Legal Action

The reopening of judicial proceedings against detained “New York Times” researcher Zhao Yan, whose release had been awaited since 17 March 2006, is an “aberration,” Reporters Without Borders has said, calling for him to be freed at once. Zhao’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said officials told him on 17 April that the proceedings had been reopened on 20 March 2006 on the basis of the same charges that were...

The Chinese authorities, who last month unexpectedly dropped a state secrets case against a jailed researcher for The New York Times, have started an investigation period that could lead to reinstating the charges against him by early May, his lawyer said Monday. The possibility of resuming the case undercuts speculation that withdrawal of the case last month was intended as a prelude to releasing...

Two journalists were charged with exposing German state secrets on al Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a case their defenders called a blow to press freedom. Prosecutors in the city of Potsdam, near Berlin, said on Wednesday they were pursuing a case against German reporter Bruno Schirra and the foreign editor of Swiss newspaper Sonntagsblick, Johannes von Dohnanyi, over an...

The trial of a Chinese researcher charged with exposing state secrets while working for the New York Times is expected before the end of March, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Zhao Yan worked for the paper before his arrest in September 2004. He faces 10 years in jail or more after security officials charged him with telling the paper details of rivalry between China’s outgoing Communist Party...

MUMBAI: The D N Nagar police station on Saturday arrested a reporter of this newspaper on a complaint lodged against her for an article in TOI despite an apology and clarification having already appeared in the morning edition (February 18). The reporter was later granted bail of Rs 5,000 by an Andheri metropolitan magistrate after the police did not press for custody. The article in the paper...

The chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has decided to withdraw the indictments against three Croatian journalists charged with contempt. She says that “in the interest of justice and judicial economy” she’s chosen not to proceed against Stjepan Seselj, Domagoj Margetic and Marijan Krizic, who had been all charged in connection with revealing the identity, statement and testimony of a protected...

Military prosecutors in Switzerland have opened an investigation into a newspaper editor and two journalists for having published news of a secret fax which appears to confirm allegations of CIA secret prisons in Europe, Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) has reported. GOING TO THE POLE: The airport in Szymany, Poland, identified by Human Rights Watch as a potential site of alleged...

A Chinese researcher for the New York Times was indicted Friday for revealing state secrets to the newspaper and on a lesser charge of fraud, a move that should send the case to trial within six weeks, his lawyer said. The indictment signified a decision by prosecutors to proceed with a trial of 43-year-old Zhao Yan, after 15 months of investigation by the State Security Ministry during which Zhao...

China is sending a Chinese journalist working for the New York Times to trial charged with exposing state secrets, his lawyer said on Friday. Zhao Yan, who worked as a researcher for the paper before his arrest in September last year, won the Reporters Without Borders 2005 prize this month for journalists who have “shown a strong commitment to press freedom”. “The way they have done this shows...

RSF has welcomed the Indian Supreme Court's suspension of orders by the Tamil Nadu State Assembly to arrest the publisher, two senior editors and two journalists from the national daily "The Hindu". They had each been sentenced to serve 15 days in prison for "breach of privilege" after their newspaper criticised the arrest of an opposition figure and the harassment of independent media. "The...