Bahraini authorities have pressed charges against Mohammed al-Sawad, a reporter for the independent daily Al-Bilad, who is accused of violating a government-imposed gag order, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The order was issued in the case of former minister of state, Mansour bin Rajab, who was dismissed in March after a year-long investigation into alleged money...
Malaysia has suspended the publication of a main opposition newspaper, in a move political rivals criticised Friday as a crackdown on dissent. Suara Keadilan, run by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan party, ran into trouble after the authorities said it violated publishing laws with a report this month which claimed a government agency is bankrupt, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP)...
Rwandan authorities said Monday they have arrested two people in connection with the killing of a journalist critical of President Paul Kagame's government, and that one of the two has confessed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. Jean-Leonard Rugambage, who had accused the Rwandan government of being behind an assassination attempt on a dissident general in South Africa, was gunned down in...
Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz on Monday announced a decision to delay a vote on a number of media bills which critics have warned constitute a throwback to state control in the former Soviet satellite state. Hungary’s parliament was due to vote on Monday on the proposed creation of a powerful Media Council – strongly criticised by opposition politicians and journalists – which would operate within...
Syrian authorities continue to crack down on journalists and human rights activists in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of Bashar Al-Assad’s installation as president, despite government claims of greater freedoms in the past 10 years, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). RSF called for the immediate and unconditional release of journalists Ali Abdallah and Kamal Sheikhou ben Hussein...
A legislative committee in Pakistan has forwarded a bill to the National Assembly that would restrict coverage “of suicide bombers, terrorists, bodies of victims of terrorism, statements and pronouncements of militants and extremist elements and other acts which, may, in any way, promote, aid or abet terrorists or terrorism.” According to The News International, the report of the committee was...
A 70-year-old Panamanian journalist was arrested and jailed Saturday on a 2008 defamation conviction, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The charges against Carlos Núñez López, stemmed from a 2005 story in the now-defunct weekly newspaper La Crónica about environmental damage in the province of Bocas del Toro, his lawyer, Luis Ferreyra, told CPJ. A landowner alleged his...
Ethiopia’s postal service should a conduct thorough and transparent investigation into the tampering of mail addressed to the country’s leading critical newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Awramba Times Editor-in-Chief Dawit Kebede said the paper has complained to the Ethiopian Postal Service at least three times since June 6 after finding opened and destroyed envelopes...
Authorities in Rwanda announced on Monday the arrest of two individuals in the murder of journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage, who was shot late Thursday as he drove through the gate to his home in Kigali. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed scepticism about the arrests and called on authorities to disclose details of their investigation. “The burden is on the Rwandan government to...
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Kuwaiti authorities to drop all charges against journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem, who was released on bail Monday. CPJ is also alarmed by local news reports that the Ministry of Information will prosecute Al-Jazeera’s office in Kuwait for violating a ban on local coverage of al-Jassem’s case after the station broadcast a protest...
