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Outrage at the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink deepened yesterday after the media showed images of the teenage murder suspect posing with the Turkish flag and security officials after his arrest. The government launched an inquiry into the footage, which newspapers denounced as "hero treatment" of the 17-year-old suspect. Ogun Samast confessed to the January 19 killing of Dink...

(RSF/IFEX) - One the eve of the first anniversary of local radio journalist Enrique Galeano's disappearance and probable murder on 4 February 2006 in Yby Yaú, in the southern department of Concepción, RSF has voiced outrage at the cynicism and inaction displayed by the authorities in this case. "President Nicanor Duarte Frutos personally received representatives from the Paraguayan Union of...

(FLIP/IFEX) - On 1 February 2002, Orlando Sierra, sub-director of "La Patria" newspaper, which is based in to the city of Manizales, was murdered. Five years later, the masterminds of the crime are still free. In September 2006, Ferney Tabasco González - director of the Liberal Party for the Caldas department and a former Congress representative - was summoned for questioning. Tapasco González has...

UNESCO has launched a website dedicated to the World Press Freedom Day to be celebrated in Medellin, Colombia on May 3. The website provides regular news services, practical information, more detail on the conference, speakers and participants. This year’s event consists of a two-day conference on the theme “Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity” and the award of the UNESCO

Harare - A private Zimbabwean newspaper said on Thursday it had received a bullet and a threat from an unidentified source over stories relating to the national army, and warned this could be part of a new crackdown on the media. President Robert Mugabe's government has piled pressure on the media in the last five years with a set of tough media laws imposed in the face of the country's deepening...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Ethiopian Supreme Court's decision on 26 January 2007 to reject an appeal by journalist Abraham Reta of the privately-owned weekly "Addis Admas" and send him back to prison to complete the one-year sentence he received in April 2006 for allegedly libelling three senior officials. "We will not be able to talk of press freedom in Ethiopia as long as heavy...

New York, February 1, 2007—Responding to an international outcry over the murder of Russia’s top investigative reporter, President Vladimir Putin vowed today to protect the press, a pledge welcomed by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For the first time Putin also acknowledged the importance of the work of Anna Politkovskaya, whose murder in October put the spotlight on Russia’s growing...

BERKELEY, California, Jan 31 (IPS) - In a new blow to free expression in Iran, security forces arrested three members of a 15-woman delegation of journalists en route to a training workshop in India last week, accusing them of infringing national security interests and threatening them with trial. After being interrogated at the airport Jan. 25, their passports were confiscated and they were sent...

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Too much zeal for reporting may have led three Lebanese journalists to break into the apartment of a key witness in the slaying of former Prime Minster Rafik Hariri — but the rash move cost them 42 days in jail and got them released on bail only Wednesday. Reporter Firas Hatoum from the local New-TV station, a cameraman and an assistant, were let go on 500,000 Lebanese pounds (US...

CAIRO - Court proceedings started Sunday against Howaida Taha, an Al Jazeera journalist arrested while producing a documentary on police torture in Egypt. She's charged with harming national interests and faces five years in prison. Meanwhile, Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer has been in jail since November awaiting trial, charged with criticizing Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Taken...