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A bill regulating online communications and content has been signed into law by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The new law gives blogs, chat rooms and other websites such as online retail outlets the same legal status as the Kazakh news media and thereby exposes them to the possibility of criminal prosecution. The bill, signed into law on July 13, will also enable the authorities to block...

The house of a second Pakistani journalist working in the border area with Afghanistan was looted and burned on Saturday, according to the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ). The attack was similar to one carried out by Taliban militants on Thursday last in the same district, which has been an area of conflict since the government launched an offensive in April. According to the KhUJ and the...

Iranian authorities have arrested six more journalists and sentenced another on Sunday to eight years in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. A revolutionary court in Tehran convicted Saeed Matin-Pour‎ of having "relations with foreigners and propagating against the regime," according to local news reports, and sent him immediately to Evin Prison. Matin-Pour‎ was...

A group of Venezuelan journalists with the regional television network Telesur and the state-owned station Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) left Honduras on Sunday after being detained and harassed in the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. "We are gravely concerned that the media environment in Honduras has become increasingly polarized while the interim...

Detentions of journalists reporting on ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region has been continuing, according to press freedom groups. The Beijing-based Uighur academic and blogger Ilham Tohti, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has been missing since July 8 when he told a friend he had received a notice of detention. On July 6, Beijing public security officials questioned...

Colombian police have arrested a man believed to have gunned down veteran radio journalist José Everardo Aguilar in retaliation for his reporting on corruption in southwestern Cauca province, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Friday, the Colombian National Police arrested Arley Manquillo Rivera, also known as "El Huracán," at a routine checkpoint outside the provincial...

The Sri Lankan government is continuing its offensive against the independent news media, blocking domestic access to a news website and smearing lawyers who are representing a leading newspaper. The government launched aggressive efforts to curb independent media in 2006—at the same time it began an all-out military effort to defeat the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). On May...

The six journalists who were returned to Banjul’s Mile Two prison on July were 3 released again July 7 morning on bail of 400,000 dalassi (10,800 euros). The court did not immediately demand payment of the bail but it asked fellow-journalists to act as guarantors. All six have been told to report to the Banjul high court again at 9 a.m. on July 8. “We hope they are being released for good this...

Authorities in northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang are said to be harassing journalists reporting on ethnic rioting in regional capital Urumqi, according to press freedom groups. One journalist was detained for two hours in Urumqi Tuesday for reporting independently of a government-organised media tour of the damaged city, according to National Public Radio. "I went independently of the group...

A Radio IQK journalist in somalia, Mohamud Mohamed Yusuf, was shot twice in the stomach on Saturday in the capital, Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Yusuf, commonly known as "Ninile," was hit by stray bullets after leaving the station in Afarta Jardin, northern Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. According to local journalists and the National Union of Somali...