State Control

Honduran military personnel briefly detained seven journalists, temporarily shut down several local broadcasters, and intermittently blocked the broadcast signals of international news channels in the aftermath of the weekend coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Monday, at least 10 soldiers armed with rifles detained seven...

Rwandan information minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, has threatened to reimpose the ban on Kinyarwanda-language broadcasts by BBC if the British radio did not change its editorial line. Broadcasts only resumed on June 23 after a two-month interruption. Rwandan pro-government daily the New Times reported in an article on June 26 that the minister had said BBC was guilty of “bad faith” and that if the...

Honduras President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster Sunday by the Army has been followed by a curfew during which the broadcasts of several radio and TV stations were suspended, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. As soon as the curfew had been decreed, the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) notified cable TV operators of a ban on broadcasting certain international TV stations such...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the decision to lift the ban on the Arabic version of the Gulf News newspaper after the authorities stopped its publication on Sunday June 21. "We welcome the lifting of the ban which was a serious violation of press freedom," said Paco Audije, IFJ Deputy General Secretary on June 23. "It is not for governments to tell newspapers what...

Kazakh legislators on Thursday passed an Internet Bill, pending before Parliament since April 29, which will drastically curb online freedom by making it possible to bring criminal prosecutions against bloggers over what they write, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and Kazakh organisation Journalist In Danger have reported. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has not yet signed it into law. “There was a...

The Sri Lanka government has decided to restore the former Press Council, which will have the power to pass jail sentences on journalists and newspaper publishers. The decision comes amid continuing tension between the authorities and renewed threats against Jaffna-based Tamil newspapers. “A press council can be a useful tool for managing relations between the media and the public,” Paris-based...

Press freedom campaigner Robert Ménard has resigned as director-general of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, which he had headed since April 2008. Ménard stepped down on June 19 because the Qatari authorities wanted to restrict what Centre said. Other members of the staff have also resigned. “For several months we were an independent voice that condemned violations and had only one concern – the...

In his first public address to the nation since demonstrations erupted in many cities across Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday blamed foreign media, calling it "evil" for attempting to divide the people of Iran. Iranian authorities continue to crack down on journalists in an attempt to control information as demonstrations continue to grip the country following last Friday's...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned as “bogus” and “dishonest” technical and official explanations given by the Ministry of Transport and Communications for banning broadcasting by the radio station La Voz de Bagua Grande in the town of the same name in Peru’s north-west. Paris-based RSF called on the government, unhappy at the media’s support for recent indigenous peoples’...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Fiji military regime's extension of strict media censorship and emergency regulations, saying the regime's effort to stamp out public discussion is undermining all fundamental rights of the people of Fiji. Under the emergency rules, initially imposed in April, the media is forbidden to publish or broadcast anything negative about...