The trial of a Bangladeshi editor arrested for advocating ties with Israel began in Dhaka on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post has reported. Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz, an English-language newspaper published in the Bangladeshi capital, is facing a series of charges that include sedition. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death. Details from the Post: In November 2003...
Regional authorities in Dagestan have decided to open a criminal case against Nadira Isayeva, editor-in-chief of an independent weekly, after the newspaper quoted a former guerilla leader in an article. According to news website Lenta, regional prosecutors in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, charged Isayeva with making public calls to extremism and incitement of hatred; if convicted, she faces up...
An Ethiopian judge overseeing the high-profile trial of an imprisoned pop singer jailed the editor of an independent weekly for contempt of court on august 4. The contempt charge came after the weekly published an interview with the singer's lawyer, according to local journalists. Mesfin Negash, editor-in-chief of the current affairs weekly Addis Neger, could be sentenced to as many as six months...
Zimbabwean journalists Wycliff Nyarota and James Muonwa were Tuesday convicted of publishing falsehoods in breach of the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Kwekwe Magistrate Oliver Mudzongachiso found Nyarota and Muonwa guilty of contravening Section 80 (1) (a) of AIPPA for unlawfully and intentionally...
Ali Al-Mashhadani, an Iraqi cameraman employed by the Reuters news agency, was arrested on July 26 by US troops while he was visiting the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad's Green Zone. "Mashhadani has been held without charge by the US military since 26 July and must be freed at once," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "It is unacceptable that US troops arrest a journalist...
A Panamanian judge has barred sports columnist Bienvenido Brown from leaving the country and ordered him to stand trial on criminal defamation charges filed in 2005. Eleventh Criminal Court Judge Josefina Sclopis issued the ruling on Friday against Brown, a columnist with the daily La Estrella de Panamá, the newspaper reported. The judge's decision stemmed from a criminal defamation suit against...
A UN tribunal has convicted a journalist of contempt of court for publishing details about a protected witness who testified at the trial of Kosovo's former prime minister. The tribunal is trying those responsible for atrocities committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, says a Press Trust of India (PTI) report. Journalist Baton Haxhiu was also fined 7,000 Euros by Hague-based...
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the recent arrest and criminal defamation charges filed by the Malaysian government against prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor and founder of the Malaysia Today news website. Raja Petra was arrested and charged on July 17 at police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and later released on bail, according to local news reports. The three...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Iranian authorities to release journalist Mahboubeh Karami of the government news agency ISNA at once. She has not seen a lawyer since her arrest in Tehran on June 13 after criticising the police for beating up demonstrators. The organisation is also concerned about the suspension of two weekly newspapers in the west of the country. "Mahboubeh Karami's...
A UK-based Arabic newspaper has apologised to the prime minister of Qatar after it admitted printing three "wholly untrue" articles about him secretly visiting Israel, the Guardian has reported. Some details: The daily Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat made the apology to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani on July 21 at the high court in London after admitting it should not have published the articles in...
