(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for a full investigation into death threats made against Free Media Movement (FMM) convener Sunanda Deshapriya, leading journalist Bandula Padmakumara, The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wikramatunga, and Ravaya editor Victor Ivan, as well as politicians, including the Opposition Leader, and prominent business figures...
(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is backing the Romanian media's protests over "disturbing and inappropriate" comments made by Romanian Justice Minister Monica Macovei, which they say violate the rights of one of the country's leading journalists by publicly questioning his newspaper's right to criticise her. Following comments by Justice Minister Macovei, veteran...
(MISA/IFEX) - The Media and Information Commission (MIC) has summoned journalist Nunurai Jena to appear before it for a hearing over an expired accreditation card allegedly issued to him "in error" by the state-controlled media body. Ironically, the MIC's notice of intention to cancel the expired accreditation card comes at a time when Jena is suing the Commission for defamation, arising from...
New York, January 17, 2007 --The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that Egyptian authorities have brought criminal charges against an Al-Jazeera producer in connection with her work on a documentary about torture. Howayda Taha Matwali, who also works as a reporter for the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, was charged after authorities found unedited footage showing re-enactments of...
(SEAPA/IFEX) - On 15 January 2007, Thailand's military leaders moved to block CNN broadcasts of the cable network's exclusive interview with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, less than a week after warning the Thai press about giving the ousted leader such access to the media. Thai papers are reporting that the Council for National Security (CNS), as Thailand's ruling military council is...
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - ARTICLE 19 today released an analysis of Kazakhstan's draft Law 'On Publishing'. The draft Law proposes a licensing scheme for all printing presses, something not normally seen in democracies, and it entrenches a series of vague restrictions on what may be published in Kazakhstan - such as on secrets and "statements of religious uniqueness". ARTICLE 19 is concerned that neither...
(CJES/IFEX) - On 11 January 2007 in Ivanovo City, the Ivanovo regional court confirmed the prior verdict of the Lenin area Justice of the Peace against Mr. Vladimir Rahmankov, editor of the Internet-based newspaper "Kursiv". The news agency New Region reported that the ruling was sent to the press service section of the State Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, rendering the...
(IPYS/IFEX) - On 8 January 2007, the body of journalist Guevara Guevara Domínguez, editor and contributor of the digital edition of the U.S. weekly "Siglo XXI", who disappeared on 8 October 2006, was found in the municipality of Ocampo, in the northeastern state of Durango. The body, which was found at the bottom of a ravine, exhibited multiple fractures in the thorax, skull and limbs. Authorities...
(RSF/IFEX) - After negotiating with the managers of three privately-owned radio stations that were ordered to suspend broadcasting the previous day, Somalia's transitional federal government told them on 16 January 2007 that they could resume broadcasting, Reporters Without Borders has learned from Omar Faruk Osman, the secretary-general of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). The...
(HRW/IFEX) - (Cairo, January 17, 2007) - Egyptian security officers have charged a journalist with spreading false news that could "harm the national interest" for working on a documentary about torture in Egypt, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the Egyptian government to drop the charges against the journalist. On January 13, the officers detained Huwaida Taha Mitwalli...
