Conflict Journalism

Citing the examination of “classified” material evidence, the presiding judge in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case trial again barred on Thursday the press and public from the hearing. The trial was re-opened for both on Friday. A witness testifying in the trial said on Friday that a bounty of $2 million was paid to carry out the killing. Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who had previously served 12 years in...

Hamas security forces have freed three Palestinian journalists who they had arrested last month and accused of fabricating news critical of the Islamist group, agency Reuters has reported. The journalists, freed on December 3, worked in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for the Palestine Press, a local news agency with ties to the group's main rival, President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. The...

Israel has lifted a four-week ban on international journalists entering Gaza and temporarily eased a blockade on shipments of goods to the coastal strip, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The announcement follows weeks of pressure from foreign governments and the leaders of major news organisations urging Israel to reopen Gaza to the media. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said on...

A bomb exploded Wednesday at the Agence France-Presse (AFP) office in Athens causing minor damage but no injuries, the international news agency said. An underground group labelled as anarchist by Greek police claimed responsibility. The bomb, made up of four small gas cannisters, was placed at the front door to the office on the fifth floor of a block in the centre of the Greek capital. It...

An Australian television correspondent who said he was traumatised from covering wars and natural disasters has been sentenced to jail for 10 months by a Singapore court for drug offences. Peter Lloyd, 42, New Delhi-based correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was arrested while on holiday in Singapore on July 16, and pleaded guilty to three drug-related offences. In...

Police officers beat journalist Mohamed Hussein with batons because he was covering the suddenly-imposed dawn-to-dusk curfew in Batticaloa on November 29, the Colombo-based Free Media Movement has reported. Hussein is associated with the Kalmunei media house, run by Inter News. According to FMM sources, on the morning of November 29, Hussein took a bus from Eravur to go to his work at the Kalmunai...

The government-controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC) censored the BBC Sinhala and Tamil service programmes broadcast on November 27, five press freedom groups have said. Sections of the programme on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V Prabhakaran's "Hero's Day" speech and a Defence Watch press conference were censored, making them inaudible to listeners. Defence Watch...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the action of a British coroner investigating the killing of a journalist in Somalia who called on BBC to ensure journalists are never put under pressure to go on dangerous missions. Coroner Dr Peter Dean said he would be writing to BBC to stress that managers must recognise staff had an overriding right to turn down dangerous jobs...

An Iraqi court on Sunday ordered the release of a freelance photographer working for Reuters after being held by US forces since early September, the news agency has reported. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, and ordered that the US military release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport. Iraqi prosecutors acknowledged in...

A team of journalists working for US media company National Public Radio had a narrow escape from a car bombing in Baghdad after Iraqi soldiers warned them that a device had been attached to the bottom of their armoured car. The bomb exploded about 15 feet from the NPR journalists. It destroyed the car but nobody was injured. Ivan Watson, a 33 year-old reporter for NPR on temporary assignment in...