Follow-up

A case brought against Radio Dunya for playing the Kurdish folk song "Mihemedo" in 2007 has ended in acquittal, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported quoting broadcasting editor Mehmet Arslan. However, another case against the station is still in court. Radio Dunya broadcasts in the province of Adana, in southern Turkey. On February 23, the radio station's lawyer, Tugay Bek, learnt...

The semi-private Swazi Observer newspaper has successfully challenged a High Court ruling which had restrained the newspaper from reporting on a leadership dispute in the Jericho Church, an indigenous Christian denomination, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The order, granted by Judge Stanley Maphalala on February 12, was set aside by another High Court judge, Justice...

Progress has been made in the investigation into last month’s murder of Venezuelan journalist Orel Zambrano, the editor of the political weekly ABC, in Valencia, in the central state of Carabobo. One of the two suspected killers, former Carabobo state policeman Rafael Segundo Pérez, was arrested on February 17, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Zambrano, 62, was gunned down at around 3...

Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has flown back home from Thailand after being granted a royal pardon on February 19. Press freedom groups have called upon authorities to reform the draconian lese majeste laws under which he was sentenced. On his arrival at Melbourne airport on February 21, a moved Nicolaides thanked his fellow Australians for their support during the more than five months in...

An official in Swaziland has apologised for summarily dismissing a female reporter from Parliament nearly two weeks ago. It was the latest in a controversy sparked by allegations of gender discrimination against Mantoe Phakathi, an award-winning journalist with the private monthly, the Nation, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported on its blog. "As a former media practitioner...

Three defendants in the October 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya walked free out of the Moscow District Military Court Friday after a jury unanimously acquitted them of helping to organise the crime. The state prosecution said it will appeal the verdict, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported. Those acquitted are Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police...

The Buenos Aires Supreme Court has reinstated the life imprisonment sentence against former Pinamar police commissioner Alberto Gómez for his involvement in the January 25, 1997 murder of photographer José Luis Cabezas. This ruling revoked a previous decision by an appeals court that had reduced the original life sentence handed down in 2002 to 24 years in prison. The Foro de Periodismo Argentino...

A judge in the Philippines has lifted the warrant of arrest he himself had issued against the alleged killers of radio broadcaster Dennis Cuesta. Judge Isaac Alvero Moran, of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 36, of General Santos City, on February 12 revoked the February 3 warrant of arrest issued against Police Inspector Redempto "Boy" Acharon and several other suspects in the killing of...

Hearings in the murder case of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya continue at the Moscow District Military Court. On February 4, the judge announced yet another adjournment of the proceedings, this time because of the sudden loss in court of a DVD featuring video materials that the prosecutor wanted to present as evidence against the defendants, the Glasnost Defence Foundation (GDF)...

More than six years after her detention and torture, Nepalese journalist Meena Sharma Tiwari has been granted compensation of 15,000 Nepalese rupees (150 euros) by the Appellate Court, the International Press Institute (IPI) has reported. Tiwari is the fourth Nepalese journalist to receive compensation in connection with detention and mistreatment by the authorities. "IPI welcomes the judgment as...