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(AAI/IFEX) - On 27 January 2007, the Jordanian minister of foreign affairs, Abul Elah Alkhateeb, brought a lawsuit against "Al Hilal" weekly newspaper for defamation and insult after it published news that contained criticism of the minister's performance. The lawsuit was brought by the minister against journalist Ahmed Salama and editor-in-chief Naser Kamsh of "Al Hilal" newspaper, whom he...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about a physical attack on Jean-Bosco Gasasira, the managing editor of the independent fortnightly "Umuvugizi", who was beaten unconscious on 9 February 2007 in Kigali. It followed months of verbal hostility from the Rwandan government towards the more outspoken, privately-owned media. "When we condemned the threats being made against...

(MISA/IFEX) - On 13 February 2007, MISA confirmed that several journalists in Lesotho are being inundated with anonymous threatening calls, and accusations that they are at the forefront of a campaign to cause confusion in the country and within the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). The targeted journalists, Thabo Thakalekoala and Adam Lekhoada of Harvest FM radio station, Molika of...

BOGOTA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A Colombian journalist who went missing after he was accused by the government of taking part in guerrilla attacks said on Wednesday he was being framed, according to a statement on his network's Web site. Freddy Munoz, a correspondent for the Venezuelan-financed Telesur news station, was arrested in November on charges that he helped Marxist rebels bomb utility towers...

The verdict which the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issues in the case of SonntagsZeitung journalist Martin Stoll v. the Swiss federal government could lead to a reform of the Swiss criminal code and could have a major impact on the practice of journalism in Switzerland, Reporters Without Borders said today. The 17-member Grand Chamber began considering the case on 7...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Japanese government to refrain from editorial interference, after last month's ruling from Tokyo's High Court that Japan's public broadcaster, Nihon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), bowed to political pressure and censored a 2001 program regarding Japan's wartime sex slavery. According to online newspaper reports, politicians...

Manama: Bahrain Journalists Syndicate yesterday warned against the increasingly exclusionist tendencies being adopted by private citizens and official institutions. "We have noted with alarm the latest developments and procedures connected with journalists, and we fear that they are meant to curb their freedom of expression," the syndicate, yet to be officially recognised, said in a statement....

New York, February 14, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the recent detention of two Sudanese editors and the temporary closure of their newspaper after they interviewed religious militants last week. At around midnight on February 7, a Sudanese security officer visited the home of Adil Sid Ahmed, deputy editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan, in the...

(SomaliNet) The Kenyan High Court yesterday rejected a requirement by the Government that broadcasting houses seek State approval before airing some of their programmes. The landmark verdict was delivered in a case filed six years ago in the Constitutional Court by Nation Media Group, challenging the directive issued by the minister for Information, Transport and Communication at the time. The...

New York, February 13, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the January 22 detention of an independent journalist and human rights researcher in Tashkent. Umida Niyazova covered politics and human rights in Uzbekistan for the Central Asia news Web site Oasis, a project of the Moscow-based media watchdog Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations. She also contributed to Human...