State Persecution

Leaders of the world’s press have called on African governments "as a matter of urgency" to abolish all laws that restrict press freedom, and have pledged to increase "aggressive and persistent campaigning against press freedom violations and restrictions in Africa." The Declaration of Table Mountain, approved on the eve of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Cape Town, calls...

(FNJ/IFEX) - On 29 May 2007, Daya Ram Dahal, a Jhapa district-based journalist with "Janaganatantra Daily" and "Janabidroha Radio", was arrested by Indian security personnel at Mechi Bridge. The bridge connects India and Jhapa district in eastern Nepal. Dahal was detained as he was reporting Bhutanese refugees' "long march" to their homeland via India. The Indian government has filed a writ...

(RSF/IFEX) - Madrid investigating judge Santiago Pedraz announced on 24 May 2007 that he has rejected an appeal by the prosecutor’s office against his decision to indict three US soldiers for the murder of Spanish cameraman José Couso, who was killed when a US tank shelled the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003. Prosecutor Jesús Alonso had appealed against the indictment on the grounds...

Cable operators in Pakistan have decided to block transmissions of television channels broadcasting negative programmes against the "solidarity of Pakistan, armed forces and the judiciary." The Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (CAP) Saturday announced that it could not become a party to the "campaign of TV channels." The chairman of the association, Khalid Shaikh, said cable operators were...

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iranian authorities to drop criminal charges against an Iranian-American journalist working for U.S.-backed Radio Farda, to return the journalist’s seized passport, and to allow her to travel freely. On May 15, the Special Security Bureau of the Revolutionary Court Public Prosecutor’s office charged Parnaz Azima with disseminating propaganda...

Hazaribagh, May 23: Believe it or not, some journalists are backing Maoists in the state. At least the police believe so. Arrest of Jahoor Ansari, a dreaded extremist, has turned the suspicion of the force into belief. Ansari disclosed to the police the name of a journalist, who used to help him in several ways — right from collecting levy to providing information related to movement of the police...

Reporters Without Borders today deplored a two-year prison sentence imposed on a provincial newspaper journalist, as well as the closure of a weekly paper and a ban on two journalists from leaving the country. “The Iranian press and its journalists continue to be the victims of injustice and four are currently in prison,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “Many are hounded at their...

The Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew a television broadcasting license is being seen as a serious setback for freedom of expression in Venezuela. Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), the country’s oldest private channel, will have to close shop when its licence expires on May 27, 2007. President Hugo Chávez has repeatedly threatened to cancel RCTV’s licence ever since he accused it of...

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association called today for the immediate release of U Aung Shwe Oo and Daw Sint Sint Aung, two Burmese journalists working for the Japanese television news agency, Nippon News Network (NNN), who were arrested on 21 May when they went to a port near Rangoon to confirm the arrival of a North Korean ship. "The arrest of these two Burmese journalists...

Israeli army Tuesday conducted raids on five Palestinian radio and TV stations in West Bank city Nablus, according to news reports. Some of the stations have stopped broadcasting because the soldiers removed the necessary equipment. “There was no justification for these raids and, even less so, for the confiscation of transmitting equipment from these stations,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...