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(MFWA/IFEX) - Lawyers of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo are seeking exorbitant compensation for defamation from five journalists of two pro-opposition dailies which if granted by the court, could result in the newspapers getting bankrupt. The lawyers made the request on 26 September 2007 at the resumed trial of the journalists before a Plateau Magistrate's court in Abidjan. The Media Foundation...

(BIANET/IFEX) - Various journalists have become the target of aggressive insinuations and direct threats, including a death threat, due to their coverage of a controversial song and video clip considered to portray the murderers of journalist Hrant Dink as heroes. Nationalist singer Ismail Türüt recorded a song entitled "Plan, don't make a plan", composed by Arif Sirin. The song, which praises the...

(CEMESP/IFEX) - The Government of Liberia, through the Executive Mansion Press Bureau and the Ministry of Information has imposed what has been described as "media censorship" on the independent media in Liberia. The disclosure was made on 1 October 2007 at the regular press conference hosted by Presidential press Secretary Cyrus Badio. Mr. Badio said his bureau will collaborate with the Ministry...

(FMM/IFEX) - 2nd October 2007, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Free Media Movement (FMM) expresses its serious concern and takes strong exception to recent remarks by the official military spokesperson of the Government and also those published on the Ministry of Defense website naming and shaming journalist Iqbal Athas for his coverage on defense related matters in Sri Lanka. Mr. Athas is the Associate...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - A looming humanitarian crisis in Burma is being exacerbated by the junta's determination to cut all news and information flowing out of the country. At a forum on 1 October 2007 in Bangkok, members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, officers of civil society groups and diplomats from various governments monitoring the situation in Burma were equally helpless in updating...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a campaign of death threats against singer and radio host Karim Sama, which took a disturbing new turn with an arson attack on his car on 28 September in Ouagadougou. Also known as “SAM’S K Le Jah,” Sama hosts a successful programme on privately-owned Ouaga FM in which he often criticises President Blaise Compaoré. The programme is popular outside of...

Reporters Without Borders today accused the Zimbabwean authorities of escalating repression after they arrested two actors and a journalist on the evening of 28 September during the performance of a satirical play about the country’s political situation. “With the privately-owned press already under permanent threat, the police are now targeting the theatre,” the press freedom organisation said....

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the prolonged detention of Syrian journalist Ata Farahat, the Golan Heights correspondent of the daily newspaper Al-Watan and Syrian public televison. The organisation wrote to justice minister Daniel Friedman yesterday requesting his release. “We are all the more concerned as Palestinian journalists have in the past been kept for long periods in...

Kathmandu, Oct. 2 (PTI): Nepal's largest newspaper office was attacked by Maoist supporters who destroyed properties and disrupted the publication of two leading dailies here. A trade union affiliated to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) disrupted the printing of two leading dailies, English edition of The Kathmandu Post and Nepali-language newspaper Kantipur and vandalised the media house...

(FLIP/IFEX) - On 27 September 2007, a crew of journalists from the television news programme Caracol Noticias was assaulted by two people as they were investigating a case of alleged fraud in the sale of homes for low-income families. The journalists were pelted with stones and threatened with a blunt weapon. The incident took place in the capital city, Bogotá. Amparo Bernal, a victim of the fraud...