GENERAL SANTOS CITY The regional trial court here has acquitted a former police officer accused of masterminding the assassination of broadcaster Ely Binoya. Judge Oscar Noel on March 6 ordered the release from detention of Ephraim Englis, alias Toto. Englis walked out of the Sarangani provincial jail the next day. Noel said prosecutors failed to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that Englis had...
Newspaper editor Jamal Amer arrived home just before dawn last August 23 after closing the latest edition of his independent weekly, Al-Wasat. A shout pierced the morning calm as Amer got out of his car, and, within moments, a man in a military jacket and traditional head scarf bundled the editor into a nearby Toyota pickup. Three men inside blindfolded Amer, bound his hands with cloth, and pistol...
It’s like deja vu. Just over a month ago, Britain was awaiting the launch of two new women’s weeklies. Now, just as they've arrived on newsstands, two more publishers have let out word that they too will be launching two new women’s weeklies. On Monday, British publishing giant Emap said that it will spend more than $21 million on launching a magazine into the sector early this summer. And...
March 6, 2006 -- The editor of Azerbaijan's opposition newspaper "Azadliq" says he believes an attack on one of the newspaper's reporters was linked to the work he was doing. Reporter Fikret Huseynli was attacked late yesterday. A spokesman for the opposition People's Front of Azerbaijan said assailants bundled Huseynli into a car, drove him to a dark alley and beat and stabbed him. The assailants...
IN A nation where corruption is often just another day at the office, it was a gratifying victory for freedom of the press in Indonesia when its supreme court ruled that a magazine had not libeled a businessman. Corruption is probably the greatest impediment to economic growth and development in Indonesia, the southeast Asian nation that's home to more Muslims than anywhere in the world. Nor does...
A Canadian journalist is facing deportation from Uganda over his coverage of political events in the country. Mr Blake Lambert, a correspondent for The Economist and Christian Science Monitor is caught up in a battle between the Media Council, the official regulator of the media in Uganda and the newly created government Media Centre. In January, the Media Centre, run by Mr Robert Kabushenga...
Doha: Journalists in Qatar face a number of challenges in dealing freely with local issues, says a former editor-in-chief of Al Sharq. One of the major obstacles faced by reporters and editors-in-chief of local newspapers is that they are called in by the police if there is a problem with some local coverage and that prevents free reporting, says Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud. Currently editor-in-chief of...
An unmarked police Land Rover left the Nairobi Police headquarters under the cover of darkness on Thursday night to transport seized Standard Group equipment to an unknown destination. The green Land Rover, Registration Number KAL 029G, which was followed by an unmarked white Hyundai, left the former Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters on Milimani Road at 8.45 pm and was driven...
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has defended this week's unprecedented police raid on a major media group which brought a torrent of accusations from at home and abroad that President Mwai Kibaki's government was behaving like a dictatorship. "We have actually committed no crime," Internal Security Minister John Michuki told a news conference late on Friday. "The police are within the law." In the most...
The Standard Group yesterday wrote to the Commissioner of Police expressing fears that attempts could be made to manipulate the contents of the files in computers confiscated from its premises on Wednesday night. But no sooner had the letter been dispatched than Internal Security Minister John Michuki alleged that the Group was involved in subversive activities. He told a news conference late in...
