Ethics and Freedom

The International Press Institute (IPI) has condemned the jailing of Mohammed Al-Mokaleh, one of the founding members of the Yemeni Journalist Syndicate, for laughing in a Yemeni court. On June 15, a Yemeni prosecutor accused Al-Mokaleh of "attacking and defaming the judicial system," for laughing out loud during the concluding moments of the trial of Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani, former editor-in-chief...

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry has set up a media monitoring centre to keep a watch on channel content. The ministry is expected to come out with a set of guidelines shortly even though there is no consensus on the issue between the government and private broadcasters, says a report in the Hindu. Some details: Located at the Prasar Bharati office, the Rs. 16-crore Electronic Media...

Newspaper publisher John Woods was convicted in the Rarotonga High Court on two charges of contempt of court, reports Cook Island News. Fines amounting to approx. US$60 and court costs were imposed on Woods. The convictions were handed down against the 55-year-old Arorangi resident by Justice of the Peace John Kenning. Both charges relate to the breach of a gag order handed down by Justice...

A three-year jail sentence in absentia has been handed down to journalist Amal Eisa, formerly of the Qatari daily al-Sharq, for "defamation" on the basis of a complaint from the Hamad public hospital in Doha. "This extremely harsh penalty, even though partly linked to the absence of the journalist from the trial hearing, sends a dangerous signal to all journalists in the emirate," Paris-based...

Mallam Saidu Sarki Usman, the political editor of the private daily newspaper Leadership, based in Abuja, Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory, was ordered on June 20 to be remanded into prison custody. The order was issued by a Chief Magistrate Court presided over by Alhaji Salihu Attahiru in Minna, Niger State, North-central Nigeria. Usman is accused of allegedly publishing an "injurious...

An Iranian newspaper has been banned for criticising the performance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the last three years, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported quoting official news agency IRNA on Sunday. The daily Tehran Emrouz (Tehran Today) had criticised Ahmadinejad's economic and foreign policies in a special bulletin Saturday on the occasion of the third anniversary of his election. "We have...

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Armenia's repeated denials of a broadcasting licence to the independent A1+ television station violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the verdict, the Armenian government must pay the station 20,000 euros (US$31,000) in damages. Famous for its criticism of Armenian authorities, A1+ was forced off the air in...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has described as "absurd" a conviction for "electoral propaganda" against the daily A Folha de São Paulo and the magazine Veja after they published interviews with a prospective candidate for municipal elections in São Paulo in the south-east of the country. The worldwide press freedom organisation said the verdict placed an unacceptable limit on press freedom and...

Swedish Parliament passed Wednesday evening a controversial bill allowing the government to monitor all SMS, email and other data traffic crossing Swedish borders with 143 in favour, 138 opposed and one parliamentarian abstaining. Faced with powerful criticism from the opposition, international experts, and from within its own ranks, the government sent the bill back to a parliamentary committee...

Two Liberian journalists working for the New Democrat newspaper were arrested and detained for several hours on June 16 by officers of the Liberia National Police in Monrovia. According to the police, news editor Othello Garblah and staff writer Festus Porque were arrested at the request of the Monrovia Transit Authority for "unprofessional photography." The two journalists had gone to the...