Tajik authorities have ignored a second Supreme Court order to release jailed independent journalist Jumaboy Tolibov, according to a local Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) legal source who is monitoring the case. LOOK WHO'S TALKING: President Emomali Rakhmonov's government severely restricts freedom of expression. The sole publishing house for publishing newspapers is owned by the state and
Authorities in Yemen are resorting to both judicial and extra-judicial measures to rein in journalists. On Saturday last, a court in capital Sanaa ordered the suspension of the privately-owned Al-Usboo newspaper for three months and fined it Yemeni rial 30,000 ($160). The court also sentenced journalist Abdulwadud Al-Matari of Al-Rasid newspaper to a two-month suspended imprisonment. Both cases
On the face of it, Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) may have scored a facile victory garnering as much as 72 per cent of the seats in the monthlong parliamentary elections, but the real picture stays hidden from what these statistics may indicate. EYE FACTOR: Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak listens to a speech during an Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Mecca
Press freedom organisations have condemned Zimbabwe's decision to seize the passport of the owner of the country's last two independent newspapers. Trevor Ncube owner and director of Zimbabwe's two remaining independent newspapers and of South Africa's Mail and Guardian, was ordered to hand over his passport on Thursday when he landed in Zimbabwe at Bulawayo airport from South Africa. COLOURS OF
The crackdown on journalists by the Ethiopian government which saw a dozen of them being arrested in November has taken a turn for the worse with one of them being convicted already. SHUTTERS WIDE SHUT: Ethiopians are seen in front of closed shops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia November 5, 2005. Across Addis Ababa, many shopkeepers are still struggling to repair windows and doors damaged in a spate of
A Swedish journalist who was released after four years from an Eritrean prison for demanding press freedom in the east African country last month has been imprisoned again. Dawit Isaak, who holds dual Swedish and Eritrean citizenships, was unexpectedly released on November 19, but was sent back to prison two days later for unknown reasons, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a
Masked gunmen abducted a reporter on Monday in the troubled region of Waziristan in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan where a top al-Qaeda commander was killed in a blast last week, the man's brother and a government official told Reuters. ON THE EDGE: A Pakistan soldier stands guard near Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Kundi Gar post, some 80km southwest of Miranshah, the capital of Pakistan's semi
The US government released less information under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004 than in 2000, according to a newly released study by the Coalition of Journalists in Open Government (CJOG). Even though FOIA requests to federal agencies dropped by 13 per cent, their overall use of exemptions to screen information rose by 22 per cent, the report said. In refusing to release information far
The Moroccan government has blocked access to websites dealing with the Polisario Front's struggle for Sahrawi independence. Western Sahara websites like arso.org, cahiersdusahara.com, cahiersdusahara.com, wsahara.net and spsrasd.info have all been rendered inaccessible in Morocco since November 21, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). A man shows a card
Tanzanian authorities ordered Saturday the closure of two newspaper for allegedly violating the country's law. The Prime Minister's Office ordered Tanzania Daima not to publish from December 3 to December 5, while Amani, a weekly tabloid, is to suspend production and distribution for 28 days. Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa (C) poses for a photograph with members of the UN Security Council
