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(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called on Ethiopia's information and culture minister, Hailu Berhan, to explain why several websites critical of the government have been inaccessible in the country since 17 May 2006. Ethiopians have also seen all publications hosted by http://www.blogspot.com disappear from the Internet. Even though the authorities have made no announcement, it is...

(FMM/IFEX) - On 24 May 2006, three Tamil-language trainee journalists of the Sri Lanka College of Journalism (SLCJ) were harassed by students protesting recent violent activities by the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The trainees had to take shelter in a police station for more than three hours, on a complaint made by them against video filming by the trainees. The protest was...

When Indian-administered Kashmir's first woman's magazine, She, was launched in Srinagar last month, a lot of people went to the vendors to get their copies. But they came away disappointed because the magazine - which is not connected to the Western glossy of the same name - was meant only for complimentary circulation. But in spite of that, She has attracted more than a normal share of interest...

(CMFR/IFEX) - Barely a month after a receiving death threat, a hard-hitting radio commentator was shot dead on 22 May 2006 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan province, 586 kilometers south of Manila. Fernando "Dong" Batul, a radio journalist working for Palawan-based radio station dyPR, was killed in the early morning by two unidentified gunmen, who shot him repeatedly, just 200 meters from the station...

MIAMI, Florida (May 23, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today described as "a serious attack on press freedom" the sentencing of Uruguayan journalist Gustavo Escanlar Patrone to three months in prison on a libel charge. Criminal Court Judge Roberto Timbal handed down the sentence on May 18 after Public Prosecutor Enrique Möller called for the prison term. The sentence was...

(MISA/IFEX) - The secretary of the North West District Council (NWDC), Paulos Nkoni, says he intends to ban the weekly "The Ngami Times" of Maun (northwestern Botswana) from reporting anything about his Council "after being pressured by councilors and staff". "The Ngami Times" Managing Editor Norman Chandler told MISA-Botswana that the looming ban was due to a belief that the newspaper was not...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Hamada Abdul Latif, the correspondent of the independent weekly "Al Karama" in the province of El-Dakahleya, who was arrested on 21 May 2006 while covering peasants being evicted in Dekernis, 150 km north of Cairo. He is accused of "taking photographs without permission" and "confronting the authorities." "The charges do not in...

This weekend, the Tunisian authorities demonstrated once more their complete disregard for human rights and freedom of expression. On May 20-21, the Tunisian branch of Amnesty International (AI) was holding its General Assembly in the Amilcar Hotel, in Tunis. They had invited Mr.Yves Steiner, board member of International Amnesty Switzerland, to participate in the General Assembly. In the early...

(JED/IFEX) - The Kinshasa-based Radio Television Message of Life (RTMV) started broadcasting again on 17 May 2006 at 3:00 p.m. (local time) following three days of interruption after armed Congolese special services police cut its signal. Contacted by JED, director of the channel, Thoms Mwanza, declared: "We had to purchase another circuit breaker to replace the one torn off by the police. We...

(CMFR/IFEX) - A local correspondent for an international magazine has been put on the government's watch list to oblige her cooperation in providing information on an alleged coup plot against the president in February 2006. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate "Time" magazine correspondent Nelly Sindayen, who reported on an alleged...