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Reporters Without Borders today urged the European Union to be tougher with Uzbekistan after charges were brought against journalist and human rights activist Umida Niyazova on 9 April. According to her brother, she has been charged with smuggling, crossing the border illegally, accepting foreign money and working against the government, and faces between five and 15 years in prison. She was...

Reporters Without Borders expressed concern today about press freedom in Somalia after a presidential spokesman ordered the arrest of a TV crew and the authorities in Puntland, a stronghold of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, banned journalists from holding professional meetings without permission. “Security problems and the risk of regional destabilisation must not be used as an excuse to settle...

New York, January 11, 2007—The director of a newspaper in the capital, Kinshasa, was jailed today for an 11-month term and his publication suspended for six weeks on a criminal defamation charge, according to the local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and local journalists. Rigobert Kwakala Kash, who also edits the private twice-weekly Le Moniteur, was arrested on a court order at...

New York, April 10, 2007—Prosecutors in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé, today lodged criminal charges against the director of a private tabloid who has been detained by police since Saturday in connection with a story about an alleged sex scandal, according to local sources and press freedom group Journaliste En Danger. Georges Gilbert Baongla of the weekly Le Dementi, was charged with...

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin has already brought Russian newspapers and television to heel. Now he's turning his attention to the Internet. As the Kremlin gears up for the election of Putin's successor next March, Soviet-style controls are being extended to online news after a presidential decree last month set up a new agency to supervise both mass media and the Web. ``It's...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, April 9, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the criminal charges filed against Yuri Chernogayev, correspondent for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Tashkent prosecutors charged Chernogayev on March 27 with "working without a license," under Article 190 of Uzbekistan's penal code, according to international press reports. Deutsche Welle reporter...

New York, April 9, 2007-The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by an attack and threats against several provincial journalists amid escalating political tension between Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and opposition leaders calling for his resignation. “It's the responsibility of journalists to report on political demonstrations and we are deeply concerned that journalists in...

Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release from prison of eight journalists after the federal high court cleared them today of subversion. The organisation called for 13 others held since November 2005 to be freed at once. “The Ethiopian judiciary has begun to realise the extravagant and dangerous side to this drawn-out episode,” it said. “We are especially glad that Serkalem Fasil and...

Ask how many journalists have been murdered because of their reporting since Vladimir Putin assumed power, and you might be surprised. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number at 13. Reporters Without Borders says it is 21. The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, however, says it has only been able to confirm five. This discrepancy casts a long shadow over the reliability of...

A Gambian court handed down criminal charges to a US-based journalist detained since last week by state intelligence agents, and released her on bail in connection with critical commentary of President Yahya Jammeh, according to local journalists. Political commentator Fatou Jaw Manneh of the US-based opposition news website All-Gambian.net was charged with three counts of sedition under Gambiaâ€