State Persecution

The European Court of Human Rights Friday rejected by six votes to one Russian journalist Grigory Pasko’s complaint accusing his government of violating his freedom of expression under articles 7 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights by sentencing him to four years in prison on a spying charge, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We share Pasko’s disappointment as we have...

Zimbabwean intelligence agents recently mistreated two journalists working for Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Cameraman Austin Gundani was physically assaulted and then held for three hours, with his reporter colleague Haru Mutasa, at the presidency where they had arrived on October 20 to cover a cabinet meeting from which Prime...

With the release of Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari on bail, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iranian authorities to release the 25 journalists who still remain in prison. Bahari, Newsweek’s Tehran correspondent, was released on $300,000 bail on Saturday after spending almost four months in prison, the magazine reported. Newsweek announced his arrival in...

Chadian authorities summarily expelled a Cameroonian-born journalist from the country on Wednesday, a day after he wrote an op-ed in response to a government official’s suggestion that the Nobel Peace Prize should have been awarded to Chad President Idriss Deby, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Chadian security service agents took Innocent Ebodé, who arrived...

A Rabat court Thursday imprisoned the managing editor of Al-Michaal newspaper for one year, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. A Rabat misdemeanour court sentenced Driss Chahtan to a year in jail and Al-Michaal journalists Mostafa Hiran and Rashid Mahameed to three months in prison ‎and‎ a 5,000 dirham (US$655) fine each for “intentionally publishing false...

The editor-in-chief of Zambia’s largest newspaper was criminally charged for the second time on Wednesday after running an op-ed critical of controversial pornography charges against a journalist, according to local journalists and news reports. Magistrate David Simusamba charged Fred M’membe, a 1995 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, and the daily Post with contempt of court...

Innocent Ebodé, editor of the privately-owned weekly La Voix published in the capital N’Djamena was expelled from Chad Thursday after the authorities accused the Cameroon national of “staying illegally” in the country, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Ebodé was Thursday taken by Chadian officials to the Cameroon side of the border city of Kousseri, after being summoned in the morning...

Eight Vietnamese bloggers received jail sentences last week on charges of anti-government propaganda under article 88 of the criminal code, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Vu Hung was sentenced to three years in prison in Hanoi on October 7. Pham Von Troi got a four-year sentence the next day. The six other bloggers were given jail sentences on the same charges in Haiphong on October...

One year ago, a court in the western autonomous region of Karakalpakstan sentenced journalist Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov to 10 years in prison on a charge of “possession of drugs for the purpose of sale,” a sentence that was upheld a month later by the supreme court despite the inconsistencies of the prosecution case and complete lack of evidence against him. Now aged 59, Abdurakhmanov has been held...

A court in the western Venezuela state of Táchira has ordered that journalist Gustavo Azócar should remain in custody despite ordering the annulment of a criminal case against him, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). He is the only journalist currently in prison in Venezuela. Reporters Without Borders said it feared that the journalist was being hounded for his critical stance towards...