2005-2014

7 January 2011
Saudi Arabia announces new Web publishing law

Saudi Arabia announces new Web publishing law

Online newspapers and blogs based in Saudi Arabia will now need to register with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to operate. The new guidelines and rules will be added to the current publishing and printing law. Abdul Aziz Khaja, Minister of Information and Culture, stressed that the list is a tool of regulation – rather than restricting freedom of speech. He said it is in line with...

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7 January 2011

Government blocks radio stations from live broadcasting Buganda Kingdom conference

The Broadcasting Council (BC) of Uganda has blocked privately-owned radio stations from live broadcasting a conference organised by the Buganda Kingdom, according to the Human Rights Network for Journalists. The Ttabamiruka is an annual conference organised by the Buganda Kingdom to review and discuss the social, cultural, economic and developmental issues of the kingdom. The theme for the 2010...

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7 January 2011

IFJ demands full details for arrest of journalist in Maharashtra

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the police in Maharashtra to provide all details of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of journalist Sudhir Dhawle, in the state's eastern district of Wardha on January 2. According to IFJ sources in Maharashtra, Dhawle had visited the neighbouring district of Gondia to attend a convention on Adivasi and Dalit literature (i.e...

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7 January 2011

Puntland court releases reporter after six months in jail

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has welcomed the release of journalist Yusuf Ali Adan, an online reporter for Somalifans news website, whose whereabouts remained unknown until December 2010, when Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) produced him at the Criminal Court in Bossasso town of Puntland. Adan, who was released on December 30, was first brought to the Criminal Court in...

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7 January 2011

New penal code used to trample on free expression in Cambodia

A Cambodian man who shared web articles with two of his colleagues was convicted on incitement charges and sentenced to six months in jail under a new penal code, reports Human Rights Watch, which called the use of the law "a huge step backward for free expression in Cambodia." On December 17, Seng Kunnaka, a Cambodian employee with the United Nations World Food Programme in Phnom Penh, was...

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7 January 2011

Mexico’s human rights agency to prioritize crimes against journalists

The president of the government-run National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Raúl Plascencia, said killings, disappearances, and kidnappings of media workers and activists will be a priority for the agency in 2011, Milenio reports, according to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. In order to face the growing number of crimes against journalists, Plascencia said the CNDH will...

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7 January 2011

Honduras asks US, Colombia, and Spain for help in solving journalist killings

President Porfirio Lobo’s government has asked for the help of the United States, Colombia, and Spain to help investigate the killings of ten Honduran journalists who died in 2010, El Heraldo reports. According to EFE, Lobo asked the Security Ministry to “coordinate actions with international investigation agencies in friendly countries.” Last week, the Journalists’ Guild said that FBI agents were...

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7 January 2011

Ecuadoran radio denied license renewal on bogus charges

An Ecuadoran provincial radio station known for its criticism of local authorities was denied its license renewal based on bogus administrative violations, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Ecuadoran regulators must allow the station to report the news freely, CPJ said. "The decision to shut down Voz de la Esmeralda Oriental Canela Radio is clearly arbitrary and...

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7 January 2011
Honduras: Minister insists no journalist was murdered in connection with their work

Honduras: Minister insists no journalist was murdered in connection with their work

Honduran deputy security minister Armando Calidonio insisted during a TV appearance that none of the ten murders of journalists in the country during 2010 was connected to the victim’s work. “None of these murders is linked to the practice of journalism,” he said. “It is highly improbable and I say so sincerely.” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has described the...

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7 January 2011
Rwanda: Prosecutor requests 33 and 12 years in jail for two women journalists

Rwanda: Prosecutor requests 33 and 12 years in jail for two women journalists

A prosecutor in Rwanda has requested long prison sentences for two newspaper journalists who, after six months in pre-trial detention, are being tried before a Kigali high court on a range of charges including genocide denial and inciting public disorder, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The prosecution on Wednesday requested 33 years in prison and a...

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