State Persecution

Voice of America correspondent Abdulmalik Boboyev, one of Uzbekistan’s few independent journalists, is facing between five and eight years in prison on four charges that Tashkent prosecutors brought against him on September 13, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Three of the charges relate to his work as a journalist: “defamation” (article 130 of the...

Award-winning Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque has been refused entry to Britain. Duque was invited by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to give a speech about her work in upholding human rights. The UK government had previously praised her work exposing human rights abuses in Colombia. Both NUJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have condemned the decision. NUJ...

Madagascar has released on conditions ten Radio Fahazavana employees who have been in pre-trial detention since May 27. Broadcasts of another radio station, Radio Mahafaly, have however been suspended until further notice. The 10 Radio Fahazavana employees who were released on September 8 are editor-in-chief Josiane Ranaivo, five of the station's other journalists (Lolo Ratsimba, Jaona Raôly...

Iranian free speech defender Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer who has represented many imprisoned journalists, has now herself been arrested. She was arrested on September 5 on charges of anti-government propaganda and conspiring against the regime after responding to a summons from a revolutionary court prosecutor's office located inside Tehran's Evin prison. “Nasrin Sotoudeh has for the past year been...

China's colossal Sanmenxia dam has a new victim – Xie Chaoping, a journalist who was arrested without a warrant in the northeastern city of Weinan on August 19 after writing a book about the fate of those displaced by the dam, according to delayed reports. He is now reportedly being held by the Public Security Department in Beijing. Much has been written about this dam, a major source of...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at an Indonesian Supreme Court ruling against Erwin Arnada, editor of the now-dormant Playboy Indonesia. Arnada faces up to two years in jail after prosecutors said recently that they would enforce a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that found the magazine's editor guilty of public indecency, according to news reports. Defence attorneys...

A prominent opposition journalist is to go on trial for allegedly libelling Egypt's foreign minister in a newspaper, a judicial source said on Sunday. Hamdi Qandeel could face prison or a fine if found guilty of the charge of "insulting and libelling a public servant or citizen performing their work," the source said. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit filed a complaint against Qandeel alleging...

A man said to be a close ally of President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia has filed a lawsuit in the United States of America against the US-based online Freedom Newspaper, its editor Pa Nderry M'Bai, and Freedom Newspaper Incorporated, the publishers. Amadou Samba, a businessman and the publisher of pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper, is demanding that Freedom Newspaper make public...

Togo's President, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, has filed three more defamation suits against two privately-owned newspapers. Two of the suits were brought against the weekly L'Indépendant Express. This brings to three the number of cases that President Gnassingbé has launched against L'Indépendant Express since August 18. The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent in Togo reported...

Two resident district commissioners (RDC) arrested Red Pepper Publications Ltd photojournalist Tony Kizito over the alleged publication of a defamatory story by Kamunye newspaper, a vernacular sister paper of Red Pepper, Kampala-based Human Rights Network for Journalists(HRNJ) has reported. Kizito, 28, was arrested on August 30. He was on his way to the Mukono town council when he was intercepted...