State Persecution

Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakkol Karman was released Monday, two days after her arbitrary arrest in Sana'a. Charged with “inciting disorder and chaos” and organizing unauthorised demonstrations and marches, she was freed on condition that she does not violate “public order and the law” again. Karman has been a leading figure in a three-week-old wave of protests demanding political reform in...

A violent raid was carried out by Turkish police late last year on the offices of a far-left Turkish weekly following which five people were held, according to delayed reports received by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The raid took place on the offices of Yürüyüs and was described officially as an operation to arrest a member of a terrorist organisation. It has...

Fahem Boukadous, a correspondent for the satellite TV station El Hiwar Ettounsi, has been released after 189 days in detention, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He had been serving a four-year jail sentence for allegedly participating in protests in the Gafsa mining region, 350 km south of Tunis, in 2008. Originally imposed in his absence, the sentence...

The police in Zambia have detained two journalists working for an independent newspaper and a local radio, apparently because of their displeasure at their coverage of a secessionist movement in the west of the country, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Mwala Kalaluka, of the daily The Post, was detained on January 17 after he had reported on events last...

Leading Afghan journalist Hojatullah Mujadadi was acquitted Wednesday at the end of a two-day trial on a trumped-up charge of abetting insurgents, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). A former National Radio reporter who now runs Radio Kapisa FM, a station based in the northeastern province of Kapisa, Mujadadi was arrested by the National Directorate of...

A sentence of five years in prison followed by two years of house arrest has been passed by a Sana'a court specialising in terrorism cases passed on Ilah Haydar Shae, a reporter employed by the Saba news agency, for allegedly collaborating with Al-Qaeda, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The Yemeni authorities have used the pretext of combating...

Authorities in Belarus have closed down a radio station, arrested a journalist and searched the homes of others in the latest chapter of repression of the media in the country, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). These reprisals follow the inquiry launched by the KGB into the demonstration that took place in the center of Minsk on December 19 after it had...

State security agents on Thursday last ransacked Teranga FM, a community radio station located outside the capital, and ordered its closure, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has learned from various sources. “We condemn such brutal methods and urge the government to explain this incident at once,” RSF said. “We also call for the station to be reopened. Independent...

Police in Kampala arrested the director and editor of the monthly newsmagazine Summit Business Review on Tuesday in connection with a caricature of President Yoweri Museveni that appeared on the cover of the October issue. Director Samuel Sejjaaka and Editor Mustapha Mugisha were released on bond but face continued interrogations, Sejjaaka told New York-based press freedom group Committee to...

Journalist Necmettin Çapa was expelled Tuesday by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (a de facto state recognised only by Turkey). A Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin who has lived in Northern Cyprus since 1991, Çapa was deported to Turkey together with his entire family, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The Turkish Cypriot police began by raiding...