Corruption and Crime

A court in the southern city of Taraz has upheld independent newspaper owner and editor Ramazan Esergepov’s three-year jail term and two-year publishing ban, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sentence was confirmed at a secret hearing on October 22 which, like his original trial, was marked by irregularities. Except for the first 15 minutes, the appeal hearing was conducted behind...

The European Court of Human Rights Friday rejected by six votes to one Russian journalist Grigory Pasko’s complaint accusing his government of violating his freedom of expression under articles 7 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights by sentencing him to four years in prison on a spying charge, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We share Pasko’s disappointment as we have...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Kyrgyz authorities to make public the findings of their investigation into the murder of Alisher Saipov, the editor of the Uzbek-language newspaper Siyosat, who was shot in Osh two years ago. Continued impunity in the killing, which occurred in early evening in the city’s downtown district, has fostered fear among his colleagues and...

A TV crew from the Moscow-based independent broadcaster REN-TV was recently attacked and threatened in the North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia that caused them to flee the region, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. REN-TV journalist Leonid Kanfer and cameraman Victor Muzalevsky were threatened and their driver was beaten on Wednesday, the Moscow-based...

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has hailed Thursday's release of Rodrigo Angue Nguema, the Malabo correspondent of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Radio France Internationale (RFI), although a court is insisting that the two French news organisations pay 40 million CFA francs (61,000 euros) in connection with a defamation action that was brought against him. “We welcome his release with a great...

A Ljubljana appeal court has decided to lift an injunction against the Slovenian daily Dnevnik that barred it since August 2009 from publishing any news or negative comments about the person or professional activities of Italian businessman Pierpaolo Cerani, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The daily’s editor Ali Zerdin told the Paris-based RSF that the ruling on October 7 was “an...

There has been a series of attempts to intimidate Jules Koum Koum, eeditor of Le Jeune Observateur, a Cameroonian weekly based in the southwestern city of Douala, according to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). “In recent weeks, this respected journalist has published several detailed and well-researched reports on corruption implicating a number of prominent people,” RSF said. “In so doing, he has...

Norberto Miranda Madrid, a harsh critic of local crime, was shot to death on Wednesday in his office in Nuevo Casas Grandes in northern Chihuahua State of Mexico, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Around 11 p.m., two unidentified men wearing ski masks burst into the offices of local Radio Visión, where Miranda and his brother José were working, local reporters told CPJ. The...

Veteran Colombian television journalist Diego de Jesús Rojas Velásquez was gunned down Tuesday outside the central city of Supía, according to interviews and press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Colombian authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing. Rojas, a reporter and cameraman for the Supía-based community station Supía TV in central Caldas province...

The Philippine Supreme Court has granted a change of venue in the trial of a defendant in the attempted murder of radio journalist Nilo Labares, who was shot and injured in Cagayan de Oro City in March, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The transfer is the third venue change recently approved by the Supreme Court in a media attack. The defendant, accused gunman Bernardo...