Uncategorised

The 300 feet of magazine shelves at Liberty Books & News offers more than a few odd titles. The bimonthly Fire Apparatus Journal is dedicated to all things fire-related. Cook’s Illustrated, a print spinoff of the PBS series America’s Test Kitchen, focuses on cooking techniques. And the do-it-yourself Make targets the techie set. "We cannot seem to keep enough copies in stock," said John Gaylord...

NEW DELHI, Jul 24 (IPS) - Across South Asia, ruling establishments have introduced or are attempting to introduce laws that curb the working of independent media, while claiming to uphold democratic values. India's federal information and broadcasting ministry has put out the draft of a proposed ‘Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006' which ostensibly seeks to regulate ‘objectionable'...

The idyllic charm of the Maldives belies the numerous cases of arbitrary arrests, detention, harassment and intimidation of media practitioners, an international factfinding mission to the country has revealed. Journalists covering political and social events and demonstrations, as well as the participants in those demonstrations, have been the victims of excessive use of force by security forces

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (July 19, 2006) - An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) declared today that the climate of press freedom and free speech in Venezuela has deteriorated sharply and is marked by restrictive legislation, prosecution of journalists in the courts and harassment of news media. The IAPA mission, headed by the organization's president...

(HRinfo/IFEX) - HRinfo welcomes the orders issued by the newly appointed public prosecutor to release the two prisoners of opinion, Mohammad Al-Sharqawy and Kareem Al-Shai'r, who have been unjustifiably jailed for two months. They were arrested for supporting the Egyptian judges' movement calling for judiciary independence. The release orders were issued 18 July 2006. Al-Sha'ir and Al-Sharqawy...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of Sam Obi, the managing director of a new, privately-owned newspaper based in Banjul, the "Daily Express", and one of his journalists, Abdul Gafari, who were held from 14 to 18 July 2006 at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The organisation also voiced concern about the disappearance of two other...

(MISA/IFEX) - Journalists Ndamu Sandu and Godwin Mangudya, who were arrested in Harare on 19 July 2006, were released together with members of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), after spending a night and almost an entire day in police cells at the Harare Central Police station. The journalists were released on 20 July, together with 17 members of the CHRA, after they each paid an...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders said it suspected the Uzbek authorities of being behind threats that forced a website editor to close his online publication and that he and his family had suffered years of harassment. Alo Khodjaev, editor of Tribune-uz ( http://www.tribune-uz.info ) received regular telephone threats after he posted reports about the 13 May 2005 bloody crackdown on the...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, July 18, 2006 - Two unidentified gunmen killed broadcaster Armando Pace as he returned home today after hosting his radio program in the city of Digos on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating to determine whether he was killed in relation to his work. Pace, 51, was shot in the head and chest shortly after 1 p.m. as...

As leaders of the world's wealthiest democracies descend on St Petersburg, these G-8 heads of states are not likely to see a critical press coverage from the Russian media. President Vladimir Putin is firmly in saddle, and press freedom is comatose. ANGRY OLD WOMAN: An elderly woman argues with riot police, during a march by Russian commnists through St Petersburg, Russia, Saturday July 15, 2006