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Reporters Without Borders condemned the heavy prison sentences passed yesterday by the regional court of Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway state of Somaliland, on the publisher of the privately-owned daily Haatuf and three of its journalists for allegedly defaming the government, the president and his family. “The Haatuf case has been marked throughout by procedural irregularities...

New York, March 5, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of freelance reporter Mick McCaffrey and the criminal investigation of Irish Times journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena for allegedly publishing private information. Police investigated McCaffrey for several months after the independent Dublin-based Evening Herald daily published his August 2006 article about...

International free speech organisations are mounting pressure on the Turkish government to respect press freedom and freedom of expression leading up to presidential and general elections scheduled for later this year. A Turkish woman holds a placard that reads: 'Prosecute me too 301' during a protest outside a courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, February 23, 2007. A group of activists invited

As Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today inaugurated festivities marking the 30 anniversary of his proclamation of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that there is still no news of Abdullah Ali Al-Sanussi Al-Darrat, a journalist who was arrested 34 years ago. “Six months after we visited Libya, nothing has changed,” the press freedom...

Reporters Without Borders voiced its support today for the staff of the TV station Cable Guatevisión, who have been receiving death threats since 25 February after broadcasting a report about the murder of four detained police officers inside a prison. The organisation fears criminal infiltration of the police. “The execution of four policemen inside a top-security prison where they were being...

(IFJ/IFEX): The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), supported by a coalition of international and local press freedom and journalists' organisations, has demanded action from the Pakistan government in response to the growing incidents of violence against journalists and the deteriorating press freedom situation. The mission for press freedom, led by the IFJ and its affiliate, the...

Two years after the contract-style assassination of Azerbaijaini opposition editor Elmar Huseynov, his murderers remain at large. When Huseynov, an editor and founder of the newsweekly Monitor, was gunned down in his Baku apartment building on March 2, 2005, President Ilham Aliyev called the murder a “provocation against the Azerbaijani state” and an “act of terrorism.” But despite these

New York, March 2, 2007 —The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that authorities in the capital, Libreville, have suspended a satirical newspaper for three months, apparently after it published commentary critical of President Omar Bongo, according to news reports and local journalists. The official National Communications Council (CNC) suspended the private bimonthly Edzombolo on Tuesday...

(Adil Soz/CJES/IFEX) - International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech (Adil Soz) and the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES), along with 12 other IFEX members, have joined in solidarity to protest the ongoing harassment of independent journalists and public activists in Uzbekistan and to campaign for the release of independent journalist Umida Niyazova. On 22 January...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has voiced surprise at the 22-month prison sentence which Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, a correspondent of the Miami-based Payolibre and Nueva Prensa Cubana websites and the US government-funded Radio Martí, received on 27 February 2007 from a Havana court on a charge of "disturbing the peace," and said it hoped the 19 months he has already spent in detention will be deducted...