ARCHIVES: Imprisoned
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
The Supreme Court of Rwanda sentenced the exiled online editor of Umuvugizi , Jean Bosco Gasasira, on Friday to a two year and six month term in prison. Gasasira received this sentence for allegedly insulting Rwanda's president and inciting civil disobedience, local journalists told New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Gasasira believes the new sentence may stem from an online article he wrote that compared Rwanda's President Paul Kagame to Zimbabwe's... MORE
New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the conviction and sentencing of Irina Khalip , the Minsk-based correspondent for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta , and called on Belarusian authorities to acquit her on appeal. The Zavodskoi District Court in Minsk May 16 declared Khalip guilty of "organising and preparing activities severely disruptive of public order," and gave her a two-year suspended prison term, local and international... MORE
The number of journalists in jail in Peru rose to two when Paul Garay Ramírez , a programme producer for Visión 47 TV and a correspondent for Radio La Exitosa, was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in the east-central region of Ucayali on April 19 for allegedly defaming a prosecutor. The other journalist currently detained is Oswaldo Pereyra Moreno of Radio Macarena, who was sentenced to a year in prison on a similar charge in June 2010 and is due to be released soon. The... MORE
Belarusian authorities must drop politicized libel and insult charges against Andrzej Poczobut , a Grodno-based correspondent for Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza , and release him immediately, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Prosecutors in Grodno opened a criminal investigation against Poczobut on March 28 and charged him with insulting President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus through articles he published in Gazeta Wyborcza and... MORE
Despite the government’s denials, the demands of Turkey’s Kurdish minority continue to be off-limits for the country’s media. Six people have been charged or convicted this month under Anti-Terrorist Law No. 3713 for writing about the subject. The Anti-Terrorist Law will be 20 years old on April 12. It quickly became a weapon that could be used relentlessly against journalists who dare to broach the problem of minorities. This month’s trials have offered further examples of the appalling and... MORE
A court in Cameroon has handed an editor a suspended prison sentence and banned his newspaper for reporting on alleged mismanagement of a transportation company, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. A panel of three magistrates in the commercial city of Douala convicted Editor Jean-Marie Tchatchouang of the weekly Paroles of defamation on Friday under Cameroon's penal code and gave him a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 185,200... MORE
Internet user Vikas Mavhudzi has been detained for the past month on a charge of advocating the government’s overthrow in a message he posted on Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Facebook page. He is to remain in prison until his trial, for which no date has yet been set, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported Mavhudzi, 39, posted a message highlighting the impact of Egypt’s revolution and indicating his support for peaceful protests. “I am... MORE
A 13-year jail sentence has been imposed by a Bangkok court on Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul , the administrator of website linked to the anti-government Red Shirt Movement, for three messages critical of the king that he allegedly posted on the site, called Nor Por Chor USA. Thanthawut, who has been detained since his arrest on April 1, 2010, was given a 10-year sentence under a section of the criminal code covering lèse-majesté and a three-year sentence under the Computer Crime Act. The... MORE
A three-year jail sentence has been imposed by a Damascus military court on writer and journalist Ali Al-Abdallah on a charge of “intending to harm Syria’s relations with another state” under article 278 of the criminal code. The court ruled that he would have to serve 18 months of the sentence, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The charge was based on an article by Abdallah about Iran that was posted online on August 23, 2009, while he was in prison... MORE
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