Ethics and Freedom

More than 1,000 journalists have visited Guantanamo Bay since the U.S. military began locking up suspected al-Qaida and Taliban militants there 4 1/2 years ago. But access has been severely restricted: Journalists could not talk to detainees, they had to be accompanied by a military escort and their photos were censored. Now, the Pentagon has shut down access entirely - at least temporarily -...

Two Azeri newspapers have published cartoons of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini and the country's supreme clerical leader Ali Khamnei, in a move which drew fire from Iran. The move came amid a series of mass protests by ethnic Azeris throughout the neighboring country triggered by a publication of an insulting cartoon by state-owned newspaper Iran. The Caucasus Clerical Office...

NEW DELHI: A woman freelance journalist, who was convicted for allegedly leaking classified national secrets to ISI and other foreign agents, was ordered to be released by the Delhi High Court on the ground that the trial court has no jurisdiction to try the offence. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed while setting aside the seven year conviction imposed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, ordered that...

WASHINGTON - Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his privacy lawsuit Friday and will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations in a case that turned into a fight over reporters' confidential sources. Lee will receive $895,000 from the government for legal fees and associated taxes in the 6 1/2-year-old lawsuit in which...

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release, on health grounds, of cyber-dissident and human rights activist Guo Qizhen, who was arrested at his home on 12 May 2006 and whose health, according to his lawyer, is worrying. The press freedom organisation also condemns the harassment of two other cyber-dissidents, Liu Shui and Xiong Zhongjun, who were forced by the police to leave the city...

The Namibian government has officially called on the owner and editor of a local weekly newspaper, Windhoek Observer, to stop publishing letters with hate messages directed at former president Sam Nujoma. In a written statement, Information and Broadcasting Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah condemned the hate letters and said editor Hannes Smith, a veteran Namibian journalist whom she accused of...

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the anticipatory bail petition of Sunil Mehra, Editor of magazine 'Maxim', against whom a case has been lodged for publishing indecent morphed photographs of south Indian film actress Khushboo. "This (publication of the indecent photograph) is a blatant attempt to increase the circulation of your magazine," a vacation Bench comprising Justice Arijit...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued imprisonment of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, who has been re-indicted on charges of fraud and revealing state secrets. The Times reported the reinstated charges today. Zhao has been imprisoned for 21 months without once appearing before a judge. Charges against Zhao were dropped in March prior to the visit to the United States of...

Chinese prosecutors have filed a new indictment against a researcher for The New York Times, but it is unclear if they have introduced new charges or simply restated the case that was withdrawn in March, his lawyer said Monday. The new indictment against Zhao Yan was filed last Friday in a Beijing court. Mo Shaoping, the lawyer who has represented Mr. Zhao, said he had not yet been able to see the...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has recently issued a report on "a global counter-terrorism strategy" in which he appears to speak approvingly of "bans on interviewing terrorists." The Secretary General's 32-page report to the UN General Assembly contains his recommendations for the international community to fight back against terrorism. Amongst his recommendations is an offer to convene an...