State Control

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has condemned the alleged mistreatment of a reporter and cameraman working for KohaVision in Decan/Decani in Kosovo, by Lieutenant Sejde Krasniqi. According to information received by SEEMO, on September 8, a reporter working for KohaVision, Arta Avdiu and her cameraman Veton Veha were locked inside Lieutenant Krasniqi's office and not...

Journalists in Belarus are being hounded in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for December 19. Harassment by the authorities is severely curtailing the already limited freedom of the Belarusian media, which are still reeling from journalist Oleg Bebenin’s mysterious death at the start of September, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expresses concern over the negative impact that a French national security bill known as LOPPSI 2 could have on online free expression. The version of the bill that was passed by the Senate on first reading on September 10 envisages an ineffective and dangerous online filtering system that could jeopardise the work of journalists...

The Pentagon has agreed to revise some of the rules that have restricted what journalists are free to report on from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, resolving a conflict that peaked in May when four reporters were expelled from the naval base there. The new rules contain three major changes: Journalists will no longer run the risk of being expelled or barred from Guantanamo because of information they...

Bahrainian prosecutors have banned journalists from reporting on the detentions of dozens of opposition activists. Authorities detained Shiite opposition activists in a series of arrests that began on August 13, according to Bloomberg and other news reports. The New York Times reported Thursday that as many as 159 people had been detained, and that later detainees included people not known as...

Twenty-five journalists were held by the Yemeni army as they tried to attend a peace conference in the north of Yemen over the last weekend. According to the Yemen Post, the journalists, from local, national and foreign press had been invited by tribal elders in the region to cover and attend the National Peace Conference. Since 2004, permits have been required for travel to the northern region of...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has criticiced a decision by Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to send a bill to Congress that would make the production, distribution and sale of newsprint a matter of "public interest," calling the action "unconstitutional" and an attempt to "control the media." In a nationwide broadcast Tuesday last, Kirchner delivered the contents of a report...

A criminal court judge in Togo Wednesday last imposed an indefinite ban on the distribution of a Benin newspaper that had raised questions about the alleged involvement of a half-brother of President Faure Gnassingbé in drug trafficking. The ban on Tribune d'Afrique, a private bimonthly based in Benin that has a bureau in the Togolese capital of Lomé, was based on charges of publishing false news...

An imprisoned Iranian journalist is suing Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) over allegations that the telecommunications company provided the Islamic regime with a monitoring system it used to spy on the opposition Green movement, according to the Guardian. Isa Saharkhiz, a prominent journalist and political figure, was arrested after last summer's disputed presidential election. Saharkhiz, who is...

The mayor of the Serbian city of Zajecar, Bosko Nicic has decided to prevent all directors of companies and public institutions in the city from making statements to the media without his prior consent, according to the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO). Directors of companies and public institutions now feel that they must fear for their jobs if they do not comply with the directive...