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(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed by reports of self-censorship and heavy handed treatment of journalists at Sisa Journal, a major weekly magazine in Korea. According to the Journalists Association of Korea, over the past seven months there has been ongoing conflict between media staff and the magazine's President, Keum Chang-Tae. The conflict started when...

New York, February 21, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns criminal convictions handed down on Friday in Benin against three journalists and an executive of private Golfe media group over a February 2005 story alleging governmental corruption. A court in the capital Cotonou sentenced Golfe media group President Ismael Soumano, former Golfe FM Director Euloge Aïdasso, former Director...

(CMFR/IFEX) - Fifty-two journalists are now facing libel charges from Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Arroyo sued seven staff members of the "Philippine Daily Inquirer", including the publisher and several editors, and demanded P11 million (approx US$220,000) in damages, on 20 February 2007, adding these seven to 45 others he has sued (see IFEX...

New York, February 20, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the severe deterioration in the health of independent journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, 39, who has been imprisoned since 2002. When Binh’s family visited him in Nam Ha prison on February 15, he was so thin and weak that he could not hold a conversation, walk well, or lift his 5-year-old daughter, according to human rights...

The Mozambique Supreme Court has validated the pronouncement by the Maputo city Judicial Court that tried and sentenced six co-accused to heavy prison terms in January 2003 in the murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso. Cardoso was gunned down on November 22, 2000, while investigating the 1996 embezzlement of US$14 million from the state-controlled Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM)

An Iranian website fiercely critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been shut down in an apparent fresh crackdown on anti-government dissent on the internet, according to the Guardian. The Baztab.com site was banned on February 12 for violating last November’s rules, which forbid the publication of "false" information, "violating the constitution" and attacking "personal privacy" or "the...

BAKU - Azeri authorities have arrested two journalists, who work at a newspaper that covers Iranian issues, for high treason, a spokesman for the ministry of national security said today. The spokesman said Novruzali Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the Tolishi Sado newspaper that covers the Iranian community in Azerbaijan, and Elman Guliyev, another editor at the paper, had been detained but gave...

(BIANET/IFEX) - 2006 turned out to be the year when both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) confirmed their support for restrictions on freedoms in Turkey. We witnessed huge and numerous problems regarding freedom of expression and the press, caused by the wording as well as the philosophy behind the legislation that those two...

The transformation of two broadcasting institutions into private entities is being seen as a negative development in Moldova’s broadcasting landscape. Citizens of Moldova stand in line in front of the Romanian consulate building to receive an application form for a Romanian visa in Chisinau January 19, 2007. Fifteen years after independence, average monthly incomes in Moldova stand at $100

(Adil Soz/IFEX) - The free expression situation in Central Asia remains disturbing for many reasons, including: undemocratic legislative restrictions, attacks on journalists, arbitrary court rulings, obstacles to registering new independent media outlets, and illegal restrictions imposed on the receipt and distribution of information. Throughout the region, defamation and insult, insulting high...