Legal Action

There has been a wave of lawsuits against independent Iraqi news media in recent weeks. Three daily newspapers and a TV station have so far been sued for defamation by senior government officials over reports about corruption, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “These attacks on independent Iraqi media run counter to the progress towards democracy which the entire nation has...

American reporter Diane Bukowski, who was found guilty on May 1 of two felony counts of resisting, obstructing, opposing, and endangering two Michigan state troopers while covering a crime scene, is facing prosecution. Bukowski, 60, will face sentencing, which may include a fine of up to $4,000 as well as up to four years in prison or both, on June 1. Bukowski is a freelance reporter for the...

A high court judge in Singapore ruled on March 19, 2009, that Melanie Kirkpatrick, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, was in contempt of court for two articles and a letter to the editor published by the Dow Jones-owned Wall Street Journal Asia last year, according to international news reports. Kirkpatrick was ordered to pay SG$10,000 (US$6,549), according to the...

Indonesia's Supreme Court reversed its own 2007 ruling on April 16, 2009, and dismissed a $106 million case against the Hong Kong-based Time Warner publication that had been filed by the country's late President Suharto and continued by his heirs, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The decision marked the end of a lawsuit launched shortly before Suharto's death in 1999, a few...

The Iraqi military should drop a criminal lawsuit it filed Monday against a newspaper and a TV channel for misattributing a quote to its spokesman, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. Iraqi and international press reported Monday that Major General Qassim Atta al-Moussawi, spokesman of the Baghdad Military Command Operations, has said that the military has initiated a lawsuit to shut...

On March 31, in the commercial city of Abidjan, Judge Aissata Koné convicted Op-Ed Editor Nanankoua Gnamenteh and Managing Editor Eddy Péhé of private weekly Le Repère of charges of "offending the head of state" over an article in early March that was critical of President Laurent Gbagbo, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local media reports. Koné sentenced Gnamanteh...

Detained Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been with espionage by the Iranian government. Hassan Haddad, deputy public prosecutor, told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that Saberi "without press credentials and under the name of being a reporter, was carrying out espionage activities." In its report, published Wednesday, ISNA quoted the prosecutor as saying that "she has been...

A court in Casablanca sentenced on Monday Managing Editor Ali Anouzla and Publishing Director Jamal Boudouma of the independent daily Al-Jarida al-Oula to two-month suspended jail terms each and a fine of 200,000 dirhams (US$24,190) for "defamation" and "insulting the judiciary," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported local news reports. Anouzla said his lawyer will appeal the...

A court in Colombia has issued an arrest warrant for prominent journalist Daniel Coronell for contempt of court after he failed to correct for a second time a story linking a local businessman to drug trafficking, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learnt. CPJ has called on the judge to withdraw the contempt ruling until an appeal is heard. On March 18, the Penal Court of the Granada...

Cote d’Ivoire authorities on Thursday last abruptly jailed a journalist who was scheduled to appear in court next week on libel charges related to a column critical of the government, according to local journalists and press reports. The imprisonment appeared to violate the 2004 Ivorian press law, which decriminalised press offences and banned pretrial detention of journalists, the Committee to...