State Persecution

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the authorities of Niger to release editor, Aboubacar Gourouza, charged with libeling a political leader and for contempt of court. “We can’t understand why the authorities in Niger have decided to persecute the journalists at this point,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office. “It is wrong for journalists to be...

The government of Niger has refused to provide Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) secretary-general Robert Ménard with a visa for a trip he was to have made to Niamey to participate from there in a special day of solidarity with the organisation’s imprisoned correspondent, Moussa Kaka, which Radio France Internationale is organising on March 10. After submitting a visa application to Niger’s embassy...

The last fortnight has been a mix of good and bad news for journalists in Iran. Maybe, more of the latter. Abolfazl Abedini Nasr of the weekly Bahar Khozestan was released on February 18, followed by that of Said Matinpour, a contributor to the weekly Yarpagh, eight days later. That's where the good streak ended. Prison sentences were passed two days ago on journalists Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee and...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has protested at the arrest two days ago of Aboubacar Gourouza, editor of the independent bi-monthly L’Eveil Plus, by judicial police in Niger's capital Niamey in connection with two articles, one relating to an alleged plot against the former prime minister. He was brought to court Thursday, after being held by Niamey police, charged with “defamation” and “contempt...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is very worried about imprisoned journalist Slim Boukhdir’s state of health after he staged an eight-day hunger strike in protest against the conditions in which he is being held. Arrested on November 26, the Al-Arabiya website’s correspondent is serving a one-year sentence in Sfax prison (230 km south of Tunis). “Preventing a prisoner from seeing his family or...

The Zimbabwean government is cracking down on independent media with barely one month to go before presidential elections on March 29. Journalists have been arrested, summoned and ordered to reveal sources, charged with “publication of false news” and newspapers threatened with closure if they fail to comply, in an upsurge of harassment that seriously threatens press freedom ahead of polling,”...

Security guards at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow continued to hold Natalya Morar and her husband Ilya Barabanov, both reporters with the independent newsweekly the New Times, for a second consecutive day, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Authorities have denied Morar access to her lawyer while pressuring her to buy a return ticket to her native...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the Moroccan Supreme Court’s decision to reject an appeal by journalist Mustapha Hurmatallah and to force him to complete a seven-month jail sentence in connection with his story in Al-Watan Al-An newspaper that published extracts from internal government documents on security and terrorism. “We are outraged by this decision from...

The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have called on China to immediately release three journalists who are being held in violation of Chinese laws against lengthy detentions without trial. The journalists — two reporters and a photographer — were arrested in June 2007 after reporting on a case of corruption in the Communist Party. Chinese authorities failed to release them...

The World Association of Newspapers has welcomed the release from prison of Chinese journalist Li Changqing, the laureate of the 2008 WAN Golden Pen of Freedom, and called on Chinese authorities to release all imprisoned journalists before the Olympic Games in Beijing next summer. Li, who was jailed three years ago for alerting the public to an outbreak of dengue fever before the authorities had...