Conflict Journalism

Angry opposition supporters burned down two pro-government television stations in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar on Monday, a few hours after authorities destroyed the antenna of an opposition radio station, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting news reports and local journalists. The violence highlighted escalating political tensions between Malagasy President...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has detained at least three journalists in the West Bank since Saturday, according to local news reports and journalists who spoke to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Monday, security forces detained Ahmad Dikkawi, correspondent for the London-based al-Quds TV station in Jenin. They also detained Samer Khuaira, the Nablus correspondent...

Assailants on motorbikes attacked a Sri Lankan newspaper editor and his wife as they drove to work Friday morning, stabbing them repeatedly, the Associated Press (AP) has reported quoting authorities. The couple received minor wounds and both were expected to recover. Four people on motorbikes blocked Upali Tennakoon's car outside of Colombo as he and his wife were heading to work at the...

A former military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA, Javier Garcia Gaztelu, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday for ordering the assassination of a journalist in 2000, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has eported. The National Court found Garcia Gaztelu guilty of "a terrorist crime consisting in an attack against a person resulting in a painful death" and sentenced him to 30 years in...

The shocking murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and young journalist Anastasia Barburova on Monday brings Russia's human rights record to a new low, press freedom groups have said. The crime is compounded by the knowledge that Russia has a culture where impunity reigns and murderers are rarely brought to justice, ARTICLE 19 and Index on Censorship have said. Even in the case of a journalist as...

The International Press Freedom Mission has condemned a "culture of impunity and indifference" over killings and attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka. Since the beginning of the New Year, both the killing of a senior editor and the attack on the facilities of a popular independent TV channel have led to a total paralysis of the media community. Launching a new report, 'Media Under Fire: Press...

A human rights lawyer well-known for his work on abuses in Chechnya, Stanislav Markelov, and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova were shot to death Monday in broad daylight by a masked gunman who trailed Markelov from a press conference in Moscow. Markelov had at the January 19 press conference condemned the early release of Yuri Bodanov, a Russian former colonel who was sentenced in 2003...

A Swiss lawyer working on behalf of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at US President George W Bush says his client will seek political asylum in Switzerland. Geneva-based lawyer Mauro Poggia says Muntadar al-Zaidi's life is in danger in Iraq, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Al-Zaidi is currently in an Iraqi jail awaiting trial on charges of assaulting a foreign leader for his December...

Israel has released two Palestinian journalists employed by the Iranian Arabic-language TV station Al-Alam after being held for 10 days on spying charges. However, they were freed on bail on January 15 and are still accused of “revealing secret information” and “transmitting information to the enemy in war time.” Khader Shahin, a Jerusalem resident and Al-Alam correspondent, was summoned for...

Raúl Wiener, the head of the investigative section of the left-wing Peruvian daily La Primera, has been charged with a “crime against public peace” and “terrorism” after revealing that the same charges had been brought against 13 leading Peruvian leftists with alleged links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Wiener is due to be...