ARCHIVES: State Control
About 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Budapest Tuesday to support press freedom in the third and largest protest of its kind and despite amendments to controversial laws governing the media, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The demonstration was organised over the Internet and was much bigger than its January 14 predecessor, which brought out about 10,000 people. The details: [ Link ] The country's parliament voted earlier this month to amend its disputed legislation on issues... MORE
The Salvadoran Congress ratified the Public Information Access Law on Thursday, March 3, after accepting some of the changes proposed by President Mauricio Funes, reported news agency EFE, according to the Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas. The details: [ Link ] However while the law will go into effect until 30 days after its official publication, Salvadorans will have to wait a year before they can solicit public information from a state agency, according to La Prensa Gráfica. The... MORE
Despite positive movement on some of the worst aspects of Hungary’s controversial media, the core of the problem remains, since the composition and attributions of the all-powerful Media Council remain unchanged, says Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). European governments should make it clear to their Hungarian partner that this vote does not in any way absolve it of its responsibility to make every effort to ensure the legislation conforms to international law,... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has collated an overview of the acts of violence against journalists and other media freedom violations that have taken place in the pasts few days in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The countries concerned are Libya, Algeria, three Gulf states (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Yemen, Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan) and Syria. LIBYA Jean-Marie Lemaire , a French journalist working for the 24-hour TV news station France 24,... MORE
New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has rejected statements by a Chinese government official that international reporters are not being detained, attacked, and harassed in China. CPJ called on the police to end their anti-media attempts to stop foreign journalists from reporting on possible anti-government demonstrations in what has become known as the "Jasmine Revolution." Instead, they should act in accordance with Chinese government regulations which... MORE
There has been a wave of journalist arrests in Turkey in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government known as "Ergenekon." Twelve journalists have been detained in less than a month; and nine are currently in custody. On Sunday, Zekeriya Öz, the chief prosecutor overseeing the probe into Ergenekon, said in a statement that the investigation of the journalists is not a result of their work but based on evidence that cannot be publicised because of the confidentiality of the... MORE
Authorities in Libya on Friday prevented foreign journalists invited to report in the country from covering the crackdown on protesters in the capital, according to news reports. In southern Iraq, anti-riot police attacked at least five local journalists covering protests in Basra, according to news reports. Hundreds of anti-Qaddafi protesters gathered in Tajoura, a suburb of Tripoli, after Muslim prayers, but security forces quickly dispersed them with tear gas and live ammunition, according... MORE
Argentina's Supreme Court has called for the omission of discriminatory criteria and "reasonable balance" in the allocation of state advertising. The ruling stems from a 2006 injunction filed by Editorial Perfil, the country's largest magazine publisher, claiming arbitrary distribution of official advertising, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Argentina's highest court said Wednesday: "All media should receive official advertising: That is... MORE
There has been a wave of government censorship in the past few days at Radio-Télévision Nationale de Guinée Équatoriale (RTVGE), a state-owned broadcaster that is kept under very close surveillance by information minister Jeronimo Osa Osa. On Thursday, the state radio’s French-language broadcasts were “temporarily suspended on the orders of a higher authority,” the head of the station, José Esono Bacale, said in a statement that gave no explanation for the decision. His communiqué added that... MORE
Attempts of governments in the Middle East to censor news coverage of protests remains unabated. In Yemen, men stormed the Journalists' Syndicate on Saturday, and in Iraq, journalists demanded apologies from the military after a crackdown on the press on Friday, and Baghdad Operations Command offered the apologies on Sunday, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Saturday at around 11 a.m., three men in plainclothes arrived in a marked police vehicle and... MORE
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