Ethics and Freedom

The Malaysian government’s decision to suspend a newspaper for a month over printing a picture of Jesus smoking is being seen as a blow for free speech A woman walks past a newspaper stall in Kuala Lumpur in 2004. The Malaysian government's decision to temporarily shut down a newspaper for printing a picture of Jesus smoking is a blow for free speech, opposition leaders and a media watchdog said....

Artist Lars Vilks has made three drawings ridiculing the prophet Mohammed. The prophet is portrayed as a “roundabout dog”. So far three art exhibitions have declined to publish his pictures. The Art Association in Tällerud said no. Then the school Gerlesborgsskolan in the county of Bohuslän said no. Now the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm has also said no. This is unacceptable self-censorship. A...

Hamas is planning to enforce a 12-year-old Palestinian press law designed to silence dissident journalists amid a crackdown that has raised fierce protests from the local media. "We are all bound by this 1995 press law, and its articles carry the force of the law," said a statement from what was described as Hamas's "information ministry" in the Gaza Strip, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

(JED/IFEX) - A weekend of media repression in Kinshasa has resulted in at least four journalists being questioned for several hours by the intelligence services, the closing of a private TV station, and the confiscation of a tape recording of an interview with a rebel leader. Stéphane Kitutu O'Leontwa, general manager of CCTV/RALIK (Canal Congo Télévision/Radio Liberté Kinshasa), Thierry Musenepo...

Members of the Hamas Security Force beat up journalists covering a demonstration Friday held by the rival Fatah movement, briefly arresting four of them and confiscating their cameras in a sign of growing intolerance for political opposition, Arabnews.com has reported. The Hamas men fired guns over the heads of the protesters and scuffled with Fatah members, who threw stones and bottles at a...

MANILA, Philippines -- A lifestyle writer has been hounded out of her job by death threats and hate mail after she wrote a travel piece many readers found insulting to millions of Filipinos who work abroad. Malu Fernandez told Agence France-Presse she quit her job as a columnist at the Manila Standard Today newspaper and People Asia magazine after her article "From Boracay to Greece!" provoked...

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has quashed a complaint and a summoning order passed thereon by a court here against The Hindu, its editor and the publisher to face trial in a defamation case following a complaint over publication o f a report relating to a matrimonial dispute in 1994, holding that “material averments attracting the defamation charge under Section 499 (defamation) of the Indian...

Local journalists are being assaulted, detained and harassed by security forces in Bangladesh attempting to enforce the indefinite curfew imposed Wednesday on capital Dhaka and five other cities in response to growing unrest across the country. On Wednesday, the military-backed interim government announced an indefinite curfew in six urban centres that had been the scene of violent clashes between...

Kula Lumpur, 23 August (AKI) - A Malaysian Tamil-language newspaper, Makkal Ossai, has apologised for publishing an image of Jesus holding a cigarette and what appeared to be a can of beer. However the daily is facing calls be shut down, according to a report in the Malaysian daily, The Star. The picture of Jesus was reportedly downloaded from the Internet and used on the front page of the paper...

Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, a Guantanamo detainee since June 2002, has suffered a sharp deterioration in his health and is said to be fearing for his survival. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) voiced “deep concern” about al-Haj, whose lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith said yesterday after recovering his notes from US military censors that his client’s health has worsened considerably in recent days...