State Persecution

The police in Unzbekistan has arrested an independent journalist in the city of Nukus for alleged drug possession, independent news website Uznews has reported. If convicted, Solidzhon Abdurakhmonov faces up to five years in prison, Uznews editor and CPJ International Press Freedom awardee Galima Bukharbaeva told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Abdurakhmonov was...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has accused the Guanajuato state government in Mexico of discrimination against the newspapers "a.m." and "Correo" in its placement of official advertising, in addition to insulting them and refusing to provide them with information. The state government's actions were seen as revenge for the papers' critical editorial stance. In a letter to Guanajuato...

Kwekwe journalist Blessed Mhlanga was acquitted Wednesday last over charges of contravening Section 80 (1)(a)(2) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which prohibits the publication of falsehoods. However, his colleagues Wycliff Nyarota and James Muonwa are facing trial, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The state alleges that on March 26...

The 2005 shooting death of a Reuters journalist in the midst of a firefight in Baghdad was justified because US soldiers believed the camera protruding from an unmarked car was a rocket propelled grenade, the Pentagon's internal watchdog has concluded. In an 82-page report, the Defense Department's inspector general also said that Reuters safety practices contributed to the death of sound...

Fears of attacks on journalists are on the rise in China after a recent string of attacks on media that have ranged from unexplained detentions to violent physical assaults on reporters. Huang Qi, founder of website www.64tianwang.com, was Tuesday charged with illegally obtaining state secrets by the security bureau of Chengdu, Sichuan, after he and two colleagues were reportedly abducted by plain...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on European Commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, to raise the problem of risks to journalists covering fighting in the Palestinian territories at the Israel-EU Association Council meeting in Luxemburg on June 16. "The death of Fadel Shanaa, of the British news agency Reuters, on April 16, has reawakened our concern about the lack...

A charge of publishing false information, that was brought against Al-Jazeera Rabat bureau chief Hassan Rachidi on June 13, quickly followed by the immediate withdrawal of his press accreditation without waiting for him to be tried, have been described as "excessive" by the Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Rachidi is to be prosecuted for quoting a human rights group's claim that protesters were...

Iraqi journalist Mohiddin Abdulhamid al-Nakib, gunned down Tuesday outside his home in the northern city of Mosul, 370 km north of Baghdad, according to the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). His death brings to 216 the number of media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003, 12 per cent of whom have died in Mosul, the country's second most dangerous city for...

US soldiers who killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq acted within military rules, but the Army's probe of the incident was tainted by its failure to preserve evidence, a Pentagon investigation said on Monday. The Defense Department's inspector general, the Pentagon's watchdog agency, found that U.S. soldiers who fired on a Reuters car in west Baghdad in August 2005, killing Reuters Television...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged authorities to drop charges against Hassan Rachidi, the head of Al-Jazeera's bureau in Morocco, accused of broadcasting false information and conspiracy. IFJ said in a statement Monday that it believed the court case, stemming from Al-Jazeera reporting incorrectly on Saturday that there had been deaths during protests in the south-western...