State Control

Since the beginning of the Sidi Bouzid riots on December 17, which followed the burning of a new and unemployed graduate, the police have banned any access to the city. Most journalists who tried to cover the incidents have faced police violence, according to Observatoire pour la liberté de presse, d'édition et de création (OLPEC). On the afternoon of December 17, Zouhayr Makhlouf, a correspondent...

The Cambodian government's use of its new penal code against a man who shared web articles with his co-workers is a huge step backward for free expression in Cambodia, Human Rights Watch has said. The man was quickly convicted on incitement charges and sentenced to prison. Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to amend the penal code, which went into effect on December 10, to...

Burmese state censors are clamping down on the publication of feature stories or interviews with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on orders from the government, the editor of People's Era journal said recently, according to Mizzima News. Editors of People's Era and the Venus journal met with Suu Kyi on December 21. On December 17, People's Era submitted the transcript of its interview with Suu...

La Première, the leading TV channel of Côte d’Ivoire’s state-owned broadcaster Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI), has since December 24 not been available in France or in neighbouring African countries, where it is normally carried by the Canal + Horizon satellite service, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). It would seem this is because its signal has...

Press freedom groups have condemned the government’s closure of the Kuwait City bureau of the Doha-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera for covering police use of force to disperse an unauthorised demonstration at Soulaibikhat, 10 km from the city centre, on December 8. “This closure violates the legal procedures and regulations in force in Kuwait,” Paris-based press Reporters sans Frontières...

The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), have expressed concern at a draft law in Hungary that would impose extensive fines against journalists and publishers if they refuse to disclose their sources or publish information deemed inappropriate by the government. The proposed law, if passed, would seriously...

Kuwaiti authorities shut down the local offices of the Al-Jazeera TV network and withdrew its accreditation Monday after it covered a violent police crackdown on a meeting of Opposition lawmakers in the oil-rich Gulf country, the Associated Press has reported. Al-Jazeera denied the charge of meddling in Kuwaiti affairs, saying it was just doing its job. "Al-Jazeera, which has adhered in its...

An amendment to the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law (Ley Resorte) – submitted to parliament on 9 December and due to be adopted this week at the Venezuelan president’s insistence – will increase the severity of the penalties for offending broadcast media and make them applicable to online media as well. President Hugo Chávez has asked the outgoing parliament, which he controls, to rush...

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has denounced the Yemeni political security organisation (intelligence) for preventing the distribution of elThowry newspaper, a publication of the Yemeni opposition socialist party in Aden, southern Yemen. The newspaper had reported on recent arrests in Aden. A number of citizens were detained as they were celebrating Independence Day which...

Slovenians rejected a new media law Sunday which the government had said was designed to limit political influence on the state radio and television broadcaster, in a national vote marked by low turnout, says a Reuters report. Preliminary results of the referendum released by 2055 GMT showed 72.6 percent of voters rejected the law, with only 27.4 percent backing it, the state electoral committee...