State Control

Police in the Senegalese capital of Dakar assaulted a reporter who was covering a violent anti-government protest on Sunday. They later raided the reporter’s station and confiscated footage, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. Walf TV reporter Ousmane Mangane told New York-based CPJ that riot police used Tasers on him as he was...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) provided financial support for the publication Friday in N’Djamena of a “newspaper of newspapers,” a single issue combining most of the independent Chadian weeklies that have not appeared since a state of emergency was proclaimed on February 15. It calls for the repeal of a press law imposed by decree on February 20. “The independent N’Djamena-based press is showing...

Leading newspapers in Slovakia published identical protests on otherwise blank front pages Thursday to condemn legislation that they said would undermine press freedom, news agencies have reported. The six main dailies, including Novy Cas, SME, Pravda, Hospodarske Noviny and Plus Jeden Den, left their front pages empty except for a list of "seven sins" in the legislation, which would require them...

Google shareholders will propose that the Web search company take steps to ensure freedom of Internet access and establish a review of its operations' effect on human rights, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. A Reuters report said that in one proposal expected to be submitted at the company's 2008 annual meeting on May 8, shareholders will ask Google to commit to certain standards...

Security police Thursday raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and detained at least two reporters at their homes, Reuters has reported. The raids were launched two days after police broke up a rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of activists were fined or handed short jail terms. Zhanna Litvina, head of Belarus's Journalists' Association, told Reuters that the KGB...

The Zimbabwe government has done what it was expected to do ahead of the March 29 general elections—it is clamping down on the media. To start with it has refused to allow several leading international news organisaitons to cover the elections although it has signed international conventions that require it to guarantee “total access to national and international media.” A jail sentence of up to...

The Chadian government effectively forced the country’s only permanent foreign correspondent to leave the country on Thursday after withdrawing her work permit without explanation, the Committee to Protect Journaliusts (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists. Sonia Rolley, a journalist reporting for several France-based media outlets, including Radio France Internationale (RFI), Agence France...

The Sri Lankan government has appointed a recently retired army Major General to a senior position at the troubled state broadcaster, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). The appointment came as authorities released three journalists who had been held without charge for almost two weeks. Two other journalists arrested at the same time remain in custody. According to the Free Media Movement...

With international attention focused on the unfolding violence in Tibet, the Chinese media is confronting massive censorship, leaving the Chinese public largely in the dark. The Chinese government has barred or expelled virtually all international reporters from the region, and the state media presents the government’s perspective, which blames the Dalai Lama for the violence, the New York-based...

The police in Uganda should respect a court ruling that lifts a ban on two live radio programmes, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The court decision Friday last allowed two live political shows on Life FM in Fort Portal to resume broadcasting, but the station has since received a warning from police about its future programming. On January 8, Regional Police Commander Martin...