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Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to explain why Gérard M. Manzi, the editor of the privately-owned weekly Umuseso, has been held since 22 August on a charge of raping an unidentified young girl despite having an alibi supported by many witnesses. “The charges brought against Manzi are so improbable that it seems a crude attempt was made to frame him,” the press freedom...

New York, August 28 2007— A court in Cameroon’s northwestern town of Kumbo sentenced in absentia, on August 13, the publisher of a small English-language newspaper to a year in prison, according to the national secretary of the Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union. The sentence was related to alleged press offenses by the newspaper, which published a series of stories claiming corruption in the local...

South Korean newspapers warned of fierce resistance if the President Roh Moo-hyun's government does not withdraw its ongoing press "reform" measures. "The government is ignoring the unanimous objection of the media, the National Assembly and civic groups, thereby endangering the public's right to know," the Korean Association of Newspapers (KAN) said in the statement. "Such anti-democratic and

Gunmen abducted and brutally assaulted a Yemeni editor in capital Sana’a Monday. Local journalists suspected the gunmen to be part of the government’s security forces. A silver Toyota SUV carrying six gunmen wearing civilian clothing descended upon Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani, former editor of the online newspaper Al-Shoura, while he was waiting for a taxi outside the offices of the weekly

Living amid the anarchy of Mogadishu, journalist Mahad Elmi was well used to danger. Many of those he reported on critically were men of violence. There had been death threats, beatings and attempts on his life. Now Elmi has paid the ultimate price for his steadfast refusal to be intimidated by the warlords and terrorists of Somalia. Two weeks ago he was shot down by two gunmen as he went to work...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has expressed support for the Russian-language daily "Sevodnya" ("Today") after its premises were the target of a bomb hoax on 22 August 2007 and one of its photographers, Alexandre Lesik, was attacked while covering a meeting held on 26 August 2007 in Odessa by the opposition coalition led by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The newspaper's editor...

Last year was the deadliest on record for working journalists since 1994. According to the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders, at least 81 journalists were killed in 2006 in 21 countries. And, at least 56 journalists were kidnapped. I was one of them. On Aug. 12, 2006, Fox News Channel photographer Olaf Wiig and I were heading home from our office in downtown Gaza City when our car...

Thirty years ago he helped create a technology that has revolutionised millions of lives around the world. But yesterday the man known as the "godfather of the net" laid out his vision of where our online future might be, including a time when we download entire TV series in seconds - and even surf the web from Mars. Talking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Vint...

CASABLANCA (Reuters) - A Moroccan journalist who could be jailed for up to five years for showing disrespect for King Mohammed began his trial on Friday saying he had done no wrong. Current affairs magazine editor Ahmed Reda Benchemsi questioned the usefulness of elections next month in a country where the monarchy wields ultimate power. Only a few days earlier, the king used his annual address to...

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan has upheld journalist Eynulla Fatullayev’s 30-month prison sentence on charges of defaming Azerbaijanis in an article. Fatullayev, editor of the now-shuttered Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, has been held in the Ministry of National Security isolation ward since his April 20 conviction by the Yasamal