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(IPYS/IFEX) - On 18 December 2006, TV Récord television station cameraman Marcelo Assunção and his assistant Fábio Souza were threatened, assaulted and arrested by members of the Metropolitan Civilian Guard Mediation Troop (Tropa de Mediación de la Guardia Civil Metropolitana, GCM), while they were covering a student demonstration near the mayor's office in São Paulo. The journalists were...

(IPA/IFEX) - Geneva, 19 January 2007 - According to sources in Istanbul, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was the victim of an armed assault. Apparently he was shot dead today by an 18-year-old man in front of his newspaper offices, Agos. Ana Maria Cabanellas, IPA President, declared: "IPA is outraged by what has happened in Istanbul today. We urge the Turkish authorities to lead all the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders expressed concern after a freelance journalist, Taghi Rahmani, was prevented from leaving Iran as he prepared to travel to Denmark on 13 January 2007 to receive a prize awarded by the local section of the freedom of expression organisation, PEN International. "We are very disturbed by this step, which has no legal basis," the worldwide press freedom...

(FMM/IFEX) - It was reported in newspapers today that officials of the income tax department visited the offices of the newspapers "Mawbima" and "The Sunday Standard", purportedly to look into income tax issues. The same officials also visited two other commercial enterprises owned by the owner of "Mawbima". FMM was informed that the officials seized files containing details regarding advertising...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about a bill currently being discussed by the Parliamentary Assembly of Northern Ireland. The draft "Policing - Miscellaneous Provisions (Northern Ireland) Order 2007" would extend the powers of the police to search and seize documents. The organisation wrote on 18 January 2007 to Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain warning him about the...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (January 19, 2007) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) submits today to the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the results of its investigation into the April 26, 1991 murder of journalist Santiago Leguizamón in Paraguay. Leguizamón was the host of the morning radio program "Puertas Abiertas" (Open Doors) broadcast by...

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay on learning that Aboubakr Jamaï was forced to resign today as managing editor of the Casablanca-based weekly Journal Hebdomadaire in a move that confirms a significant decline in the level of press freedom in Morocco. “For those who follow the Moroccan media closely, Jamaï’s departure is a significant loss and marks the end of an era in which, despite the...

(PPF/IFEX) - The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) has condemned the government's decision to stop advertising in the daily "Dawn", the country's largest circulation English-language newspaper. An emergency session of the CPNE on 16 January 2007 rejected use of advertisements as a pressure tactic to seek changes in the editorial policies of the newspaper. The CPNE members said the use...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Guyanese government's withdrawal of virtually all state advertising from the "Stabroek News", the country's leading privately-owned daily, and its refusal to respond to the initiatives taken by the newspaper in response to this discriminatory measure. "Governments must not allocate advertising to some news media as a reward, and withdraw it...

(MFWA/IFEX) - Chief Ebrima B. Manneh, a journalist working with the "Daily Observer", a pro- government daily newspaper, was located on 12 January 2007 for the first time since his arrest by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), more than six months ago. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources say he is being held in a police cell in Fatoto, the last major border town in the east of the...