State Persecution

The press freedom scene is worsening in Sudan, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The country is already hostile to the work of journalists and seizures of journals and arrests of media professionals yesterday in connection with popular demonstrations raise fears of a major return of repression. “We condemn the wish of the Khartoum government to censor...

The European Union’s foreign ministers on Monday banned Ukrainian President Alexander Lukashenko and 157 other Belarusian officials from visiting the EU and extended an existing asset freeze in response to the detention of 37 opposition figures and government critics since a disputed presidential election on December 19, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

Egyptian authorities have taken unprecedented measures to block media coverage of widespread protests against the government, which are on their fourth day. Cairo's news blackout has been widely condemned and authorities have been urged to immediately restore Internet and mobile phone services, end the targeting of the press, and allow media to conduct their work freely. Since Tuesday, Egypt has...

Two newspaper journalists based in the eastern city of Port Sudan have been accused of trying to overthrow the constitution, a charge punishable by hanging, just for raising the possibility of eastern Sudan’s secession in an article, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The press freedom organization calls on the judicial authorities to see reason. It is...

The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) announced that in the coming weeks it will present a report to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) about press freedom violations in the country, AFP reports. In recent months, two newspapers have alleged persecution at the hands of President Daniel Ortega, while an opposition TV network went off the the air several days ago. From the...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against writer Ahmet Altan and Taraf newspaper. According to IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET), the prime minister recently launched a case against the Beyoglu Troupe of Actors and prior to that, against writers Ataol Behramoglu and Oktay Eksi. Erdogan is now claiming TL50,000 (€ 25,000) in compensation from Altan and Taraf, on...

The Mae Sot Immigration office in Thailand freed John San Lin, a Burmese freelance journalist, and his colleague Pascal Schatterman, a Belgian national, on the evening of January 24, after they paid a fine of THB500 (US$16). The pair were fined for violating the Immigration Act and were released soon after, John San Lin told Mizzima. They were detained on January 20 in Mae Sot after returning to...

Sudanese authorities harassed, obstructed, and censored local and international news media covering this month's referendum concerning independence for South Sudan, a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) analysis has found. South Sudanese cast ballots from January 9 through 15. Preliminary results show overwhelming approval for independence, although ballot-counting irregularities have been...

There has been a wave of harassment of news media and journalists critical of a proposed referendum that would allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled since 1989, to continue in office until 2020 without having to run for reelection in 2012, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “This attempt to perpetuate a dictatorial regime in flagrant...

A three-year jail sentence and a fine of 6 million Somaliland shillings (around 1,000 dollars) has been imposed by a court in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway northwestern territory of Somaliland, on Mohamud Abdi Jama, the editor of the independent newspaper Waheen, for allegedly libelling local officials. “This sentence (on Sunday) has all the hallmarks of summary and punitive justice,”...