Ethics and Freedom

Aylin Duruoglu, editor the Vatan newspaper’s website, Gazetevatan.com, was granted a conditional release by an Istanbul court on February 23, 10 months after her arrest on April 27 for alleged links to a clandestine armed group called Devrimci Karargah (Revolutionary Headquarters), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Nine other people who were arrested in the same operation, including...

Newspaper journalist Maan Aqil was released from prison Tuesday after the authorities held him for three months without ever charging him, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The national criminal investigations department still has not said why it arrested Aqil at his place of work on November 22. A reporter with the government daily Al-Thawra, he had written articles denouncing...

Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) authorities banned international French broadcaster France 24 on Monday on bogus allegations of unprofessionalism over coverage of political unrest in the West African nation, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Frank Anderson Kouassi, the president of Ivory Coast’s National Broadcasting Council (known by its French...

A court in the Kigali district of Nyarugenge Monday imposed jail sentences on Charles Kabonero, the publisher of the weekly Umuseso, Didas Gasana, its editor, and Richard Kayigamba, one of its reporters, after finding them guilty of invading privacy in one of their articles. Kabonero got 12 months, while the other two got six months. “We firmly condemn these sentences, which deprive the newspaper...

The Colombian attorney-general’s office Monday directly implicated four senior intelligence officials and the secretary-general of the president’s office, Bernardo Moreno, in the phone-tapping of journalists and other prominent government critics, a scandal that was first exposed in early 2009. This occurred during the trial of Jorge Noguera, the former head of the intelligence agency known as the...

Palestinian journalist Tareq Abu Zayd, the correspondent of Hamas-run TV station Al-Aqsa, has been given an 18-month jail sentence by a court in the West Bank city of Nablus, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sentence was imposed by a Palestinian Authority military court on February 16. Zayd has been held for more than three months in Nablus, 60 km north of Jerusalem. The supreme...

Investigative journalist Maryna Koktysh, the deputy editor of the Minsk-based independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya, is being continually harassed over her coverage of a case involving senior police officers and interior ministry officials in the southeastern Belarus city of Homyel, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The independent press has just done its duty by reporting...

Syrian reporter Ali Taha was freed on February 7 after 36 days in detention, and cameraman Ali Ahmed a few days later, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The two journalists, who work for the TV station Rotana, were arrested on January 2. “The release of these two journalists is good news, but we condemn that the fact that they were held for a more than month without charge,” Paris...

Zimbabwean authorities are still harassing and intimidating the Zimbabwean, a privately-owned newspaper that is edited in Britain and printed in South Africa. In the latest instance, criminal charges of “publishing falsehoods” have been brought against the directors of Adquest, the company that distributes it inside Zimbabwe. No date has yet been set for their trial, according to Reporters sans...

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Vélez said on Tuesday that those who illegally spy on the press are “enemies of his government” during a meeting with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP). Uribe issued the statement at the urging of the CPJ and FLIP delegation, which met with the president and top government officials...