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26 December 2005

Turkey opens new case against journalist

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- A Turkish prosecutor has opened a new case against one of the country's leading Turkish-Armenians for comments he made about an earlier prosecution. Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was convicted in October of "insulting Turkishness" and received a six-month suspended sentence. The case became one of several prominent prosecutions over speech...

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26 December 2005

Taiwan TV executives resign to promote news media reform

Four executives have resigned from two Taiwanese television stations to show support for a government plan to relinquish its control of the media, as the government failed to meet its Monday deadline for the reforms. The government had planned to sell its 47 percent of shares in Taiwan Television and 75 percent in Chinese Television by Monday, as part of President Chen Shui-bian's 2000 election...

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25 December 2005

Yemeni journalist threatened, intimidated by authorities

(NewsYemen) Dec 25, Sanaa – A Yemeni journalist said yesterday that he was intimidated and threatened by the manager of a criminal investigation department in the province of Hajja. In a memo sent to the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, Managing Editor of Annas private Weekly Abdulbassit Al-Qaedi said he was threatened after he published a report on human rights violations committed by security...

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25 December 2005

Radio station director released on bail in Zimbabwe

The director of Voice of the People, a privately-owned radio station in Zimbabwe, was released Friday on bail of 4 million Zimbabwean dollars (40 euros) but will have to report to the police every week, according to reports. John Masuku is due to appear before a Harare court on January 13, 2006 on a charge of owning and using broadcast equipment without a licence from the Broadcasting Authority of

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25 December 2005

Facts and fantasies about Arab satellite TV

The recent British press revelation that President George W. Bush last year told U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair that Washington was considering bombing the Qatar headquarters of the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera (denied by the White House) brought to new levels of intensity and idiocy the ongoing tension between the American government and some Arab satellite channels. This is the most...

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25 December 2005

Mexican journalist threatened after reports on police-crime nexus

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Mexican federal authorities to take charge of investigating attempts to intimidate crime reporter Claudia Padilla Pacheco of the local daily Correo in Celaya (in the central state of Guanajuato) after she wrote two investigative reports about the alleged implication of local police in criminal activity. AT THE CORREO: Correo's Caludia Padilla exposed

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25 December 2005

Ethiopia tightens noose around critics, journalists

International organisations have expressed concern at the state of affairs in Ethiopia where 131 opponents of the government, including journalists, have been detained and are to be tried for with crimes ranging from genocide to treason. MY REGIME, MY REGIMEN: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in November that the imprisoned opposition members and journalists were charged with treason, which

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24 December 2005

Canadian news by government decree

It was January 8, 2005--I was in Sri Lanka, shooting footage for a documentary on the Canadian DART group, sent to help the people after a 32-foot wave, traveling 500 miles an hour hit the fragile houses and people of the Ampara district. Prior to leaving, the politicians in Ottawa had spoon-fed the Canadian news outlets. So, Canadian Press reported of the DART: "the wrong people, the wrong place...

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24 December 2005

Sindhi newspaper’s office attacked

SUKKUR: Three unidentified armed men attacked the office of a Sindhi daily, Khabroon, on Friday. Three motorcyclists stormed the newspaper’s office in the Golimar area. They ransacked its property, held the guards hostage for some time and fired in the air before fleeing. No one was reported injured. The men also fired at the door of the paper’s newsroom. They also set fire to the reception...

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23 December 2005

A Dream Defiled: the betrayal of Ethiopia's democracy

The Addis Ababa airport I used to know was shabby and neglected, an overgrown shack of wood, concrete and tin. It smelled of incense mingled with the dank, sweet odor of sewage. But the old airport had been torn down since my last visit; in its place was a sparkling, high-ceilinged structure of metal and glass into which light poured from every direction. Now, as I rode into the city, traffic...

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