The New York Times Co. apologized on March 24, 2010, to Singapore’s prime minister and his two predecessors for a February 15 article that described the island nation’s leaders as a political dynasty, according to international news reports. The company and the article’s author, Philip Bowring, agreed to pay damages of 160,000 Singaporean dollars (US$114,000) in…
Staffers at Sirasa TV confirmed media reports that about 200 people gathered outside the in-town office of the independent broadcaster and threw stones, breaking windows and injuring staffers on March 22, 2010. Some in the crowd carried posters in Sinhala and English protesting the station’s plan to broadcast a concert by pop singer Akon scheduled…
A court in central Algiers indefinitely banned the bimonthly newspaper Sirry Lelghaya (Highly Classified), a supplement of Al-Monaqasa newspaper, as of November 3, 2009. According to local news reports, the vague wording of the decision noted licensing irregularities without providing details. The court’s decision was issued in accordance with the Information Act of 4/4/1990 and the Penal Code. This legislation grants the judiciary…
Local news reports said a photojournalist was shot and five other journalists assaulted in the aftermath of a 22-hour battle between militants and local authorities in Srinagar, summer capital of the troubled north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on January 7, 2010.
On December 11, 2009, Ricardo Chávez Aldana, a radio host for the Ciudad Juárez-based Radio Cañón, fled to the United States with his wife and children, his sister, her husband, and their two children, his supervisor at Radio Cañón, José Antonio Tirado, told CPJ. The reporter and his family left their home after the killing of two…
Three journalists, all on assignment for The Guardian, were kidnapped in December 2009 and released after six days, according to the paper. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi, ad two unnamed Afghan journalists had been planning to interview militants in Afghanistan’s mountainous Kunar province near the border with Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province when they were abducted. The Guardian said…
On October 26, 2009, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs announced on the air that a shot had been fired at his home while his wife and her driver were standing outside in the driveway. Dobbs made the announcement on CNN and his syndicated radio program, saying the gunshot struck his home about three weeks earlier as…
Venezuelan Judge Fanny Yasmina Becerra ordered the arrest of journalist Gustavo Azócar on July 29, 2009, stating that he violated the conditions of his 2006 parole on charges of illegal acquisition of wealth and fraud by publicly commenting on his case. Táchira state authorities took Azócar into custody at 10:30 p.m., and drove him to…
The Urdu daily Asaap said Frontier Corps forces were posted outside its offices on August 1, 2009, questioning staff about connections with local insurgents, according to local news reports. The Frontier Corps is a local paramilitary unit stationed to quell a violent independence movement staged by Baloch nationalist groups in the province.