State Persecution

A Kuwaiti court has fined a journalist and two newspapers for statements deemed offensive to the ruling family and the prime minister, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Sunday, a criminal court in Kuwait fined opposition writer and journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem 3,000 Kuwaiti dinars (US$10,500) for publishing an article in November critical of Prime Minister...

Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday that its transmissions to Ethiopia were being electronically jammed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The Ethiopian government has denied responsibility. VOA cited “international shortwave radio monitors” and complaints from listeners in Ethiopia since February 22 about static on the US government-funded station’s daily, hour-long...

Although a number of journalists and netizens have been freed in in Iran during the past few days, the crackdown on media and journalists is continuing. The daily Etemad was suspended on March 1 and the weekly Iran Dokht’s licence has been cancelled. At the same time, journalists continue to be arrested in Tehran and many others throughout the country have received summonses, according to...

A Zimbabwean freelance journalist was arrested Monday for the third time this year—this time for taking footage of prisoners outside a courthouse in the capital, Harare, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said quoting local journalists. Officers of Zimbabwe’s Prison Service arrested Andrison Shadreck Manyere, an award-winning photojournalist and videographer, after he filmed the...

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed Friday along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday), according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Dehah’s lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, said his client had become an embarrassment for the government. He thanked all those who fought for Dehah’s...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to heed a High Court order and release journalist Tariq Abu Zaid immediately. A four-person special military court in Nablus sentenced Abu Zaid, a correspondent who reported on camera for Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV, to 18 months in prison on February 16 on charges of "undermining the status of the authority, and...

Aylin Duruoglu, editor the Vatan newspaper’s website, Gazetevatan.com, was granted a conditional release by an Istanbul court on February 23, 10 months after her arrest on April 27 for alleged links to a clandestine armed group called Devrimci Karargah (Revolutionary Headquarters), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Nine other people who were arrested in the same operation, including...

Newspaper journalist Maan Aqil was released from prison Tuesday after the authorities held him for three months without ever charging him, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The national criminal investigations department still has not said why it arrested Aqil at his place of work on November 22. A reporter with the government daily Al-Thawra, he had written articles denouncing...

Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) authorities banned international French broadcaster France 24 on Monday on bogus allegations of unprofessionalism over coverage of political unrest in the West African nation, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Frank Anderson Kouassi, the president of Ivory Coast’s National Broadcasting Council (known by its French...

A court in the Kigali district of Nyarugenge Monday imposed jail sentences on Charles Kabonero, the publisher of the weekly Umuseso, Didas Gasana, its editor, and Richard Kayigamba, one of its reporters, after finding them guilty of invading privacy in one of their articles. Kabonero got 12 months, while the other two got six months. “We firmly condemn these sentences, which deprive the newspaper...