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(NewsYemen) Dec 11, Sanaa – The first Yemeni female to announce her intention to nominate herself for presidential elections questioned the neutrality of the official press, which ignored publishing anything about her candidacy. Despite being widely covered by the non-governmental press, none of the official newspapers had a story about Sumayya Raja’s plan to run for president. She couldn’t...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said on Saturday Chinese authorities had extended the detention of its chief correspondent in China, who was arrested earlier this year on charges of spying for Taiwan. Ching Cheong, 56, was first detained in April in Southern China, and formally arrested in August. "Because the case is complex, and with the approval of the Beijing People's...

Hortense Nouvion wants love stories. Black love stories. She is the founder and editor of Cite Black, a magazine based in Paris that reflects the rich and flourishing, though largely unrecognized, African culture of France. She started the publication as a response to the absence of black faces and voices in French media, from movies to the newsstand. "You never see a love story between two black...

Lee Sang-ho, a reporter from local television station MBC, is likely to face criminal charges over the disclosure of wiretapped conversations by the nation’s spy agency. The prosecution summoned Lee Thursday to question him about the details of his report. He was summoned as a witness in August after his company revealed the eavesdropping story to the public. A prosecutor said that Lee was...

Dec 8, 2005 (KHARTOUM) – The media conference that ended on Tuesday 6 December in Khartoum urged the government of Sudan to dissolve the media council which was formed by the government to regulate independent newspapers in the Sudan. The media council came under fire from the media conference on freedom of expression in Khartoum that ended yesterday, the Sudan Radio Service reported. The media...

NAIROBI, 9 December (IRIN) - The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has won a prestigious international award in recognition of its "tenacious fight to defend the international principle of press freedom" in the Horn of Africa nation. The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB) awarded NUSOJ the Fondation de France International Press Freedom Defender prize at a...

MOSCOW, December 9 (RIA Novosti) - The lower house of the Russian parliament adopted a law in its third reading Friday that gives the Public Chamber the right to control the observance of freedom of speech in the mass media. The bill was backed by 347 State Duma deputies, out of the 226 votes necessary. Six rejected it and one person abstained. The amendments to the law on the Public Chamber...

CAIRO, 9 December (IRIN) - The arrest of the editor of a local news website this week has raised fresh concerns among defenders of freedom of expression. "Such practices reflect the government's lack of tolerance for freedom of expression and opinion," said Mahmoud Aly of the Egyptian Association for the Support of Democracy. Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, the editor of Balady.net, a website devoted to...

TREVOR Ncube, the owner and publisher of the Mail & Guardian and Zimbabwe's Standard and Independent newspapers had his passport impounded as he landed in Bulawayo on Wednesday. Ncube, who commutes between South Africa and Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo on a business and family trip, the Mail & Guradian reported. The impounding of Ncube's passport came as Australia promised to urgently review a list of...

8 December 2005 -- Kazakh authorities today seized the entire print run of the latest issue of an opposition newspaper. In early November, all copies of "Juma Times" were seized for what authorities said was "deliberately false" information that harmed the reputation of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev. Editors at the paper say they were given no official reason for the latest seizure. The...