State Persecution

Rabah Lamouchi, the national Arabic-language daily Ennahar's correspondent in Tebessa (460 km east of Algiers), has been arrested on the grounds that he was not officially accredited by the newspaper. This is denied by the paper's editor, who told Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) it was just a pretext. Another Ennahar correspondent was held for three days last month. "This case is disturbing...

A military tribunal in Yaoundé sentenced Jacques Blaise Mvié and Charles René Nwe, general manager and editor-in-chief, respectively, of La Nouvelle newspaper, to five years in prison and a 500,000 FCFA (approx. US$1,066) fine at the end of a closed-door hearing. No appeal was permitted on June 3; the journalists were only informed of the hearing after the fact, Journaliste en Danger (JED) has...

A Slovak government agency should immediately drop a civil complaint against the daily SME that was filed when the newspaper refused to print a response to a column under a controversial right-of-reply law, the International Press Institute (IP) has demanded. The complaint, filed by the Inspectorate for the Environment, is the first time a civil case has been pressed against a newspaper under the...

Awudu Mahama, a parliamentary reporter, and photographer Emmanuel Kubi, both of the Daily Guide, an Accra-based, privately-owned newspaper, were reportedly detained on 2 June 2009 at the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for allegedly loitering around the security zone, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has reported. MFWA's correspondent reported that the two...

Moise Sidibe, a reporter with L'Indépendant, a privately-owned weekly newspaper, was picked up by the military, together with three of his family members, on May 27, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MWFA) has reported. They are in detention at the Alpha Yaya camp in Conakry, the capital of Guinea. MFWA's correspondent reported that the Red Berets forcibly took the reporter from his house...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned condemns the detention of journalist Aylin Duruoglu, the editor of the daily Vatan’s website, Gazetevatan.com, for the past five weeks on a charge of collaborating with an outlawed armed organisation. Arrested on April 27, she is now being held in Istanbul’s Bakirköy prison. “Duruoglu is the victim of inexplicable judicial persecution,” RSF said. “If...

The opening of two government investigations into private television network Teleamazonas and threats of legal action by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa against critical media outlets are an attempt by the government to stifle dissent, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. During his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Correa said that he would resort to legal action to "finish...

North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison Monday, intensifying the communist nation's confrontation with the United States. The sentencing came amid soaring tensions fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. The Central Court tried American TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee and confirmed their unspecified "grave crime"...

Privately-owned Rrokum TV in Kosovo is still suspended by the Kosovar broadcasting network and internet provider IPKO, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Although it has a contract guaranteeing its transmission for five years, Rrokum TV was dropped from IPKO’s network of 80 local, regional and international TV stations without warning on April 1. IPKO has at first blamed technical...

Two American journalists went on trial trial Thursday in North Korea on accusations of illegal entry and "hostile acts" in a case that could send them to a labour camp for 10 years. US television journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were on assignment for San Francisco-based Current TV when they were picked up on March 17. They were later charged with illegally entering the Democratic Peoples...