State Persecution

A British journalist was deported from Zimbabwe on Thursday after being detained for eight nights and fined 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (about $250), Reuters reported quoting his newspaper. Jonathan Clayton, a correspondent for the Times, was arrested in the southern city of Bulawayo in the aftermath of elections last month. The Times said Clayton had been cleared of the initial charges of...

Police in Somalia raided and closed an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, arresting five journalists, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. "A dozen of policemen aboard minibus entered the building and they arrested five of my colleagues including the editor," said Omar Habeb, a producer at Radio Voice of Peace. Mohamed Ali Irole, the radio station's director, said...

A young Afghan journalist, sentenced to death in January for spreading feminist criticism of Islam, has been granted an appeal, according to one of the international organizations monitoring his case, Bloomberg News has reported. Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, 23, was transferred on March 28 from prison in the remote province of Balkh, in northern Afghanistan, to capital Kabul, according to Jean...

A court in Zimbabwe on Wednesday acquitted a US journalist and a British freelancer of covering the country's March 29 elections without accreditation, saying the state had failed to prove the offence and ordered them to be released, news agencies have reported. Magistrate Gloria Takundwa said the state's evidence against New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak and Britain's Stephen Bevan, a...

An award-winning Iranian journalist was due to return to prison on Tuesday after being allowed three months' leave because of illness, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting his lawyer. The return to jail of Emadeddin Baghi, who heads a prisoners' rights group and has openly campaigned against the death penalty in Iran, came just a week after he was awarded a major journalism prize in...

Two South African satellite engineers, held in Zimbabwe on several charges, including violating the country’s draconian media accreditation laws, were acquitted Monday. New York Times reporter Barry Bearak and British freelancer Stephen Bevan are due to appear in court on Wednesday in a similar case. “We welcome the acquittal of our colleagues Sipho Moses Maseko and Abdulla Ismail Gaibee,” said...

The United States military said Monday that it would release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein who has been jailed in Iraq without trial for two years on accusations of terrorism and kidnapping. The US military initially said it had more than enough evidence to hold him under a UN mandate, but on Monday, Maj Gen Douglas Stone, deputy commanding general for detainee operations, signed the...

An American freelance journalist detained over his coverage of recent riots said Friday last he had been released, while authorities announced at least nine Egyptian journalists were being held, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. James Buck and his Egyptian translator were among several taken into custody in Mahalla el-Kobra, a northern industrial city where protests over high prices...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at the detention and deportation from Havana of Camagüey-based independent journalist Ernesto Corría Cabrera this week. Corría Cabrera, a reporter for the Miami-based press agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, told New york-based CPJ that he travelled from his home in the eastern city of Camagüey to Havana on Saturday to print the news...

Two South African technicians were back in a Harare court on Wednesday to face charges of contravening Zimbabwe's media laws, the South African Press Associaiton (SAPA) has reported. Abdulla Gaibee and Sipho Maseko were granted bail of 200-million Zim dollars on Monday but were only released from police custody on Tuesday as they were unable to immediately pay the amount, said Ebrahim Gaibee...