State Impunity

A pro-Gbagbo Notre Voie newspaper correspondent in Korhogo, a town located about 600km north of Abidjan, fled the town after persistent threats against his life by New Forces, an armed group in Côte d'Ivoire supporting Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized president of the country. The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent in Côte d'Ivoire reported that Silué Kanigui...

Journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan was threatened several times since his book on the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was published two weeks ago, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. The book revealed volatile information on the murder. Arslan has applied for police protection. Arslan, Ankara correspondent for the Bugün ('Today') newspaper, was threatened by means of a...

Targeted physical attacks were carried out Tuesday on journalists in several Lebanese cities including Beirut, the northern city of Tripoli and the southern city of Sidon, during violent protests that followed the announcement that a Hezbollah-backed candidate has been appointed prime minister, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The press freedom...

Muheeb Al-Nawathy, a Palestinian journalist, has gone missing for two weeks in Syria. His family has had no word from him since January 5, nine days after he arrived in Damascus to do research for a book he is writing about Hamas, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Nawathy was due to have returned on January 9 to Norway, where he has resided as a...

A leading journalist and writer in Afghanistan was the victim of an acid attack Tuesday as he left his home in the Afghan capital Kabul. Razaq Mamoon, who works for several media outlets and presents a programme on the independent station Tolo TV, was taken to the military hospital in the capital. Doctors say though he is suffering from first-degree burns his injuries are not life-threatening and...

Threats from local authorities and security forces, which tried to take over its management, forced a local radio station in Honduras temporarily to stop broadcasting on January 14, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The station, Radio Faluma Bimetu – Radio Coco Dulce in Spanish - belongs to the Honduran community of African origin (Garifuna) of Triunfo...

The trial of two people accused of the murder of Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer specialised in Chechnya, and Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasia Baburova finally began this week in Moscow, nearly two years after they were gunned in the centre of Moscow on January 19, 2009 at the end of news conference by Markelov. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) welcomed the...

Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar was shot and killed in Karachi Thursday evening, shortly after covering gang violence in the city, according to several Pakistani journalists. At least two assailants intercepted Babar's car at 9:20 p.m., shooting him multiple times in the head and neck, Geo TV Managing Director Azhar Abbas told New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). One assailant...

Acts of intimidation and violence against journalists continue in Côte d’Ivoire, as the political crisis resulting from the November 28 presidential election drags on with no sign of a resolution in sight, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “We deplore the climate of fear in Abidjan for journalists trying to cover developments,” RSF secretary-general Jean...

A pregnant reporter with al-Jazeera TV channel was barred from an annual event for foreign journalists addressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to remove her bra during security check. Najwan Simri Diab told news portal Ynetnews that she was asked to stand in the queue with colleagues and journalists on her arrival to the event venue. She noticed that the guards had...