State Persecution

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to place Kazakhstan’s poor press freedom record on the agenda for its summit planned for later this year. Kazakhstan, the OSCE chair, is scheduled to host the summit in its capital, Astana. A meeting of the foreign ministers of the 56 OSCE member states at the Ak-Bulak resort...

Burundi police arrested a journalist for alleged "treason" Saturday over an article questioning whether the security forces could deal with an attack like one that hit Uganda a week ago, an official said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The July 11 bombings in Kampala claimed by Al Qaeda-inspired rebels killed at least 73 people watching the World Cup final in what the insurgents said was...

The Malaysian Islamic opposition party newspaper has escaped closure and won a new publishing permit from the government which had accused it of violating laws, an official said Thursday, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. The government has in recent weeks also refused to immediately renew the licences for two other opposition newspapers in what critics have said is a crackdown...

A Khartoum criminal court on Thursday sentenced three senior members of the opposition daily Rai Al Shaab (People’s Opinion) to jail terms ranging two to five years on charges of “publishing incorrect information” and “attacking the state with a view to undermining the constitutional system.” Deputy editor Abuzur Al Amin was given a five-year sentence while editor Ashraf Abdelaziz, and political...

Azerbaijan’s representative to the European Court of Human Rights has announced that his government appealed Friday against a ruling issued by the court in April ordering Azerbaijan to free Eynulla Fatullayev, an opposition newspaper editor who has been held since April 20, 2007. Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) over what will happen to Fatullayev and regards this announcement as...

Press freedom groups have condemned the Malaysian government’s decision to suspend the distribution of three opposition newspapers – Suara Keadilan, Kabar Era Pakatan and Rocket – since June 30 and restrict the distribution of a fourth, Harakah, since Thursday. “This is the second time since Prime Minister Najib Razak’s election in 2008 that the opposition press has been subjected to this kind of...

Those responsible for Zahra Kazemi's death have enjoyed complete impunity for the past seven years, thanks in part to the silence and passivity of the international bodies that are supposed to protect human rights. Mistreatment, rape and torture are common in Iranian prisons. Those behind the murders of prisoners, such as former Tehran prosecutor general Sayeed Mortazavi, continue to hold

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has commended a threat made against journalist Liu Jianfeng on July 9, after he refused to take a bribe from officials in Jiangxi province in eastern China. Liu, a journalist with China Economic Times, received a life-threatening note after he reported on his blog that people had drowned during floods in Jiangxi on July 8. Officials acknowledge...

The National Press Council (CNP), the print media regulatory body in Côte d'Ivoire, imposed a fine of three million CFA francs (about US$6,000) on Regie Cyclone Company, publishers of Le Temps, a pro-government daily newspaper, according to the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). MFWA's correspondent reported that the fine was as a result of the newspaper's publishing of the results of...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has convicted Turkey of illegally restricting the freedom of expression of two journalists, according to delayed reports. The ruling was based on the Turkish government's decision in two separate trials against Aylin Guzel, the owner and editor-in-chief of Maya magazine, and Aziz Ozer, editor-in-chief of Yeni Dünya için Çağrı magazine. On July 6, the ECHR...