Uncategorised

New York, July 7, 2006 — Two years after the contract-style killing of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov, his assassins remain at large and judicial secrecy and procedural issues have crippled his family's quest for justice. Klebnikov, a 41-year-old U.S. journalist of Russian descent, was shot outside his Moscow office on July 9, 2004, in direct retaliation for his investigative journalism. The...

ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakhstan, criticised in the West for tightening its grip over the media, plans to step up control over the Internet, the information minister was quoted as saying on Thursday. Kazakhstan introduced new legislation this week putting print and television journalists under tighter state control despite criticism from the United States and Europe that it would further harm press...

North Korea's test launch on July 4 and 5 of seven Nodong ballistic missiles (including one long-range Taepodong-2 missile) is likely to result in new efforts at diplomatic engagement. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is adept only at applying what is usually described as "diplomatic pressure." As a result, the Bush strategy will likely remain unchanged: leaving direct diplomacy to the five...

More than 50 journalists and media staff have been killed worldwide this year. But it is not that threats to press freedom are rampant only in the so-called places deemed perilous for journalists to report from. The silent terrorisation now comes from Western governments trying to hide potentially illegal or damaging actions and statements. HAND IN GLOVE: US President George W Bush (right) shakes

South African ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma plans to sue local media for over 60m rand ($9m, £4.5m) over coverage of a rape trial in which he was acquitted. The trial ended in May. Mr Zuma was criticised for views he expressed in court on sex and HIV transmission. Mr Zuma has named newspapers, radio stations and political cartoonist Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro among those he intends to sue. Mr...

The 76-year-old Burmese journalist and writer Win Tin completes on Tuesday his 17th year of imprisonment, gaining for himself the doubtful distinction of being among the longest serving political prisoners in Burma and perhaps in all Southeast Asia. Human rights organizations and press freedom groups have long been calling for his release—but in vain, meeting only total silence from the regime. He...

The president Bouteflika issued, yesterday, a new decree forgiving journalists sued in defamation and insult of employee or institutions or regime sectors and smear, as a completion to the decree issued on 3 May 2006, on the occasion of the of the international day for freedom of media, and which did not benefit any journalist, on the contrary to what was declared by the ministry of justice. The...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo expelled a French journalist working for Radio France Internationale on Monday, weeks ahead of long-awaited national elections in the vast central African country. Ghislaine Dupont, a Paris-based correspondent who has covered Congo for many years, had been in Kinshasa for several months trying to get accreditation to cover the polls on July 30. No...

Political influence is threatening France's media freedom: courageous journalists are harassed and prosecuted, while insubordinate chief editors are fired. He strokes her chin and she looks deeply into his eyes. Both smile and beam. The latest photo-story, covering French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy's Father's Day outing with his wife Cécilia, in the glossy magazine Paris Match, shows a...

EIGHT armed men raided and burned a radio station founded by the party-list group Bayan Muna in the town proper of Baggao in Cagayan early Sunday morning, a police official said. The men barged into the premises of Radio Cagayano DWRC at 2 a.m. Sunday and held at least six personnel, including the station manager Susan Mapa and technician Richard Remegio. Jefferson Soriano, regional director of...