State Persecution

The police prevented the staff of the opposition newspaper Azadlig from entering its premises Monday at the behest of Agbey Askerov, the head of the state-owned publishing house Azerbaijan, which prints the newspaper, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Askerov is demanding immediate repayment of a debt of 15,000 manats (15,000 euros), which he says dates...

The department of public prosecution has brought new charges against Kurdish writer Mehmet Güler and publisher Ragip Zarakolu. This time they are to be prosecuted for a book about the political system that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) would like to introduce, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. In a trial due to begin on September 30 before...

Three Uighur-language website managers were sentenced Friday to prison terms of three to 10 years after being found guilty under broad charges of “endangering state security.” The men had been jailed after ethnic rioting in July 2009 in Urumqi, capital of the far-western, predominantly Muslim, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Nijat Azat, who managed the website Shabnam, was sentenced to a 10...

A measure signed into law on Thursday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will expand the powers of security agents and contribute to a climate of fear among government critics, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The law grants the Federal Security Service (FSB) authority to detain for up to 15 days anyone suspected of planning a crime against Russian security, local and...

A jailed Cambodian journalist whose Appeal Court hearing is scheduled for later this month said Monday that he had been asked to pay US$1,000 before court officials would tell him the exact date, the Phnom Penh Post has reported. Speaking from Prey Sar prison, freelance journalist Ros Sokhet said his lawyer, Sam Sokong, who was provided free of charge by the legal aid NGO Cambodian Defenders...

Charles Atangana, a Cameroonian journalist who has been living in the UK since 2004, is facing deportation after losing his case for asylum. He believes he will be killed if he returns to Cameroon. UK's National Union of Journalists is trying to stop Glasgow-based Atangana from being deported to Cameroon where he is likely to face detention, torture or worse. The union has temporarily stopped the...

The Afghanistan government has decided to close down the privately-owned TV station Emroz for allegedly endangering national unity and to ban two programmes on two other TV stations on the ground that they were contrary to Islamic values. When it met on 27 July, the cabinet ordered the ministry of culture and information and the attorney-general to shut down Emroz, a station launched in August...

A former Kurdish editor who has been held since January 30, 2009 and sentenced to a total of 166 years in prison with 30-odd cases, has been awarded a Journalists Association of Turkey press freedom prize. on 24 July. Vedat Kursun is former editor of Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat. Receiving the award on Kursun's behalf on July 24, his father said, “To Turkish and international public...

Criminal proceedings have been initiated in Dresden against two Leipzig journalists. The charges arise from articles written in news magazine Der Spiegel and in Zeit Online in 2008 on the “Saxony Corruption Quagmire” – a possible corruption affair that could have involved high-ranking members of the legal system. Ginzel and Datt were the authors of the Zeit Online report and co-authors of the...

Iran's deputy culture minister lashed out at Western media on Sunday, branding them "dishonest, cocky cheats," who will be banned from an annual press fair in the autumn, the ILNA news agency reported. "This year none of the Western media are allowed to participate in the fair," said Mohammad Ali Ramin, who is also a press watchdog official. "We have eliminated them, because Western media are...