State Persecution

The editor of a now-defunct Azerbaijani newspaper, in state custody since February 2007, has died in a Baku prison hospital, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. According to Azerbaijani Penitentiary Service spokesman Mekhman Sadygov, Novruzali Mamedov, editor of the now-defunct minority newspaper Talyshi Sado, appeared Tuesday to have suffered a stroke. Results from an...

Scores of Iraqi journalists and political figures rallied Friday to protest what they say is a political effort to censor media that follows steps to crack down on Internet sites, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The demonstration on a Baghdad street known for its book market was held under tight security, as anger builds over government initiatives that critics say are aimed at preventing a...

US immigration officials have detained without explanation Rahman Bunairee, a Pakistani reporter for Voice of America who said he had been targetted for attack in his home country. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on immigration officials to release Bunairee immediately and allow him to resume his work for the US government-funded broadcaster. Bunairee arrived...

Five of the six Gambian journalists who were jailed for two years on August 6 on charges of defaming the government – Emil Touray, Pa Modou Faal, Pap Saine, Ebrima Sawaneh and Sam Sarr – were transferred from the capital’s Mile Two prison to Old Jeshwang prison in the north of the country on August 10, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sixth journalist, Sarrata Jabbi-Didda, who has...

Two journalists in Rwanda have been given prison sentences in separate cases in the past few days. Newspaper editor Asumani Niyonambaza was sentenced to two years in prison. Reporter Amani Ntakundi got a three-month sentence. “There were absolutely no grounds for these jails sentences,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has said. “Trials, threats, intimidation and smears are all used to...

Photojournalist Majid Saeedi has been released on bail in Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Saeedi, a well-known freelance photographer who has worked for several newspapers and global photo agency Getty Images, was released on bail on Tuesday. Getty Images co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein said that Saeedi "is set to face trial on the charges set by Iranian...

The Kazakh supreme court has upheld the two-year ban that a court in the southern city of Taraz imposed on the weekly Alma Ata Info on August 8 at the same time as it sentenced its editor, Ramazan Esergepov, to three years in prison, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This disgraceful sentence should have been quashed because of all the irregularities during the trial,” Paris-based RSF...

Journalists Ahmed Saleyman Dhuhul and Sayid Osman Mire were released on August 9 on paying fines imposed by a court in Hargeisa, in the northwestern breakaway territory of Somaliland, after being held for 28 days. Dhuhul and Mire, who work for Horyaal Radio and are members of the Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA), were arrested on July 13. On August 8, the Hargeisa court sentenced them to...

A three-year jail sentence has been passed by a court in the southern city of Taraz passed on Ramazan Esergepov, the owner and editor of the Kazakh weekly Alma Ata Info, on charges of gathering and divulging classified documents under articles 172 and 339 of the Kazakh criminal code, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The trial, which ended on August 8 with Esergepov also being banned...

The High Media Council in Rwanda has asked the information ministry to close independent weekly Umuseso for three months for likening the current government to the one that was in power in the run-up to the 1994 genocide. The offending article, published in Umuseso’s July 20-27 issue, compared President Paul Kagame’s government to that of Juvénal Habyarimana, who was president immediately prior to...