Ethics and Freedom

Plainclothes police surrounded the offices of a newly launched satellite radio station in Tunisia and detained one of its journalists on Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists. Police continued their siege of the station Wednesday. The journalist, Dhafer Otay of Radio Kalima, said he was held for four hours and then released without charge...

Supporters of suspended Congressman Narayan Rane attacked the office of Marathi daily Navakal in Mumbai on Thursday, the Times of India reported. The attack was apparently in protest against a satirical editorial written on Rane and his innings in different political parties. The protesters, who smashed windowpanes and hurled paver blocks into the newspaper house in Girgaum, claimed to be members...

The editor of Fiji's oldest newspaper has been ordered to jail and the publication has been fined F$100,000 (NZ$104,000) for printing a letter critical of the military regime and the court system, Fairfax Media has reported. Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika has been convicted of contempt and jailed for three months with a suspended sentence for two years on a good behaviour bond. The ruling...

Bolivian President Evo Morales launched a state-run daily newspaper on Thursday, hoping to strike back against what he calls media bias three days before the country votes on his new constitution, Reuters reported. The paper, published with color photos on high-quality newsprint, is called Cambio, or "Change." Its slogan is "The truth will liberate us." The first issue hit newsstands on the three...

Nazari Paryani, the news editor of the daily Payman, has been released after eight days of detention in Kabul because of an allegedly blasphemous article that was published by mistake. Paryani was freed provisionally and still faces possible prosecution. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for all charges to be dropped. Exhausted by the ordeal, Paryani on Thursday told Paris-based RSF: “I...

Francisco Farinango, a journalist on indigenous community radio, Inti Pacha, who was arrested during protests against a new mining law in the Pichincha region, northern Ecuador on January 20, was released the next day but still faces charges of “rebellion” along with two other community members arrested with him. “Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) welcomes the release of the journalist but once...

The Malawi High Court has declared that the decision by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) to revoke Joy Radio's license was unconstitutional, ultra vires and unreasonable, effectively dismissing all cases that MACRA had brought against the private radio station. According to this ruling, it means there is no case between Joy Radio and MACRA, the Media Institute of Southern...

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has expressed concern at the recent eviction of the Albanian newspaper TemA from its premises by Minister of Economical Affairs Genc Ruli. According to SEEMO, the Minister of Economical Affairs cancelled unilaterally and without any further notice the newspaper's 20-year-old contract for the premises. An unexpected police siege followed and the...

Miguel Badillo Cruz, editor of Contralínea and Fortuna magazines, was arrested by police near his home in Mexico City on the morning of January 16, the Centro de Periodismo y Etica Publica (CEPET) has reported. The editor has been charged with "insult to authorities" (desacato) by a judge in Jalisco state. He is currently under "administrative arrest", having apparently been detained on a warrant...

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has expressed concern at the efforts by the Orthodox Church in the Republic of Macedonia / Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to prevent certain media from properly carrying out their work. According SEEMO, TV Alfa, TV Sitel and the newspaper Vecer have received a notification stating that, as of January 2009, they will need the approval of the...