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(IPYS/IFEX) - On 2 May 2006, Federal District 12th civil judge Carlos Miguel Jiménez ordered journalist Olga Wornat and the weekly "Proceso" to pay 1,958,000 Mexican pesos (approx. US$180,000) as reparation to the Mexican president's wife, Martha Sahagún. The judge decided that Wornat and "Proceso" are guilty of publishing, on 27 February 2005, details about the annulment of the religious wedding...

(MISA/IFEX) - On 8 May 2006, the editor and two reporters of "The Chronicle" weekly newspaper were arrested and charged with criminal libel, following an article published in the newspaper that alleged that the Attorney General, Ralph Kasambara, was involved in the sale of a stolen laptop computer. Police acted on a warrant of arrest following a complaint from Kasambara. Reporter Arnold Mlelemba...

New York, May 8, 2006 - A Russian prosecutor has said he will appeal the acquittal by a Moscow jury of two Chechens charged with the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia editor-in-chief Paul Klebnikov. Prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin said on Saturday he would challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court, as allowed under Russian law, because of "flagrant procedural violations" during the trial, local and...

AMMAN, Jordan (UPI) -- As if living in a turbulent Middle East is not hard enough. Try being a journalist, especially an Arab one, and the risks on your safety immediately shoot up. This is how the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders described the Middle East and North Africa in its annual report released on May 3 marking the 16th World Press Freedom Day: 'The world`s most dangerous region for...

London (KurdishMedia.com) 6 May 2006: The PUK Security Forces and the Directorate of Halabja Monument have filed a court case against a women journalist, Ms Mesture Mahmud Muhammad, report Kurdish weekly Hawlati last Wednesday. Mestrue interviewed one of the protesters of Halabja Day, 16 March. The interview was published in bimonthly Rewan which is specific for women issues. Mesture told Hawlati...

LONDON, May 6 (IranMania) - The offices of an Iranian reformist daily newspaper was attacked overnight and its entrance blown up, the paper's public relations officer told AFP Saturday. "Around 4:30 in the morning they blew up the sign board and the entrance, but nobody has been hurt," said Jamshid Irani of the Etemad-Melli newspaper, adding that the attackers were unknown. Launched in February...

New York, May 5, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about criminal defamation charges recently filed by Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong against politicians responsible for the production of an opposition-run newspaper, The New Democrat. The Lees' lawyer also threatened to file defamation charges against Melodies Press Co...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has announced its decision to honour the independent newspaper, Yemen Times, with its 2006 Free Media Pioneer Award. Mr. Raidan Al-Saqqaf, Member of the newspaper's Board of Directors, will receive the prize on behalf of the Yemen Times at an award ceremony on 30 May, during the forthcoming IPI World Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland (27-30 May). Founded in...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced outrage at the imprisonment of pro-reform intellectual and journalist Ramin Jahanbeglou, who was arrested at Tehran airport on 28 April 2006 after criticising the Iranian government in a series of interviews for Canadian, Spanish and French newspapers in recent weeks. He was transferred to Evin prison on 4 May. "We call for the immediate release of...

New York, May 5, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the criminal defamation conviction of Venezuelan journalist Henry Crespo, who was handed an 18-month suspended jail term after reporting on government corruption. Crespo, a reporter for the Caracas-based weekly Las Verdades de Miguel, was sentenced by the Caracas Eighteenth Tribunal on Wednesday. The suit was brought in...