State Control

ARTICLE 19 has welcomed the approval of the Access to Public Information Law by El Salvador's Legislative Assembly on December 2, and urged President Mauricio Funes to immediately sign and implement the legislation. The law marks a new era for freedom of information in the country. "The adoption of the Access to Public Information Law by the Legislative Assembly is an important step forward in the...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has released its report on the state of media freedom and media regulation in Zambia. Recently, authorities in the southern African country have called for the media to be regulated by statute, despite the fact that a voluntary regulatory body was established earlier this year. The Zambia Media Council (ZAMEC), as it is known, has not yet been launched...

Libya Press news agency has decided to shut down its Tripoli office and leave Libya because security officials have said they "do not want any presence of the agency inside Libya," the agency said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday. Libya Press announced that it will resume work from several foreign capitals. The agency added that it informed its reporters that it "cannot offer...

The Venezuelan government has acquired a 20 per cent stake in Globovisión, the only over-the-air TV channel that is still very critical of President Hugo Chávez after RCTV was stripped of its licence in 2007. RCTV was subsequently suspended from broadcasting by cable as well, and its latest attempt to return to cable broadcasting was blocked on November 25. The state took over on tuesday the...

Emadoldin Baghi, journalist and emblematic figure in the defence of human rights in Iran, began serving a six-year prison sentence on Sunday. Before turning himself in at Evin prison he said in an interview: In fact neither I nor my lawyers know whether the sentences have been upheld, by what court and in front of which judge! All that happened is that I received a phone call telling me to give...

A climate of hostility towards the French news media is being encouraged by Côte d’Ivoire’s state-owned radio and TV stations and certain privately-owned newspapers in Abidjan that support President Laurent Gbagbo, such as Le Temps and Notre Voie, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “Our priority is respect for the safety of journalists,” RSF secretary...

Ivorian authorities imposed Thursday a ban on France-based news broadcasters covering the contested presidential election, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The National Council of Audiovisual Communication (CNCA) ordered the local affiliate of France-based satellite television operator Canal+ to suspend all international news channels offered on subscription...

Al-Baghdadia, an Iraqi satellite TV station that has its headquarters in Cairo, has announced that it is ending all activities in Iraq as a result of a decision by the Iraqi government’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) on November 1 to suspend the operations of all its bureaux, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “In view of the prime minister’s...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the six-month jail sentence that a military court imposed on blogger Ahmed Hassan Basiouny on November 29 on charges of disseminating defence secrets online and “disclosing information relating to the Egyptian armed forces.” Basiouny was arrested for creating a Facebook page in 2009 that provided advice and information...

Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has revealed to parliament that a government offshoot called the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) has been operating for the past 15 years without the general public’s knowledge and has been illegally tapping telephones and intercepting emails, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Its targets have included...