State Persecution

Moroccan journalist Yahya Bentahar was deported last week, shortly after he landed at Algiers airport, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Bentahar, who works for the Rabat-based weekly Assahrae Al Ousbouiya, had planned to do a report on the political situation in Algeria in the wake of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's reelection. The Algerian embassy in Rabat had told Assahrae Al...

Media representatives are frequently being prevented by Moldovan authorities from reporting freely, especially following parliamentary elections in April this year, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has said. According to SEEMO, on July 12 two journalists, Ivan Melnic and Vladimir Thorik from the Moldovan newspaper Moldavskie Vedomosti, were forcefully prevented from entering a...

After reporting 10 claims of women being raped since a new police chief came to the Turkish town of Diyarbakır, an issue of the Azadiya Welat newspaper was confiscated, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. The Diyarbakır 1st Criminal Court of Peace confiscated the July 8, 2009 issue of Azadiya Welat because it reported the claims of a 23-year-old woman who said she had been raped by...

Six bloggers based in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian were arrested at the end of last month on charges of defamation and high treason, according to delayed reports received by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Lawyers have told the Paris-based press freedom organisation they are being held for reporting that a young woman died after being gangraped in February 2008. “Reporting a woman...

Palestinian authorities on Sunday allowed Al-Jazeera to resume operations in the West Bank, four days after banning the Arab satellite station over the airing of a claim linking President Mahmoud Abbas to the death of his legendary predecessor, Yasser Arafat, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Correspondent Walid al-Omari said he received a phone call from Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad informing...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed outrage at the arrest of two journalists and the closure of a TV station in the northwestern breakaway territory of Somaliland and the beatings which several journalists received from police in the northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland. “While the international community’s attention is focused on the abduction of two French government...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm by the harassment of international journalists covering last week's disputed presidential elections in Republic of Congo. On Wednesday, police smashed the camera of videographer Marlène Rabaud of France 24 while she was filming the dispersal of an opposition demonstration in the capital, Brazzaville, according to local journalists and...

Reporter Aweys Sheikh Nur was attacked on Wednesday last by security guards during a court session in Bosaso, in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Five security guards beat the reporter with their AK-47 rifle butts after he took photographs in Bosaso Court, he told CPJ. Puntland officials in the court, including Judge Mohamed...

Two European journalists were fined on Friday by a court in Namibia for filming the annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting their lawyer. From the AFP report: [ Link] British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the Marine Resources Act by entering a...

Two foreign reporters were arrested Thursday by Namibian police for filming the annual clubbing to death of small seal pups for their fur along the coast, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers were arrested by police whilst documenting the controversial Namibian seal cull. Details: [ Link] "The two have been...