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Seven years after the muder of Ukranian journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, the lack of political will and sabotage are being seen as the reasons why his killers remain scot-free. People hold candles during a ceremony in memory of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze at Independence Square in central Kiev September 16, 2007. People gathered to mark the 7th anniversary of Gongadze's disappearance. (Reuters

One year after the coup in Thailand, the media and free expression environment remains compromised, with martial law, lèse-majesté rules, and new and proposed laws governing the Internet and national security concerns keeping the media footing problematic in the future. According to a report by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), this has happened despie the fact that the newly approved

NAIROBI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Leaders of Somalia's interim government have given assurances there will be no repeat of an armed raid this week on the independent Shabelle media house, new U.N. special envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah said on Saturday. But he told Reuters "for me that is not enough. I judge people by their acts." He added in an interview: "They (government leaders) say it was an accident...

NIAMEY (AFP) — Niger police arrested a journalist working for Radio France International (RFI) and a radio station that gives airtime to Tuareg rebels, a reporter said Friday. At least eight plain clothes police took away Moussa Kaka late Thursday from the offices of the private Saraouniya radio station which he manages, journalist Abdourahamane Hassane told AFP. It was unclear what charges Kaka...

(IFJ/IFEX) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the government of Zimbabwe to guarantee the safety of 15 journalists named on a hit list that appeared to have been leaked from official sources. "The government of President Robert Mugabe must make it clear to the international community that it is not targeting journalists," said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. "It...

(WiPC/IFEX) - The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN welcomes the release of Mohamed Hussein Jimale, correspondent for the news website Puntlandpost.com ( http://www.puntlandpost.com ) on 17 September 2007 following five days of detention. It would like to share the following statement issued by Somali-Speaking PEN: The Somali-speaking Centre of International PEN welcomes the...

(FMM/IFEX) - The Mix Media Foundation in Ampara district informed FMM that one of its members, Mr. U Wijesinghe, was threatened in abusive language by a deputy inspector general of the police who also forcibly seized the journalist's camera and tape recorder. Mr. Wijesingha is the Pothuvil correspondent for "Lankadeepa" and "Daily Mirror" newspapers. FMM unequivocally condemns this uncivilized act...

(CEPET/IFEX) - Mexico, 20 September 2007 - Dalia Villatoro, a reporter with the daily newspaper "Cuarto Poder", was detained briefly and had her camera seized by members of the Independent Labour Organisation of Agrarian Workers and Peasants (Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos, CIOAC). According to a 19 September 2007 report from the press agency of "Proceso" magazine (Agencia...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 16 September 2007, a group of women assaulted journalist Cora Cadena, the hostess of the programme "Transgresor Jatarishun" on Radio Luna, a station based in Quito, capital city of Ecuador. The assailants belong to the neo-Nazi group "cabezas rapadas" ("shaved heads"), which opposes social and ethnical diversity, issues regularly discussed on Cadena's programme. The journalist was...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders voiced indignation at the authorities' hounding of Munir Mengal, one of the managers of Baloch Voice television, who was released by the Baluchistan High Court on 12 September 2007. The court declared that he was guilty of no crime, but he was nonetheless rearrested by police. The inspector general of police in Balochistan told journalists in Quetta on 14...