Italian state broadcaster RAI last week suspended political talk shows ahead of key regional elections. The board of RAI, dominated by supporters of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, voted to cease airing the shows in the run-up to the 28-29 March polls to avoid possible sanctions from a parliamentary committee, Reuters reported. RAI is temporarily replacing […]

The Ethiopian Supreme Court today ruled against four independent media houses, forcing them to pay fines that were originally rendered void under a 2007 pardon. The four publishing companies, Serkalem, Sisay, Zekarias and Fasil, must now pay a total of 295,000 Birr (approx. €16,100) – more than the average Ethiopian would earn in a century, […]

A TV broadcaster was shot dead in an apparent attack on a fellow journalist in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on Monday 1 March, according to media reports. Joseph Hernández Ochoa, 24, a journalism student at the University of Honduras, and a former entertainment presenter on the privately-owned Canal 51 TV station, was travelling with […]

The International Press Institute (IPI) will hold its annual World Congress in Vienna, Austria, and Bratislava, Slovakia, from 11-14 September 2010, the organisation today officially announced. The 2010 World Congress will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of IPI, and the organisation will celebrate 60 years of defending press freedom in a series of […]