International Press Institute (IPI)

Almost a year after Ecuador’s Organic Communications Law was passed, many journalists say that the law has hindered press freedom on numerous occasions.

“If you speak your mind, or exercise a right to freedom of speech, you get killed. You get tortured. There’s no law to protect Syrians,” said Leila Nachawati, the editor of Syria Untold.

Investigative TV journalist Mark Bassant was forced to flee Trinidad after learning that someone had ordered a hit on him in early May. Bassant had been reporting on the murder of a high-profile attorney.

All independent television and radio broadcasts in Thailand, including transmissions from foreign stations such as the BBC, Fox and CNN, have been suspended since the military coup, replaced by a military-run TV and radio broadcast that has been playing throughout the country.

IPI’s General Assembly meeting in Cape Town on April 14 unanimously urged Zuma to submit the Protection of State Information Bill, also known as the “secrecy bill”, to the court for a ruling on its constitutionality.

The International Press Institute expresses concern over pending criminal charges against two Danish journalists, Nils Mulvad and Kjeld Hansen, who say Denmark may be losing the fight against the spread of a strain of drug-resistant bacteria.

The recent attack and gang-rape of an Indian journalist who was on assignment in the northern state of Uttar Pardesh underscores the dangers faced by female reporters, a newspaper editor told IPI in an interview.

Threats and harassment of the media come amid fresh reports of mass killings of civilians in a conflict that erupted in mid-December, derailing hopes for a peaceful start to a country that gained independence from Sudan in July 2011.