State Persecution

Three journalistswho had been arrested in the past few days by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan police have been released. Their release was requested by President Hamid Karzai, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) reported. “We are extremely relieved that these three arrests, which we had described as a serious mistake, have...

NATO forces have freed one of three detained Afghan Al-Jazeera journalists, AP and other media outlets announced on Friday. The three had been detained on suspicion of spreading Taliban propaganda, by among other things filming insurgent attacks. Two still remain in custody. Al-Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Nadir was released early on Friday, AP reported. IPI and other press freedom organisations had...

The arbitrary detention of Yemeni journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was extended Wednesday by a special court responsible for trying cases of endangering state security, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. The court ordered he remain a further 30 days in custody officially in response to the requirements of the police investigation. The journalist was arrested at...

Two Afghan journalists were seized by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in early-morning raids at their homes this week, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Rahmatullah Nekzad, a freelancer who contributes to Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press,was arrested just after midnight Monday in Ghazni, according to local and international media reports...

Three Afghan journalists based in the provinces have been arrested in separate cases in the past four days because of their coverage of the parliamentary elections or for having contact with the Taliban, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager and head of a journalists’ association, was arrested by police in the...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm at Iran's continued persecution of independent journalists. Reporters Shiva Nazar Ahari and Emadeddin Baghi have each been sentenced to six years in prison, while authorities are said to be considering the death penalty for blogger Hossein Derakhshan, according to news reports. On Saturday, Iranian authorities sentenced Nazar Ahari, a...

Chinese investigative journalist Xie Chaoping was released on bail in Weinan (in Shaanxi province) on September 17 for lack of evidence. After being held for 29 days for writing a book about the Sanmenxia Dam titled The Great Migration, he has been able to return to Beijing. “Xie’s release is excellent news but now he must he now be quickly cleared of the charges of illegal commercial activity...

Tension is brewing between Kurdistan’s ruling parties and security forces, on the one hand, and its journalists and news media, on the other. Magazine editor Hemn Karim’s detention for more than 24 hours during the weekend and a spate of libel actions are the latest examples of this fraught climate. A wave of defamation suits seems to be eroding press freedom, especially as they often are being...

News Corp's Australian arm agreed to sell its Fiji Times newspaper to a local owner, likely ending a dispute with the Fijian government over media ownership, the Wall Street Journal has reported. News Ltd said Tuesday it agreed to sell the newspaper to Motibhai & Co, after the Fijian government issued a decree that the nation's media groups be owned by Fijian companies. Terms of the sale weren't...

Human rights reporter Azimjon Askarov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Jalal-Abad region, southern Kyrgyzstan, on Wednesday, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Nurgazy Alimbayev pronounced Askarov guilty on a wide range of charges, including complicity to commit homicide and murder of a police officer (two separate counts...