State Persecution

The government of Swaziland has banned the daily live transmission of the BBC Focus on Africa programme after one of the news clips, broadcast on the English channel of the state radio, Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS), was critical of the government. The programme, broadcast daily in the mornings, mid-day and evenings, has been off air for the past week. The state radio has...

Seven journalists covering the conflict in Libya are unaccounted for, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which expressed deep concern about their well-being. The most recent to go missing is Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a correspondent for London's Guardian newspaper, whose disappearance was reported today. Also, on Wednesday, three BBC journalists recounted a harrowing 21 hours...

A reporter has been sentenced to a year in prison in Angola and several media and journalists have been threatened, roughed up or censored in the past two weeks, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “It is a disgrace for Angola that a journalist has been given a jail sentence for an alleged case of defamation that has not been proved,” RSF said. “We call...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has collated an overview of the acts of violence against journalists and other media freedom violations that have taken place in the pasts few days in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The countries concerned are Libya, Algeria, three Gulf states (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar), Yemen, Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan) and Syria...

Zahid Hussein, a cameraman working for Express News TV, was injured in the head and arms by police officers in Peshawar while filming a violent crackdown by security forces after a clash between two armed groups on Friday last, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF said it was alarmed by the frequency with which the police are allowed to get out of...

Cuban authorities have released journalist Pedro Argüelles Morán. Argüelles Morán was the last of 29 reporters arrested during a 2003 massive government crackdown on dissent to be allowed to leave jail Friday on parole, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Friday afternoon, Argüelles Morán's wife, Yolanda Vera Nerey, and a Catholic Church...

The 6th Judicial Circuit Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice in Liberia has denied a motion for retrial filed by legal counsellors representing the Frontpage Africa newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Rodney Sieh, in a US$2 million libel suit filed by former agriculture minister Chris Toe. In his final ruling on February 23, Judge Yussif Kaba said the court is of the opinion that the jury...

Harare Magistrate Don Ndirowei removed from remand and granted an application for referral to the Supreme Court submitted by The Standard journalists Nevanji Madanhire and Nqobani Ndlovu after the state failed to oppose the application on February 28. Madanhire, who is the editor of The Standard, and Ndlovu, a reporter for the paper, are being charged under Section 31 of the Criminal Law...

Prison terms of more than 204 years in total were the verdicts for 25 defendants who attended a demonstration in October 2008. Journalist Vedat Yilidiz from the Dicle News Agency (DIHA) and Guneydogu Ekspres (South-east Express) newspaper reporter Lokman Dayan were among those convicted in a hearing which took place on February 24. Yilidiz and Dayan were attending the protest march on assignment...

The group of nine newspapers supporting Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised President of Cote d'Ivoire, began an indefinite suspension of their publications on March 1 to protest against constant harassment and intimidation by pro-Gbagbo forces. The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that what prompted the action of the newspapers was the suspension of...