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Reporters Without Borders today deplored the appalling threats and constraints under which Nigerian journalists work, with two of them currently in hiding because of an arrest order issued by a judge on 16 May and third receiving repeated telephone threats because of an article published yesterday. “The absence of change at the head of the federal government apparently means that nothing will...

Reporters Without Borders reiterated its call for the release of Armando Betancourt, 45, as he today completed a year in detention without trial. A contributor to the Nueva Prensa Cubana website and founder of the underground magazine El Camagüeyano, he was arrested by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) on 23 May 2006 in the central city of Camagüey. “Betancourt’s only offense was to work as...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the government’s intention to try journalist Yuri Chernogayev, a Tashkent-based freelancer for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The prosecutor’s office told him on 18 May that he will soon be formally charged with a range of offences including threatening national security. He faces up to 10 years in prison. “This is a travesty of justice...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has decided to retain Ethiopia, Nepal, Russia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe on the IPI Watch List. The IPI board, which met in Istanbul on May 12, also voiced serious concerns about press freedom in Sri Lanka and resolved to make a final decision on whether to add Sri Lanka to the IPI Watch List at the IPI board meeting in November 2007. A final decision will be

Three members of a TV crew working for privately-owned Universal TV who were arrested while covering a news conference in Somalia on April 8 have been released. After questioning them about their work, a Mogadishu court Tuesday decided they did nothing wrong and ordered their release, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF had expressed concern about press freedom in Somalia after a...

Azerbaijani authorities have filed a terrorism charge against Eynulla Fatullayev, the imprisoned editor of independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan.Fatullayev, a persistent government critic, is already in prison on a specious defamation charge and has received multiple death threats. Over the weekend, government officials sealed his

Reporters Without Borders today deplored the North Korean government’s resumption on 11 May of its jamming of independent and dissident radio stations broadcasting in Korean from outside and called on the South Korean government and the international community to defend their right to broadcast freely. "North and South Korea are celebrating the historic reopening of a railway line between the two...

(Adil Soz/IFEX) - On 17 May 2007, the National Security Committee (NSC) filed charges against the opposition newspaper "Taz'zhargan" for insulting the honor and dignity of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, following the publication of materials in the newspaper reprinted from foreign media outlets. The charges stem specifically from two "Taz'zhargan" reports reprinted from the newspaper "New York...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the lifting of a ban on the Arabic-language daily "al-Sudani", under a highly controversial article of criminal code procedure, over an editorial accusing the justice minister of "lying in a money-laundering case". The worldwide press freedom organisation however welcomed the release of the publisher and editor of the privately-owned paper...

New York, May 22, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is relieved by news that Ethiopian authorities released three New York Times journalists on Monday after detaining them for five days. Nairobi Bureau Chief Jeffrey Gettleman, photographer Vanessa Vick, and videographer Courtenay Morris were arrested May 16 by soldiers in the town of Degeh Bur, the Times reported today on its Web site. The...