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Kenyan Security Minister John Michuki has warned he may order new raids against the media just days after a deadly attack on a radio station. Mr Michuki warned that the government would not hesitate to use force against any news group that demeans the state. "No body will be allowed to harm the government and if they do that we will teach them a lesson," he said. Last Friday, eight hooded gunmen...

This week marks the start of the television "up-front," when advertisers traditionally buy much of their commercial time for the upcoming season. No one’s quite sure how it will go this year: advertisers are worried about the rapid proliferation of the digital video recorders that let viewers zap their commercials, so they may see television as less valuable. Marketers are also reserving more of...

New York, May 15, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Indonesian authorities to fully investigate the recent killing of Indonesian journalist Herliyanto, a freelance reporter with the Radar Surabaya, Delta Post, and Jimber News newspapers. Herliyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was found dead with numerous stab wounds on April 29 in a wooded area near the town of...

Amid calls for clarification, the German government Monday ordered its Federal Intelligence Service to stop spying on journalists following allegations that it tailed and recruited reporters for years. Government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said Berlin had taken action after the damaging revelations that the Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, had kept tabs on journalists and even paid reporters...

A Swiss journalist was forced by private security personnel to strip down to her underwear and pass through an x-ray machine at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip six times on Friday. The security check was carried out by private security personnel but Israel Defense Forces soldiers were securing the border terminal and therefore looking on at the time. The Foreign Press...

It would have been normal for Peter*, 9 years old, Karl*, 13, and Jane*, 23, to spend this year’s Mother’s Day without their Mama around. After all, they said their Mama was always at work, always away from them. But this year’s observance cuts deep not only because Mama will never come home. Worse, Mother’s Day may remind them of how their mothers were brutally murdered right in front of them...

Arsonists struck at the home of newspaper columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia early yesterday morning, as they set ablaze tyres piled up against a back door in an attack she described as "part of a systematic attempt at creating a reign of terror" by a fascist group. Ms Caruana Galizia was at her Bidnija home with her husband and two of their sons at the time of the attack, but no one was injured...

On the first anniversary of the killings in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, the Uzbek broadcast media chose not to devote a great deal of airtime to the events. Uzbek TV's main news programme in Russian mentioned Andijan about halfway through the bulletin, with a report that focused on the reconstruction of the city, praising government efforts to boost the local economy. Uzbek radio earlier...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned a Casablanca appeal court ruling on 9 May 2006 upholding a suspended sentence of a year in prison and a fine of 100,000 dirhams (9,000 euros) for Driss Chahtane, the editor of the Arabic-language weekly "Al Michaâl", for allegedly libelling Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The sentence is yet another reminder of the need to decriminalize...

(PROBIDAD/IFEX) - Journalist Wendy Guerra, dismissed 24 April 2006 by the owner of Canal 49 television station in Santa Rosa de Copán in western Honduras, has been reinstated in her position after an alert concerning her case was issued nationally and internationally. The journalist had been dismissed due to political pressures from the local government. Guerra told the Committee for Free...