News

Sudan has deported Tunisian journalist Zouhir Latif. Latif, who has political refugee status in Britain, was put on a flight bound for London on Sunday, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). A freelance journalist who works for France 24’s Arabic-language service and the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Latif was arrested at his home by intelligence agents on February 27 and was held for 48 hours...

Former journalist Jestina Mukoko, who was abducted by Zimbabwean security agents three months ago, has been released from prison. Mukoko was recently taken to a clinic in Harare, where she was treated for high blood pressure and injuries that doctors said were consistent with torture. “Mukoko was unjustly held for three months in very disturbing conditions,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said....

Algerian newspaper editor Nedjar El-Hadj Daoud has been arrested after a local court in Ghardaïa (467 km south of Algiers) confirmed a six-month prison sentence for libel that was originally imposed in 2005, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He edits Al-Waha, southern Algeria’s only regional newspaper. The six-month jail sentence was originally passed by a Ghardaïa court on November 14...

Freelance US journalist Roxana Saberi is being held at Tehran's Evin prison, where political prisoners are routinely detained, according to international news reports. Saberi is an American citizen as well as an Iranian national. Detained in late January, Saberi has not had access to an attorney, and has been incommunicado for over a month. Reuters quoted Alireza Jamshidi as saying that Saberi is...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has released two journalists in the West Bank on Monday, but yet another remains in custody, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The PA's Preventive Security Service freed Samer Khuaira, the Nablus correspondent for the London-based al-Quds TV station. Khuaira was arrested on January 24 after being summoned to the service's Nablus offices. He...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, Tuesday, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

An unidentified attacker stabbed a reporter outside his newsroom in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on March 3, according to the regional news site Ferghana. Syrgak Abdyldayev, a political reporter and commentator with the independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, was attacked at around 7 p.m., Ferghana reported. Abdyldayev, 47, is currently hospitalised with 12 stab wounds and a broken arm, Reporter...

Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF) has made a "preliminary" decision to extend a suspension of 22 clauses—including 20 articles—of the draconian February 9, 1967 press law. The clauses at issue that allow prison sentences for offences of "defamation", "denigration" and "insult", were suspended for the first time for a period of six months, by the country's highest jurisdiction on February 27...

The preliminary results of an Afro Barometer Survey indicate that a majority of people in Botswana support press freedom and critical speech, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The survey, conducted by the Department of Political and Administration Studies, Sociology and Statistics at the University of Botswana reveals that "Batswana overwhelmingly showed their support for...

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has temporarily closed Mzimba Community Radio Station, based in the northern part of the country, on grounds that the station did not comply with the regulatory body's rules and regulations as stipulated in the Communications Act, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Details behind the community radio station's closure...