Censored

A programme critical of Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, was taken off air recently, the Peru-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) has said quoting delayed reports. Francisco Pinoargotti, director and presenter of Gama TV's programme 'Buenos Muchachos', which includes entertainment, satire and black humor, told IPYS that his programme was cancelled arbitrarily following orders issued by...

The government-controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC) censored the BBC Sinhala and Tamil service programmes broadcast on November 27, five press freedom groups have said. Sections of the programme on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V Prabhakaran's "Hero's Day" speech and a Defence Watch press conference were censored, making them inaudible to listeners. Defence Watch...

Serious concerned have been raised about the constricting environment the government of Swaziland is imposing on freedom of expression. Under a Suppression of Terrorism Act that has been passed by the Parliament in May 2008, Swazi journalists, political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested. The Swaziland Act is the latest in a

Two independent newspapers that were dropped from official distribution networks for criticising the government have signed contracts that will allow them to appear in the state postal monopoly Belpocha’s newspaper subscription catalogue and to be on sale in the state-owned Belsayuzdruk’s chain of newsstands. The two newspapers are weekly Narodnaya Volya and fortnightly Nasha Niva, Reporters sans...

With Israel continuing its blockade of the Gaza Strip, news reportage has become a casualty. For almost three weeks now, foreign journalists have been denied entry into the area. The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents the collective interests of the international media covering the news in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, has now filed a Supreme Court petition

A member of the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial jury has denied that the jury had asked for the press and public to be excluded, saying it was the clerk of the court who asked them to sign a statement to this effect which they had not drafted. The jury member said this in an interview to independent radio station Echo Moskvy, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Juror Yevgeny Kolesov told...

A Moscow court has reversed an earlier decision and barred the public and media from the trial of four men accused of murdering journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Yevgeny Zubov, the presiding judge in the trial of four men for the 2006 murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Wednesday ruled that the press and public will henceforth be excluded, reversing the decision he took on the first...

A group of soldiers, accompanied by police agents, a prosecutor and a representative from the transport and communications ministry burst into the headquarters of a Peruvian radio station, cancelled its broadcasting signal and seized all of its equipment. The incident took place on November 12 in Tacna, southern Peru, which was declared to be in a state of emergency on November 4 after the region...

The police has shut down Radio Galkayo and arrested journalist Hassan Mohammed Jama, the director of the radio station in the Mudug region of Puntland, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has reported. The commander of the Puntland police in the region, Colonel Abdirisak Ismail, who is known as Darwish, along with a team of well-armed police officers raided Radio Galkayo at 2:00 p.m....

A judge has banned media coverage of the trial of Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa who is accused of ordering the killing of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim who jilted him, according to news reports. Egyptian media said Tamim, a close friend of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal, and part of a powerful group long seen as above the law in Egypt's hierarchical class-based society...