State Control

Ahead of Azerbaijan’s upcoming Parliamentary elections, nine organisations are launching a new report titled Free Expression under Attack: Azerbaijan’s Deteriorating Media Environment. The report findings come out of a joint freedom of expression mission to the country in September 2010 and highlight the Azerbaijani government’s failure to comply with its international commitments to promote and...

There has been a deterioration in the press freedom situation ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections and the 2011 presidential election, with the return of repressive practices that had disappeared, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Under the guise of “protecting the public interest,” the authorities are establishing mechanisms for controlling and...

Egyptian authorities have introduced a host of new regulations ahead of parliamentary elections to be held on 29 November, in an apparent attempt to clamp down on independent media. The move comes less than three weeks after Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief and founder of the private daily Al-Dustour, and a critic of the government, was dismissed after the newspaper was bought out by new owners...

The investigation into illegal telephone-tapping by the Colombian intelligence agency known as the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) entered a new phase Wednesday when the House of Representatives initiated a procedure that could result in former President Alvaro Uribe being questioned about his presumed involvement, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières...

Iran has decided to expel Tehran-based journalist Ángeles Espinosa, the correspondent of the Spanish daily El País. The authorities cancelled her residence permit on October 10 and gave her two weeks to leave Iran, where she has been an accredited journalist for the past five years. No explanation was given. Espinosa’s press card was withdrawn when she was arrested in Qom in July after...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Chinese government to end its pointless attempts to block the news by blacking out domestic and foreign media coverage of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement awarding jailed human rights activist Liu Xiaobo the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. According to foreign news agencies' reports from China, news of the award is almost non...

Authorities in Somaliland should immediately lift a suspension order imposed against the UK-based satellite broadcaster Universal TV, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The order bars the station's correspondents from reporting in the breakaway republic in northern Somalia, Khadar Mahamed, Universal TV senior newscaster and producer, told CPJ. "This abrupt order...

Ivorian authorities have expressed the determination to ensure that all candidates in this month’s presidential election have fair access to the public media during the campaign. Prime Minister Guillaume Soro stressed this point at a meeting with state media executives and media regulatory officials four days ago, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The...

As a police rebellion threw Ecuador into chaos on Thursday, the government of President Rafael Correa ordered local radio and TV stations to interrupt programming and carry state news broadcasts. A dozen reporters were injured covering the police revolt. On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the government's censorship of broadcast media and called on local authorities to...

A Ukrainian television station, which had its broadcast frequencies cancelled over allegations of irregularities in the manner in which the stations were awarded their licences, has decided not to abide by the decision and will continue its terrestrial broadcasts. Channel ТVі called the action by the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting - which issues the licences -...