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SAN DIEGO – Like a surreal outtake of “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” a crazed couple didn’t heed Will Ferrell’s character Burgundy’s “stay classy” advice. Two accused real estate scammers wailed viciously on a hapless local newsman reporting their alleged dirty deeds on live television. A television reporter was bitten and beaten as he and his cameraman, who captured the attack on video...

MANILA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Philippine national police said on Thursday they arrested an officer from a local force and two other men over the shooting of a newspaper reporter last month, at least the tenth attack on journalists this year. Roger Panizal, who covers the crime beat for the "Tiktik" tabloid in northern Manila, survived five bullet wounds, including one behind his ear. Other Filipino...

GORNO-ALTAISK, September 6 (Itar-Tass) - The Prosecutor's Office of the Altai republic has exposed the murderer of journalist from Omsk Alexander Petrov and his family, First Deputy Prosecutor of the republic Sergei Shukhin told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The murder was committed in early August. According to the official, “The suspect surrendered the murder weapon, although he had initially claimed...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has condemned measures taken by courts in Brasilia and the southeastern state of Minas Gerais aimed at gagging the press just a few weeks before the 1 October 2006 general elections. "It does not take a degree in rocket science to know what Brasilia's regional electoral court seems to have realised, that press revelations about candidates can have a major impact on elections," the...

New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jail sentences given to two journalists in Senegal for defamation. A court in the capital Dakar on Tuesday handed down six-month suspended prison sentences to Alioune Ndiaye and Saliou Sambe, respectively director and reporter with the private daily L’Observateur, according to local news reports and CPJ sources. They...

Bianet-Turkish courts are geared up to hear 45 press and freedom of expression cases until the end of the year. First case starts with the Kirandi trial on September 8 while eight journalists, writers and publishers are to face judges on October 5. With the judiciary recess ending on September 6, bianet has established that Turkish courts are to hear 45 press and freedom of expression cases until...

Media organisations and activists in Fiji are joining hands to fight a bill currently before the country's parliament for the creation of a Broadcast Licensing Authority (BLA) that will provide the government with a way to control the news media. REMOTE CONTROL: Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, however, has defended the bill saying its aim was not to control the media, and that a legal framework

The recent cases of prosecution of journalists in Azerbaijan has press freedom advocates worried the world over. HAWKING FREE SPEECH: A newspaper-seller in Azerbaijan capital Baku. Five journalists and a number of newspapers are facing criminal and civil defamation cases. Some of them, including Shahin Agabayli, Editor-in-Chief of Milli Yol, and Fikret Faramazoglu, Editor-in-Chief of 24 Saat, have

(IPYS/IFEX) - During the second week of August 2006, all unsold copies of the ninth edition of the Social Observatory's magazine, "Revista del Observatorio Social", were seized. The order was issued by Ouro Preto's ordinary court in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, because of a report with the title "The Stone Age", published on 9 February, which had denounced the use of child...

(JED/IFEX) - The National Police's Kinshasa Provincial Criminal Investigation Unit (Inspection provinciale de la police nationale ville de Kinshasa, IPK) has released the names of journalist Bapuwa Mwamba's three presumed killers. Mwamba was killed at his Kinshasa/Matete home on the night of 7 to 8 July 2006. The suspects are soldier Vungu Mbembo, also known as Manassé, who is a deserter from the...