ARCHIVES: State Persecution
As investigative journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener completed their 100th day in prison, hundreds of people marched down Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue on June 18 to demand their release and the release of all the other journalists detained in Turkey. It was the third big march since their arrest on March 6. There is no sign of any weakening in support for Sik and Sener, whose fourth request for provisional release has just been rejected by the Istanbul prosecutor’s office. They have yet to be... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the disgraceful way the authorities are harassing and prosecuting journalists in Khartoum and the north of the country in an attempt to silence them and stop embarrassing revelations about human rights violation by the security forces. “While the international community and media have their attention turned to South Sudan’s future independence and the fighting in Abyei and South Kurdufan, the human rights and media... MORE
Kyrgyz parliament adopted a resolution June 16 issuing a legally binding instruction to the prosecutor-general’s office, culture ministry and justice ministry to block access to the independent online news agency Ferghana ( www.ferghananews.com ) because of its coverage of last year’s violence in the south of the country. “Blocking access to Ferghana would constitute a very shocking attack on one of Kyrgyzstan’s leading independent news media,” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans... MORE
Urinboy Usmonov , a reporter for the BBC World Service’s Uzbek-language service, is being held in a detention centre in the northwestern city of Khujand for allegedly belonging to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a non-violent Islamist movement that is banned throughout Central Asia, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Usmonov’s family began looking for him when he went missing on the evening of June 13. They were surprised to see security service officers escort him to... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has deplored the death in prison of journalist and writer Hoda Saber and accused the Iranian regime of being responsible. He was taken to hospital with chest pains on June 10 and died of a heart attack a few hours later. The Evin prison authorities did not inform his family, who learned about his death two days later on the Internet. “We send our deepest condolences to his family and to all Iranian journalists,” said RSF secretary-... MORE
Belarusian authorities must end the retaliatory prosecution of Andrzej Poczobut , a Grodno-based correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza , and release him immediately, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Authorities put Poczobut on trial today in the western city of Grodno, local and international press reported. The trial is a closed one. He is being prosecuted for allegedly insulting and libeling President Aleksandr... MORE
New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a growing number of detentions by the Somali government's security forces against journalists covering weeklong protests in the KM4 area of the capital, Mogadishu. On Monday morning, security agents arrested 20-year-old reporter Mohamed Amin , of the privately owned Radio Kulmiye. He had been covering ongoing protests that started last Friday. These protests had erupted in Mogadishu following the... MORE
A one-year jail sentence and a fine of 1000 dirhams (88 euros) has been imposed by a Casablanca court passed June 14 on Rachid Nini , the editor of Al-Massae , one of Morocco’s leading newspapers, at the end of a trial marked by judicial intransigence, repeated adjournments and a refusal to free him on bail. Held since April 28, the newspaper editor was tried on charges of disinformation and attacking state institutions, public figures and the “security and integrity of the nation and citizens... MORE
Two Pakistani journalists who captured images of apparent military violence against unarmed foreigners and a local man are being threatened, their colleagues have told New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The threats have come amid calls from high-ranking Pakistani military leaders to quell public criticism of their policies, made at a Thursday meeting of top level commanders. According to Pakistani journalists, Abdul Salam Soomro of the Sindhi-language... MORE
Central African Republic authorities have charged the director of the independent weekly The Hills of Bangui , Faustin Bambou , with inciting hatred and disorder among the military forces and insulting the government, Bambou told New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The director was sent directly to Ngaragba Prison in the capital, Bangui. Four military policemen arrested Bambou at his office on May 27 and detained him at their Research and Investigations... MORE
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