The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed the decision of Belgian prosecutors to dismiss a complaint of bribery brought by the European Anti-Fraud Office against a Brussels-based journalist. After five years Belgium has finally cleared journalist Hans-Martin Tillack, a reporter for Stern magazine, over a complaint against him launched from within the European Union (EU) hierarchy....
The Lima-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) has filed a complaint before the District Magistracy Control Office (Oficina Distrital de Control de la Magistratura, ODICMA) against judge Teresa Cabrera, who sentenced journalist Magaly Medina and television producer Ney Guerrero to serve prison terms in a defamation case brought against them by football player Paolo Guerrero. The sentence, which...
A Davao broadcaster was released on December 23, 2008 after having spent almost two years in prison in Davao del Norte following his conviction on charges of libel, according to Manila-based Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). Davao is a province located approximately 946 km south of Manila. Libel is a criminal offence in the Philippines. Alexander Adonis, formerly of Bombo Radyo...
A British journalist and a Spanish photographer abducted in Somalia were released on Sunday after being held in a series of caves for 40 days. British reporter Colin Freeman and Spanish photographer José Cendon, both employed by the London-based Daily Telegraph newspape, were abducted as they left from their hotel in Bosasso, in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, on November 26. They...
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush will go on trial this month on charges that carry up to 15 years in jail, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting a judge. Zaidi became a hero to many in the Arab world when he threw his shoes at Bush during the US president's surprise visit to Iraq on December 14. Investigating judge Dhiya al-Kenani rejected new...
An appeals court has allowed Joy Radio to resume operations 30 days after the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) revoked the station's broadcasting license for non-compliance with the Communications Act and its licence agreement, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The resumption of broadcasting came after the Supreme Court of Appeal reinstated an injunction...
A court in the southeastern Haitian town of Jacmel has convicted police officer Bastien Novembre for assaulting Radio Express reporter Fritzer Philogène and ordered him to pay Philogène 100,000 gourdes (approx US$2,500) in damages. If Novembre, a member of the elite Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO), fails to pay he could go to prison for one year. A report by his superiors also...
The Mexican special federal prosecutor for dealing with attacks on the media, Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco, has ruled out that two young women community journalists in Oaxaca State were killed because of their work. His public statement that the radio journalists of the Triqui indigenous community were shot in an attack aimed at the driver of their vehicle showed yet again the special...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has appealed to the United Nations to help bring Gebran Tueni’s murderers to justice. A parliamentarian and publisher of one of the Middle East’s leading Arabic-language dailies, Tueni was killed in a targeted car-bombing in the Beirut suburb of Mkalles three years ago, December 12, 2005. “We join the Tueni family and all of An-Nahar’s staff in voicing our deep...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has wlcomed the progress being made in the investigation into the abduction and torture of two journalists employed by Brazilian newspaper, O Dia, and their driver in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Batan on May 14. Three military police officers wanted in connection with the case—Fabio Gonçalves Soares (also known as 'Fabinho Catiri'), Marcos Antonio Alves da Silva...
