Follow-up

The Turkish interior minister has announced a new investigation into the role of the security forces in the 2007 murder of journalist of Armenian origin, Hrant Dink, according to delayed reports. Interior minister, Basir Atalay on February 4, following the publication of a report by the prime minister’s services (BTK), ordered the opening of an investigation into the responsibilities and...

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered the state government to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to detained journalist BV Seetaramwhile partly allowing a habeas corpus writ petition by his wife challenging the detention. In her writ petition, Rohini, managing director of Chitra Publications, had sought release of her husband, editor of Mangalore-based Kannada eveninger Karavali Ale, contending...

Seven people were arrested on Sunday after taking part in a tribute to slain human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasia Baburova in which flowers were lain at the spot where they were gunned down in the centre of Moscow on January 29. Interior ministry Omon anti-riot police arrested them on the grounds that they were holding an “unauthorised” demonstration. Human...

A Brazilian judge has issued an order calling for the closure of the investigation into the death of journalist Vladimir Herzog. Herzog died while Brazil was under military rule (1964-1984). Federal Justice Paula Mantovani Avelino's decision rejects requests by state prosecutors who have argued that Herzog's murder could be considered a crime against humanity, the Associação Brasileira de...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has welcomed a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) resolution urging Ukraine to do more to capture those behind the gruesome 2000 killing of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. The resolution, approved on January 27, applauded the recent convictions of three former police officers, but expressed its deep concern at the lack of progress in...

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at ex-US President George W Bush faces trial next week for assaulting a foreign leader after an appellate court refused to reduce the charge, the Associated Press (AP) has reported quoting a judicial official. Muntadar al-Zaidi, 30, who won folk hero status throughout the Arab world for his protest, has been in custody since the December 14, 2008 outburst...

The press freedom situation in Bulgaria has worsened considerably in the past two years. The murder of columnist and author Georgy Stoev in the centre of Sofia in April 2008 and a savage attack on Ognyan Stefanov, the editor of the Frog News website, by men using hammers in September recall the dark days of 1990-95 when gangland “mutris” (thugs) made it clear to journalists they were not to

Baku appeal court judge Rizvan Safarov on Thursday rejected a request for the conditional release of Azadlig reporter Sakit Zahidov, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) had reported. The request was submitted by his lawyer, Isakhan Ashurov, on December 19 on the grounds that Zahidov has served half of his three-year jail sentence and, under Azerbaijani law, qualifies for early release. “We regret that...

The trial of four people accused of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder resumed Tuesday last before a military court in Moscow after the latest of many adjournments. Marked by many irregularities, the trial has exposed gaps in the investigation and has raised the question why the case was handed over to a court so soon, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “This trial has seen major...

Stephan Hachemi has brought up a civil lawsuit against the Iranian government before the Quebec high court claiming damages for the arrest, detention, torture and death of his mother, Zahra Kazemi, a photographer with dual Iranian and Canadian citizenship, in Tehran in 2003. A preliminary three-day hearing was due to begin in Montreal on February 3, but it has been postponed to May, Reporters sans...