Ethics and Freedom

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned a Brussels court ruling on November 4 ordering weekly Humo to immediately withdraw all copies of its latest issue from sale on penalty of paying a fine of 250 euros for each copy left on sale. The summary judgment was issued in response to an action brought by the federal police chief about a satirical photo-montage showing his head, and that of his...

Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor and founder of the Malaysia Today news and commentary website, has been released. High Court Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ruled on November 7 that Raja Petra's detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) was illegal and that the Home Minister had acted beyond his authority when he sentenced the blogger to two years in prison, the Committee...

Fiji's military government has recommended to the High Court sentence to the editor and publisher of Fiji Times to jail. Last week, the newspaper printed a front page apology and admitted that it was in contempt, for publishing a letter critical of the High Court Panel, which made a judgment that the 2006 coup was legal. On Monday, Fiji's Solicitor-General told Justice Thomas Hickie that the...

Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, the Independent newspaper has reported. The Intelligence and Security Committee, the parliamentary watchdog of the intelligence and security agencies which has a cross-party membership from both Houses, wants to press ministers to introduce a...

Press freedom groups have condemned the continued imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, a.k.a. Kareem Amer, who completed two years in prison on Friday. His lawyers from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Hisham Mubarak Law Centre are still waiting the result of an appeal brought before Egypt’s Prosecutor-General. Amer’s lawyers hope to see justice done...

The Iraqi Kurdistan court of appeals should act immediately to overturn a judge's ruling on Tuesday to impose a one-month prison term against a journalist who published critical reports about the Sulaymania courthouse, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. The journalist's lawyer said newly adopted legislation does not appear to allow such a prison sentence. The Criminal Court...

The media coverage of the US presidential elections concentrated more on opinion polls than actual issues, says a report by a media analysis firm. The American media had been even clear on stating that Republican candidate John McCain would loose his own state Arizona, which he won by a 9 per cent margin. "We need to change the way how the media publishes and interprets polls," said Roland Schatz...

Algerian newspaper El Khabar has topped Arab newspapers in distribution rates. The newspaper's distribution estimations exceeded 600.000 copies a day, despite its short life (the paper has only been published for eighteen years), and the huge number of lawsuits which have been aimed at its editors and reporters over the years, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has said. The...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the state security court to withdraw its case against Fayez al-Ajrashi, editor-in-chief of privately-owned weekly El-Ekhbariya. Al-Ajrashi, who was released from Al-Juweida prison (15 km south of Amman) on November 2 after paying 3,000 dinars (approx 3,300 euros) in bail. Al-Ajrashi is still facing charges of "inflaming sectarian strife" and "sowing...

Civil society groups have urged the Council of Europe not to ignore calls by its Parliamentary Assembly to send the draft Convention on Access to Official Documents back for redrafting so that it provides strong recognition of the right of access to information. The Parliamentary Assembly's opinion is due to be considered on November 12 by representatives of the 47 European governments that make...