Nemat Rawan, a former Afghan television journalist, was shot dead in southern Kandahar city on Thursday, officials said, becoming the fifth journalist to have been killed this year. Rawan hosted a popular talk show on the country’s leading broadcaster, Tolo News, before joining the ministry of finance as a communications specialist last month. He was “assassinated by unknown gunmen”, Kandahar city police spokesman Jamal Nasir Barekzai told AFP news agency. “Heartbreaking to hear that a friend and former colleague Nemat Rawan was shot dead in Kandahar city today,” Lotfullah Najafizada, head of Tolo News, posted on Twitter. There was no … Continue reading Former Afghan TV host shot dead in Kandahar

A Japanese journalist arrested in Myanmar has been charged with spreading fake news, the country’s Japanese embassy has said. Yuki Kitazumi is the first foreign journalist known to be charged since the coup. He was arrested in April and has been in prison since. More than 700 people have been killed and thousands detained, including many local journalists, since Myanmar’s military staged a coup in February. Mr Kitazumi who was working as a freelance journalist had been reporting for many of Japan’s major news outlets, appearing as a rare foreign reporter from within Myanmar (also called Burma). The 45-year old … Continue reading Myanmar charges Japanese journalist over alleged fake news

A court in Zimbabwe has terminated charges of communicating false information levelled against award-winning investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, saying the law used by police to arrest him earlier this year no longer existed. Chin’ono, 48, has been a fierce critic of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule, accusing his government of corruption and mismanagement. Over the past year, he has spent many weeks behind bars and was hit with several charges, including inciting violence and obstructing justice. On Wednesday, Chin’ono’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo said the charges of communicating false information had been quashed by the country’s High Court “because the section under … Continue reading Zimbabwe court terminates criminal charges against journalist

The president of a Venezuelan newspaper hit with a $13 million damages judgment, on Monday accused the state of “expropriation.”El Nacional newspaper once employed 1,100 people but is now down to a skelton staff of 100 working on an online edition The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) on Friday ordered El Nacional to pay Diosdado Cabello, the second most powerful person in Venezuela after president Nicolas Maduro $13.4 million as a punishment in a defamation case. In 2015, Cabello, second in command of the governing Socialist Party, took the newspaper to court for reproducing a report by Spanish newspaper ABC … Continue reading Venezuelan newspaper boss decries $13 million damages ruling

Singapore’s High Court on Wednesday ordered a local blogger to pay S$133,000 ($98,800) in damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for sharing a defamatory article about him on Facebook. Lee sued Leong Sze Hian for posting a link to a Malaysian news site that alleged the prime minister had helped launder 1Malaysia Development Berhad funds. In his judgment, Justice Aedit Abdullah concluded that in sharing the post “there has been publication to a sufficient number of persons in Singapore to warrant substantial damages.” He also said that while Leong later relied on the various officials to counter the allegations … Continue reading Singapore blogger ordered to pay damages in PM defamation suit

A popular Polish writer and journalist could face up to three years in prison for calling President Andrzej Duda a “moron” in a Facebook post in November. Jakub Zulczyk accused Mr Duda of failing to understand the US electoral process in a tweet to Joe Biden. Mr Duda’s tweet stopped short of recognising his victory, pending Electoral College confirmation, but hailed his “successful campaign”. Poland has made it a crime to insult state leaders and religion. Following US media reports of a presidential victory for Mr Biden on 7 November, President Duda tweeted: “Congratulations to Joe Biden for a successful … Continue reading Polish writer Jakub Zulczyk charged for calling President Duda a ‘moron’

Journalist and TV presenter Piers Morgan left broadcaster ITV on Tuesday following long-running criticism of Prince Harry’s wife Meghan that reached a crescendo after the royal couple’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. “Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain,” ITV said in a statement. “ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.” Morgan, a former CNN presenter, has said the couple had damaged the royal family and sought publicity on their own terms without accepting the responsibility and scrutiny that come with the job. On Monday evening, ITV broadcast Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Meghan … Continue reading TV presenter Piers Morgan leaves ITV after Meghan Markle comments

Zhang Zhan’s footage of bedridden patients lining a hospital corridor in Wuhan gave a rare, unvarnished glimpse from China’s coronavirus ground zero in the first months of the pandemic.Zhang Zhan The video was one of many that helped land the citizen journalist and former lawyer in jail, where she has been severely weakened by a hunger strike to protest her treatment. In another clip, Zhang calmly faces down a security officer who accosts her and orders her to stop filming. “It’s my right to monitor the government,” she says, as the man attempts to snatch away her phone. Zhang has become … Continue reading China’s citizen journalist Zhang Zhan protests silently in jail

A Belarus court has jailed two TV journalists for two years on charges of fomenting protests, for filming a rally against the country’s leader. Katerina Bakhvalova, 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, were arrested in a Minsk apartment block in November while live-streaming an unauthorised protest, they are with Poland-based Belsat TV. Mass protests took place across Belarus after Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a presidential election in August widely condemned as rigged. Belsat TV rejected the accusation that by broadcasting footage of the demonstration the two journalists had disrupted bus services in the Belarusian capital. Mr Lukashenko has been in … Continue reading Belarus jails two TV journalists for filming mass protest

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced five men to death and one to life in jail for hacking a secular blogger to death six years ago in Dhaka. Avijit Roy, based in the US and of Bangladeshi origin, was attacked with machetes as he left a book fair in the capital in February 2015. It was one of a spate of attacks on secular figures, which were blamed on Islamist militants. The assault was carried out by a banned group, Ansar al-Islam, the court heard. The group is believed to be linked with al-Qaeda and was led by a fugitive … Continue reading Five sentenced to die for machete attack on blogger

When Lebanese anti-Hezbollah publisher and documentary-maker Lokman Slim didn’t return home after visiting a friend in a rural village on Wednesday night, his sister Rasha had a very bad feeling. Her brother had been increasingly worried about his fate even predicting last year that if anything happened to him, Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist militant group whose Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc political party is highly influential in Lebanese parliament, bore “full responsibility for what happened and what might happen.”Lokman Slim Rasha al-Ameer posted urgent messages on Facebook and Twitter at dawn, including one in which she said she had lost … Continue reading Journalist who predicted he would be murdered by Hezbollah found dead