State Persecution

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have welcomed the release of Saw Myint Than, the former chief correspondent of Flower News Journal, a privately-owned magazine. He was held for seven weeks without being tried and without having any chance to defend himself. “We are relieved by Saw Myint Than’s release, just a few weeks after the release of U Win Tin, Burma’s...

An Afghan appeals court has sentenced journalist Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh to 20 years in prison for blasphemy overturning a death sentence ordered by a provincial court. Kambakhsh was accused of printing and distributing an article from the Internet about Islam and women’s rights, on which he had written some comments about the prophet Mohammed’s failings on that issue. "The court has sentenced...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned an Egyptian court’s decision on Saturday to levy steep fines against an editor and reporter for an independent weekly that published a satirical piece about a prominent cleric. A criminal court in Al-Geeza ordered El-Fegr editor Adel Hammouda and writer Mohamed al-Baz to pay fines of 80,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,341) apiece on charges that...

Dominique Makeli, a former reporter with state-owned Radio Rwanda who had held since 1994 on a vague, genocide-related charge, has been released, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Makeli’s release on October 13 was a result of his acquittal by a gacaca (popular tribunal) in the Kigali district of Nyarugenge on October 5. Detained since September 18, 1994, he had been transferred from...

The lawyer of Afghan reporter Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh sentenced to death on blasphemy charges accused authorities Thursday of holding his client beyond a legal deadline, as the young man neared a full year in detention, says an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. The appeal of Kambakhsh -- arrested last October and sentenced to death by a primary court in January -- has been repeatedly delayed...

The International Press Institute (IPI) has expressed concern at the Slovenian government’s use of diplomatic pressure in response to corruption allegations made in an episode of the Finnish investigative documentary "MOT". According to IPI, the Slovenian government has been using diplomatic channels to exert pressure on the Finnish government following the broadcast on September 1, 2008 of an...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is asking for the judge to show clemency for journalist Jason Nicholas, independent photographer for the New York Post, currently in jail in Rikers Island, New York for parole violation. Jason Nicholas is scheduled for another parole hearing in front of an administrative judge on October 15. He was one of over 40 journalists arrested while covering the Republican...

A Hanoi court has convicted two journalists of "abusing democratic freedoms" for their reporting on a corruption scandal in the country's transportation ministry. The court Wednesday sentenced journalists Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, to two years in prison, and Nguyen Van Hai, 33, to one year on probation. Chien was convicted of "abusing freedom and democracy" at the end of a two-day trial at the Hanoi...

Prosecutors on Tuesday sought a jail sentence of up to two and a half years for a Vietnamese journalist on trial for allegedly writing inaccurate stories about one of the country's most high-profile corruption cases, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Reporter Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, was charged with "abusing freedom and democracy." Another reporter, Nguyen Van Hai, 33, is facing the same...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the "unacceptable silence" of the Israeli authorities about Syrian journalist Ata Farahat, who has been held in custody for more than a year without any explanation. The Israeli media has been banned by court order from publishing news about the trial of the journalist, a correspondent for the Syrian daily Al-Watan and for Syrian public television, who...