State Persecution

Hamas militiamen Monday prevented distribution of three Fatah-affiliated newspapers in the Gaza Strip and briefly detained the local agents of the dailies. This is the first time that the newspapers published in the West Bank were prevented from being distributed in the Gaza Strip, according to reports. Palestinian journalists said thousands of copies from the three newspapers were seized by Hamas...

Reporters Without Borders condemned judicial harassment of the Arabic-language daily “Al Watan Al An” on 24 July 2007, after the Casablanca prosecutor’s office released its editor, Abderrahim Ariri, but sent one of his reporters, Mostapha Hurmatallah, to Okacha prison pending trial. Arrested on 17 July after publishing a leaked internal security memo, both have been charged with “receiving...

Authorities in Iran's northwestern Kurdistan Province have condemned two ethnic Kurdish journalists to death for acting against the country's national security, according to delayed reports. Journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar were sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on July 16. Hassanpour worked for the magazine...

RSF condemns the 20 July 2007 seizure order by Judge Juan del Olmo of an issue of the satirical weekly magazine "El Jueves". The issue carries a cartoon on the cover of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia having sex. The judge said the cartoon may have violated Article 490.3 of the Criminal Code, which punishes "insults" to the royal family by up to two years imprisonment, and also Article...

On 19 July 2007, police in Lusaka prevented Q-FM, a private radio station, from mounting their Outside Broadcasting (OB) equipment to cover live a demonstration organised by the OASIS forum and Collaborative Group on the Constitution, outside the gates of Parliament. Police said that the permit issued to the conveners of the demonstration did not include mounting the OB unit for live coverage of...

Reporters Without Borders voiced relief on learning that, on 20 July 2007, the Ethiopian government heeded international pleas and pardoned 38 opposition members, including four journalists, who had been given jail terms ranging from six months to life on 16 July. The four journalists to receive pardons were: "Ethiop" editor Andualem Ayele, "Abay" editor Mesfin Tesfaye, "Asqual" editor Wonakseged...

The resumption of broadcasting by Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) on cable and satellite on 16 July 2007 has been followed by an announcement by information and communication minister William Lara that the law will amended to oblige pay-TV cable and satellite broadcasters to carry the same occasional government programming that terrestrial broadcasters are already obliged to transmit. The system...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of Abderrahim Ariri, the publisher of the weekly Al Watan Al An (The Nation Now), and one of his journalists, Mostapha Hurmatallah, yesterday in Casablanca after they published the text of an internal security memo circulated by the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), an intelligence agency. “It is wrong to arrest these two...

Ethiopia’s High Court has handed down harsh criminal penalties, including life prison sentences, to six journalists and three publishers on anti-state charges in connection with critical coverage of the government during the deadly unrest in the aftermath of disputed parliamentary elections in 2005, according to local journalists. At least 200 people Monday packed the courtroom in the capital...

Reporters Without Borders appealed for the release of Michel Kilo, Muhened Abdulrahman and Habib Saleh today, on the eve of President Bashar Al-Assad’s swearing-in tomorrow for a second seven-year term. “Assad’s first term as president was marked by many arrests of Syrian journalists and activists,” the press freedom organisation said. “The state of emergency that has been in effect since 1963 is...