Uncategorised

The convenient attitude assumed by the media during the dictatorship of Stroessner is today one of the most forbearing stories told. And it is curious that it happens this way, since the media, except in some cases, was closely linked to the bloodthirsty dictator. Journalism and servilism The convenient attitude assumed by the media during the dictatorship of Stroessner is today one of the most...

afrol News, 5 May - The case against ne of Senegal's most prominent journalist, Madiambal Diagne, was dropped on Tuesday on a procedural issue, ending a legal saga that spanned nearly two years and galvanised the Senegalese press. Mr Diagne, owner and managing editor of the popular independent newspaper 'Le Quotidien', had been sued after disclosing corruption. The charges against 'Le Quotidien'...

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- A Russian jury absolved two Chechens in the murder of Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes Inc.'s Russian edition whose killing in 2004 heightened concerns about press freedoms in the former Soviet state. Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev were found not guilty today by a jury of eight women and four men after a three-month closed trial in Moscow, a spokesman for the...

A Russian court on Friday acquitted both defendants standing trial for the 2004 murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov, the Reuters news agency reported citing a lawyer for one of the defendants. "The jurors have completely acquitted all of them on all charges. I am very pleased that (the jury) have worked out what’s what in this case and looked at all the evidence fully," said Ruslan Khasanov...

WINDHOEK, 4 May 2006 (IRIN) - Media freedoms remain under pressure in Southern Africa, but governments have turned to less conventional methods to limit journalists' rights, according to a new report by a regional watchdog. The annual publication 'So this is Democracy? – State of Media Freedom in Southern Africa 2005' by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), said while fewer rights...

(FLIP/IFEX) - Daniel Muñoz, a photographer with the international news agency Reuters, was attacked by a police officer during the 2 May 2006 disturbances associated with the transit strike in the capital city of Bogotá. The incident took place in the environs of one of the stations of the mass transit system "Transmilenio" in the northwest of Bogotá, when demonstrators who were trying to block a...

(New York, May 4, 2006) - Libya's most prominent political prisoner, Fathi al-Jahmi, faces a possible death sentence for slandering Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and talking with a foreign official, who may be a U.S. diplomat, Human Rights Watch said today. "The Libyan government is taking great pains to introduce a democratic face to the world," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director...

New York, May 4, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the recent suspension of the twice-monthly private newspaper L'Enquêteur by Guinea's National Communications Council after it published an article critical of President Lansana Conté's government. Council Chairman Boubacar Yacine Diallo confirmed to CPJ via e-mail that the paper was suspended for two months on April 27 for...

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not understand or appreciate the role of press freedom in Philippine society, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) said yesterday. In a strongly worded statement sent to the Inquirer ahead of World Press Freedom Day today, the group said Filipino journalists still had "reason to worry" despite the lifting of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017...

MIAMI, Florida (May 3, 2006) - A call to people throughout the Western Hemisphere to become involved in the right to inform and be informed was issued today by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in commemorating World Press Freedom Day. The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper...