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(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of journalists in recent days in both the northern breakaway state of Somaliland and in the southwestern city of Baidoa, where the transitional federal government has its seat. Three executives of the Hargeisa-based independent daily "Haatuf" have been arrested in Somaliland. Hussein Mohammed Abikar of the privately-owned Voice of...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF and the Burma Media Association welcomed the release on 3 January 2007 of journalists Thaung Tun and Than Win Hlaing before they completed their sentences. They were among a total of 2,831 detainees pardoned by the military junta. No more than about 30 political prisoners were included in the amnesty. Five journalists, including U Win Tin, are still being held in Burma. "The...

New York, January 4, 2007-Burma has released CPJ Press Freedom Award winner Thaung Tun as part of a New Year amnesty for nearly 3,000 prisoners but six other journalists remain in jail. “We applaud the release our colleague Thaung Tun, but we call on the Burmese government to free the six journalists still being held,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists....

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, January 3, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists released the following statement in response to yesterday's decision by a Mexican judge to dismiss criminal defamation charges against prominent journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro: "The court's decision to dismiss defamation charges against Lydia Cacho is welcome news and a positive step towards...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said today that 2006 was a year of tragedy for the world's media as killings of reporters and media staff reached historic levels with at least 155 murders, assassinations and unexplained deaths. "Media have become more powerful and journalism has become more dangerous," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "2006 was the worst year...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, January 3, 2007-A court in Burundi today rebuffed the government, ordering the release of three journalists and rejecting the prosecution's claim that their reporting in connection with an alleged coup plot compromised public security. A panel of judges in the capital Bujumbura acquitted editor Serge Nibizi and journalist Domitile Kiramvu of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA)...

(AJI/IFEX) - The essence of press freedom and freedom to access information, as stipulated in Article 28 of the Second Amendment of the 1945 Constitution, has not been fully realised. Various obstacles, threats and violence against the press and journalists occurred in 2006, in worrying levels of intensity. According to AJI records, from January to December 2006, there were 53 cases of violence...

New York, January 3, 2007—Police in the northern self-declared republic of Somaliland stormed the offices of the Somali-language daily Haatuf late Tuesday and seized two journalists over an article alleging corruption by the president’s wife, according to local media reports and local journalists. Managing editor Yusuf Abdi Gabobe and editor Ali Abdi Dini have been held for questioning at the...

New York, January 3, 2007—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has confirmed a 15-month prison sentence against a journalist who was out on bail, and sent him back to prison, according to CPJ sources. In a December 27 decision, the court ordered that Leykun Engeda, former editor of the defunct Amharic-language weekly Dagim Wonchif, should serve out the rest of his term for allegedly publishing false...

(RSF/IFEX) - Every effort must be made to obtain the rapid release of Agence France-Presse photographer Jaime Razuri, a Peruvian national, who was kidnapped in Gaza City on 1 January 2007, RSF said, condemning a lack of political will on the part of the Palestinian authorities to put an end once and for all to the wave of criminal kidnappings of journalists in the Gaza Strip. "We realise that the...