State Control

Burmese authorities have arrested a journalist in Magway, and are holding him in Rangoon in what observers say is part of a continuing effort to stifle news and information coming out of Burma's cyclone-ravaged provinces, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA). SEAPA Alerts partner Mizzima News says journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, the former editor-in-chief of First Eleven Sports...

Thailand's interior minister is under fire for moving to pulling a private television channel off cable networks nationwide. Cable operators, opposition senators, and free expression advocates are calling a directive by Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung—which media reports say threatens cable operators with imprisonment unless they pull the plug on cable channel ASTV—illegal and...

Zimbabwe is going through serious political violence perpetrated by the party in power, ZANU PF. This violence is also taking place in a context of major economic challenges that the country faces where inflation is estimated to be greater than 1 million percent. There have also been food shortages, which are further exacerbated through the banning of humanitarian food distribution by NGOs by the

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s cabinet Friday unanimously approved a bill that would restrict the use of phone taps to investigations of crimes carrying prison terms of at least 10 years and would impose heavy fines or jail terms on journalists and news media that publish transcripts of phone taps without a judge’s permission. “There would seem to be ulterior motives to this bill as it...

The Sri Lankan government pressured owners and editors of several independent dailies, including the Nation and the Daily Mirror, to dissuade them from publishing critical or embarrassing articles during a visit by a European Commission trade delegation from June 9-11. "The government is mistaken if it thinks it can improve relations with the EU by using threats to silence the independent press,"...

In yet another move that will worsen the flow of—and lack of access to—information in Zimbabwe, the government has slapped an import duty on all newspapers, magazines and periodicals coming into the country. On June 8, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported that all "foreign newspapers sold in Zimbabwe will now have to pay import duty, as the government moves to protect Zimbabwean media space"...

The Burmese junta has taken a series of measures in the past few days to control news and information coming out of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta According to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association (BMA), an organisation of Burmese journalists in exile, the blogger and comedian known by the stage name of Zarganar was arrested without explanation on June 5...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the news media that have been closed in the Palestinian territories since the start of the clashes to be allowed to resume operating. "No fewer that 17 news media have been forced to stop working since June 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority withdrew to the West Bank," the press freedom organisation said....

China has begun to restrict local and foreign coverage of the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake. Several international media outlets have reported the harassment and temporary detention of reporters at the hands of local officials, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The moves come after a brief period in which the government appeared to relax its normally...

Chinese media is still forbidden to refer openly to the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989. Censorship is also extremely severe on the Internet. "The Chinese authorities are trying to use the Olympic Games to make people forget what happened on June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "But the sports events and the festivities that will take place in this...