State Persecution

On March 31, in the commercial city of Abidjan, Judge Aissata Koné convicted Op-Ed Editor Nanankoua Gnamenteh and Managing Editor Eddy Péhé of private weekly Le Repère of charges of "offending the head of state" over an article in early March that was critical of President Laurent Gbagbo, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local media reports. Koné sentenced Gnamanteh...

Detained Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been with espionage by the Iranian government. Hassan Haddad, deputy public prosecutor, told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that Saberi "without press credentials and under the name of being a reporter, was carrying out espionage activities." In its report, published Wednesday, ISNA quoted the prosecutor as saying that "she has been...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Moldovan authorities to allow Romanian journalists to enter Moldova and report on anti-communist rallies that have swept Moldova's capital, Chisinau, since Monday. Approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest Sunday's parliamentary election, which was won by President Vladimir Voronin's Communist Party. Nineteen...

Police in the western city of Kaliningrad should drop trumped-up bribery charges against Arseny Makhlov, the founder of the independent weekly Dvornik, and allow him to work without fear of harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Makhlov was arrested and charged on Monday after Dvornik published articles on corruption in the building industry that implicated local...

Pierre Haski, the editor of the French news website Rue89, and one of his reporters, Augustin Scalbert, have been summoned for questioning by an anti-crime unit, the BRDP, in connection with a video of President Nicolas Sarkozy talking informally to TV studio staff before an interview without realising he was being recorded, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We condemn this escalation...

The father of imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi says he and his wife are making plans to go to Iran to see her in a couple of days. "I'm hoping if she sees us, it will lift her spirits," Reza Saberi said told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The AP report said: [ Link] The Iranian government has said Roxana Saberi was imprisoned for doing reporting work in the country after her press...

The junta in Mauritania must immediately halt its increasing persecution of critical journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. On March 15, police arrested Abbass Ould Braham, a journalist with the independent news Web site Taqadoumy, ‎in a Nouakchott cafe after he wrote an article critical of military rule, a local journalist told CPJ. Taqadoumy was blocked until March...

Cote d’Ivoire authorities on Thursday last abruptly jailed a journalist who was scheduled to appear in court next week on libel charges related to a column critical of the government, according to local journalists and press reports. The imprisonment appeared to violate the 2004 Ivorian press law, which decriminalised press offences and banned pretrial detention of journalists, the Committee to...

Mauritanian writer and journalist Abou Abbass Ould Braham, the editor of the news website Taqadoumy, was released on March 18 after being held for three days in the Mauritanian capital and that the website was allowed to reopen 24 hours after the Nouakchott prosecutor’s office ordered its closure, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The closure of a website and the arrest of one of its...

A Bujumbura court has acquitted Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, the editor of the Net Press news website, of defaming President Pierre Nkurunziza, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He had been held since September 11 last in pre-trial detention in Mpimba central prison as a result of a complaint brought by the government secretary-general. The complaint was prompted by a report claiming that...