Censored

The prosecutor-general in Kuwait has forbidden the Kuwaiti media to publish any more reports about the dismantling of an Iranian spy network, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The disbanding of the network, allegedly consisting of six Kuwaitis, two stateless Arabs employed by the army and various Arab citizens, was revealed by a media report on May 1. The spy ring dismantled by the...

Azerbaijani authorities illegally confiscated footage and reporting from Norwegian television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl on Thursday, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Borgen, who has his own documentary production company, was working with Dahl on a film about freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, focusing on the case of imprisoned journalist Eynulla...

The US military has banned four reporters from different Canadian and US-based media outlets to cover military commission proceedings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The reporters were banned after each named a US Army interrogator after being told to keep him and other participants in the proceedings anonymous. The proceedings were about the...

The Israeli military obstructed an Al-Jazeera crew trying to cover a rally in the village of Bil’in west of Ramallah on Friday, according to news reports and interviews. Israel Defence Forces arrested Al-Jazeera cameraman Majdi Bannoura and assistant Nader Abu Zer when they arrived in Bil’in to cover a weekly protest against the separation barrier being erected there by Israel, the Committee to...

State-owned Internet service provider Kazakhtelecom has blocked access to the independent news portal Respublika and the website of its sister publication Respublika-Delovoye Obozreniye, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Access to both news portals, which often criticise Kazakh authorities for corruption and human rights violations, has been blocked today for all clients of...

The Kyrgyzstan provisional government’s Coordinating Council in the southern region of Osh introduced a new system of censorship on April 15, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). and reiterates its appeal to interim President Rosa Otunbayeva’s administration to keep its promises to respect the rule of law. The opposition to ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s government’s criticised its...

The Bahraini culture and information ministry has imposed a ban on using a chat application available on Blackberry mobile phones to share local news, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The ministry threatened to prosecute violators when it announced the ban on April 7. As a result of the prohibition, local journalist Muhannad Sulaiman has had to suspend his “Urgent News,” a daily...

Rwanda’s Media High Council on Tuesday suspended two independent weeklies just months prior to presidential elections. At a press conference, attended only by state broadcasters and the pro-government radio station Contact FM, the Media High Council announced an immediate six month suspension of private local language weeklies, Umuseso and Umuvugizi. The council accused Umuseso of insulting the...

The Thai government should restore access to news outlets censored after a state of emergency was declared Wednesday in response to antigovernment protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Journalists reporting on the unrest are increasingly vulnerable to physical assault as clashes between protesters and authorities escalate. A number of opposition websites and at least one...

Al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia have banned all BBC broadcasts from the areas they control and confiscated the corporation’s FM transmitters and satellite dishes. Local journalists told the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that Al-Shabaab issued a statement Friday announcing the immediate ban, claiming the BBC carried the “agenda of the crusaders” and “opposed an Islamic...