Conflict Journalism

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay today that Germán Hernández Vera, the managing editor of the regional Diario del Huila daily newspaper in the southwestern city of Neiva, was forced to flee the region this month after being repeatedly threatened. It is the second case of forced flight by a journalist since the start of the year. “Hernández’s case once again highlights the virtual...

New York, March 27, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats against Colombian journalist Germán Hernández, who fled his hometown, and a murder plot against journalist Darío Arizmendi, who fled the country this month. “We are concerned by the death threats against our colleague Germán Hernández, as well as by allegations of a plot to kill Darío Arizmendi,” said CPJ...

COLOMBO, Mar 26 (IPS) - The unjustified four-month incarceration of female journalist Munusamy Parameshwari under anti-terrorist laws is being seen here as an example of the repressiveness that she was reporting on. Parameshwari, 23, was released last Wednesday, after the attorney general's department informed the country's Supreme Court that there was no evidence to press charges against her...

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston began Monday his third week in captivity in the Gaza Strip wven as efforts were stepped up to secure his release. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) urged leaders attending an Arab League summit on March 28-29 in Saudi Arabia to issue a joint appeal for his release. BBC Middle East Bureau Editor Simon Wilson, right, listens to BBC Gaza correspondent Fayed Abu Shammala...

A Tamil journalist held without charge in Sri Lanka for four months was released Thursday. Munusami Parameshwaree, an ethnic Tamil journalist working for Sinhala newspaper Mawbima was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division of Sri Lanka police on November 21 last year on allegations of having links with Tamil terrorists. Tamil journalist Mounasamy Parameswaree, centre, is greeted by a...

Slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya's diaries, published in English this week, paint a damning picture of a Russia where democracy is stifled, fascism is on the rise and ethnic minorities are brutally repressed. For her, one man is to blame -- President Vladimir Putin. Her hard-hitting account of Russian news and politics over two years, including the parliamentary elections in 2003 and the Beslan...

Hundreds of protesters blockaded an Afghan hospital where freed Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was staying on Tuesday, demanding details of the death of his beheaded driver, news agencies have reported. More than 200 relatives and friends of executed driver Syed Agha protested outside the Italian-run Emergency hospital in the capital of southern Helmand province, Lashkar Gah, demanding...

Reporters Without Borders expressed concern today at the plight of Darío Arizmendi Posada, news editor at Radio Caracol, who was forced to flee the country on 8 March after death threats from an unknown group. The worldwide press freedom organisation noted that seven journalists were last year driven out of their home region or obliged to go abroad after threats from paramilitray groups or armed...

Palestinian journalists demonstrated in Gaza during the weekend to call for the safe return of abducted BBC correspondent Alan Johnston. There has been no word on his whereabouts since he went missing last week. Palestinian journalists and media students from Hebron University demonstrate for the release of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and Al-Jazeera Arab satellite channel journalists...

THE Hamas man cut straight to the point. "Are you scared of being kidnapped?" he asked. On a dark, cold laneway in the middle of a Gaza refugee camp, it didn't seem like a bad question. But this was a Hamas neighbourhood and Hamas militants do not have a track record in kidnapping civilians. And then came the man's kicker. "Today I was having coffee," he said pointing towards a main street over...