State Control

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has condemned officials from Al-Ahram Press for their refusal to print the latest edition of the opposition weekly Sout al-Ummah, until its editor, Abdel Halim Kandil, had removed his article criticising Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and the country's stance on the crisis in Gaza. Sout al-Ummmah was finally published on January 5 after the...

Myanmar's (Burma) censorship board has stopped issuing licenses to 11 weekly journals and 20 magazines which failed to renew their license, sources in the Yangon (Rangoon) literary community said, according to Mizzima news agency. Mizzima reported: [ Link] An editor of a weekly journal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the censorship board, which is under the Ministry of Information, has...

Bolivian President Evo Morales is planning to launch a state-run daily newspaper later this month which would act as a counterbalance to the "anti-government" local media, Reuters has reported. "The state's going to have its own newspaper and I've told the media team that we should launch it on January 22," Morales was quoted as saying by the official news agency ABI on Sunday. During a radio...

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has approved a new media law despite local and international pressure to reject the legislation critics say undermines democracy, according to news reports. The amended media law provides for a new communications commission with powers to regulate broadcasting content and impose tougher fines or jail terms for press offences. "I have assented to the bill," Kibaki said...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed disappointment at Azerbaijan's National Television and Radio Council’s decision to ban foreign radio stations from broadcasting on local FM and medium wave frequencies from January 1. The December 30 decision withdraws the licences of foreign radio stations to broadcast on local frequencies. As well as RFE/RL, Voice of America and BBC, the measure...

The Iranian government has taken advantage of Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip to crack down harder on its critics, closing an opposition newspaper and dispatching its supporters to step up a campaign of intimidation against human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi. The Commission for the Authorisation and Surveillance of the Press ordered Kargozaraan’s suspension on December 31 under articles 5...

The editor-in-chief of Alerte Info, an internet news magazine, has been arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and detained for allegedly reporting that at least three people were killed during a prison riot in Abidjan recently. The police picked up Ebenezer Viwami, over the weekend for interrogation, his staff revealed. “Our editor-in-chief was arrested by the police in front of MACA prison, where he was...

Students at Georgetown University in the US are suing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government agencies for information in the death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the project began in a investigative journalism class at Georgetown in 2007. The students were supposed to find out...

The confrontation between the government and the press in Kenya has escalated. Parliamentarians on December 16 launched a scathing attack on the media and vowed to ensure it is "tamed." One member after another tore into the media, apparently angered by the all-out campaign against a controversial Bill recently passed by Parliament that seeks to give the government power to control media content...

The Kyrgyzstan government has refused to resume local retransmission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service unless it submits programmes for prior approval. The demand was made on December 15 by Melis Eshimkanov, head of state-owned broadcaster UTRK, who told a RFE/RL delegation its programmes were “too negative and critical.” “This political decision is intolerable,” Paris-based...