State Persecution

A crackdown against journalists and cyber-dissidents is continuing in Iran with both Iranian and foreign journalists caught in the eye of the post-election storm, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Among the latest arrests was that of a correspondent for the US magazine Newsweek, Maziar Bahari, picked up at his home in Tehran on June 21. “The authorities are using all possible methods to...

Iranian security agents arrested about 25 employees of Kalameh Sabz, the reformist newspaper owned by presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, after raiding the paper's offices on Monday evening, according to local and international news reports. Alireza Beheshti, the paper's editor-in-chief, told the Farsi-language service of Deutsche-Welle that the agents, in plain clothes but armed, rounded...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Iranian authorities to release all journalists detained in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election and to lift the onerous press restrictions that are choking information at a time when the country and the world most need it. At least 13 journalists detained during a week of protests were still in government custody as of late Monday...

The Islamic Republic of Iran now ranks alongside China as the world’s biggest prison for journalists, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . The crackdown has been intensified yet again following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s endorsement of the result of the June 12 presidential election and the opposition’s decision to call another demonstration on June 20. Iran now has a...

Officers of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) questioned the two journalists, editors of Sinhalese dailies, recently in an attempt to force them to reveal their sources for articles on sensitive subjects, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The editor of one of the newspapers, who asked not to be named, said members of the CCD went to his newspaper’s headquarters on the morning of June...

[Updates earlier story] Five-year prison sentences have been handed down by a military court in Cameroon to Jacques Blaise Mvié and Charles René Nwé, respectively deputy managing director and editor of weekly La Nouvelle for publishing “defence secrets," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. To date, neither of the two journalists has actually been arrested. “The sentence...

A magistrate in the Gambian capital, Banjul, has charged seven journalists with sedition for criticizing President Yahya Jammeh's televised comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara, their defence lawyer said. Gambian security forces arrested an eighth journalist Thursday morning, although no charges were immediately brought, the committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has...

In his first public address to the nation since demonstrations erupted in many cities across Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday blamed foreign media, calling it "evil" for attempting to divide the people of Iran. Iranian authorities continue to crack down on journalists in an attempt to control information as demonstrations continue to grip the country following last Friday's...

Two Al Jazeera journalists, Qais Azimy and Hameedullah Shah, who had been detained since June 14, have been relased, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The two journalists were released on June 16. Their colleagues said they spent part of the time chained to a chair and were prevented from sleeping by the National Directorate of Security officials who were holding them. Asked about...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is pinning its hopes on the appointment of a new judge on June 3 to conduct the investigation into the death of Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru (now Ingushetia.org) news website and opponent of former Ingush President Murat Zyazikov. Yevloyev was shot dead while in police custody in Magas, Ingushetia’s new capital, in August 2008. The appointment...