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Sudanese authorities released a local journalist Monday who had been held for two months for allegedly violating a government ban on coverage of dam construction in the northern part of teh country. Five other activists were released besides the journalist, news agencies hve reported. Courtesy: sudaneseonline.com The state-run SUNA news agency said Mujahid Abdallah had violated the prohibition...

The trial of Igor Velchev for the murder of NTV journalist Ilya Zimin did not begin as scheduled in Ocnita, Moldova, because the four NTV employees who discovered Zimin’s body in his Moscow apartment were not in court. The trial was postponed until October 2. It was the third postponement for the same reason. The Moldovan prosecutor’s office said the NTV journalists were notified by mail that they...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the attempted assassination of broadcast journalist Manuel Kong and regards the incident as a severe threat to media workers’ personal safety as well as a brutal violation of freedom of speech. According to IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Radio DSXN commentator Kong was shot by an...

Independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt Reina, who had been imprisoned at the Cerámica Roja Prison in the central city of Camagüey since May 2006, has been released. Betancourt Reina, a reporter for the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, left prison Monday morning, the US-based Radio Martí reported. Shortly later, Betancourt Reina told the Miami-based group Directorio Democrático...

NEW YORK: While American Journalism Review is apparently $200,000 in debt with threats of closure, its counterpart, the Columbia Journalism Review, is having its best financial year ever, according to Executive Editor Mike Hoyt. Hoyt, who has led the newsroom for four years, says his publication is about $50,000 in the black, with estimates of a $40,000 surplus in 2008. "We feel like we are on a...

Journalist and blogger Bashar Al-Sayegh was released on bail yesterday after being interrogated for three days. Agence France-Presse said he was freed once the authorities were in a position to identify the person who posted the anonymous comment insulting the emir on Sayegh’s website. The authorities reportedly reached the preliminary conclusion that the comment was posted without Sayegh’s...

(HRinfo/IFEX) - On 21 August 2007, HRinfo noted that the harsh sentence issued by Ras Kheima criminal court in U.A.E. against the head administrator of Majan website ( http://www.majan.net ) greatly threatens freedom of expression in the U.A.E.. On 8 August Muhamed Rashid Shouhi was sentenced to one year in prison, and instructed to pay a 50,000 Dirham (approx. US$13,600) fine and 30,000 Dirham...

Reporters Without Borders hails the release of three newspaper journalists - Addis Zena editor Wosonseged Gebrekidan, Hadar editor Dawit Kebede and Goshu Moges of Lisane Hezeb - who were set free along with some 30 other opposition members on 18 August under a pardon issued by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. “We can only welcome the release of these journalists, who had been imprisoned for about a...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a communication ministry order on 8 August forbidding community radio stations to broadcast programmes of a political nature. The order, which will remain in effect during the campaign for municipal and departmental elections scheduled for 28 October, was issued under a 1995 decree banning “political proselytism” on such stations. “It is regrettable that...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a physical attack on radio journalist Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Moghdad by the prime minister’s bodyguards on 16 August, as well as a charge of “libelling the First Lady” that was brought against newspaper editor Sidi Mohamed Ould Ebbe on 18 August, which could result in prison sentence. “Press freedom had made some progress in Mauritania, especially during the...