Conflict Journalism

Five years after a series of US military strikes against news media outlets in Baghdad killed three journalists, there are calls on the US military to fully investigate the incidents and make its findings public. So far, impunity has ruled. On April 8, 2003, a US tank fired a single shell on the Palestine Hotel, the main base for dozens of international journalists covering the US-led invasion of

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed shock at the attack on Radio Zafar, an independent radio station close to Kabul, on March 28. The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA), an IFJ associate, received reports from the head of the radio station that four unidentified gunmen illegally entered the station at 1:00 am and tied up two security guards, before fire...

NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, plans to start an online TV channel to improve the image of the Western military alliance. NATO TV will be launched April 2 at a summit in Bucharest, Romania, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday last. The new TV channel is the result of close cooperation between the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Danish Government to improve...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed serious concern over four Afghan journalists being held in detention. Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, Ghows Zelmay, Jawed Ahmad and Ali Mohaqiq Nasab have been denied human rights including legal representation, the ability to receive visitors and access to time outdoors. Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, 23, a journalism student and reporter for the

Authorities in in the Russian republic of Ingushetia want to see the back of a private television channel that has shown critical reports from the region. In an open letter to the Russian parliament, the prosecutor-general, the FSB security service and the interior ministry, delegates of the region’s Popular Assembly demanded that Moscow-based REN-TV stop broadcasting in the Republic, according to...

The Sri Lankan government has appointed a recently retired army Major General to a senior position at the troubled state broadcaster, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). The appointment came as authorities released three journalists who had been held without charge for almost two weeks. Two other journalists arrested at the same time remain in custody. According to the Free Media Movement...

Two journalists who covered the volatile North Caucasus have been murdered in Russia in the last 24 hours, the first such killings in nearly a year. The motives are still unclear. Firefighters found the body of Ilyas Shurpayev, a correspondent for Russian state television’s Channel One, in his Moscow apartment early Friday morning. He had been strangled and stabbed. The perpetrators had apparently...

The first-ever detailed report on the plight of Iraqi journalists who have been forced into exile was released by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) today, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Most of these journalists fled to Jordan or Syria after receiving threats or surviving murder attempts. Hundreds are trying to live a normal life again in Amman or...

The Sri Lankan army took control yesterday of public Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television. The army and police sealed off all roads leading to the station in the morning, preventing more than 200 staff from getting to work after employees threatened to strike in protest against a series of assaults by men “suspected of acting on behalf of a minister”. The takeover of the television...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the murder of an Iraqi journalist by at least one unknown gunman in Baghdad on Thursday last. Qassim Abdul Hussein al-Iqabi, 36, of the local daily Al-Muwatin (The Citizen) was shot dead in Baghdad’s predominantly Shiite Karradah neighbourhood, according to local and international news reports. “We offer our deepest condolences to Qassim...