Ethics and Freedom

A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia may have just two more weeks in print unless the government backs off a threat to close it down over its use of the word "Allah" to describe the Christian god, Reuters has reported. The newspaper says that it is a victim of politics and that the government that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years since independence from Britain is stoking religious conflict in a bid to...

The News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority has announced the “guidelines for telecast of news during emergency situations”. The guidelines have been “spontaneously accepted” by all 14 broadcasters running 22 news channels, the Indian Express reported. The guidelines stipulate that no ‘live’ contact can be made with perpetrators of the crime, their hostages/victims and security...

The Press Council of India (PCI) has said it would involve stakeholders on evolving guidelines on media coverage of events like the Mumbai terror attack. Council chairman, Justice GN Ray, said in New Delhi on December 15 that PCI would organise a seminar, tentatively scheduled for January next year, in which representatives from the media, government and armed forces and others would participate...

Students at Georgetown University in the US are suing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government agencies for information in the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the project began in a investigative journalism class at Georgetown in 2007. The students were supposed to find out...

The confrontation between the government and the press in Kenya has escalated. Parliamentarians on December 16 launched a scathing attack on the media and vowed to ensure it is "tamed." One member after another tore into the media, apparently angered by the all-out campaign against a controversial Bill recently passed by Parliament that seeks to give the government power to control media content...

An appeals court has allowed Joy Radio to resume operations 30 days after the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) revoked the station's broadcasting license for non-compliance with the Communications Act and its licence agreement, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The resumption of broadcasting came after the Supreme Court of Appeal reinstated an injunction...

Ukraine's National Expert Commission on the Protection of Public Morality has ruled that the registration of daily Blik should be withdrawn and criminal proceedings brought against the newspaper. On October 23, the commission recommended that legal sanctions be taken against Blik, which is owned by Adevarul Holding, a Romanian media company, for publishing several photographs of half-naked women...

A court in Gafsa (350 km south of Tunis) has sentenced reporter Fahem Boukadous in absentia to six years in prison on a charge of “forming a criminal association liable to attack persons and their property” for covering demonstrations in the Gafsa mining region. Boukadous works for Al-Hiwar Attounsi, a privately-owned TV station based in Italy that broadcasts to Tunisia. “This harsh sentence is...

The Kyrgyzstan government has refused to resume local retransmission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service unless it submits programmes for prior approval. The demand was made on December 15 by Melis Eshimkanov, head of state-owned broadcaster UTRK, who told a RFE/RL delegation its programmes were “too negative and critical.” “This political decision is intolerable,” Paris-based...

Press freedom groups have expressed concern over the abduction of freelance photojournalist Shadreck Manyere and attempted abduction of Obrian Rwafa, a reporter with the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). These incidents happened just 10 days after the abduction of journalist and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who is still missing. “Whoever was responsible, these...