State Persecution

Five journalists with the Dagestani independent weekly Chernovik are being prosected, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Editor-in-Chief Nadira Isayeva and reporters Magomed Magomedov, Artur Mamayev, Timur Mustafayev, and Biyakai Magomedov are charged with incitement of hatred and demeaning the honour of law enforcement officials as a “social group” in several stories...

A top editor of an independent Rwandan newspaper that was recently banned by the government was assassinated in front of his home late Thursday. An assailant shot Jean-Léonard Rugambage, acting editor of Umuvugizi as he drove through the gate of his home in the capital, Kigali, around 10 p.m., Rwanda National police spokesperson Eric Kayiranga told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “At...

Leading Iranian journalist Emadoldin Baghi has been freed on bail after six months in detention, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . He is to be tried on July 4. “Baghi’s conditional release after six months in solitary confinement, in appalling conditions and subjected to arbitrary interrogations, is obviously good news,” Paris-based RSF said. “But is Iran is still holding 36 other...

Kyrgyz authorities have detained independent journalists Ulugbek Abdusalomov and Azimjon Askarov in the southern part of the country engulfed by ethnic violence since early June, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On June 14, unknown men picked up Abdusalomov, chief editor of independent newspaper Diydor, from a street in the Jalal-Abad region; police are holding him in a...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Egyptian Minister of Finance, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, to drop charges against Wael al-Abrashy, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Sawt al-Umma, and Samar al-Dawi, a reporter for the weekly. In January, al-Abrashy mounted an editorial campaign to oppose a new and controversial property tax law, which would require property owners to submit...

Syrian authorities are still holding freelance journalist Ali al-Abdallah even after he completed a 30-month prison sentence in Damascus, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Ali al-Abdallah, who has regularly written for numerous prominent Arabic-language newspapers outside Syria, was supposed to be released on June 17 but a military court informed him that he will be given...

The Peruvian Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco, editor of weekly newspaper Nor Oriente, who was sentenced on January 12 to one year in prison on defamation charges. Peru’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling by a court in Bagua, Utcubamba province, the local press said. Carrascal was convicted in January over a series of articles he wrote in 2005 alleging...

The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has welcomed the arrival in the United States of Sri Lankan journalist JS Tissainayagam, who arrived at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday morning. He was met there by friends. According to CPJ representative Kamel Labidi, who was on hand to meet Tissa, “He was all smiles, and said to thank everyone who helped him gain his freedom.”...

Authorities in Ethiopia expelled an American journalist on Thursday who had been reporting near a rebel area in the east of the Horn of Africa country, according to local journalists. Heather Murdock had been reporting with the US international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) in the eastern region of Harar, near an area where there was reported skirmishes between the army and rebels of the...

A Moroccan court passed a prison sentence Friday to Taoufik Bouachrine, editor of independent daily Akhbar al-Youm, on politicised criminal charges, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). A court in Rabat sentenced Bouachrine to six months in prison on charges of real estate and sales fraud, the editor told New York-based CPJ. He was also fined 500 Moroccan dirhams (US$56) and...