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New York, December 26, 2006—Four unidentified men severely beat Nijat Huseynov, a reporter for the Baku-based opposition daily Azadlyg, on Monday morning, according to local and international press reports. Huseynov told the Turan news agency that he had received anonymous threatening phone calls recently. The callers made reference to Huseynov's work but did not cite a particular article, he told...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (December 26) - In a further move in its hemisphere-wide campaign aimed at creating awareness of the impunity surrounding the murder of journalists and bringing the culprits to justice, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe to act to have the investigation into the death of journalist Jairo Elías Márquez speeded...

New York, December 22, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for a full investigation into the detention of New York Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December 19. Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from the special branch of Pakistan’s police, detained Soomro, a...

(MISA/IFEX) - Media stakeholders are set to launch an independent, self-regulatory media council in January 2007 after getting endorsement from government, publishers, civic society organisations, political parties, church groups and the business community. The self-regulatory body, which will be known as the Media Council of Zimbabwe (MCZ), will be officially launched in Harare on January 26 at a...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, December 22, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the banning in Morocco of an independent magazine and the charges brought against its director and a reporter for publishing an article analyzing popular jokes about religion, sex, and politics. Driss Ksikes, the publisher and director of the weekly magazine Nichane, and reporter Sanaa al-Aji, were...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, December 22, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for a full investigation into the detention of New York Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December 19. Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from the special branch of Pakistan's police detained...

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered a special investigation into the apparent killing of an ethnic Tartar journalist, according to an Interfax news agency report. "The president is shocked at the outrageous killing of Norik Shirin," Yushchenko's spokeswoman Irina Bannikova said. Relatives found Shirin, 23, dead from a single knife wound in a garage in the Crimean regional capital...

New York, December 21, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the killing of Philippines radio broadcaster Andres Acosta, which police believe may be linked to his work. He was stabbed to death Wednesday in the town of Batac, 240 miles (390 kilometers) north of Manila. "We join our colleagues in the Philippines in mourning the death of Andres Acosta, and calling for justice," said CPJ...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, December 20, 2006 - Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 32 journalists in 2006, the deadliest year for the press in a single country that the Committee to Protect Journalists has ever recorded. In most cases, such as the killing of Atwar Bahjat, one of the best-known television reporters in the Arab world, insurgents specifically targeted journalists to be murdered, CPJ...

(CJFE/IFEX) - Toronto, December 20, 2006: It is the season to make lists - the best, the worst, the top newsmakers of 2006 - but at Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) our list is a more chilling one. In 2006, our list counts at least 82 journalists killed in the course of doing their work, in addition to dozens of media workers. Hence, 2006 has the terrible distinction of being the...