Ethics and Freedom

A Thai journalist wounded during an army crackdown on a mass protest in April is suing prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and other top officials for attempted murder, his lawyer said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Bodin Watcharobol, a 42-year-old freelance photographer, was shot and seriously wounded as armed troops tried to clear an area of the capital of demonstrators, leaving 26...

Iran has detained two more journalists, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Abdolreza Tajik, who writes for reformist newspapers in Iran including Fath, Bonyan, Bahar, and Shargh, was arrested on June 12. Tajik's sister told US government-backed Farsi-language Radio Farda that her brother was arrested after being summoned to Tehran’s Intelligence Ministry. After a month of not...

The Chinese government is all set to press charges against Gheyret Niyaz, a Uighur journalist and website manager. According to the Uyghur American Association (UAA), Niyazi will be tried in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on July 28. Niyaz faces charges of “endangering state security” stemming from ethnic unrest in Xinjiang in July 2009, New York-based...

Serbian national security and police forces have been given the power to view the contents of citizens' personal email accounts without permission as a result of a new law adopted by parliament on June 19, the International Press Institute (IPI) has reported. The legal system has also left journalists vulnerable to attacks with a recent court decision to reject charges against six people who...

Ato Kwamena Dadzie, news editor of Joy FM, an Accra-based independent radio station, was charged with a criminal offence for refusing to reveal the station's sources of information for a July 5 news item, according to the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The station had carried a report to the effect that an umbrella body of local contractors, the Ghana Real Estates Developers Association...

A controversial article by writer Yilmaz Ozdil was within the "limits of press freedom", the Diyarbakir Public Prosecution in Turkey has decided. In the April 14 article, which was published in Hürriyet newspaper, Ozdil had defended a physical attack on Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk. The Press Council had previously reached a similar conclusion regarding Ozdil's column, IPS Communication...

The US Senate on Monday passed a bill to shield US journalists, authors, and publishers from "libel tourists" who file suit in countries where they expect to get the most favourable ruling.The popular legislation headed to the House of Representatives, which was expected to approve it and send the measure to US President Barack Obama to sign into law despite misgivings from key US allies, Agence...

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Court has been urged to disclose details about the decision to establish a new press court and to explain the mechanisms under which it will operate. Abd As-Satir Birkdar, spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Court, which announced the creation of the court on July 11, told Al-Mada newspaper that the court is being established in accordance with the Judicial Organization Law...

Retired Panama journalist Carlos Núñez was released on July 14 after 19 days in detention, according to delayed reports received by Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Núñez was arrested on June 26 after being convicted in absentia as a result of a libel suit brought against him 10 years ago. At the time of his arrest, he was completely unaware he had been convicted over an article he...

Singapore released on bail Tuesday a British author arrested two days earlier as part of a criminal defamation investigation related to his book on the city-state's death penalty policy. Alan Shadrake, a 75-year old freelance journalist, posted $10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,250) bail, said his lawyer, M Ravi. Police confiscated Shadrake's passport, interrogated him about the book and will question...