Suspect says he was hired to silence broadcaster
Police in the southern Philippine province of Palawan have an unusual head start in their investigation of Monday’s murder of radio broadcaster Gerardo Ortega. They apprehended the assassin at the scene, with the help of local firefighters and bystanders, and an unusual amount of information about the killing is already in the public domain.
Preventing video takedowns when reporting
Watching the stream of reporting from Egypt today, I’ve noticed some unconfirmed reports that videos of the events uploaded to YouTube have been taken down by the company. I haven’t been able to find any concrete examples, so I can’t say whether this is true. YouTube takedowns did happen for a few of the more…
South Africa resumes debate on secrecy bill
Parliamentary hearings on South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill resumed last week with heated debate over provisions threatening to restrict press freedom and access to information. For journalists, much uncertainty remains over the final product and when it will be completed.
Tunisian TV station’s suspension reflects tenuous freedom
On Sunday, the privately owned broadcaster Hannibal TV was forced off the air for more than three hours. The state-owned news agency Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) issued a statement stating that an arrest warrant had been issued for the station’s owner on charges of “high treason” for an alleged “plot to destabilize national security.”…
Will Tunisia’s ‘Internet revolution’ endure?
There has been a great deal written online about how much of a positive role the Internet played in recent events in Tunisia (if you’d like to catch up, Alex Howard’s link round-up provides a good summary of the many sides, both for and against). At CPJ, our focus is on slightly different questions: How…
In China, Kristof’s blogs are shut down
Nicholas Kristof’s Sunday column in The New York Times documents the latest in a series of tests the journalist has performed in Chinese cyberspace. The conflicting results he achieved while setting up a Chinese-language blog and micro-blog demonstrate how difficult it is to judge what censors will permit in an online space.
EU has contradictory message on Karimov, Lukashenko
Unless European Union officials mean to expose the inconsistency of their own policymaking, they should stand firm by their declared commitment to defend press freedom and human rights in the former Soviet countries. For now, their drastically different approaches to authoritarian leaders in Belarus and Uzbekistan leave one questioning the EU’s strategy.
Haitian journalist Montas levels charges against Baby Doc
Former dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier is facing some blowback after breezing into Haiti last Sunday following a 25-year absence. On Wednesday, prominent Haitian journalist and former UN spokesperson Michele Montas joined three others in filing criminal complaints against the former dictator who returned to the country Sunday, just days after the anniversary of…