State Persecution

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of the Zimbabwean On Sunday newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of May 24 and a freelance reporter was attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare. “These attacks must not remain unpunished,” Paris-based RSF said. “Since the March 29 general...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed concern over the decision ot Chinese authorities to suspend publication of a magazine and forced the dismissal of its editorial staff over coverage of last week's earthquake in Sichuan province. New Travel Weekly, published in Chongqing, was reportedly suspended from publishing on May 20 after failing to carry mourning messages in the...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has voiced concern about the danger of continuing to detain journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand after he suffered an attack of dizziness Monday in his cell in Tehran’s Evin prison. He has been held since last July and his family is unable to raise the money for his bail, set at 150 million toumen (145,000 euros). “There seems to be no limit to the persecution of...

An Afghan journalist who faces the death penalty for blasphemy has begun his appeal hearings without a defence lawyer. Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, 23, on Sunday denied charges and said an earlier confession that prompted a court to sentence him to death in January had been extracted under torture, news reports have said. The charges against Kambakhsh relate to an article he downloaded from the...

There's renewed international concern for Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, a young Afghan journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy. The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders is urging the Afghan government to cooperate with the lawyer of Kambakhsh, who remains jailed in Kabul awaiting an appeal hearing, Radio Free Europe / Radoi Liberty (RFE/RL) has reported. Nearly two months have passed since...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the definitive release of journalist and human rights activist Emadoldin Baghi who suffered a heart attack in his cell at Tehran’s Evin prison, after being returned there on April 15 following a temporary release for health reasons. “We urge the Iranian authorities to act now to avoid putting the journalist’s life at risk,” Paris-based RSF said. “He...

An Egyptian television agency boss was charged by a Cairo court Monday over helping to broadcast images of protesters tearing down portraits of President Hosni Mubarak during deadly food riots in April, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. Nader Gohar, who owns the Cairo News Company, was charged with not having a licence to provide satellite feed facilities to foreign channels following a...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemns a decision by Chinese authorities to place a journalist known by the name of Naranbilig under house arrest for a year after holding him for 20 days in Inner Mongolia. It also condemned the May 3 arrest of writer Zhou Yuanzhi, who may now be charged with “inciting subversion of state authority” as many other Chinese intellectuals and dissidents have...

The US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp is the worst prison ever, Sudanese al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj who was released from the prison days ago said Monday, according to a Xinhua report. In a speech broadcast live on Sudanese television, ai-Haj, who returned to Sudan on Friday, said he spent 2,340 days in the "most heinous prison mankind has ever known," and that jailers there insulted...

Police in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have detained a journalist and three support staffers of a private entertainment magazine since May 2. Local journalists say the detentions are related to a cover story about the high-profile trial of Ethiopia’s most popular pop singer, Tewodros Kassahun. Deputy Editor and owner Alemayehu Mahtemework and the three media workers from the monthly Enku...