Follow-up

Press freedom groups have urged Serbian authorities to thoroughly investigate the brutal attack on Teofil Pancic, a reporter for the independent weekly Vreme. Two masked assailants followed Pancic aboard a Belgrade bus at around 11 p.m. on Saturday, attacked him with metal rods, and quickly fled. Pancic, briefly hospitalised after the attack, suffered a concussion and arm injuries. Pancic told the...

Six months after the unexplained disappearance of Sri Lankan journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda, the government has refused to offer any assistance or provide answers to his wife, Sandhya. The government’s attitude is a clear indicator of the anti-media polices of President Mahindra Rajapaksa, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Eknelygoda, a political reporter and...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition backed down on a controversial wiretaps bill Thursday as its deputies approved a watered-down version in a parliamentary committee vote, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. The initial bill would have banned the publication of transcripts in the media and called for up to two years in jail and fines of up to 464,700 euros (600...

A Thai journalist wounded during an army crackdown on a mass protest in April is suing prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and other top officials for attempted murder, his lawyer said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Bodin Watcharobol, a 42-year-old freelance photographer, was shot and seriously wounded as armed troops tried to clear an area of the capital of demonstrators, leaving 26...

More than two decades after veteran journalist Dalbir Singh of Ganna Pind, who was declared a “bad character” and implicated in five murder, attempt to murder and National Security Act cases by police, a Phillaur court has issued “non-bailable” warrants against the police officer who failed to provide details on why cases were registered against him. Dalbir Singh had been exonerated of all...

Cuban journalist Alfredo Pulido López was released from jail and landed Thursday in Madrid, bringing to 10 the number of imprisoned reporters freed and sent to Spain as part of an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government. “I am extremely happy to regain my freedom, but I also feel sad for leaving my country,” Pulido López, left, told New York-based Committee to Protect...

The Chinese government is all set to press charges against Gheyret Niyaz, a Uighur journalist and website manager. According to the Uyghur American Association (UAA), Niyazi will be tried in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on July 28. Niyaz faces charges of “endangering state security” stemming from ethnic unrest in Xinjiang in July 2009, New York-based...

More than 50 journalists gathered in Sulaymaniyah’s Naly Park at 6 p.m. Wednesday to pay tribute to journalist Soran Hama Mama on the second anniversary of his death. The journalists and Mama’s relatives accused the local authorities of showing no interest in shedding any light on his murder. The gathering was addressed by Ahmed Mira, the editor of Lvin (the independent newspaper for which Mama...

Azerbaijan’s representative to the European Court of Human Rights, Chingiz Askerov, has said that the reason his government appealed against the court’s April 22 ruling, calling for the release of imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, was that it was “contrary to international norms.” Even if the court’s Grand Chamber upholds the original decision, Fatullayev will not be released without a...

The 14th hearing in the trial of the men accused of the January 2007 murder of Hrant Dink, a journalist of Armenian origin, has been completed. During the latest hearing, held on July 12, the Dink family’s lawyers filed a request for the prosecution of several senior officials and leading nationalists, including: Ergun Güngör, former deputy governor of Istanbul Özer Yilmaz, former deputy chief of...