It is amazing how some people in our society are perceived not to be entitled to speak on matters that affect all Zambians irrespective of ethnicity, religion, race or social status. For some time now, we have looked in awesome wonder how some people in the Mwanawasa Government see it fit and logical to attack clergymen and women whenever they give their objective views about any given situation...
New York, August 10, 2006-A judge in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, today convicted the editor of an Azeri-language independent newspaper on a charge of criminally defaming a leader of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party, according to international news reports. Shakhin Agabeili, editor-in-chief of Milli Yol, was sentenced to a year in prison in connection with the 2005 article, but a Milli Yol...
The High Court (HC) yesterday issued a contempt rule on The Prothom Alo Publisher Mahfuz Anam, Editor Matiur Rahman and Reporter Zahid Hossain for publishing a report on harassment of justice seekers in the HC Division of the Supreme Court. Following a contempt petition filed by a Supreme Court advocate, a division bench of the HC issued the rule on them to explain within three weeks why contempt...
NAIROBI, Aug 10 (IPS) - Concerns about restrictions on press freedom in Africa have surfaced again, this during a two-day conference held in Kenya that attracted over 100 media representatives from across the continent. The Aug. 8-9 gathering took place in the capital, Nairobi. It was organised in part by the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace. "The media is threatened from everywhere...
New York, August 10, 2006—The body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla, a longtime police reporter who became editor of a crime magazine, was found on the outskirts of the northern city of Chihuahua on Wednesday afternoon. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether Perea's murder is related to his work. Perea's body was found at 2 p.m. on the side of a road about 9 miles (15 kilometers...
(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Border has called for the immediate release of editor Shahin Agabeyli, of the newspaper "Milli Yol", who was sentenced to a year in jail for supposedly "insulting" and "blackmailing" former parliament spokesman Arif Ramhimzadeh in articles he wrote. "This is a harsh and disproportionate sentence," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "Without judging the...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, August 9, 2006 - The editor of the private newspaper Umuco has gone into hiding following official criticism of articles in his paper and a police summons, according to several local sources. Bonaventure Bizumuremyi also complained of receiving threatening phone calls, the sources said. The incidents come days after another Umuco journalist, Jean-Léonard Rugambage, was freed...
(FLIP/IFEX) - Milton Fabián Sánchez, a journalist with the radio station Yumbo Estéreo, was murdered on 9 August 2006 in Yumbo, a city in southeastern Colombia. The journalist was on his way home at approximately 10:30 p.m. (local time) when he was approached by two attackers that shot him twice from a motorcycle. Seriously wounded, Sánchez was first taken to the Hospital La Buena Esperanza in...
(MFWA/IFEX) - On 4 August 2006, the government of Niger threatened to revoke the licenses of some independent FM radio stations for what it described as "inciting civil war in the country." Prime Minister Hama Amadou, who issued the threat at a press conference in Niamey, failed to disclose the radio stations that would be affected. According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)-Niger...
(RSF/IFEX) - RSF strongly condemns the 9 August 2006 shooting attack by hooded gunmen on the Oaxaca-based daily "Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca", in which two employees were seriously injured. The newspaper has been the target of threats and intimidation linked to its independent stance and criticism of this southern state's government since 2004. "We deplore the harassment and attacks on this...
