MOSCOW -- Earlier this month Moscow hosted a congress of the World Association of Newspapers. The organization's president, Gavin O'Reilly, deplored the Russian government's encroachments on media freedom. Then President Vladimir Putin took the podium to respond. The media's situation has grown better, not worse, he said: "From year to year increasingly favorable conditions are emerging in Russia...
KHARTOUM, June 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the closure of Sudan’s only opposition English language daily, saying freedom of the press was essential for Sudan’s transition to democracy. The Khartoum Monitor, one of three independent dailies in Sudan, was closed and had its licence revoked by a Supreme Court order on Sunday after it said it had suffered weeks of heavy...
Ethiopian journalists forced into exile in neighbouring countries are crying out for global help, saying a state crackdown in their country has made it impossible for the independent press to report anything, including religious issues. "We have been robbed of our right as free journalists," Wondwosen Teklu, an Ethiopian journalist exiled in Kenya told a media conference in Nairobi on 2 May, the...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, June 15, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's threat to block the renewal of broadcast licenses for privately owned television and radio stations that oppose his government. Chávez said Wednesday that he had ordered a review of licenses for media outlets that supported the 2002 coup attempt against him. He did not name...
New York, June 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of Mohamed Benchicou, publisher of a newspaper critical of the Algerian government, who was jailed two years ago for allegedly violating currency regulations. “We are relieved that our colleague Mohamed Benchicou is once again a free man, but his release doesn’t alter the fact that he spent two years in prison...
When Togo take to the pitch for their World Cup debut, most fans will be judging their performance against South Korea. But one NGO hopes some of the focus will be on the lack of press freedom in the African nation. Despite the controversy over player bonuses and the near loss of coach Otto Pfister, the Togolese fans are over the moon about their country's first-ever appearance at a World Cup...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, June 12, 2006 - A court in the Gambia freed a reporter on bail today, more than two months after he was detained by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), local sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Lamin Fatty of the Banjul-based The Independent will go on trial June 22 on charges of publishing "false news," they said. Under Gambian law, Fatty should have gone...
The Democratic Republic of Congo's independent media regulator has accused the president and several vice-presidents of allowing TV and radio stations under their control to incite intolerance and hatred before the July 30 elections. Modeste Mutinga, president of the High Authority of the Media, urged visiting UN Security Council representatives yesterday to use their influence and demand that...
The media in Saudi Arabia has begun to broach topics such as religious extremism, women's rights and unemployment that were once strictly off limits. The changes have provided new insight into what has long been one of the most closed and conservative societies in the world. In speeches broadcast on Saudi television, King Abdullah has repeated what is now the dominant message of his reign - Saudi...
RUSSIA'S richest man, Roman Abramovich, is reported to have bought Russian business daily Kommersant, raising fears that one of the last bastions of press freedom in the country could be muted. Mr Abramovich is believed to have close ties to the Kremlin. At Moscow's request, he agreed last year to serve a second term as governor of the remote Russian arctic region of Chukotka. Separately, former...
