Follow-up

The Vietnamese government has announced the imminent early release of journalist Nguyen Viet Chien of the daily Thanh Nien, who was sentenced to two years in prison on October 15, 2008 for “abusing democratic freedom to damage state interests”, after he investigated a major corruption scandal in 2006. Public security vice-minister Le The Tiem announced that he would be released on January 17 along...

A Rio de Janeiro court that oversees sentence implementation has reversed a decision to put Cláudio Orlando "Ratinho" de Nascimento, one of the convicted killers of Rede Globo television reporter Tim Lopes, on a semi-release regime that let him out of prison by day to visit relatives and friends, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The prison administration granted "Ratinho" semi-release...

Four people have reportedly been arrested for the murder of journalist and women’s rights activist Uma Singh, who was stabbed to death in her home in the southeastern lowland city of Janakpur on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. At the same time, local news website Republica quoted state-owned Nepal TV on January 12 as reporting that an underground group had claimed...

Sri Lanka's government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island's rulers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka's anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga, officials who declined to...

Gaston Asseko, the technical director of radio Sainte-Marie, and three leading civil society members held in the same case were released provisionally on January 12, as was a police officer who was arrested with them. Tendance Gabon editor Léon Dieudonné Kougou, who was arrested with Asseko on December 30, was released provisionally on January 7, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported....

The abductors of Canadian freelance journalist Beverly Giesbrecht in Pakistan have made ransom demands, according to Canadian Press news agency. The Pakistani International News website, citing unnamed sources, reported that the abductors want the equivalent of about $150,000 and the release of their colleagues from the Bagram jail in Afghanistan, in exchange for the release of Beverly Giesbrecht...

Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of biweekly L’Interprète was released on January 7 on completing a 10-month prison sentence for “insulting” DRC President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about his health in a series of articles, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Arrested on March 7, 2008 in Kinshasa by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Ponte was held incommunicado...

Press freedom groups have expressed shock at the December 30, 2008 announcement that Cláudio Orlando "O Ratinho" do Nascimento, like Claudino "Xuxa" dos Santos Coelho before him, has been granted a partial release for "good behaviour." The two men, known members of a Rio de Janeiro gang, were sentenced in 2005 to 23 years and six months in prison for the June 2002 murder of TV Globo reporter Tim...

Safety remains the single greatest concern for media professionals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the fact that statistically speaking attacks against the press and journalists are down. The decline was more likely attributable to censorship and self-editing on the part of journalists, rather than any improvement to the country's press laws. The findings are from Journalist en

Press freedom groups have called for a full "independent and exhaustive" inquiry into the shooting of an Iraqi woman journalist in Baghdad by American soldiers. Hadil Emad, 25, an editor with Biladi TV was shot and critically wounded by America soldiers as she was heading home in the al-Karrada district of Baghdad on January 1, 2009. A statement by the US military said that on New Year's Day US...