Follow-up

A Russian court has dismissed a libel action brought against the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta by the grandson of Josef Stalin, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili had claimed that an article carried in a supplement of the newspaper on 22 April 2009 describing Stalin as a bloody dictator personally responsible for the execution of Soviet citizens and thousands...

Essential issues were again left unaddressed at the 11th hearing on October 12 in the trial of the newspaper editor Hrant Dink’s alleged killers before an Istanbul court. A Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, Dink was gunned down outside his newspaper in Istanbul on January 19, 2007. “In hearing after hearing, the same fundamental questions remain, including the existence of a political will at...

An enquiry into the October 4 assault on journalist Zohra al-Musawi was opened Wednesday by Iraq’s High Council of Judges in response to a request by a group of journalists to the council’s president, Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud, who has a reputation for conducting thorough and detailed investigations, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “A judicial enquiry is the logical, essential and...

One year ago, a court in the western autonomous region of Karakalpakstan sentenced journalist Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov to 10 years in prison on a charge of “possession of drugs for the purpose of sale,” a sentence that was upheld a month later by the supreme court despite the inconsistencies of the prosecution case and complete lack of evidence against him. Now aged 59, Abdurakhmanov has been held...

A Ljubljana appeal court has decided to lift an injunction against the Slovenian daily Dnevnik that barred it since August 2009 from publishing any news or negative comments about the person or professional activities of Italian businessman Pierpaolo Cerani, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The daily’s editor Ali Zerdin told the Paris-based RSF that the ruling on October 7 was “an...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Yemeni authorities to clarify the circumstances of the disappearance and current whereabouts of Mohammad al-Maqaleh, editor of Aleshteraki, a website affiliated with the opposition Socialist Party. Al-Maqaleh was detained by unidentified men on September 18 in Sana’a, according to local news reports. A local journalist, who asked to remain...

Authorities have created a cimlate of fear among the Gabonese media by arresting Albert Yangari, the well-known editor of the national daily L’Union, for several hours on September 25, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This incident was clearly motivated by the government’s desire to intimidate journalists who dare to investigate sensitive subjects,” RSF said. “ L’Union has displayed...

The Philippine Supreme Court has granted a change of venue in the trial of a defendant in the attempted murder of radio journalist Nilo Labares, who was shot and injured in Cagayan de Oro City in March, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The transfer is the third venue change recently approved by the Supreme Court in a media attack. The defendant, accused gunman Bernardo...

Four journalists were among more than 7,000 prisoners being released under an amnesty announced by Burma’s junta on Thursday last. “I am happy to be free and I am going to continue working as a journalist,” Eint Khaing Oo said as she was freed from Insein prison, near Rangoon under an amnesty announced by the military government. Three other journalists, Kyaw Kyaw Thant and Monywa Aung Shin, were...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has welcomed a Supreme Court ruling in the Philippines granting a change of trial venue in the case against two suspects charged with ordering the March 2005 murder of investigative reporter Marlene Garcia-Esperat. The Supreme Court handed down the ruling on August 26 and Manila-based press freedom group Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)...