Arrested

Anyone who dares to speak out in Syria continues to be exposed to arbitrary arrest. One of the latest victims is Omar Koush, a writer and journalist from Aleppo, was arrested on arrival at Damascus airport Monday after participating in a conference in Turkey. He wrote an article on April 29 titled “Turkey: dual relations between Arab countries on the one hand and Islamist organizations on the...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned underground publisher and poet Bui Chat’s arrest at Tan Son Nhat airport on April 30. The founder of the Giay Vun publishing house, Chat had just returned from Buenos Aires, where he had received the “Freedom to Publish Prize” from the International Publishers Association (IPA). “The Vietnamese authorities gave no reason...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over the fate of Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, editor of the magazine Voice of Thaksin, who was arrested by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on April 30 and was placed in pre-trial custody Monday by a Bangkok criminal court on a charge of lèse-majesté. A request for release on bail was rejected. “This...

Haider Mohamed Al-Noaimi, a blogger and journalist who works for various media including the opposition newspaper Al-Wasat, was arrested by about 30 men who came to his home on the evening of April 24 and confiscated his computer and cameras before taking him away. They reportedly hit him during the raid. His Facebook profile, where he posted his articles, has been blocked since April 3. Another...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the recent arrests of Mohammad Seifzadeh, a human rights lawyer who has defended several imprisoned journalists, and Alireza Rajai, a journalist who writes for several reformist newspapers. A founder member of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Centre for Human Rights Defenders, Seifzadeh managed to tell his family on...

New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Bahraini authorities to disclose the whereabouts of Haidar Mohammed al-Nuaimi, a columnist for daily newspaper Al-Wasat. Roughly 30 uniformed and plainclothes police raided al-Nuaimi's family home in Manama April 25, dragging him into the street and beating him, local journalists told CPJ. Al-Nuaimi was then...

Anton Hammerl, a freelance South African photographer who was detained in early April, has appeared in government custody in Libya and is apparently in good health. Global Post told CPJ that the South African government has received information from Libyan authorities that Hammerl is well and will be permitted to speak to his family soon. Clare Morgana Gillis, an American freelancer for The...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has obtained information about the charges brought against the journalist and writer Fayez Sara, who arrested on April 11 in Damascus, and the blogger Kamal Hussein Sheikhou, who was arrested during a demonstration outside the interior ministry on March 15. The press freedom organisation called for the withdrawal of the charges...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the Syrian government to free nearly a dozen journalists and netizens it has imprisoned as it battles protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “The terror and arbitrary rule must end,” the media freedom organisation said, “and all those held, as well as prisoners of conscience, must be released.” Among...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on Syrian authorities to release journalist Mohamad Zaid Mastou, who was arrested on April 6 in Damascus by security agents and taken to an undisclosed location. "The manner of his arrest and the lack of information about his whereabouts raise concerns for his safety and wellbeing," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. "The Syrian regime...