ASHGABAT, May 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The following was written by Halmyrat Gylychdurdy, an RFE/RL Turkmen Service correspondent in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat. RFE/RL correspondents have experienced widespread harassment, threats, detentions, and jail terms since Turkmenistan gained independence in 1991. One correspondent, Ogulsapar Muradov, died in unexplained circumstances last year while jailed...
May 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Independent Kazakh journalist Sergey Duvanov has been convicted by an Almaty court of organizing unsanctioned gathering and ordered to pay a fine, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. Duvanov was among a small group of protesters who turned out in Almaty on May 24 to express objections to constitutional amendments, approved by the legislature, allowing President Nursultan...
New York, May 25, 2007—Colombian radio journalist Rodrigo Callejas has been forced to flee his home in the western Tolima province after receiving death threats from an alleged guerrilla commander. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Colombian authorities today to provide Callejas with the necessary protection to allow him to work without fear of reprisal. Callejas, host of the daily...
(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (May 25, 2007) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today gave its support to an open call by the news media in Guyana for the government of President Bharrat Jagdeo to reconsider its position and end its discrimination in the placement of official advertising. Electronic and print media in Guyana and the English-speaking Caribbean on May 24 issued a joint...
(IPI/IFEX) - According to information provided to the International Press Institute (IPI), a number of media organisations and other businesses in Kazakhstan have been closed and their staff ordered by the authorities to remain inside the buildings. At 5 p.m. (local time) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, four individuals from the General Prosecutors Office (GPO), accompanied by six police officers, visited...
François Latour, 60 ans, célèbre acteur et animateur, a été retrouvé mort le 23 mai 2007, après avoir été kidnappé à Port-au-Prince. Le publiciste animait aussi la rubrique "On achète, On vend" sur Caraïbes FM et anima pendant de longs mois sur Radio Métropole, une autre station privée, une chronique intitulée "Port-au-Prince au cours des zins". Reporters sans frontières adresse ses condoléances...
Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at a violent attack yesterday on the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), a public radio broadcaster in Ibadan, in the southwestern state of Oyo, by around 100 supporters of local politician who were angered by an announcement that state elections would go ahead today. Equipment was smashed and at least 10 journalists were hurt. “The power...
(PPF/IFEX) - The Mohajir Rabita Council (MRC), an ethnic political group in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, has issued a list of twelve Pakistani journalists it denounced as being "chauvinists", and criticized their alleged role in the violence during protest rallies held in Karachi on 12 May 2007, during the visit of the suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftekhar Mohammed Chaudhary to...
(MFWA/IFEX) - Lamin Fatty, a reporter with the banned Banjul-based bi-weekly "The Independent", who is standing trial at the Kanifing Magistrate's Court for publishing "false information", on 21 May 2007 denied ever publishing any "false information". The journalist told the court that, as a reporter, he only gathered facts and submitted them to the editors who hold the ultimate responsibility for...
(Adil Soz/IFEX) - On 16 May 2007, "Talas turmushu" newspaper editor Kozubek Imankulov, photojournalist Berdibek Sultanmuratov and a journalist for the National TV/Radio Corporation, Salamat Nazarkulov, were rudely prevented from carrying out their professional activities during a demonstration in Aksai village, southern Kyrgyzstan. The protesters, who demanded that the gold mine Zherui Andash be...
