Uncategorised

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has urged the German authorities to carry out a full investigation into the spying on investigative journalists that was reportedly carried out by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from the early 1990s until the autumn of 2005. A parliamentary committee was due to question the BND on 16 May about its extensive clandestine monitoring of the press in which...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for an investigation into the apparent links between the paramilitary United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and a bodyguard assigned to protect independent journalist Pedro Cárdenas. Cárdenas has told the press freedom organisation that one of his bodyguards, provided by the Administrative Security Department (DAS), tried to recruit an AUC...

New York, May 16, 2006 - The Supreme Court in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan today ordered the release from pre-trial detention of Viktor Shmakov, the 63-year-old editor-in-chief of Provintsialniye Vesti (Provincial News), according to local press reports. The court said authorities did not have enough evidence to hold Shmakov on the grounds that he would continue his "extremist activities"...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned over the rejection of accreditation for Taiwanese journalists to cover the 59th annual World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, for the third year in a row. "The World Health Organisation's (WHO) refusal to accredit Taiwanese journalists is discriminatory and is undermining the ability of the Taiwanese media to cover world affairs...

Reporters Without Borders and its Somali partner organization, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), paid tribute to journalists trying to work in strife-torn Mogadishu, where an alliance of warlords is battling an Islamist militia, and offered advice on how to do their jobs effectively. "The effect of the fighting on the media's capacity to report confidently and independently is...

(IPYS/IFEX) - The National Elections Jury (Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, JNE) has annulled the fine of 102,000 nuevos soles (approx. US$31,140) that the Special Elections Jury (Jurado Electoral Especial, JNE) of San Martín previously levied against the regional daily newspaper "Aldía". The newspaper was fined for publishing an electoral survey without having been registered in the JNE's electoral...

New York, May 16, 2006–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention of two journalists who have written about divisions within Syria. Military intelligence service detained prominent activist and writer Michel Kilo on May 14 in Damascus, according to CPJ sources. Online journalist Muhammad Ghanem has been in detention for 47 days. Kilo, who contributes to the leading Lebanese...

In an attempt to improve the media landscape in Swaziland, the government has engaged Commonwealth experts to help review the country's unfriendly media laws. As many as 32 unfriendly media laws currently exist in Swaziland, according to a 2003 study by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland. The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service and Information, Cyril Kunene...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, under pressure from Islamists to curb reforms, has warned local media against showing pictures of Saudi women, local newspapers reported on Tuesday. Many Saudis have said they hope the king, who came to power last year, will loosen strict political and social mores in the ultra-conservative kingdom which imposes an austere version of...

May 16, 2006 -- A new trial of the editor of an Armenian-Turkish newspaper began today in Istanbul. Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin, is accused of "attempting to influence the judiciary" when his newspaper ran articles criticizing a law that makes it a crime to "insults Turkishness." The law has been used to indict writers and intellectuals, including Dink himself and novelist...