Uncategorised

(MISA/IFEX) - The 3 November 2006 edition of the "Government Gazette Extraordinary" indicates that the Government of Botswana plans to bring a bill to Parliament on intelligence and security services. According to the draft, "The bill is to establish a Directorate of Intelligence and Security, a Central Intelligence Committee, a National Intelligence Community and an Intelligence and Security...

(IPI/IFEX) - Vienna, 19 December 2006: In a report titled, "Media in Lebanon: Reporting on a Nation Divided," the International Press Institute (IPI) provides an assessment of the current challenges to press freedom in Lebanon. Commenting on the report, IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said "The Lebanese media offers diverse and wide-ranging opinion and analysis and enjoys a greater degree of press...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Top leaders of eight political parties signed the Interim Constitution on 16 December 2006 at the prime minister's official residence at Baluwatar, Kathmandu. The Interim Constitution, under its preamble, has expressed full commitment to complete press freedom along with competitive multi-party democracy, civil liberties, fundamental rights, human rights, adult franchise, periodic...

(MFWA/IFEX) - Three radio journalists in Burundi face prison sentences if found guilty on charges resulting from material they broadcast a few months ago. On 14 December 2006, a prosecutor asked a Bujumbura court to sentence each of the three journalists from privately-owned radio stations to three years' imprisonment. Mathias Manirakiza, director of Radio Isanganiro, Serge Nibizi, editor-in-chief...

New York, December 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an upsurge in arrests and the harassment of journalists by rival groups battling for control of Somalia. Both the Islamists who hold Mogadishu and the U.N.-backed transitional government based in Baidoa, northwest of the capital, have cracked down on the press this month. On December 17, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is concerned with the latest interference in the media by the Malaysian government through a directive to downplay news of an increase in highway toll charges. SEAPA joins its local partner, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in calling for a stop to executive interference in media editorial matters. Independent news site http:/...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today renewed its call for an end to the violence and threats against journalists in Somalia, a day after the arrests of a journalist and two union leaders. The journalist, Mohamed Amin Adan Abdulle, was arrested and detained on Sunday related to accusations of biased reporting. The reasons for the arrest of the two leaders of the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Omar Faruk Osman, the secretary general of its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), and Ali Moalim Isak, the NUSOJ organising secretary. The two journalists were arrested by the security forces of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) at Mogadishu airport on the morning of 17 December 2006...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 3 December 2006, journalist Heyra Zerpa and cameraman Carlos Idogro, both from the private television company Globovisión, were assaulted by a group of government supporters who were trying to stop the reporters from covering the closing of the presidential election polls in an area in Bolívar state, southern Venezuela. Zerpa told IPYS that she had received a telephone call...

(RSF/IFEX) - French journalist Didier François, the correspondent of the French newspaper "Libération" and the French international TV news station France 24, sustained a bullet wound to the leg during the clashes that began early on 17 December 2006 in Gaza between the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and Fatah militants. "We urge President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister...