursday found...

A Manila court has acquitted the alleged gunmen in the 2004 killing of a broadcaster in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has reported. Ilocos Norte is a province 399 km north of Manila. Branch 54 of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) cleared former Senior Police Officer Apolonio Medrano and Basilio Yadao of charges for the murder of Ilocos Norte...