Follow-up

Zimbabwe has allowed the BBC and CNN to resume operations in the country. This development is the outcome of meetings held by representatives of the organisations with the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu and his Permanent Secretary, George Charamba, the Zimbabwe Standard has reported. The details: [ Link] The BBC last officially covered in Zimbabwe in 2001 five weeks...

Mridul Phukan alias Samar Kakati, the prime accused in the murder of eminent journalist Parag Das, was Tuesday acquitted by a Guwahati court for lack of evidence. District and Sessions Judge, Kamrup, Justice Dilip Kumar Mahanta, delivered the verdict in a jam-packed court amidst tight security. The one-line verdict said Phukan, one of the three living accused in the murder case, was acquitted due...

A former senior figure in Ukraine's interior ministry has confessed to the murder in 2000 of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze and implicated high-ranking state officials, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting authorities. Details: [ Link] Asked by reporters if the suspect, arrested on Tuesday, had confessed and if he implicated senior Ukrainian officials in the killing, Vassyl Grytsak, deputy...

Palestinian authorities on Sunday allowed Al-Jazeera to resume operations in the West Bank, four days after banning the Arab satellite station over the airing of a claim linking President Mahmoud Abbas to the death of his legendary predecessor, Yasser Arafat, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Correspondent Walid al-Omari said he received a phone call from Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad informing...

Al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj, who was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay, plans to launch a joint legal action with other detainees against former US president George W Bush and other administration officials, for the illegal detention and torture he and others suffered at the hands of US authorities, the Guardian has reported. The case will be initiated by the Guantánamo Justice Centre, a new...

Canal Plus Bénédiction (CB Plus), a faith-based television station broadcast from Brazzaville, was reauthorised to broadcast on July 3 following a five-month suspension, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. CB Plus was suspended on February 12 on orders from the state-run national media regulator, the High Council on Freedom of Communication (CSLC), after it aired archival footage of a 1991...

A policeman has confessed to beating a Kyrgyz journalist in the southern Osh region who later died from his injuries, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service has reported quoting the country's Deputy Interior Minister Sabyrbek Kurmanaliev. Almaz Tashiyev, 32, was buried on July 13 in the Nookat district. He died the previous day from massive internal injuries suffered during a beating in Nookat on July 4. Details...

Colombian police have arrested a man believed to have gunned down veteran radio journalist José Everardo Aguilar in retaliation for his reporting on corruption in southwestern Cauca province, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Friday, the Colombian National Police arrested Arley Manquillo Rivera, also known as "El Huracán," at a routine checkpoint outside the provincial...

The hostility of those who staged the coup against President Manuel Zelaya on June 28 and Zelaya’s announced return could further aggravate the press freedom situation. The military’s already significant level of censorship of the international media and national media that oppose the coup has been compounded by the excesses of the media that back it, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “We...

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has recommended that the government should "decriminalise" offences relating to the accreditation and the practice of journalism in Zimbabwe, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The commission ruled in favour of MISA-Zimbabwe, Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human...