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(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has voiced deep dismay after Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled narrowly that there was "no serious violation of the individual rights" of freelance journalist Lydia Cacho when she was arrested and held in December 2005 on the orders of governor of Pueblo state, Mario Marín. Cacho brought out a book in 2004, entitled "Los Demonios del Edén" (Demons in...

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 29 — In a setback for journalistic freedom in Mexico, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the governor of Puebla did not violate the rights of a journalist when he had her jailed on defamation charges. The judges ruled 6 to 4 against the journalist, Lydia Cacho, despite an investigation by one of them that concluded that at least 30 public officials, among them Gov. Mario Marín...

Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned a murder attempt against Danilo Bautista Hernández, presenter of a news programme on Radio California in Nueva Cajamarca, San Martín, north-eastern Peru by two men who aimed a gun at him before fleeing when they were disturbed. The incident may be linked to the journalist’s repeated criticism on his programme, El Informativo de Mediodía, of the...

New York, November 29, 2007 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is angered by the detention of about 17 journalists by Philippine police after a seven-hour standoff between a dissident group of soldiers and government security forces at the Peninsula Hotel in Manila’s Makati business district today. Some of the reporters were released in a few hours while others remained in detention through...

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the threats to press freedom from two articles in a reform of the 1999 constitution which the national assembly approved on 26 October and which Venezuelans are being asked to endorse in a referendum on 2 December. The organisation also fears for the safety of journalists in a media war waged during the referendum campaign and fed by clashes...

New York, November 28, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at the imprisonment of Nikolai Andrushchenko, co-founder and an editor of the weekly newspaper Novy Peterburg in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. On Saturday, a court sentenced Andrushchenko to two months of pre-trial detention on charges of defamation and obstruction of justice. If convicted, the journalist...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned allegations made by national police director Gen. Oscar Naranjo against journalist William Parra of the pan-Latin American TV news station Telesur over an interview with an army captain, Guillermo Javier Solórzano, who is being held hostage by the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Gen. Naranjo has accused Parra of being a...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 16 November 2007, a group of demonstrators, members of the Public Works Construction Worker's Union (Sindicato de Trabajadores de Construcción Civil, STCC), hit journalist Mayra Azán Mestanza as she was covering a protest from inside the offices of the Punchana's District Council, in Loreto region of northern Peru. The demonstrators gathered at the council building's main door to...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has protested against the arrest of journalist Slim Boukhdir, who according to latest reports is being held at a police station in the suburbs of Sfax, 231 kilometres south of Tunis. Boukhdir, 39, who ended a two-week hunger strike on 14 November 2007 after the authorities promised that his passport would be restored to him, was arrested on 26 November during...

TEHRAN, Nov. 27 — The Iranian Supreme Court has ordered a new investigation into the death of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who was killed in Tehran in 2003 while in custody, the judiciary spokesman said Tuesday. Zahra Kazemi, a photojournalist who was killed in 2003 after being arrested in Tehran. The spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told journalists on Tuesday that the court had objected to...