(SEAPA/IFEX) - A Tamil-language daily, "Makkal Osai", has received phone calls from individuals threatening to burn down its offices and legal notice of defamation suits after publishing reports revealing "controversial" comments allegedly made by a cabinet minister. S.M. Periasamy, group general manager of Makkal Osai Group, said he received anonymous telephone calls on 18 and 23 May 2006, as...
(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the move by the National Assembly of Cambodia to abolish the jail term for defamation. The move to decriminalise defamation was passed in Cambodia's National Assembly on Friday May 26, and is welcomed as a considerable development towards press freedom and democratic rights in Cambodia. "The IFJ and the Cambodian Association...
(RSF/IFEX) - Twenty-five journalists were injured on 29 May 2006 when members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) attacked a demonstration in the western city of Kushtia by journalists protesting against the violence and threats many of them have received there. "We call on BNP activists to immediately refrain from further acts of violence against journalists and we call on the party...
(RSF/IFEX) - On 30 May 2006, Patrice Booto, the editor of the tri-weekly "Le Journal" and its supplement "Pool Malebo", was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of US$500 that must be paid within a week or his prison term will be extended by three months. The sentence was passed by a lower court in Assossa after it found him guilty of insulting the president and government. He was retried...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 30, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Munir Ahmed Sangi, a cameraman for the Sindhi-language Kawish Television Network (KTN). Sangi was shot on Monday afternoon while covering a gunfight between members of the Unar and Abro tribes in the town of Larkana, in southeast Pakistan's Sindh district, according to local media reports. At least...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 30, 2006 - At least three local journalists were detained by the Gambia's National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on Friday as part of a growing crackdown on the U.S.-based news site Freedom Newspaper, local sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The three were arrested after their names and addresses appeared on a list of purported Freedom Newspaper contributors...
(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, May 30, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention of independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt, who was arrested a week ago while covering the evictions of dozens of families from their homes in the central city of Camagüey, sources told CPJ. On May 23, authorities forcefully evicted families allegedly occupying homes illegally, according to...
(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned a 26 May 2006 Versailles appeal court ruling confirming that Dominique Issartel and Damien Ressiot of the daily "L'Equipe" should be formally placed under investigation for "helping to violate the confidentiality of a judicial investigation" into the use of banned drugs by a cycling team. The ruling is inconsistent with justice minister Pascal...
(MFWA/IFEX) - On 25 May 2006, Joyce Danso, a female reporter for the state-owned wire service Ghana News Agency (GNA), was slapped by Michael Gberbie, a 46-year old official of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), for arriving late to report on their function. She was also insulted by the official. Danso told MFWA that she had gone to the Accra International Conference Centre, the...
(MISA/IFEX) - On 19 May 2006, a day after Information Minister Patricia Kaliati lambasted him in the presence of his junior staff and reporters from other media houses, the acting managing editor of the Malawi News Agency (MANA), Don Napuwa, was transferred to the Information Ministry headquarters. Kaliati told the media that Napuwa was transferred to the Department of Research and Planning, a...
