State Impunity

Press freedom groups have condemned journalist Hilal Al-Ahmadi’s murder Thursday in the northern city of Mosul. Ahmadi, who worked for two local weeklies, the Mosul Echo and Iraqiyoun, was gunned down outside his home. “We are extremely shocked and dismayed by Ahmadi’s death,” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. “The...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for an investigation into the attack on Lara Logan, a reporter for the American TV cable network CBS, last Friday in Tahrir square, Cairo. CBS has confirmed that Logan was the victim of "a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating." "This is a shocking attack which must not go unpunished," said Jim Boumelha. "The Egyptian Prime...

Five journalists and the representatives of several NGOs including the Federation of Colombian Journalists (Fecolper) have been directly threatened in a particularly disturbing email that began circulating Thursday. Sent from the Gmail account of “Aguilas Fénix,” it is signed by the central division of the “Aguilas Negras” (Black Eagles), a feared paramilitary group responsible for terror...

Nepal is failing to act in the face of the growing number of attacks on freedom targeting journalists, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has alleged. Nepal has reached an extremely worrying level of attacks on the media, mostly the responsibility of political parties and religious groups. “We call on the authorities to do everything to end these attacks, prevent a...

Authorities in Bahrain and Yemen have escalated their physical attack on the press in order to censor coverage of spreading anti-government protests, the Committee to protect Journalists said Thursday. Also, in Iraq, at least two journalists were attacked by guards for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's building, local journalists told CPJ. "Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa...

There has been no significant police response to an incident in which snipers allegedly in the pay of an influential landowner fired on reporter Talat Hussain cameraman Haider Ali of the DawnNews TV channel when they were doing a story about the social impact of recent flooding in Thatta, in the southern province of Sindh, on February 4. No one was fortunately injured. Paris-based press freedom...

Scarcely veiled death threats have been made against independent journalist Serhiy Lechenko that were expressed by Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, a PR consultant who supports President Viktor Yanukovych, in an opinion piece published in the pro-government newspaper Izvestiya v Ukrayine, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Lechenko is an influential journalist who...

There was modest progress at the latest hearing in the trial of 19 people charged with the murder of Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink, who was gunned down outside his office in Istanbul in January 2007, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Prosecutors announced at the hearing, held on February 7, that a preliminary investigation has been...

Dominican police wounded journalist Francisco Frías Morel on Friday as he was covering a funeral procession for a youth killed in a police shooting in the northeastern city of Nagua, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on local authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and to hold those responsible to account. "We condemn the use of...

At the tenth session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group today, countries from around the world recommended the Nepali government immediately address the growing impunity in the country, and protect journalists and human rights defenders from attacks. "The international community has come together during today's review to highlight the growing concern about impunity in the country...