State Persecution

Authorities in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan are attempting to shut down the Makhachkala-based independent weekly Chernovik and have levelled extremism charges against editor Nadira Isayeva and four reporters, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Monday, the local branch of Russia's state media regulator Rossvyazkomnadzor filed a lawsuit against Chernovik in...

Gambia's national security agency arrested Monday seven journalists who published a union press release criticising President Yahya Jammeh's recent comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Monday evening, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) plainclothes agents picked up veteran Managing Editor Sam Sarr, an advisor to...

An Istanbul court has convicted the daily newspaper Günlük of "spreading PKK propaganda" in two issues of the paper, the IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. According to journalist Ragip Zarakolu, Kurdish media is targeted frequently. Judge Necat Ede of Istanbul's 12th Heavy Penal Court cited Article 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, an article which former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer...

Iranian authorities are continuing a crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations. “Independent sources of news and information find it very hard...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the Ecuadorean government and National Council for Radio and Television (Conartel) to withdraw the latest administrative proceedings against the privately-owned national TV station Teleamazonas, which could force it off the air. The offensive comes amid a war of nerves between the station and President Rafael Correa, who has said he wants to “put an end”...

Defamation charges have been filed against a Moroccan editor by a group that represents close relatives of King Mohamed VI. A Casablanca court has summoned the editor to appear on Tuesday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The charges against Driss Chahtan, managing editor of the independent weekly Al-Michaal, stem from a front-page story titled "The Scandals of the King's...

Intelligence officials at the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Kabul detained two Afghan journalists detained on Sunday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Qais Azimy and Hameedullah Shah, producers for Al-Jazeera, were detained separately on Sunday, two days before the country's presidential election campaigns are set to begin, according to according to an Al...

Iranian authorities have criticised international media reports and taken steps to control the flow of information from independent news sources as anti-government protests raged in the country for the third day on Monday. Opposition candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi have appealed to their supporters not to accept the “rigged results.” The British Broadcasting Co said that electronic...

The editor of a private newspaper in the Gambia has been in police custody since Wednesday because of a story that falsely reported the sacking of two government officials, according to local journalists. Abdulhamid Adiamoh, managing editor of the daily Today, is being held in a cell at the Major Crimes Unit of police headquarters in the capital Banjul since his arrest on Wednesday, the...

A magistrate's court in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, suspended on June 3 distribution of the June 2009 edition of L'Essentiel, a monthly current affairs magazine, and ordered its seizure over headlines on the cover page that the court claimed were an "insult" to President Abdoulaye Wade. According to the presiding magistrate, the headlines "Freemasonry: The Grand Lodge of France Conquers Senegal...