Ethics and Freedom

Rabah Lamouchi, the national Arabic-language daily Ennahar's correspondent in Tebessa (460 km east of Algiers), has been arrested on the grounds that he was not officially accredited by the newspaper. This is denied by the paper's editor, who told Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) it was just a pretext. Another Ennahar correspondent was held for three days last month. "This case is disturbing...

An Associated Press (AP) reporter has been reprimanded for comments on his Facebook page, according to Wired News. Richard Richtmyer, a Philadelphia-based newsman, posted a comment on his Facebook profile late last month criticising the executive management of newspaper publisher McClatchy, whose stock plummeted following a 2006 acquisition of San Jose-based Knight Ridder. “It seems like the ones...

A military tribunal in Yaoundé sentenced Jacques Blaise Mvié and Charles René Nwe, general manager and editor-in-chief, respectively, of La Nouvelle newspaper, to five years in prison and a 500,000 FCFA (approx. US$1,066) fine at the end of a closed-door hearing. No appeal was permitted on June 3; the journalists were only informed of the hearing after the fact, Journaliste en Danger (JED) has...

Nedim Sener, a reporter for the daily Milliyet, who has written a book about the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, faces up to 28 years in prison after police officers filed complaints against him, the IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. Sener's book is titled The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies. The book deals with the gendarmerie, police and national intelligence officers who...

Several news media outlets have been waging an aggressive campaign against “Life in Kosovo,” an investigative programme broadcast by public TV service RTK, and the programme’s presenter, Jeta Xharra, who has received death threats. The campaign started after a "Life in Kosovo" report about alleged atrocities by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. "A Life in Kosovo" crew...

Abduvakhab Moniev, the deputy editor of the Kyrgyz-language weekly Achyg Sayasat (Open Politics), was severely assaulted by an unidentified individual on June 5 in Bishkek, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The newspaper has often been the target of harassment by the authorities. “The increase in harassment of the media in the run-up to the July 23 presidential election is worrying,”...

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has laid a charge of "stolen property" after the Mail and Guardian Online posted on the web an episode of the current affairs programme "Special Assignment", a documentary report on political satire. The public broadcaster pulled the episode on the evening of May 26, 2009, citing "internal processes," after initially pulling it just before the...

A Slovak government agency should immediately drop a civil complaint against the daily SME that was filed when the newspaper refused to print a response to a column under a controversial right-of-reply law, the International Press Institute (IP) has demanded. The complaint, filed by the Inspectorate for the Environment, is the first time a civil case has been pressed against a newspaper under the...

Awudu Mahama, a parliamentary reporter, and photographer Emmanuel Kubi, both of the Daily Guide, an Accra-based, privately-owned newspaper, were reportedly detained on 2 June 2009 at the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for allegedly loitering around the security zone, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has reported. MFWA's correspondent reported that the two...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned condemns the detention of journalist Aylin Duruoglu, the editor of the daily Vatan’s website, Gazetevatan.com, for the past five weeks on a charge of collaborating with an outlawed armed organisation. Arrested on April 27, she is now being held in Istanbul’s Bakirköy prison. “Duruoglu is the victim of inexplicable judicial persecution,” RSF said. “If...