Gambian journalists pardoned
Six journalists imprisoned for sedition in Gambia have been pardoned by President Jammeh.
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Khalid bin Mahfouz dead at 60
Billionaire Saudi banker Khalid bin Mahfouz, best known in Britain for a series of libel suits and legal threats against reporters and authors who connected his businesses with terror funding, has died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
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Read Index on Censorship’s report on bin Mahfouz, The True Cost of Libel, here
Stalin’s grandson sues Novaya gazeta
The grandson of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is suing Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta for £200,000 over a story about declassified secret documents reportedly signed by Stalin, which ordered the execution of Soviet citizens. His lawyer, Leonid Zhura, said that half a century of lies had been poured over the dictator’s reputation and since he cannot defend himself “from the grave”, it is essential to put the story straight.
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Christian Poveda
Documentary maker Christian Poveda has been found dead north of San Salvador, El Salvador. Poveda had courted controversy in El Salvador with his 2008 documentary about El Salvador’s gang wars, La Vida Loca.
Deborah Bonello of MexicoReporter interviewed Poveda earlier this year.
You can watch the interview and clips, and read the interview here