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(SEAPA/IFEX) - The case against two Internet users who were the first to be charged under Thailand's new Computer-Related Offences Commission Act continue to be shrouded in secrecy as the state prosecutors did not proceed with charges upon the deadline for filing them on 12 October 2007. Despite the apparent good news, local free expression watchdogs fear that the charges may be filed anew as the...

Reporters Without Borders called today for the release of Jerome Imeime, the editor of Events, a privately-owned weekly based in Uyo, the capital of the southeastern state of Akwa Ibom. Imeime was arrested on 10 October by members of the State Security Service, the main domestic intelligence agency, for criticising the state’s governor and was charged six days later with “sedition” by an Uyo court...

As leading journalist Moussa Kaka is about to begin his second month in detention, Reporters Without Borders today appealed to President Mamadou Tandja for a conciliatory gesture after the imprisonment of two journalists. “The pressure will not let up as long as he continues to display this level of intransigence, so President Tandja should listen to those who have been saying for the past month...

Reporters Without Borders today expressed revulsion at the murder of Carlos Salgado, a satirical journalist on Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), who was shot dead yesterday in Tegucigalpa. Several members of staff at the radio, which was highly critical of the government, had recently been threatened. “The murder of Carlos Salgado confirms the deterioration in press freedom in Honduras (87th in Reporters...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the constant harassment of journalist Hakim Eldostu Mehdiyev’s family by local authorities in the autonomous republic of Nakhchivan since his detention for five days last month. Mehdiyev is regional correspondent for the Baku-based opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat. “Mehdiyev’s relatives have been threatened with reprisals and have been subjected to...

(ANEM/IFEX) - BELGRADE, October 18, 2007 - Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) expresses its gravest concern and protest after the physical attack on Vesna Bojicic, journalist and Pristina based correspondent of Voice of America's Serbian Language Service. During the night between October 15 and October 16, the journalist heard somebody knocking on the door of her apartment in...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (October 18, 2007) - In winding up its 63rd General Assembly here, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concluded that "the exercise of press freedom, freedom of information and free speech in many countries in the hemisphere continues facing serious obstacles," among which it mentioned violence, harassment by governments and legal actions against journalists...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned a wave of recent attacks on journalists in Algeria, particularly in the Djelfa, where journalists are being charged under the penal code for press offences. "The Algerian government use of the criminal code to prosecute journalists has created a hostile atmosphere for independent journalism," said IFJ General Secretary...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 17, 2007 - The publisher of a private newspaper in southern Nigeria, arrested last week by men suspected by local journalists to be agents of the State Security Service, was charged with sedition on Tuesday over a story critical of a local state governor, according to news reports. Jerome Imeime of southern Akwa Ibom state's private weekly Events is the first...

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the arrest of independent journalist Zeljko Peratovic after a raid on his Zagreb home yesterday in which police seized files and computers. He has been charged with revealing a state secret. “Journalists’ homes should enjoy the protection necessary for the confidentiality of their sources, without which they cannot work properly,” the press freedom...