The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at the harassment in Chechnya of Jane Armstrong, Moscow correspondent for the Canadian national daily the Globe and Mail. Armstrong and her Russian photographer and interpreter Olga Kravets had travelled from Moscow to the Chechen capital of Grozny to report on social and cultural traditions in the southern republic last week, when...
Assailants on Friday gunned down an Iraqi journalist who had been working for a local radio station run by a Shiite political party that is the chief rival of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the station and police said, according to the Associated Press (AP). Jassim al-Batat, 38, was killed by gunmen in a speeding car as he left his house in the town of Qurna in his own car, said Adnan al...
A Reuters cameraman was killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli military strike, the news agency reported. Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old Palestinian, was covering violence in the enclave. Two bystanders were also killed in an explosion after Shana stepped from his vehicle, apparently to film Israeli forces positioned several hundred meters (yards) away. His soundman...
The US military released Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges. Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left US custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health. "I want to thank all...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed alarm at a report of a grenade attack on the home of a female radio journalist in Herat province, Afghanistan. It is the second attack on radio producer Khadija Ahadi’s home in two weeks. The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA), an IFJ associate, reported that unidentified gunmen threw a grenade inside Khadija’s home on...
The United States military said Monday that it would release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein who has been jailed in Iraq without trial for two years on accusations of terrorism and kidnapping. The US military initially said it had more than enough evidence to hold him under a UN mandate, but on Monday, Maj Gen Douglas Stone, deputy commanding general for detainee operations, signed the...
Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein began his third year in US military detention Saturday with the bulk of accusations against him dropped by Iraqi judges and press freedom groups renewing calls for his release. But the Pentagon said Hussein will be held until it reviews the Iraqi amnesty ruling and also said it reserves the option to ignore the decision and keep Hussein in custody. A...
A proposed bill to amend the law on extremism will impose further restrictions on press freedom in Russia. Drafted by the prosecutor-general’s office, the bill was presented at a meeting organised by the Duma’s security committee on April 10. The proposed changes would allow prosecutors to exercise additional control over publications, especially websites. They would, for example, make it...
A British journalist abducted in the southern Iraqi city of Basra two months ago has been rescued by Iraqi troops. Richard Butler, who worked for CBS News, was found with a sack over his head and his hands tied inside a house in Basra, Lt Gen Mohan al-Fireji told the Associated Press (AP). He said Butler was in "good" condition. In a statement, CBS said: "We are incredibly grateful that our...
An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him released nearly two years after he was detained by the US military, the news agency has reported. Hussein, 36, remained in custody Wednesday at Camp Cropper, a US detention facility near Baghdad's airport. A decision by a four-judge panel said Hussein's...
