A Russian judge has lifted a ban on journalists covering the trial of three men accused of helping to murder journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya even as prosecutors asked for his removal over his flip-flops on media coverage. Judge Yevgeny Zubov ruled last week that the politically charged trial would be held behind closed doors, drawing fierce criticism from Politkovskaya's family...
A journalist working for UN-backed Radio Okapi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was shot dead on Friday night. Didace Namujimbo is the second Radio Okapi reporter to be killed in the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu in the past 18 months. "Once again a Radio Okapi journalist has been killed in Bukavu. Didace Namujimbo was killed by a shot to the head by unknown assailants on...
Afghan authorities have released two local employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Kabul who were arrested a few hours after CBC reporter Mellissa Fung’s abduction on October 12. Fung was freed four weeks later, but the two brothers—Shokoor Feroz, a fixer, and Qaem Feroz, a driver—were detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) till Monday. Fung, a correspondent with the...
Tamil radio presenter and director of privately-owned radio Vettri FM, ARV Loshan, has been released by Sri Lanka's Terrorist Investigations Department after being held for eight days. His mother told Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) he was not hurt during his imprisonment. The police have for the time being held on to his mobile phones but they will supposedly be returned to him in the...
A member of the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial jury has denied that the jury had asked for the press and public to be excluded, saying it was the clerk of the court who asked them to sign a statement to this effect which they had not drafted. The jury member said this in an interview to independent radio station Echo Moskvy, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Juror Yevgeny Kolesov told...
Press freedom groups have called for the release of two local employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Kabul who were arrested a few hours after CBC reporter Mellissa Fung’s abduction on October 12. Fung was freed four weeks later but the two are still detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS). “If there is evidence against Shokoor Feroz, a fixer, and Qaem Feroz, a driver...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Journalistic Freedom Observatory (JFO) have renewed their call for the release of photographer Ibrahim Jassam of Reuters news agency, who has been detained by the US Army since September 1, 2008. A contingent of US and Iraqi forces took Jassam from his home in Mahmudiyah in the south of the capital, seizing four cameras, his phone and his laptop computer. He...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the Swaziland attorney-general’s threatening statement that journalists who criticise the government could be arrested under a new anti-terrorism law that has just been used to crack down on opposition groups. “In a country already under King Mswati’s tight control, the government has clearly decided to step up the pressure and leave no room for any...
A Moscow court has reversed an earlier decision and barred the public and media from the trial of four men accused of murdering journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Yevgeny Zubov, the presiding judge in the trial of four men for the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Wednesday ruled that the press and public will henceforth be excluded, reversing the decision he took on the first...
Radio Galkayo, a privately-owned station in the northeastern somalian city of Galkayo, has started functioning again and its director, Hassan Mohamed Jama, has been released after three days in detention. Jama has nonetheless been ordered to report to a Galkayo court at 9 a.m. on Thursday, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The police of the autonomous northeastern territory of...
