Ethics and Freedom

HARARE - A media watchdog in Zimbabwe says the coverage of the alleged adultery case involving Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Bulawayo Archdiocese by the State media is an affront to ethical journalism. The Zimbabwe Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said the reportage was unfair and unbalanced. "The coverage of the purported revelations and 'scoop' by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting...

An institute in Egypt has published a book on issues of free speech and religion, in response to the controversy over Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) announced the publication of "Religion and Freedom of Expression: Freedom-Related Problems in Different Societies." The book aims to encourage dialogue between Egyptian and...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of Abderrahim Ariri, the publisher of the weekly Al Watan Al An (The Nation Now), and one of his journalists, Mostapha Hurmatallah, yesterday in Casablanca after they published the text of an internal security memo circulated by the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), an intelligence agency. “It is wrong to arrest these two...

Ethiopia’s High Court has handed down harsh criminal penalties, including life prison sentences, to six journalists and three publishers on anti-state charges in connection with critical coverage of the government during the deadly unrest in the aftermath of disputed parliamentary elections in 2005, according to local journalists. At least 200 people Monday packed the courtroom in the capital...

Two journalists from tabloid Aftonbladet have been reported to the police after their boat allegedly crossed into an exclusion zone outside the Swedish royal family's summer palace on Öland, southern Sweden, on Sunday. "Breaking the law on exclusion zones can give fines or up to one year's imprisonment," said Doris Högne Rydheim of the Swedish Security Police (Säpo), the organization responsible...

The leader of a nationalist party has been acquitted of calling Islamic leaders traitors after they had sought support in the Middle East against a Danish newspaper, which first published controversial cartoons of prophet Mohammed. In December 2005 and January 2006, nine imams from Denmark travelled to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon to seek support from religious and political leaders to protest the...

A Sikh organisation has filed a $110 million lawsuit against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for allegedly linking it to terrorism and damaging the reputation of the Sikh community. The lawsuit filed by the World Sikh Organisation (WSO) on Tuesday also named CBC reporter Terry Milewski and Legislator Ujjal Dosanjh for comments they made in the June 28, 2007 documentary titled Samosa...

A Chicago television reporter left her job after she was caught on video in a swimsuit at the home of a man whose wife disappeared two months ago — a story she was assigned to cover — raising ethical questions about her conduct. The video, posted on a rival station's Web site, shows veteran WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson wearing a halter bikini top and towel near the pool at Craig Stebic's suburban...

New Delhi, July 3: Delhi High Court today set aside a lower court order convicting an Urdu newspaper jounalist on the ground that he had promoted feeling of hatred and dissatisfaction against the Government through his article 24 years ago. Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra ruled that the lower court had erred in concluding from the article that it was against the goverment. The judge said ''I consider...

Reporters Without Borders has learned of the arrests of three more Iranian journalists, one of them two days ago. They bring the number of journalists detained in Iran to six. “The Iranian regime is one of the most repressive in the world towards the media,” the press freedom organisation said. “Independent journalists are closely watched and constantly harassed. Arrests are frequent, and months...