Ethics and Freedom

The Iranian ministry of culture and Islamic guidance Wednesday suspended Hemat, a weekly that supports allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The ministry said a spoof movie poster on the front page of the latest issue, on February 1, had insulted senior government officials, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “There would be something comic about this suspension if it did not...

Gambian authorities are continuing to to hound the Point, a privately-owned daily based in Banjul. Its editor, Pap Saine, was charged with publishing false information yesterday, two days after being arrested and then freed on bail for reporting the arrest of a Gambian diplomat, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Saine is to appear in court again on February 19. “Saine’s arrest comes...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Israel to return confiscated news footage of its navy allegedly firing on and boarding a ship on Thursday. Journalists who were on board say they filmed Israeli soldiers assaulting a passenger, and that they were later beaten after their equipment had been confiscated, a reporter who was there told CPJ. According to Al-Jazeera English...

A Cairo appeals court has struck down a one-year jail term against four editors. On January 31, appellate court judge Mohamed Samir struck down a one-year jail-term given in September 2007 to four editors for "publishing false information likely to disturb public order." However, the court upheld a 20,000 Egyptian pound (US$3,540) fine against Ibrahim Eissa of the daily Al-Dustour, Adel Hamouda of...

Journalists in at least three Iraqi cities were harassed on Wednesday as police, soldiers, prisoners, some government employees, and displaced persons kicked off the early voting phase of Iraq's provincial councils elections, according to local and international news reports and journalists who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In the southern city of Basra, 15 Iraqi reporters...

The Nicaraguan attorney-general's office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organisation headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported on its blog. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denied claims from political leaders in Gaza that it was biased in its claims of Hamas interference and intimidation of journalists. In a statement issued on January 25, Hamas accused IFJ of "baseless statements" and "unacceptable partiality" following its comments after a two-day mission of international journalists' leaders to Gaza last week...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned a proposed criminal law amendment before Czech Republic parliament that would ban the media from publishing the contents of police telephone taps or any information about the tapping of phones by the police. The proposed amendment provides for sentences of one to five years in prison and fines up to 5 million crowns (182,000 euros) for violators. “In...

Fiji deported Fiji Times publisher Rex Gardner on January 27, five days after he and the newspaper were fined 100,000 Fiji dollars (40,000 euros) for publishing a reader’s letter criticising a court decision. Gardner is the third newspaper publisher with Australian nationality to be expelled by Fiji’s military-backed government in the past year. His predecessor at the Fiji Times, Evan Hannah, was...

Iran's culture and Islamic orientation minister Mohammad Hossein Safar-Harandi has banned BBC’s new Farsi-language TV station from operating in the country, and also forbidden Iranian journalists to work for foreign news media, Reporters sans Frontières has reported. The decision follows the BBC World Service’s launch on January 14 of BBC Persian TV, a satellite TV station targeted at Farsi...