Ethics and Freedom

The Peruvian Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco, editor of weekly newspaper Nor Oriente, who was sentenced on January 12 to one year in prison on defamation charges. Peru’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling by a court in Bagua, Utcubamba province, the local press said. Carrascal was convicted in January over a series of articles he wrote in 2005 alleging...

Iceland’s parliament, the Alpinghi, has unanimously approved a resolution known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) that calls on the government to draft legislation in line with its recommendations for the protection of media, journalists and bloggers. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) hailed this ambitious and positive initiative, adopted on June 15, and called on the government to do...

Expressing concern over the alarming proportion of paid news in the Indian media, the Election Commission on Thursday directed officials to closely monitor poll-related media reports. In a communication to the state election commissions, the Election Commission of India described paid news as a serious electoral malpractice, Asia News International (ANI) has reported. "The recent phenomenon of...

The Tunisian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday adopted a bill that reinforces an existing arsenal of legislation used to silence critical journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). President Ben Ali is expected to sign the bill after its anticipated approval by the Chamber of Councilors. The change is unconstitutional since it violates freedom of expression as guaranteed by...

Venezuelan columnist Francisco “Pancho” Pérez has been sentenced to prison on defamation charges, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Friday, a court in Carabobo found Pérez, a columnist with the daily El Carabobeño, guilty of defaming Valencia’s mayor Edgardo Parra, the local press reported. He was sentenced to three years and nine months. In two columns published in...

Radio journalist Oswaldo Pereyra Moreno was on Wednesday sentenced to one year in prison on criminal defamation charges in San Lorenzo, northern Peru, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The charges against Pereyra, host of the show 'Hora 13' on Radio Macarena, stemmed from a September 2009 broadcast about an illegal abortion allegedly given to an unnamed 14-year-old girl in a...

Veteran Zambian Editor Fred M’membe was sent to prison Friday following his sentencing for contempt of court sparked by an op-ed on the state’s prosecution of a journalist, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Having convicted M’membe earlier this week, Magistrate David Simusamba sentenced the the editor-in-chief of Zambia’s largest newspaper, The Post, to four months in prison...

Ten Radio Fahazavana employees, including six journalists, were placed in pre-trial detention in a prison in Madagascar on May 27 on charges of threatening state security and inciting revolt, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). They had been held in police custody since a May 20 raid on the station, which has been closed. “Radio Fahazavana’s employees have the right to a trial as soon as...

Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has filed a criminal defamation suit against independent journalist Hamdi Kandil, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). He faces up to six months in jail and a discretionary fine if convicted. A prosecutor summoned Kandil on Tuesday to inform him of defamation charges brought in connection with a May 3 article in the opposition...

Kuwaiti authorities have detained freelance opposition journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem since Sunday on charges of “instigating to overthrow the regime,” “slight to the personage of the emir” and “instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Al-Jassem is facing multiple charges in five other complaints and was...