Follow-up

The intermediary in the June 2003 murder of Brazilian journalist Nicanor Linhares has been convicted, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Francisco Mario Liberato sentenced Cássio Santana de Sousa to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for his participation in Linhares' killing in the northern city of Fortaleza, according to local news reports. Santana was...

Two journalists, a Canadian and an Australian, who have been held hostage for over nine months in Somalia are in poor health and have sought greater help from their governments to secure their release. Freelance Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan said they were in poor health and urged their respective governments to help free them, according to news...

Spanish investigating judge Santiago Pedraz has decided to reinstate murder charges against the three US soldiers responsible for shelling the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad on April 8, 2003, killing two cameramen, one of them the Spanish. The order came on Thursday. Spain’s National Court had ordered the withdrawal of the charges for lack of evidence in May 2008. José Couso, a Spanish cameraman...

Radio Mada reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina has been released in Madagascar after being held since May 5, when soldiers arrested him in order to force him to reveal the location from which the station was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order. “We are relieved to learn that Ramanantsoavina is free at last,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “It is nonetheless deplorable that...

Local police arrested one of the alleged gunmen in the 2005 killing of journalist Philip Agustin on May 13 in Pampanga, a province approximately 81 km from Manila, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). The Philippine National Police in Central Luzon arrested Nilo "Boy" Morete in Poblacion village, Mabalacat town, Pampanga at around 3:30 p.m. (local time) on May 13...

Iraqi trade minister Abdelfalah Al-Soudani’s has decided to withdraw the lawsuits he had brought against two independent daily newspapers, Al-Mashriq and Al-Parlament, over articles linking him directly to cases of alleged corruption. The minister had been demanding 150 million dinars (95,000 euros) in damages from Al-Mashriq and 50 million dinars (31,500 euros) from Al-Parlament. The move was...

A year after the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province, journalists are still being persecuted. After the recent harassment of several foreign journalists and the arrest of least one local writer, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Sichuan province to allow journalists to report freely in the area on the one-year anniversary

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías should refrain from making threatening statements and ensure the press is allowed to work without government interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Chávez accused private media outlets of destabilising democracy in comments earlier last week. During his weekly radio and TV programme "Aló, Presidente" on Sunday, Chávez said...

The scheduled arraignments of former leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Yusuf Bey IV, and his associate Antoine Mackey have been postponed again on May 13 until May 29, after Mackey’s court-appointed attorney expressed doubts about being able to take on the case, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . Bey’s lawyers also won a court motion temporarily preventing anyone involved...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned a court decision to continue investigating the charge of “disseminating information likely to upset the population” under article 322/1 of the criminal code that was brought against journalist Zeljko Peratovic in January at the behest at interior minister Tomislav Karamarko. It carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison as well as a possible fine...