Press freedom in the news 9/30/08

CPJ’s September 26 letter to Russian President Dmitry Mededev is receiving additional coverage in both the English and Russian press today. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has a story posted to their Web site and the Russian daily newspaper Novye Izvestiya is also reporting on the letter.

The Huffington Post is featuring a blog post this morning by Magda Abu-Fadil, who writes about the continued danger Iraqi journalists face in light of the recent murders of four TV journalists. Despite recent moves by the government to try to protect reporters, Abu-Fadil writes that violence and intimidation still threatens true freedom of the press in Iraq.

Also making news today is the detention of controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin in Malaysia. CPJ reported on September 23 that Raja Petra was sentenced to two years in prison by the Malaysian government under the country’s Internal Security Act. The Singapore-based Web site ZDNetAsia has an article examining the blogger’s arrest, the culture of blogging in Malaysia, and why arrests like this may backfire on the government.