2005-2014

Two Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents are being continually harassed in Turkmenistan. Dovletmurat Yazguliev and Osman Hallyev, who report for RFE/RL’s Turkmen service from the provinces, have both been subjected to threats and intimidation by local intelligence officers in the last two weeks, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “Similar situations in the past have ended...

Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of biweekly L’Interprète was released on January 7 on completing a 10-month prison sentence for “insulting” DRC President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about his health in a series of articles, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Arrested on March 7, 2008 in Kinshasa by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Ponte was held incommunicado...

Zimbabwean photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere, who was arrested on December 24, was remanded in custody on January 9 by a court in Harare despite allegations that he was tortured while in police detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists. Manyere is expected to return to court on January 23. Defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama had asked...

Albanian authorities on Friday blocked the offices of the daily Tema, which recently published stories alleging official corruption, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Police in capital Tirana surrounded the premises, barring journalists from entering the building, the daily's publisher, Mero Baze, said in a statement posted on Tema's website. Baze said he called Tirana's...

The Chicago Tribune is said to be making changes to its dramatic new redesign just three months after it was rolled out, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The Tribune announced on January 8 that it would bring that section back while making indexes clearer, toning down bold fonts, and adding new local sections. The newspaper in late September debuted a new format that it said was bolder and...

Police in the southern Tajik city of Kulob have detained two people for attacking Abdumumin Sherkhonov, the editor in chief of the newspaper "Pazhvok" and an RFE/RL freelancer. Both suspects have confessed to their participation in the attack. A third man sought for involvement in the crime has not yet been arrested. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported: [ Link] Sherkhonov says he was...

The editors of two leading Vietnamese newspapers were fired on January 2, the latest in a series of measures by the Vietnamese government to stifle criticism and dissent, Human Rights Watch has reported. In December, the government announced strict new regulations banning internet blogs that disseminate politically sensitive content deemed subversive by the government. During the last three months...

Iranian authorities are using security laws, press laws, and other legislation to arrest and prosecute Iranian Kurds solely for trying to exercise their right to freedom of expression and association. The use of these laws to suppress basic rights, while not new, has greatly intensified since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005. The findings have been documented in a 42-page

Thai authorities have blocked 2,300 websites for allegedly insulting the country's monarchy, with 400 more awaiting a court order to restrict them, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) has reported. The Economic Times Online quoted Information and Communication (ICT) Minister Ranongruk Suwanchawee as saying on January 6 that "The blocking of websites that disseminate content and pictures...

Mfomfo Nkambule, a columnist with the Times of Swaziland newspaper was censored by state police who interrogated him on January 5 over his weekly articles which are often critical of the king and his leadership, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Nkambule, an ex-cabinet minister and member of parliament but now chairperson of a political party known as Inhlava, was...