Conflict Journalism

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the bombing of the Gaza City offices of the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya on 22 January 2007, a few days after its journalists received telephone threats over a controversial report about Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh that had led him to say he would bring legal action against the station. "This attack highlights the...

I want to share a story. I wonder how many know the name, Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. How many know who she was? Abeer was a 14-old-girl, living with her family about 50 miles south of Baghdad, trying to grow up as best she could in a country ravaged by violence and war. Until March 12, 2006, when her life was cruelly cut short. On that night, five American soldiers, dressed all in black...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today released its annual report on journalists and media staff killed last year, confirming that the death toll of at least 155 killed and 22 accidental deaths has marked out 2006 as the bloodiest year on record for journalism worldwide. The IFJ report - Journalism Put to the Sword in 2006 - provides a detailed account of the deaths...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Soldiers of the Maoist's People's Liberation Army (PLA) barred journalists from entering their Fourth Division headquarters at Jhyaldanda in Nawalparasi district while a seven-member United Nation Arms Management Team was inspecting the site on 16 January 2007. Camp commander Yam Bahadur Adhikari said, "We will provide information to the journalists but not allow them to enter the...

(CEHURDES/IFEX) - Kathmandu, January 17, 2007 - The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES) - a Kathmandu-based freedom of expression monitoring group - expresses its concerns over some provisions in the recently promulgated interim constitution that could undermine press freedom. While welcoming the promulgation of the interim constitution as another key step in the current...

(FMM/IFEX) - Indications of the growing deterioration of media freedom and a culture of impunity were evident in media reports yesterday. The FMM notes, with deep concern, news reports on the alleged ban by the Karuna paramilitary group on the sale of "Thinakkural" and "Sudar Oli" newspapers, as reported in the "Daily Mirror". This is not the first time the FMM has expressed its concern over the...

(RSF/IFEX) - On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the US military base at Guantánamo Bay in eastern Cuba, RSF has reiterated its call for the release of Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman with the Qatar-based satellite television station Al-Jazeera, who has been held without charge since 13 June 2002. Several hundred people who had been captured by the US...

(FMM/IFEX) - The FMM is disturbed to receive reports that an unruly mob of hundreds of persons invaded an open stage in Nugegoda, Colombo, around 2:30 p.m. (local time) on 9 January 2007, to disrupt the first public rally of the United Peoples Movement (UPM), and assaulted two journalists present at this meeting. UPM is an anti-war collation of the main opposition parties, rallying around the...

New York, January 8, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release in Gaza Sunday night of Agence France-Presse photographer Jaime Razuri, who had been held by kidnappers since January 1. Razuri, 50, was dropped off at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ compound in Gaza City by Palestinian security forces, according to AFP. Razuri was unharmed and said he was well treated by his...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced deep concern about the fact that journalists are being denied all access to war zones while a war of words and figures is being waged between the government and the Tamil armed separatists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "This week's Padahuthurai bombing tragically showed that the lack of independent information is detrimental to the...