Ethics and Freedom

An elected New York state official is being prosecuted for his alleged attack on a photographer who was trying to take his picture, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. New York State Senator Kevin Parker, who represents Brooklyn's District 21 in the Albany-based legislature, was arrested May 8 in Brooklyn and charged with felony criminal mischief, according to the New York...

Yemeni authorities have launched a campaign to suppress independent journalism in the country, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Authorities have announced a special court to try media and publishing offences. One of the latest victims of the media crackdown launched nearly two weeks ago is Yahya Bamahfud, a blogger and former editor of the Hadhramaut news...

There has been a wave of lawsuits against independent Iraqi news media in recent weeks. Three daily newspapers and a TV station have so far been sued for defamation by senior government officials over reports about corruption, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “These attacks on independent Iraqi media run counter to the progress towards democracy which the entire nation has...

Radio Mada sports reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina has been retained in detention and charged with “inciting revolt against the republic’s institutions,” defamation and disseminating false information, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He was arrested on May 5 and forced to reveal the location from which the radio was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order. “Even if...

The Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision to strike down the 1967 Press Law, a measure that imposed harsh penalties for libel and slander, is a crucial step forward in the campaign to eliminate criminal defamation laws in the Americas, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. CPJ and other groups had long urged that the anachronistic law be removed from the books. Brazil's highest...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the administration's increasing pressure on the Republic of Korea's media. The arrest on April 28 of four staff members with the country's second-largest broadcaster, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), is only the most recent step in what appears to be a broader effort to stifle independent reporting critical of government...

American reporter Diane Bukowski, who was found guilty on May 1 of two felony counts of resisting, obstructing, opposing, and endangering two Michigan state troopers while covering a crime scene, is facing prosecution. Bukowski, 60, will face sentencing, which may include a fine of up to $4,000 as well as up to four years in prison or both, on June 1. Bukowski is a freelance reporter for the...

There has been an alarming wave of politically motivated criminal lawsuits in Iraq's Kurdistan filed against mostly independent journalists as well as blatant violations of the region's new press law. The law has no provisions for jail terms for journalists, but journalists are still being imprisoned, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. In a letter to the prime minister of the...

With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new report. CPJ’s “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger” also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia where Internet penetration has blossomed and

A Panama City court has sentenced leading Panamanian journalist Jean Marcel Chéry to two years in prison on trespassing charges stemming from a years-long series of complaints filed by a Supreme Court justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. It has called on Justice Winston Spadafora to end his politically motivated harassment. Judge Ricardo Mazza Moreno of the Second...