Follow-up

A Japanese journalist who was abducted by militants in Afghanistan five months ago has been freed by his captors and left the country, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. Kosuke Tsuneoka, a freelance journalist and veteran of war zones, was abducted on April 1. He was released Saturday night to a Japanese embassy and appeared tired but otherwise unharmed, the ministry said in a statement. "Thank you to...

The alleged mastermind in the 2009 murder of Venezuelan journalist Orel Sambrano was arrested Thursday last in Colombia and is now facing extradition to Venezuela, local and international press reported. Colombian authorities arrested Walid Makled García in the city of Cúcuta, near the border with Venezuela. A warrant was issued in 2008 for Makled in Venezuela on drug trafficking charges...

The Turkish interior ministry has deported US journalist Jake Hess and ban him from re-entering the country. Arrested by anti-terrorist police in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Diyarbakir on August 11, Hess was deported on August 20 after being held for nine days. In its release in response to Hess' arrest, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) had demanded...

President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is taking control of the case of an investigative journalist who has gone missing. In that role, Yanukovych ordered top law enforcement officials on Friday to "make every possible and impossible effort" to find Vasyl Klymentyev, the editor of a newspaper in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Klymentyev, chief editor and reporter for the Kharkiv-based weekly...

A Manila court has acquitted the alleged gunmen in the 2004 killing of a broadcaster in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has reported. Ilocos Norte is a province 399 km north of Manila. Branch 54 of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) cleared former Senior Police Officer Apolonio Medrano and Basilio Yadao of charges for the murder of Ilocos Norte...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has appealed to M Karunanidhi, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, to have all the charges against AS Mani, the publisher and editor of the Tamil-language magazine Naveena Netrikkan, withdrawn after a court in Chennai rejected a petition for his release on bail on August 10. Arrested on the orders of Police Commissioner SR Jangid on...

Burundian authorities freed the director of a weekly publication arrested this week on defamation charges, the journalist said Friday. Thierry Ndayishimiye, the director of the Arc-en-ciel weekly, was released on Thursday, two days after he was detained over an article in which he accused the director of the national water and electricity firm of trying to cover up embezzlement of $110,000....

A Pakistani court has ordered the federal and provincial governments to restore the transmission of Geo News and three other channels whose programmes have been blocked after they aired reports about a man hurling shoes at President Asif Ali Zardari. The ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has said it had not ordered cable operators to block these channels and described reports about their...

Ulises González García, editor of Mexican regional weekly La Opinión, who was abducted from his home in Jérez, in the state of Zacatecas, on July 29, was released in the early hours of August 9 and was rushed to a private hospital for treatment to the injuries received during his abduction, some of which appeared to have been caused by torture. Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) expressed...

Eliseu Felício de Souza, also known as “O Zeu,” a gang member who has been on the run for the past three years after being convicted for his role in the 2002 murder of TV Globo reporter Tim Lopes, is openly operating as drug dealer in a northern district of Rio de Janeiro, according to a new TV Globo report. He took advantage of a “semi-release” programme to escape. The report broadcast by TV...