State Persecution

Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition Khmer-language daily Khmer Machas Srok, has been sentenced to one year in prison stemming from his reports on alleged government corruption. According to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a Cambodian court ruled Saturday that Hang Chakra violated criminal disinformation laws by publishing a series of articles that accused officials working...

Press freedom groups have urged Iranian authorities to release all of the roughly 40 journalists and media workers who have been detained in the aftermath of the country's disputed June 12 presidential election. Iranian news organisations identified two more detained journalists in reports on Thursday. Multiple news reports named the two as cartoonist Behzad Bashbo and television producer Khalil...

Eleven Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a new survey. The surge from Sri Lanka accounted for more than a quarter of the journalists worldwide who fled their native countries in the past year after being attacked, harassed, or threatened with

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the charges of “violating public decency”, “inciting crimes” and “publishing court statements still under the seal of confidentiality” that were brought against Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, on June 24. Dehah, who has been held since June 18, was taken to Dart Naim prison after being charged. “We urge the authorities to...

The Sri Lanka government has decided to restore the former Press Council, which will have the power to pass jail sentences on journalists and newspaper publishers. The decision comes amid continuing tension between the authorities and renewed threats against Jaffna-based Tamil newspapers. “A press council can be a useful tool for managing relations between the media and the public,” Paris-based...

The privately-owned Ecuadorian TV station Teleamazonas has just been told it is being fined 40 dollars for “broadcasting unverified information.” The notification came just a few weeks after it was fined 20 dollars on June 3 for “broadcasting a bullfight outside permitted viewing times.” The station, which is owned by banker Fidel Egas, could be shut down for 90 days if it receives a third...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end censorship of independent newspapers and to identify and prosecute those who assaulted Al-Jazeera journalists on two occasions in the south of the country. Yemen's popular daily, Al-Ayyam, the weeklies Al-Nida and Al-Watani, as well as five other independent newspapers, were banned...

A Gambian reporter arrested on Monday while covering a pre-trial hearing in the sedition case of seven journalists jailed last week, was still being held without charge late Tuesday, according to local journalists and news reports. Augustine Kanjia of the daily, the Point, was being held at a police station in Serrekunda, Gambia's largest city, according to defence lawyer Assan Martin. A...

The director of the Mauritanian news website Taqadoumy ( http://www.taqadoumy.com), Hanevy Ould Dehah, has been arrested on the orders of the prosecutor’s office in the capital Nouakchott, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . The arrest followed a defamation complaint by presidential election candidate, Ibrahima Moctar Sarr, president of the opposition party Alliance for Justice and...

Seven Gambian journalists charged with sedition last week for criticising the president have been freed on bail, while two other detainees were released without charge, local journalists and the press union told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday. Magistrate Sainabou Wadda, presiding in Kanifing Court, outside the capital, Banjul, Monday granted bail of 200,000 dalasi, (US$7,547)...