Legal Action

Prosecutors on Tuesday sought a jail sentence of up to two and a half years for a Vietnamese journalist on trial for allegedly writing inaccurate stories about one of the country's most high-profile corruption cases, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Reporter Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, was charged with "abusing freedom and democracy." Another reporter, Nguyen Van Hai, 33, is facing the same...

The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) has defamed the city-state's two most powerful leaders, Singapore's High Court has ruled. The publisher and editor of the magazine, owned by Dow Jones & Co, are to pay damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father and former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, after defaming them in an article published in 2006, Reuters reported. The damages for the...

Stanislav Glukhov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Khabarovsky Express, has been convicted of slander (a crime under Article 129 of the Russian Criminal Code), for disseminating false information and defaming Dmitry Rozenkov, a member of the local parliament, according to the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations (CJES). The court found that Glukhov knowingly allowed the...

Singapore's attorney-general's office has initiated legal action against the Wall Street Journal Asia and two editors over articles allegedly casting doubt on the judiciary's integrity, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A statement on the website of the Attorney-General's Chambers on Friday said the articles "impugn on the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore judiciary...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged President Abdoulaye Wade to quickly embark on a thorough overhaul of Senegal's press legislation after El Malick Seck, the editor of the Dakar-based daily 24 Heures Chrono, was sentenced to three years in prison on September 12 for an article claiming that the president was involved in money laundering. "This sentence reflects all the unfairness and...

Police summoned the news editor, Raja, Sun TV for an enquiry in connection with a complaint filed by a leading Tamil daily Dinamalar, accusing the channel of resorting to 'provocative' coverage, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported. Raja was summoned for an enquiry on Tuesday night, a senior police official told PTI. The daily had filed a complaint with the state government on Tuesday...

Prosecutors should drop all charges against Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour, whose death sentence was overturned Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Friday. A court of appeal overturned the sentence against Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist and former editor for the now-defunct Kurdish-Persian weekly Aso in Iran's northwestern province of Kurdistan, local journalists told...

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez called for a criminal investigation of Daniel Coronell on Thursday, alleging that the journalist broke the law by not immediately disclosing a videotaped interview that allegedly links the administration to a bribery scandal. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Colombian authorities to dismiss Uribe's request. On Thursday...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and one of Google's founders, Sergey Brin, about a defamation lawsuit that the Indian construction company Gremach brought against Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private Ltd, in February 2008. As a result of the action, a Bombay high court ordered Google's subsidiary on August 15 to reveal the identity of a blogger...

The government of South Korea has ordered home documentary filmmaker Kim Young Me from Iraq, where she was on assignment, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has eported. Kim returned to Seoul on August 9, after leaving Iraq on August 3. She had been embedded with American forces in Iraq's dangerous Diyala province, when US military authorities were told she did not have her...