State Persecution

Algerian newspaper El Khabar has topped Arab newspapers in distribution rates. The newspaper's distribution estimations exceeded 600.000 copies a day, despite its short life (the paper has only been published for eighteen years), and the huge number of lawsuits which have been aimed at its editors and reporters over the years, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has said. The...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the state security court to withdraw its case against Fayez al-Ajrashi, editor-in-chief of privately-owned weekly El-Ekhbariya. Al-Ajrashi, who was released from Al-Juweida prison (15 km south of Amman) on November 2 after paying 3,000 dinars (approx 3,300 euros) in bail. Al-Ajrashi is still facing charges of "inflaming sectarian strife" and "sowing...

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has denounced the prosecution of Nizar Al-Abadi, an Iraqi journalist who has been living in Yemen since 1991. ANHRI has also condemned the actions of the public prosecutor, the press and publishers who are acting on behalf of the state security forces against journalists working within the law and the regulations of their profession. Al-Abadi...

A Damascus appeal court judge on Sunday overturned a criminal court's refusal in August to release imprisoned writer and journalist Michel Kilo on completion of three-quarters of a three-year sentence, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. However, Kilo has not been freed and the attorney general of the Damascus prosecutor's office on Tuesday appealed against the decision "in the interests...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Zakari Alzouma, the editor the independent weekly Opinions, who has been detained since October 30 in Niamey as a result of a libel complaint by the interior minister and whose case will not be heard for another week. “Niger’s legislation on press offences comes in handy for a government that does not want to give up its bad habits,”...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Tuesday condemned Nigeria's arrest of online journalist Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, a US national, at the Muritala Muhammed international airport on his arrival from the United States on October 28 to visit his sick mother and attend to family matters. He is currently being held at the headquarters of the internal intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS)...

Twelve prominent human rights activists, including three leading journalists, who advocate for reform in Syria have been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The leaders of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change—the largest opposition coalition in Syria—were sentenced on October 29 under criminal legislation that prohibits “spreading false news” and “weakening national sentiment”...

An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge has convicted an editor on criminal charges of "inciting the public through false rumors" over a reporting mistake, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday. Charged under article 486 of the...

The Tunisian government has seized the latest issue of an opposition newspaper and to summon an independent editor to appear before a public prosecutor, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The Interior Ministry seized the October 22 issue of Mouatinoun, the weekly newspaper of the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties party, for “publishing unlawful allegations,” said...

Jonathan Elendu, publisher of online newspaper Elendu Reports (elendureports.com), has been detained in Nigeria since October 17, when he was arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) on arrival at Nnamdi Azikiwe international airport, in the capital Abuja, on a flight from the United States, where he lives. Denying that Elendu had been arrested, SSS spokesman Kenechuks Onyegogu said he had...