Press Freedom

EGYPT: Gag Tightens on Media Ahead of Elections

By Cam McGrath
Media watchdogs see the "invisible hand" of the ruling party behind a string of firings and resignations that have removed some of Egypt's most prominent government critics from their soapboxes just weeks before parliamentary elections.

Risking Death to Report the Truth

By Kanya D'Almeida
Alma Guillermoprieto was one of only two journalists to investigate rumours of the notorious massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador in December 1981. Because the slaughter of 1,000 unarmed civilians was perpetrated by the U.S.-backed Salvadorian Army, the Ronald Reagan administration attempted to discredit her work.
"Dialogue is possible," says Gustavo Andújar, vice-president of Signis. Credit: Courtesy of Gustavo Andújar

Q&A: Cuba’s Catholic Media Multiply, But Change Is Slow

By Patricia Grogg
In the context of ongoing conciliation between the Cuban government and the Roman Catholic Church, the communications media of the latter are growing quickly on this Caribbean island where the press remains under strict state control.
Friends and colleagues say they warned Derakhshan in 2008 that traveling to Iran could be dangerous for him. Credit: Courtesy of Hossein Derakhshan

Iran’s “Blogfather” Gets 20-Year Prison Sentence

By Omid Memarian
A week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told heads of state gathered for the U.N. General Assembly in New York that his government does not jail its citizens for expressing their opinions, Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced Hossein Derakhshan, an internationally known Iranian-Canadian blogger, to 19 and a half years in prison.

U.S.: Librarians Lead Fight Against Banned Books

By IPS Correspondents
Penguins are indisputably cute. And a children's book about such inoffensive animals could hardly be expected to trigger a nationwide controversy. But then came "And Tango Makes Three" and a heated debate was fired up.
Shirin Ebadi, centre, has endured hostile mobs outside her home and offices as a result of her work as a human rights lawyer in Iran. Credit: Solmaz Sharif/IPS

Activists Warn of Rights Crisis Ahead of Ahmadinejad Visit

By Omid Memarian
Speaking at a press conference in New York Friday, Shirin Ebadi, a highly-regarded Iranian attorney and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned that the human rights situation in Iran is deteriorating, particularly for the many journalists and civil society activists considered political prisoners.

CHINA: Journalists Risk Their Lives to Expose Corruption

By IPS Correspondents
Despite what are often overwhelming obstacles, a gutsy minority of investigative reporters in China continues to expose official corruption and criminal behaviour. But they do so at their own peril.

MEXICO: The Voice of the Community Faces Numerous Threats

By Emilio Godoy
The Jenpoj ("winds of fire) community radio station in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, which plays an important role in keeping the Mixe indigenous community informed, has had its equipment confiscated and has fought and won a court case to get a broadcast license.

Fears for South Africa’s Press Freedom

By Chris Stein
International media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks South Africa's press as among the freest on the continent. Two proposed new measures are drawing unfavourable comparisons to repressive laws in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
Protest by journalists in Tijuana, Mexico Credit: Courtesy of Eileen Truax

MEXICO: Threats Against Journalists: “You’re Vulnerable, and It’s Hard to Accept”

By Daniela Pastrana
"The threats change your whole life," said Jade Ramírez, a journalist who has been living for months with that burden, which also hangs over a growing group of her colleagues in Mexico.

U.S. Journalist To Be Deported From Turkey

By Sanjay Suri
Jake Hess, a U.S. freelance journalist who also wrote for IPS on Kurdish rights within Turkey, is to be deported following a government order.

HONDURAS: Rights Situation Deteriorates

By Jim Lobe
Six months after the inauguration of President Porfirio Lobo, the human rights situation in Honduras continues to deteriorate, according to two major New York-based groups.

SUDAN: Fear Campaign Reported Ahead of Referendum

By Eli Clifton
With less than six months before the residents of southern Sudan vote on a reform which is expected to result in the cessation of South Sudan from the north, a new report implicates Sudan’s security services in "carrying out a brutal campaign of arbitrary detentions, torture, and mental and physical intimidation" against opponents of the government.

CNN’s Objectivity Questioned in Sacking of Mideast Reporter

By Eli Clifton
CNN's firing of Octavia Nasr, the editor responsible for the network's Middle East coverage, over a Twitter post in which she expressed her sadness over the death of a Lebanese cleric has set off a firestorm of debate about what the decision says about CNN's fairness in reporting on the region.

MEXICO: Local Media in the Line of Fire

By Emilio Godoy
It is open season on local media in states and cities in the interior of Mexico, which are virtually unprotected against violent attack and have been the worst hit by the murders of at least eight journalists this year.
An oiled brown pelican receives treatment at Fort Jackson Bird Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana. Credit: Courtesy of International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC)

No Free Press for BP Oil Disaster

By Dahr Jamail
Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard, working in concert with oil giant BP, instituted new restrictions across the U.S. Gulf Coast that prevent the media from coming within 20 metres of booms or response vessels on beaches or water. But the insidiousness of the restrictions runs even deeper.
Mobile phones are increasingly becoming an important newsgathering tool in Asia. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

MEDIA: Mobile Journalism on the Rise in Asia

By Kara Santos
What do the protests in Burma, bombings in Jakarta, the recent earthquake in Haiti and the massive devastation left by typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines have in common?

Virtual Diversity in Cuban Blogosphere

By Dalia Acosta
There are blogs made in Cuba, and many more Cubans living abroad who blog, both in favour of or against the Cuban government. Caught up in the sea of political passions, the hundreds of blogs about this socialist island nation reflect a growing variety of viewpoints and realities.
Activists being deported from Ben Gurion airport flash the 'V' sign through the darkened windows of a bus. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS

MEDIA-ISRAEL: Beatings, Abuse, Doctored Evidence Emerge

By Mel Frykberg
Although Israel successfully controlled news of its deadly commando raid on the Free Gaza (FG) flotilla during the first crucial 48 hours of media coverage, emerging evidence from witnesses and survivors is challenging the Israeli government's version of events.

THAILAND: In Wake of Crackdown, Anger Peaks against Foreign Media

By Lynette Lee Corporal
Resentment here toward the foreign media had been simmering in the wake of the Thai government's crackdown against protesters in May, but it nearly came to a boil when Thai panelists aired their frustrations recently about what they called western bias, misunderstandings of the Thai political culture and reporting that tried to fit events into a bad-versus-evil contest.
Free Gaza activists being marched away from a bus at the Ben Gurion International airport. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS

Israel Censors News on Deadly Flotilla Raid

By Mel Frykberg
Attempts by media to interview some of the hundreds of Free Gaza (FG) members, who were being deported from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, Wednesday, were thwarted by Israeli authorities.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*