Ethics and Freedom

After La Prensa newspaper unilaterally decided to stop publishing photos of dead bodies to avoid sensationalising the increase in violence in the country, the Honduras Journalists’ Guild (CPH) and the government are now working towards an agreement that would remove violent photos from newspaper covers, La Tribuna reports, according to Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Meeting with the...

A 13-year jail sentence has been imposed by a Bangkok court on Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul, the administrator of website linked to the anti-government Red Shirt Movement, for three messages critical of the king that he allegedly posted on the site, called Nor Por Chor USA. Thanthawut, who has been detained since his arrest on April 1, 2010, was given a 10-year sentence under a section of the...

On 10 March, Benin's media regulatory body, the Higher Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAAC) suspended, for one week, nine privately-owned newspapers in the country over what they alleged were false and abusive publications. The newspapers which include Le Clairon, Le Béninois, L'Engagement, Les Scoops du jour, L'Audace Info, La Suite, La Nouvelle Tribune, Actu Express and Le Béninois...

Prince Prah, editor of the Daybreak, an Accra-based weekly newspaper, who was detained on March 16 by Ghana's intelligence agency, the Bureau of National Investigations, (BNI) was released unconditionally at about 21:30 hours GMT on the same day. Prah told the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that during his six-hour illegal detention, he was interrogated on a wide range of issues including...

A trial has been opened against Radikal newspaper reporter Ertugrul Mavioglu following the filing of a complaint with the Istanbul Chief Prosecution, according to press freedom group BIANET. Mavioglu stands accused of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation" on the grounds of his interview with Murat Karayilan, leader of the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), at the Qandil...

A raid was conducted on the headquarters of the state TV station Česká Televize (ČT) on the evening of March 11 by around 10 armed and masked members of the military police, who searched the offices of investigative journalist Karel Rozanek and two colleagues for several hours and left with computers, notebooks, CD-ROMs, diaries and other personal items. “We are deeply shocked by both the purpose...

An insensitive cartoon by a Malaysian daily showing the Japanese superhero Ultraman running helter-skelter from the massive tsunami has sparked an outrage in the country, prompting the newspaper to tender a public apology. Berita Harian newspaper, the Malay-language daily, on its front page Monday apologised for the offending caricature of the popular Japanese icon running away from an oncoming...

Israel has complained to the UN over the planned screening of a controversial new film by acclaimed US film-maker Julian Schnabel at its headquarters in New York, according to the Guardian. Miral, which stars Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto as a young Palestinian girl caught up in the Arab-Israeli conflict, will receive a red carpet screening at the UN general assembly hall. The film is based...

The ongoing newspaper phone-hacking scandal intensified Monday after the BBC's Panorama programme accused a former senior journalist of hiring a private eye to illegally obtain army secrets, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. The BBC current affairs show claimed that Alex Marunchak, former senior executive editor of the News of the World tabloid, employed a private detective to intercept...

Two Comorian journalists charged on Monday with "publishing false news" in their coverage of the formal handover of power between President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi and President-elect Ikililou Dhoinine could face up to six months in prison if convicted, according to local journalists and news reports. In January, the European Union urged Comorian authorities to proceed with the handover of...