Ethics and Freedom

There has been rapid progress in the investigation into an attack on 12 journalists employed by the Cadena Capriles press group in Venezuela capital Caracas on August 13. The employee of a parastatal foundation was arrested two days later and the prosecutor-general’s office said nine other people were being sought on the basis of statements by victims and video and photos taken during the attack...

The National Intelligence Agency has issued a warning to the managers of three local radio stations in the eastern DRC province of Nord-Kivu saying that their stations will be closed down unless they stop retransmitting the programmes of French public broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI). “This threat is unacceptable,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) reacted. "It confirms that...

A three-month jail sentence has been passed by a Niamey court on Abdoulaye Tiémogo, the publisher of the independent weekly Le Canard Déchaîné, on a charge of “discrediting a judicial decision.” “It is the decision (on Tuesday) to sentence a journalist to imprisonment that discredits Niger’s judicial system,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) said. “This comes just two weeks after eight newspaper...

Kenyan police are attempting to intimidate journalists at private daily, the Star, to reveal their sources for a June 20 article that said the Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit had lost crucial files about an accused al-Qaeda member, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. In July, officers of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit interrogated Investigations Editor Andrew Teyie and...

Iranian newspaper Itmad e Milli, which is owned by defeated presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, was banned from newsstands on Monday, the daily reported on its website. It was not clear how long the ban would be in place. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), government agents prevented copies of the paper from leaving the printing press apparently because of an article by...

The editor of a now-defunct Azerbaijani newspaper, in state custody since February 2007, has died in a Baku prison hospital, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. According to Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov, Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, appeared Tuesday to have suffered a stroke. Results from an...

US immigration officials have detained without explanation Rahman Bunairee, a Pakistani reporter for Voice of America who said he had been targetted for attack in his home country. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on immigration officials to release Bunairee immediately and allow him to resume his work for the US government-funded broadcaster. Bunairee arrived...

Suspected government supporters attacked a dozen journalists in Venezuela on Thursday. The journalists were protesting an education bill that, they claimed, would restrict press freedom. Alleged government supporters hit and kicked the journalists, according to international news reports. At 2 p.m., several journalists from the Caracas-based dailies Últimas Noticias, El Mundo and Diario Líder...

Five of the six Gambian journalists who were jailed for two years on August 6 on charges of defaming the government – Emil Touray, Pa Modou Faal, Pap Saine, Ebrima Sawaneh and Sam Sarr – were transferred from the capital’s Mile Two prison to Old Jeshwang prison in the north of the country on August 10, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sixth journalist, Sarrata Jabbi-Didda, who has...

Two journalists in Rwanda have been given prison sentences in separate cases in the past few days. Newspaper editor Asumani Niyonambaza was sentenced to two years in prison. Reporter Amani Ntakundi got a three-month sentence. “There were absolutely no grounds for these jails sentences,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “Trials, threats, intimidation and smears are all used to...