Ethics and Freedom

A senior Rwandan presidential adviser should immediately retract a grave and unsubstantiated public accusation against a journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Brig Gen Richard Rutatina, a presidential security advisor, publicly accused Nelson Gatsimbazi, managing editor of the Kinyarwanda bimonthly Umusingi, of working with "enemies of the state." He made the...

Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the Dushanbe-based independent weekly Nuri Zindagi has been imprison in northern Tajikistan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Ismoilov was arrested in Sogd region on November 23, but the regional press first reported on the case on Monday. Ismoilov is currently being held in a pretrial facility in the city of Khujand, according to the...

Press freedom groups have condemned the government’s closure of the Kuwait City bureau of the Doha-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera for covering police use of force to disperse an unauthorised demonstration at Soulaibikhat, 10 km from the city centre, on December 8. “This closure violates the legal procedures and regulations in force in Kuwait,” Paris-based press Reporters sans Frontières...

The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), have expressed concern at a draft law in Hungary that would impose extensive fines against journalists and publishers if they refuse to disclose their sources or publish information deemed inappropriate by the government. The proposed law, if passed, would seriously...

Kuwaiti authorities shut down the local offices of the Al-Jazeera TV network and withdrew its accreditation Monday after it covered a violent police crackdown on a meeting of Opposition lawmakers in the oil-rich Gulf country, the Associated Press has reported. Al-Jazeera denied the charge of meddling in Kuwaiti affairs, saying it was just doing its job. "Al-Jazeera, which has adhered in its...

An amendment to the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law (Ley Resorte) – submitted to parliament on 9 December and due to be adopted this week at the Venezuelan president’s insistence – will increase the severity of the penalties for offending broadcast media and make them applicable to online media as well. President Hugo Chávez has asked the outgoing parliament, which he controls, to rush...

Picture this: someone writes, emails or phones you to say that something you wrote on your blog is libellous and is threatening to sue. Do you take it seriously? Do you take down your material? Do you say you're sorry? Or do you face your nemesis in court? The independent charitable trust Sense About Science has put together a guide entitled "So you've had a threatening letter. What can you do?"...

Publisher Irfan Sanci (Sel Yayincilik/Publishing), recipient of the 2010 IPA Freedom Prize - Special Award, and the translator of Guillaume Apollinaire's Adventures of the Young Don Juan, have been acquitted in Istanbul. IPA, which observed the trial, welcomes their acquittal, hoping this will lead to other publishers' acquittals and a significant decrease in freedom to publish trials in Turkey...

Berivan Eker, former editor-in-chief of the Renge Heviya Jine women's magazine, was arrested on December 5, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. Her predecessors, Gurbet Cakar, Sultan Sonsuz, Ruken Aktas and Sibel Esmer are all either convicted or facing prison terms. Renge Heviya Jine (The Colour of Women's Hope) is the only women's magazine in Turkey published in both Kurdish and...

ARTICLE 19 has welcomed the approval of the Access to Public Information Law by El Salvador's Legislative Assembly on December 2, and urged President Mauricio Funes to immediately sign and implement the legislation. The law marks a new era for freedom of information in the country. "The adoption of the Access to Public Information Law by the Legislative Assembly is an important step forward in the...