Follow-up

Tthe Supreme Court in Israel on Thuesday overturned prison sentences of eight months, six of them suspended, against Khader Shahin, correspondent for Iranian Arabic-language television al-Alam, and his assistant Mohammed Sarhan, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After the Israeli army launched operation Cast Lead on the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, Shahin, living in Jerusalem, was...

Jean-Bosco Talla, the editor of the privately-owned weekly Germinal, was released from Yaoundé’s Kondengui prison on January 13 after paying the fine imposed by a court on December 28 on a charge of insulting the president, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Talla, who described himself as “calm,” told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Germinal would continue to be published “without any...

Jaime Flete García, a businessman based in the northern city of Santiago de los Caballeros, was charged on January 12 with hiring two men to murder Normando García, a cameraman employed by Santiago-based TV station Teleunión, on August 9, 2008. The two alleged hit men, José Amauris Santiago and José Agustín Espinal, were also charged with his murder. “In a country where impunity has often been the...

Several Afghan journalists’ organisations have appealed to the people who are holding a France 3 television crew hostage to free them without delay. More than 30 journalists in the provinces of Kapisa, Panshir and Parwan issued a statement Thursday call for the release of their “French colleagues.” The France 3 crew that was abducted on December 29 while investigating the construction of a road in...

A court in Chadian capital N’Djamena on Thursday found the privately owned weekly La Voix “not guilty” of charges against it and lifted a provisional order for automatic seizure of all copies of the paper made on December 3, 2009, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. An appeal will be heard on January 13. “We are already preparing our next issue and we think we should be able to publish...

Police in Kazakhstan said Monday that they have identified several suspects in this month’s murder of prominent Kyrgyz editor Gennady Pavlyuk, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Police did not identify the suspects or describe their alleged roles, other than to say the suspects are citizens of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. In a statement Tuesday, the Kyrgyz...

A Cairo court of cassation has reject a request by the lawyers of jailed blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the pen-name of Kareem Amer, for his case to be retried. The judges said they would give the reasons for their ruling on December 26, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This decision shows the Egyptian judicial system’s lack of independence,” Paris-based RSF...

Ten members of “Mara 18”, including two women, were arrested in Sopayango, in the San Salvador suburbs on December 16 in connection with the murder of the Franco-Spanish documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The killing of the photo-journalist, overnight on September 2, 2009, sent shockwaves through the profession. RSF welcomed the commitment of the...

A Russian police officer who fatally shot an online publisher in government custody in 2008 was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in a low-security prison settlement Friday, Reuters and other news agencies reported. The family of the victim, Magomed Yevloyev, told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) they would appeal the verdict because their own...

The NewYork-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern about the health and detention conditions of Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik and the flagrant and recurrent violations of his right to see his wife and lawyers. The health and detention conditions of Ben Brik, one of the most critical journalists of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who is currently serving a six...