Ethics and Freedom

The Madagascar government has closed down Viva TV after it broadcast a message by former president Didier Ratsiraka on December 13, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The authorities accused the station, owned by the mayor of Antananarivo, of broadcasting statements liable to “disturb public order and security.” Ratsiraka has lived in exile in Paris since 2002. “Viva’s closure signals a...

The chairperson of Namibia's Legislative body, the National Council, has called on the Ombudsman Office to investigate the Namibian's SMS readers' page and radio chat show programmes as to whether they are being used to demonise Namibian leaders. The Namibian publishes SMS messages from readers on various topics in Namibia. The call was made by Margret Mensah, chairperson of the National Council...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of Milton Chacaguasay Flores, owner and editor of the weekly La Verdad, based in Machala, south-western Ecuador. The journalist, who had been acquitted in a lower court, was sentenced on appeal on November 15 to 10 months in prison for “insulting” a judge and imprisoned two weeks later. This came one month after Freddy Aponte...

Press freedom groups are calling for transparency in the investigation of two journalists arrested on bribery charges in northern Shanxi province. Shanxi public security officials told local journalists on Monday that Guan Jian, a reporter for Beijing-based weekly Wangluo Bao (Network News) who had been missing for 15 days, is in custody in neighbouring Hubei province on suspicion of accepting...

Press freedom groups have called for the release of Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi who has been arrested for throwing his shoes at George W Bush at a Baghdad press conference during a surprise visit by the US president on Sunday. “We obviously regret that the journalist used this method of protest against the politics of the American president," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said...

Protests are being held across the Middle East demainding release of the Iraqi journalist who is being held for throwing his shoes at US President George W Bush on Sunday. Huge crowds have been demonstrating in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities to demand TV reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi's release and echo his message to Bush, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Ordinary Iraqis are...

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush was hit on the head with a rifle butt and had an arm broken in chaotic scenes when he was leapt on by Iraqi security officers, his brother said Tuesday. According to Reuters, TV reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi, who called Bush a "dog" at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday, was in a hospital in the...

Tensions between New Zealand and Fiji have heightened further after the latter deported ONE News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver and threatened to expel New Zealand's top diplomat there in the developing row over travel sanctions. Dreaver landed in Auckland Tuesday afternoon after being detained at Fiji's Nadi Airport Monday night. Dreaver had flown in Monday night to cover the escalating...

The US Supreme Court has refused to revive a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times by Steven Hatfill, the former government scientist who contended that he was defamed by a series of columns about the anthrax mailings of 2001. The court Monday, according to a Bloomberg News report, rejected Hatfill’s appeal in his suit against the New York Times Co stemming the columns by Nicholas Kristof...

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush, news agencies have reported. Journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, who was abducted by Shiite militants last year, was being held by Iraqi security and interrogated about whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at Bush during a press conference the previous day in...