(RSF/IFEX) - Edri Vladimir "Vla" Pujols, a member of a gang known as "Los Zayayines", was sentenced on 2 May 2007 to 30 years in prison for the 2004 murder of Juan Andújar, a correspondent of the daily "Listín Diario". He was also ordered to pay the equivalent of 30,000 euros in compensation to another journalist, Jorge Luis Sención, who had to have an arm amputated after being attacked by Pujols...
An Egyptian producer employed by the Qatar-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, Howayda Taha, was sentenced in absentia yesterday, the eve of World Press Freedom Day, to six months in prison for preparing a report on torture in Egyptian prisons. She was found guilty of “harming national interest.” “We are outraged by this conviction, which confirms the fears we have repeatedly voiced since the...
DHAKA (Reuters) - Four journalists were killed and 158 wounded in Bangladesh over the past year while discharging professional duties, a local media monitoring group said on Thursday at a seminar to observe World Press Freedom Day. "During the last 12 months, from May 2006 to April 2007, a total of 498 journalists were harassed during their professional duties," said Kamrul Hassan Monju, executive...
While Ivory Coast is not on the list of worst performers in press freedom anymore, journalists and press regulators agree the sector is still struggling in the divided country. They say improving the state of journalists can mirror the peace process to reunite what was once West Africa's most prosperous country. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our regional bureau in Dakar. The head of the...
Reporters Without Borders voiced shock today at the severity of an attack on journalist Dare Folorunso of state-owned Ondo State Radiovision Corporation (OSRC), who was beaten unconscious by several policemen, including a deputy commissioner, at a May Day rally on 1 May in Akure, in the southwestern state of Ondo. He is now in a coma. “The election campaign has created a very difficult climate for...
New York, May 3, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of freelance photographer Mehboob Khan, who was killed in an April 28 suicide bomb attack aimed at Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. The minister escaped with minor injuries, but 28 people died in the attack at a political rally in the small town of Charsadda in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). Three other...
KUWAIT: Today the world celebrates the greatest freedoms of all -- the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press. This year, World Press Freedom Day is dedicated to the theme "Media and Good Governance." In a survey conducted on the occasion of the day, this reporter talked to citizens and expats on their assessment of Kuwait's press freedoms. For Michelle, 36, from the Philippines...
The world comemmorates World Press Freedom Day Thursday and various media watchdogs say Zimbabwe remains one of the world's most difficult places to work for independent journalists. As Tendai Maphosa reports for VOA from London attacks on journalists continued with a new low reached earlier this year. Zimbabwe has maintained its place on international media watchdogs' lists of the worst places to...
Yesterday, the eve of World Press Freedom Day, Russia appeared in a bad light in three Western ratings of press freedom. The American human rights organization Freedom House gave Russia its lowest ever press freedom rating of 164 out of 195. The U.S. State Department placed Russia on its list of countries where freedom of the press is deteriorating, and the New York-based Committee to Protect...
Reporters Without Borders today called for an end to the political and legal harassment of two journalists - Arezki Aït-Larbi, the correspondent of the French dailies Le Figaro and Ouest France, and Saad Lounès, the former editor of the daily El Ouma - that has been going on for years. “We are no longer surprised by the Algerian judicial system’s grotesque decisions,” the press freedom...
