Follow-up

Iran has lifted a ban on a film magazine which was ordered to halt publication in March for printing "decadent and corrupt" articles on foreign film stars, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting Fars news agency. Branch 27 of Tehran's public court has lifted the ban on Donya-ye Tasvir (World of the Image), Fars said. The AFP report said: [ Link] "We now hope to publish the new issue of...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the action of a British coroner investigating the killing of a journalist in Somalia who called on BBC to ensure journalists are never put under pressure to go on dangerous missions. Coroner Dr Peter Dean said he would be writing to BBC to stress that managers must recognise staff had an overriding right to turn down dangerous jobs...

A regional governor in Somalia's breakway Puntland region said Sunday they had made contact with the abductors of four journalists, including a Briton and a Spaniard, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. Bossaso Governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf said they were "trying to have them released as soon as possible." He said, "The kidnappers are asking for a ransom, but we refuse negotiations. We just want...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has urged newspaper readers throughout the Americas to sign an open letter to Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calling on him to have light shed on the death of television programme host José Carlos Mesquita on March 10, 1998 in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, Brazil. Mesquita had exposed drug trafficking and misuse of funds intended for the...

One of the alleged assailants of Armenian journalist Edik Baghdasarian, gave himself up to the police on November 26. Karen Haroutiunian refused to comment and his motives remain unknown, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières has reported. Very little is known about him or his accomplices in the brutal assault on the chairman of the investigative journalists’ association in Yerevan on the evening...

Stalina Gurevich, lawyer for newspaper editor Mikhail Beketov, who was attacked and brutally beaten on November 13, has announced a reward for information on those who instigated or carried out the attack and condemned lack of progress in the investigation. She joined Andrei Stolbunov, vice-president of the human rights organisation Spravedlivost (Justice) in offering a reward of 500,000 roubles...

Freelance journalist Hadis Mohammed Hadis has been released after being held for two weeks at the Criminal Investigation Department in Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway region of Somaliland in northern Somalia, Reporters sans Frontières has reported. Hadis Mohammed Hadis has already been arrested on several occasions over the last two years. He told Paris-based RSF after being released on...

Press freedom groups have condemned the killing of a reporter in Assam's Kokrajhar district and urged the Indian government to ensure the safety of journalists working in conflict zones in the Northeast. "The police in Assam must thoroughly and transparently investigate Jagjit Saikia's killing," said Bob Dietz, Asia Programme Coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)...

Afghan authorities have released two local employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Kabul who were arrested a few hours after CBC reporter Mellissa Fung’s abduction on October 12. Fung was freed four weeks later, but the two brothers—Shokoor Feroz, a fixer, and Qaem Feroz, a driver—were detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) till Monday. Fung, a correspondent with the...

Press freedom groups have called for the release of two local employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Kabul who were arrested a few hours after CBC reporter Mellissa Fung’s abduction on October 12. Fung was freed four weeks later but the two are still detained by the National Directorate of Security (NDS). “If there is evidence against Shokoor Feroz, a fixer, and Qaem Feroz, a driver...