State Persecution

At a demonstration close to the Burmese embassy in Paris on 27 September 2007, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association launched an appeal to the UN Security Council to stop the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations within the country. The actor Jane Birkin also joined the rally to condemn the brutal policies of the Burmese regime towards the democracy movement and the...

There have been 24 serious violations of the freedom to report news and information against Burmese journalists trying to cover protests that began a month ago. The use of violence and censorship against journalists is a “detestable strategy” aimed at preventing them from doing their job, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association have said. This strategy has been accompanied...

The Burmese junta has cut off the mobile phones of prominent pro-democracy supporters and of some journalists representing foreign media, including two from Agence France-Presse, the news agency has reported. The management of AFP has requested that the authorities in Burma (Myanmar) restore mobile phone service to its reporters so that they can carry out their work. Burma's military government...

A Chinese researcher for the New York Times who was arrested on charges of revealing state secrets and later convicted of fraud was released Saturday after serving a three-year prison sentence. On Saturday morning, Zhao Yan was greeted by family members and friends as he left a Beijing detention centre. He hugged his sister, daughter and others but said nothing to reporters. He later issued a...

A Cairo court has sentenced four independent editors to one-year jail terms for publishing “false information.” Editors Ibrahim Eissa of the daily Al-Dustour, Wael al-Abrashy of the weekly Sawt al-Umm, Adel Hammouda of the weekly Al-Fajr, and Abdel Halim Kandil, former editor of the weekly Al-Karama were convicted Thursday of “publishing false information likely to disturb public order” in a case...

A Cairo court has sentenced four independent editors to one-year jail terms for publishing “false information.” Editors Ibrahim Eissa of the daily Al-Dustour, Wael al-Abrashy of the weekly Sawt al-Umm, Adel Hammouda of the weekly Al-Fajr, and Abdel Halim Kandil, former editor of the weekly Al-Karama were convicted Thursday of “publishing false information likely to disturb public order” in a case...

Chinese journalist Zhao Yan may be released on September 15 when he completes a three-year prison sentence for alleged fraud. Despite the many appeals for his release in the past, his sentence was never reduced and he was never granted early release. “After serving his three-year sentence in full, first in a state security centre and then a prison, Zhao should have all his rights restored...

A newspaper editor will be go on trial over his paper's recent reports questioning the health of Egypt's 79-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent daily Al-Dustor, was questioned last week for printing the rumours and released without bail, but the general prosecutor decided Tuesday to send the case to trial, the MENA news agency reported. Eissa's trial on...

Indonesia's supreme court has ordered Time Asia to pay former President Suharto 1 billion rupees (106 million dollars) in damages for a 1999 cover story accusing him of corruption. A spokesman for the court said it concluded that the story in Time’s Asia edition had damaged the former dictator’s "reputation and honour." Time Asia’s Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, Tuesday said he would try...

Bangladesh's first and only 24-hour news channel has gone off air days after broadcasting last month’s student-led anti-government riots. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission told the CSB News station it would be permanently closed if it fails to satisfactorily explain its registration status in seven days, said Hummam Quader Chowdhury, director of Focus Mult, the company that...