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October 15, 2007 - The Burmese military junta has banned the use of pseudonyms of several writers and authors, who were involved in Swan offerings to monks during last month's protests. Burmese writers and authors including Mar-J, Than Myint Aung, Soe Win Nyien, Oo Swe, Zaw Thet Htwe, Poe Phyu, Awpikye and prominent writer Ludu Daw Amar, have been barred from using their pen-names, after several...

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's ruling junta restored Internet access but kept foreign news sites blocked, partially easing its crackdown as a U.N. envoy arrived in Thailand on Sunday to rally neighboring governments around demands for democratic reforms in the country. The junta cut Internet access Sept. 28, two days after troops opened fire on peaceful protesters and images of the crackdown...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran jailed a prominent pro-reform journalist and rights activist, Emadeddin Baghi, on Sunday for acting against national security, a close friend said. Baghi, the founder of the Society for Defending Prisoners' Rights, was sent to Tehran's Evin prison, where many other dissidents are held, Issa Saharkhiz told Reuters. "Today Baghi was sent to prison from the court for a one...

MIAMI Leaders of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) insisted Saturday that the press freedom group will meet next year in Venezuela -- and they essentially dared President Hugo Chavez to stop them. IAPA officials say that in the past months, several hotels in Caracas, Maracaibo, and the resort Margarita Island have agreed to be the venue for the mid-year meeting scheduled for next March -...

(PROBIDAD/IFEX) - On 11 October 2007, the National Civil Police announced the capture of José Alfredo Hernández, suspected murderer of radio journalist Salvador Sánchez Roque, who was killed on 20 September. According to the authorities, Hernández is a gang member. He, among others, previously issued death threats against the journalist, believing that the journalist had incriminated them in his...

The son of the murdered ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and a journalist colleague were convicted yesterday of insulting Turkish identity for publishing remarks that had also landed Dink in court. Aram Dink, and Serkis Seropyan, both editors at the Turkish-Armenian daily Agos, were each given a one-year suspended sentence under Turkey's controversial law on insulting "Turkishness", their...

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Somali government forces on Thursday raided and shut a radio station that interviewed a top Islamist insurgent commander who claimed responsibility for an assassination bid on the prime minister. The forces ordered Mogadishu-based Simba Radio off the air and arrested its chief Abdullahi Ali Farah and a journalist, according to a reporter who works there. "The forces came this...

Reporters Without Borders today expressed its “astonishment” at “hostile statements” made by information minister, Madobe Numow Mohamed, towards its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), on 3 and 6 October 2007. Madobe Numow Mohamed said in a letter on 3 October addressed to all international and local non-governmental organisations that his ministry...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the kidnapping of Moussa Gueye, the editor of the privately-owned daily L’Exclusif, who was arrested, beaten and taken off to an unknown location by plain-clothes police on 8 October after being lured into a trap. His abduction came just hours after he published a story headlined “President’s nighttime escapade.” “Such archaic methods do no honour to Senegal,”...

Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Abdullahi Ali Farah, the manager of privately-owned Mogadishu-based Radio Simba, and Mohamed Farah, one of his journalists, who were arrested today after broadcasting an interview with the head of the military wing of the Islamic Courts. “The absolute power accorded to the troops in Mogadishu logically leads to arbitrary rule, to which journalists...