Legal Action

The editor and publisher of the Statesman were briefly arrested and then released on bail on Wednesday after being charged with hurting Islamic sentiments in an article. Ravindra Kumar, editor of the Statesman, and publisher Anand Sinha have been charged with "deliberate act with malicious intent to outrage religious feelings." “We arrested Ravindra Kumar, Editor , and Anand Sinha, Publisher...

A Czech court has upheld a fine against reporter Sabina Slonkova for refusing to disclose the names of confidential sources to the state prosecutor. The case dates to February 2008, when online news portal Aktualne.cz posted video surveillance footage taken at Prague’s Hotel Savoy and leaked to Slonkova. The footage shows a clandestine meeting shortly before last year’s Czech presidential election...

Press freedom groups in the Philippines have called on the Senate to withdraw its invitation to a reporter to appear before the inquiry into the alleged corruption in World Bank (WB)-funded road projects, saying doing so might be “undue interference” in his work as a journalist. The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has summoned Newsbreak senior writer...

Gambian authorities are continuing to to hound the Point, a privately-owned daily based in Banjul. Its editor, Pap Saine, was charged with publishing false information yesterday, two days after being arrested and then freed on bail for reporting the arrest of a Gambian diplomat, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Saine is to appear in court again on February 19. “Saine’s arrest comes...

A Liberian journalist who testified against ex-President Charles Taylor should not be forced to reveal a confidential source, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. The journalist, Hassan Bility, testified on January 14 about a 1997 reporting trip to Sierra Leone in which he documented alleged ties between Liberian government troops and Sierra Leonean rebels. Liberia's ex-President Charles...

A South Korean blogger in custody since January 7, charged with spreading false information online, should be set free, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. Park Dae-sung, described in international news reports as an unemployed, self-taught economist, anonymously posted predictions about the global financial climate in online bulletin boards under the pen name "Minerva," to public...

The Nicaraguan attorney-general's office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organisation headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported on its blog. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as...

The editor of Fiji's oldest newspaper has been ordered to jail and the publication has been fined F$100,000 (NZ$104,000) for printing a letter critical of the military regime and the court system, Fairfax Media has reported. Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika has been convicted of contempt and jailed for three months with a suspended sentence for two years on a good behaviour bond. The ruling...

Every lawsuit that has been brought by members of the Universal Church against journalist Elvira Lobato, who works for the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, has thus far been won by the journalist, the ssociação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (ABRAJI) has reported. Winner of the 2008 Esso Journalism Award, the most important prize given to Brazilian news people, the reporter was targeted with...

Adnan Demir, editor of liberal Turkish daily Taraf is facing trial for publishing confidential military information. The prosecutor at the Istanbul higher court on January 6 called for a sentence of 3-5 years against Demir, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The newspaper in October 2008 had carried a series of articles on an attack on October 4, carried out and claimed by...