A bid to rid Africa of criminal defamation, sedition laws
The African Union’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression and access to information, Commissioner Pansy Tlakula, has launched an auspicious initiative in East Africa to counter criminal defamation and sedition laws. Since independence, authorities and business interests in the East and Horn region have used criminal laws on sedition, libel, and insult–often relics of former,…
For journalist in Chhattisgarh, justice delayed, denied
New York, July 12, 2013–Indian authorities’ failure to proceed expeditiously in the prosecution of a freelance journalist is a miscarriage of justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The journalist, who has been held for almost two years without bail on anti-state charges, had exposed police wrongdoing in central Chhattisgarh state.
Amid upheaval, Egypt’s media blunders
The unfolding political tumult in Egypt over the past week has not only captured headlines worldwide, it has taken its toll on journalism and reporting as well. While much of the international media turned their attention away from the country over the past year and assumed democracy was marching along, trouble was brewing in the…
JPK’s disappearance becomes murder case in Tahiti
Since Jean-Pascal Couraud’s disappearance in mid-December 1997 his friends had been fighting to debunk the notion that he had committed suicide. In 2004 they had thought they could prove that the 37-year-old muckraker had been a victim of foul play. Vetea Guilloux, a member of the local militia Groupe d’intervention de Polynésie (GIP), had alleged…
Four convicted in shooting, stabbing of Kazakh journalist
New York, July 11, 2013–A court in western Kazakhstan has sentenced four men to terms ranging from 11 to 15 years for carrying out the brutal attack on Kazakh journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov in April 2012, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes this conviction, but calls on Kazakh authorities to identify the…
Kidnapped reporter found dead in Honduras
New York, July 11, 2013–The body of Honduran radio journalist Aníbal Barrow was found on Tuesday on the riverbank of a lagoon near the city of San Pedro Sula, according to news reports. Barrow had been kidnapped from his car on June 24, the reports said.”We are saddened by the death of journalist Aníbal Barrow…
In China, foreign correspondents see worsening conditions
Many international correspondents in China believe reporting conditions have worsened over the past year, according to a new survey by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China that also finds the Chinese government has “increasingly resorted to threats and intimidation against foreign media.”
Hopes dashed again for more press freedom in Macedonia
On June 21, Macedonian journalists, intellectuals, artists, and free thinkers breathed a sigh of relief. The U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, visited Skopje and held one of the most straightforward and honest press conferences on the state of freedom of…