(CEMESP/IFEX) - Monrovia, May 3, 2009: On the observance of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) has recalled that challenges to free expression still remain firm across Liberia, with many persons, including government and civil actors, still resolute in their plans to restrain the media from reporting as it sees fit.

(ACM, interim member/IFEX) - The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) extends its greetings to media colleagues throughout the international community and the Caribbean on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2009.

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - 2 May 2009 - As the global media and human rights communities mark the event of World Press Freedom Day, ARTICLE 19 calls attention to the ongoing need to ensure that freedom of expression is safeguarded and enhanced in all parts of the world.

The theme for this year's celebration of World Press Freedom Day, Media, Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, could not have been more appropriate in any other year than this one, particularly for countries in West Africa.

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has saluted as a "great victory for press freedom" the historic decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to repeal the entire 1967 press law that had allowed prison sentences to be handed down to journalists for what they wrote.

(GDF/IFEX) - On April 22, 2009, "Novaya Gazeta" announced the start of criminal proceedings against the alleged mastermind of the murder of that newspaper's journalist, Igor Domnikov.

Journalists faced an increasingly grim working environment in 2008, with global press freedom declining for a seventh straight year and deterioration occurring for the first time in every region, according to Freedom House's annual media study.

Participants at two pilot workshops organised by ARTICLE 19, in partnership with the Center for the Right to Health (CRH) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA), have adopted strategies promoting the right of access to information in health matters in two Nigerian states: Enugu and Lagos.

(CEMESP/IFEX) - Reporter Garmonyou Wilson of the "Inquirer" newspaper was detained over the weekend of 24-26 April 2009 at Liberia's Bureau of Immigration and Nationalization (BIN) in the capital, Monrovia. The reporter was ordered detained by authorities at the Bureau for what they described as "unauthorized photography".

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, April 30, 2009 - The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Armenian authorities to apprehend three assailants who attacked Argishti Kivirian, editor of the independent news Web site Armenia Today. The unidentified men beat Kivirian early this morning, leaving him hospitalized in serious condition, Zhanna Alexanian, president of the Yerevan-based organization Journalists for Human Rights, told CPJ.

(EOHR/IFEX) - The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) expresses its deepest concern regarding a letter received from the Ministry of Social Solidarity warning EOHR of the possibility of applying Article 42 of the NGOs Law 84/2002, which is concerned with dismantling the organization.

(EOHR/IFEX) - The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) expresses its deepest concern regarding a letter received from the Ministry of Social Solidarity warning EOHR of the possibility of applying Article 42 of the NGOs Law 84/2002, which is concerned with dismantling the organization.

(IAPA/IFEX) - Miami, April 29, 2009 - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today characterized the two-year prison sentence handed down to a Panamanian journalist for his 2001 exposure of corruption involving a Supreme Court justice in that country "judicial harassment".

(FLIP/IFEX) - On 23 April 2009, journalist and writer Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal, who works for the editorial programme "La Luciérnaga" broadcast on Caracol Radio, was assaulted, held at gunpoint and threatened by unknown individuals who came into his home and took some of his files.

(MISA/IFEX) - Windhoek, Namibia: 30 April 2009 - The UNESCO theme for the 2009 World Press Freedom day, Media, Dialogue and Mutual Understanding, aptly captures the wishes and ideal situation that many of us yearn for in the media in Southern Africa. We all wish for the media to be platforms for social dialogue, for the media to bring us together and more importantly for the media to be a mirror through which society reflects on itself, especially the ills of corruption, gender inequality, repression and suppression of dissenting voices, and indeed highlight the opportunities for socio-economic development and change in the region.

(WiPC/IFEX) - The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is concerned by the opening of trial proceedings on 5 May 2009 against the noted Turkish author Nedim Gürsel for his book "Daughters of Allah". The book is seen to "humiliate the religious values of part of the population". The author faces charges under Article 216 (3) of the Turkish Penal Code relating to "incitement to enmity or hatred", which carries a penalty of six months to one year in prison.

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemns the distribution bans imposed on recent issues of two French magazines, "Jeune Afrique" and "Afrique Magazine", at the behest of the information ministry in Abu Dhabi because of articles regarded as offensive or overly critical.

(FOPEA /IFEX) - The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) condemns the serious threat made to journalist Daniel Enz, editor of the weekly "Análisis" in Paraná, Entre Ríos, and a member of the FOPEA Board of Directors.

(MISA/IFEX) - A popular weekly column appearing in the privately-owned "Times of Swaziland" newspaper that was critical of Swaziland's traditional Tinkhundla system of governance - including the leadership of King Mswati III - has been stopped because of what the newspaper claims are structural adjustments of its content.

(IFJ/IFEX) - 29 April 2009 - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called for a radical overhaul of media laws in the Middle East.