Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sri Lankan newspape, The Sunday Leader, was shot near Colombo by unknown gunmen riding a motorcycle on the morning of Jan. 8, 2009 as he was driving his car to his office, according to news reports. He died of his wounds a few hours later. Wickrematunge was one of the most […]

Within hours of publishing a column describing President Ernest Bai Koroma’s behaviour to that of a rat, the two top editors of the Independent Observer in Sierra Leone were behind bars, accused of libel and sedition. Despite printing an apology to the president on Nov. 11, publisher Jonathan Leigh and chief editor Bai Bai Sesay […]

The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomed French President François Hollande’s remarks condemning yesterday’s shooting at the Paris office of the newspaper Libération as an attack on freedom of the press. News reports said that Hollande, in a televised statement yesterday from Jerusalem, directed Interior Minister Manuel Valls to use all means to find the […]

The North American Committee of the International Press Institute (IPI) today called on media outlets worldwide to exercise greater care in deploying correspondents to Syria, citing an epidemic of kidnappings of journalists in the war-torn country. The Associated Press (AP) recently reported that at least 30 journalists have been detained in Syria and 52 killed […]