State Control

Pro-reform Iranian daily Yas-e-no was closed down on May 16, immediately after it brought out its first issue in five years, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The mouthpiece of the Participation Front, the main opposition party, it was closed on the orders of the Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance (an offshoot of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance...

A new wave of obstacles has been imposed by Myanmar's junta on Internet usage besides expelling two American journalism teachers on May 6. It is getting steadily harder for the Myanmarese (Burmese) to send emails or access websites while all means of communication were cut on May 14 around opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. “The increased restrictions on Internet usage following Aung San...

A year after the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province, journalists are still being persecuted. After the recent harassment of several foreign journalists and the arrest of least one local writer, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Sichuan province to allow journalists to report freely in the area on the one-year anniversary

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following a new round of revelations about the spying on journalists and news media by the DAS, an intelligence agency that reports directly to the president’s office. The phone-tap scandal was first exposed by the weekly Semana in February. “Ever since...

US President Barack Obama intends blocking the court-ordered release of photos depicting the abuse of prisoners by US military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. “Given the administration’s pledge last month not to fight the court ruling, as well as President Obama’s emphasis on promoting transparency and open government when he took office, the decision is very disappointing,” Paris-based...

Fiji's military government, which has been questioning several local journalists in custody, should immediately rescind emergency regulations censoring the island nation's media, the Committee to Protect Journalists has urged. At least a dozen local journalists have been interrogated by police since the regulations came into force on April 10, according to the Associated Press (AP). Initially...

Tunisian government efforts to force out the president of a critical journalists union is part of a campaign to eliminate independent media in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. The campaign started on May 4 when a group of pro-government journalists and followers of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali prevented National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ)...

Channel 4’s Asian correspondent Nick Paton-Walsh, producer Bessie Du, and cameraman Matt Jasper were briefly detained by police in Trincomalee in the east of the country before their expulsion. They are now in Bangkok with their journalist visas cancelled and banned from further visits to Sri Lanka, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The report broadcast on May 5 showed both...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to the DRC communication and media minister Lambert Mendé condemning the government’s decision to suspend local retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the northeastern city of Bunia, and voicing concern at the possibility that the measure could be extended to the rest of the country. “We easily understand...

The Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision to strike down the 1967 Press Law, a measure that imposed harsh penalties for libel and slander, is a crucial step forward in the campaign to eliminate criminal defamation laws in the Americas, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. CPJ and other groups had long urged that the anachronistic law be removed from the books. Brazil's highest...