Uncategorised

(MFWA/IFEX) - On 26 March 2007, Thierry Nabyoure, a journalist with the privately-owned, Ouagadougou-based newspaper "San Finna", was detained by police for allegedly defaming Colonel Mamadou Traoré, chief of staff of the National Gendarmerie. Thierry was forced to disclose his source of information and explain his motive. MFWA's correspondent reported that Nabyoure was released on 27 March after...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, April 2, 2007 - A criminal court in the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, today sentenced to prison the president of a private press group, who has been jailed since March 12 in connection with statements critical of the governmental High Communication Council (HCC), according to news reports. Michel Alkhaly Ngady - who heads a group of private press editors known...

Omar Mestiri, the editor of the opposition online newspaper Kalima , is the victim of judicial harassment, Reporters Without Borders said today of a libel suit that could result in a three-year prison sentence. The organisation also called on the authorities to stop blocking the video-sharing site Dailymotion, which has been inaccessible in Tunisia since 1 April. “The lawsuit against Mestiri is...

Gambia’s has detained a US-based journalist as she arrived home on holiday in connection with stories criticising President Yahyah Jammeh’s government, Reuters has reported quoting relatives and security sources. Fatou Jaw Manneh, political commentator with the US-based opposition news website AllGambian.net and former senior reporter of the private Daily Observer, was arrested by the National

Kushtia --- A Kushtia court acquitted editors of three local daily newspapers in much talked about local daily Dainik Sikol torching case, filed on May 13, 2004. The editors are Manjur Ehsan Choudhury of Dainik Andoloner Bazar, S.M. Halimuzzaman of Dainik Deshtathya and Sanjay Chaki of Dainik Kushtia. Unidentified miscreants set fire to the office of local daily Sikol on May 12, 2004. After the...

(MFWA/IFEX) - One year ago, 28 March 2006, the Gambian government forcibly shut down the offices of "The Independent", a Banjul-based bi-weekly newspaper. At the time of the closure, no explanation was offered, neither has the newspaper been allowed to resume publication. On 28 March 2006, a week after the government announced a foiled coup, Gambian security agents sealed off the newspaper's...

(IAPA/IFEX) - MIAMI, Florida (March 29, 2007) - In a new action in its hemisphere-wide campaign to create public awareness of the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today urged Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to order a speed-up in the investigation into the murder of the Nicanor Linhares Batista, owner and director of Vale do...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the attack on five journalists whose car was ambushed by armed men as they went to cover a story in Hiran region in central Somalia. "We condemn this attack on the journalists in Hiran," said Gabriel Baglo Director of IFJ Africa Office. "We call on the authorities of Middle Shabelle region to conduct a serious...

Saudi Arabia admitted an Israeli journalist for the first time. Orly Azoulay, a US-based correspondent for Yediot Achronot, flew to Riyadh this week as part of a press delegation accompanying UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Arab League summit. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (R) talks to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the opening ceremony of the Arab summit in Riyadh March 28, 2007

New York, March 28, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the criminal prosecution of Viktor Shmakov, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Provintsialnye Vesti (Provincial News) in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Prosecutors in the regional capital Ufa, 680 miles (1100 kilometers) east of Moscow, have charged Shmakov with “public calls for the realization of...