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New York: Cuba has accused the US of having increased funds to promote a "radio-electronic war" against the island nation. During debates at the UN General Assembly´s information committee, Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca noted that the US' 2006 budget allocated $37 million for anti-Cuban propaganda through its Radio-TV Marti, $10 million more than in 2004, Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency...

THE dramatic decline of press freedom in Australia has continued over the past year despite hard-won progress such as landmark national defamation laws. The 2006 Australian Press Freedom Report, to be released publicly tomorrow night, says the few bright spots, such as defamation and moves to give limited legal privilege to journalists who refuse to reveal a confidential source, had to be seen...

New York, April 25, 2006 - Two vanloads of police officers prevented The Independent from reopening today and briefly detained an employee who came to unlock the offices of the Gambian private newspaper. The police action came despite statements from National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and other government officials that the paper would be allowed to publish following a month-long ban, local...

New York, April 25, 2006 - Two more journalists have been sentenced to jail on revived charges under Ethiopia's 1992 press law, according to CPJ sources. Wosonseged Gebrekidan, who is already jailed on antistate charges, was sentenced to 16 months for defamation on April 18. Freelance writer Abraham Reta was sentenced yesterday to one year and jailed the same day. Gebrekidan, editor of the now...

New York, April 24, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an attack by 700 protesters on a radio station in southern Peru. The crowd stormed the offices of Radio Sudamericana in the city of Juliaca on Friday, angered by what they called the station's one-sided coverage of a scandal surrounding a local mayor. A small group assaulted reporter Feliciano Sonco Puma, who was covering the...

(CEMESP/IFEX) - On 25 April 2006, three newspaper executives (Stanley Seakor of the "Analyst", Kenneth Best of the daily "Observer", Tom Kamara of the "New Democrat") appeared before the Senate Committee on Information and Broadcasting after being summoned by the body. The three papers for which they work have been accused by the Senate of publishing "false and misleading stories" about the Senate...

(AMARC/HRinfo/WPFC/IFEX) - Freedom in Tunisia remains well below international standards five months after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in Tunis in November 2005, in spite of commitments made by Tunisian authorities to uphold guarantees to free expression enshrined in international conventions and treaties, to which Tunisia is a signatory. An International Freedom of...

(JED/IFEX) - Anselme Masua, 42 years, a journalist with Radio Okapi - a joint project by the United Nations Mission in Congo and the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation - was beaten on the morning of 24 April 2006 in Kisangani, the capital of Oriental province in northeastern DR Congo, by Republican Guard military officers. According to information received by JED, Masua went to a camp where he clearly...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has hailed Prime Minister Hun Sen's decision on 21 April 2006 to abolish imprisonment for defamation in Cambodia and urged other countries in Southeast Asia to follow suit, calling it an essential step towards real and lasting press freedom. "Parliament must take up this government proposal and turn it into law as soon as possible," the press freedom...

New York, April 24, 2006 - Officials at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) today told staff of the private newspaper The Independent that authorities were lifting a month-long occupation of the newspaper's offices in the capital, Banjul. General Manager Madi Ceesay, who is also secretary-general of the Gambia Press Union, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he hoped to put out an...