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(RSF/IFEX) - RSF was horrified to learn that freelance photographer Jean-Rémy Badio was murdered in the southern Port-au-Prince district of Martissant on the afternoon of 19 January 2007. He was reportedly shot dead in his home by members of a gang he had photographed a few days before. "Badio's tragic death is a harsh blow for the Haitian media, for whom conditions seemed to have improved during...

(MFWA/IFEX) - The Minister of Information of Guinea, Boubacar Yacine Diallo, on 15 January 2007 ordered all private and community radio stations not to broadcast any material on the ongoing general strike by the country's workers protesting against the high cost of living and other national concerns. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reports that Yacine Diallo issued the...

(CJES/IFEX) - On 17 January 2007, the City Court of Abakan ruled that the Khakassian website "Noviy Fokus" ("The New Focus"), belonging to journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, will not be closed down, despite Public Prosecutor Vladimir Dyuzhev's insistence, news agency Khakassia reported. However, the website can continue operating only after it has been registered as a media outlet. Abakan City Court...

New York, January 22, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the brutal assault on Tamara Golovanova, a reporter for the newspaper Vesti in the far eastern city of Partizansk, who was beaten on Friday while covering a story at a municipal office. The attack occurred in mid-afternoon, when Golovanova was interviewing people at the city employment office who were filing complaints that...

(CMFR/IFEX) - Two television news programmes that were critical of the Arroyo administration have been taken off the air by their home station, rival network ABS-CBN's "TV Patrol" news programme reported on 18 January 2007. "Dokyu" and "Frontlines", two public affairs programs of network ABC 5 known for their critical commentaries on the Arroyo administration, were allegedly cancelled by network...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Sharad Chandra Bhandari, a reporter with the news agency Rastray Samachar Samitte (RSS), was manhandled on 21 January 2007 while covering the indefinite nation-wide traffic strike in Gaushala, called by the National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE). The transport entrepreneurs roughed up Bhandari even though he had shown them his press card. They also threatened to...

(CJES/IFEX) - In the city of Omsk, three lawsuits entailing demands for damages totalling 1.7 million rubles (approx. US$64,000), have been filed against the newspaper "Omskoe Vremya" ("The Omsk Times"). As the editor of the newspaper, Mr. Yury Perminov, told CJES, all three claims were filed under clause 129 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (slander in a public statement or media)....

(FLIP/IFEX) - FLIP is concerned about contradictions and confusion regarding the right to make public the version libre" ("freely given") testimony of paramilitary group leaders participating in the peace process with the government, under which sentence reductions are provided to paramilitary members at all levels who voluntarily provide full details of their crimes. In December 2006, the...

Bhutan�s remarks that it is heading towards democratisation are nothing short of an attempt to fool the international community. There can be no democracy until it guarantees freedom of press and freedom of speech and expression. The work of holding the first momentous election scheduled for 2008 has been going on in full swing. However, there are already reports from the different media that some...

New York, January 19, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Burkina Faso to drop criminal defamation charges against two private newspaper journalists over stories on the unsolved 1998 murder of editor Norbert Zongo. The articles discussed a report by the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) that raised questions about the role of President...