State Control

The authorities in Iran have increased censorship in a bid to prevent Monday’s anti-government protests, blocking independent or pro-opposition websites and other electronic media. Broadband speed has greatly slowed in major cities as in the run-up to previous anti-regime demonstrations or opposition events. Mobile phone and text-message traffic has been badly disrupted and the Persian calendar...

Security agents, police officers and plainclothes men have carrying out attacks against journalists covering street protests in Sana'a during the past three days. The attacks took place during demonstrations hailing the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and calling for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Wednesday accused the Jordanian government of stifling calls for democratic change after the country's intelligence service disabled a news website and removed a letter to the King demanding political reforms. IFJ backed protests by journalists' leaders and others who joined a protest after the country's biggest news website http://www.ammonnews...

Laurent Gbagbo’s government in Côte d’Ivoire has launched a crackdown on the media, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The leadership of the National Press Council (CNP), which regulates the print media, has just been replaced by Gbagbo’s supporters. The UN radio station, Onuci FM, has had its permit withdrawn. And many journalists are still exposed to...

Military police reportedly detained Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, the blogger better known as Kareem Amer, together with the filmmaker Samir Eshra on Cairo’s Kasr El-Nil bridge February 6 evening as they were leaving Tahrir Square. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) called for their immediate release. “Kareem Amer owes his prominence to his virulent criticism of the...

Members and supporters of the international press freedom NGO Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Paris at midday today to express their outrage at the systematic use of violence against journalists in Egypt since February 2. Chanting “The news is being killed” and “Egypt, stop violence against journalists,” the RSF activists brandished posters showing...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has posted a provisional tally of cases of abuses against journalists and media since the start of the violence on February 2, above all in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The tally is far from final or definitive. Additional cases keep on being reported and it is very difficult to compile a comprehensive inventory of the situation. It will be...

Ecuadoran authorities interrupted a news program critical of the Ecuadoran government on Monday to air an official rebuttal, a practice that has become standard in the administration of President Rafael Correa, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ called on Ecuadoran authorities to stop this practice, which has a chilling effect on public discourse. Last week during...

The European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday banned Ukrainian President Alexander Lukashenko and 157 other Belarusian officials from visiting the EU and extended an existing asset freeze in response to the detention of 37 opposition figures and government critics since a disputed presidential election on December 19, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

Egyptian authorities have taken unprecedented measures to block media coverage of widespread protests against the government, which are on their fourth day. Cairo's news blackout has been widely condemned and authorities have been urged to immediately restore Internet and mobile phone services, end the targeting of the press, and allow media to conduct their work freely. Since Tuesday, Egypt has...