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An 11-year prison sentence has been imposed on Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand for "activity against national security." The former editor of Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan, a weekly closed down in 2005, Kabovand received his 11-year sentence on June 22 from a Tehran revolutionary court for creating a human rights organisation in Iran's Kurdish region. Since his arrest in July 2007, he has...

An Iranian newspaper has been banned for criticising the performance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the last three years, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported quoting official news agency IRNA on Sunday. The daily Tehran Emrouz (Tehran Today) had criticised Ahmadinejad's economic and foreign policies in a special bulletin Saturday on the occasion of the third anniversary of his election. "We have...

A Rabat court ordered the Arabic-language daily Al Jarida Al Oula to stop publishing hitherto unpublished testimony about repression under the late King Hassan II, which senior officials gave to an official truth commission called the Equity and Reconciliation Panel (IER). The court issued on Thursday the order in response to a request by Ahmed Herzenni, an official appointed by King Mohammed to...

The Chinese Embassy in Malawi has removed Wisdom Chimgwede, Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) editor, from the list of journalists travelling to China on a media tour it sponsored after receiving instructions from Malawi's Ministry of Information and Civic Education. The visit is slated to begin on June 21. The ministry had earlier on accused the journalist of writing negatively about the...

The Algerian government is becoming increasingly intolerant of criticism. The communications ministry stripped the Agence France-Presse (AFP) bureau chief and the Reuters correspondent in Algiers of their accreditation on June 10, and a court fined the daily Liberté's publisher and editor and one of its cartoonists for defamation on June 16. "The lack of tolerance for outspoken journalists has...

Thailand's interior minister is under fire for moving to pull a private television channel off of cable networks nationwide, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA). Cable operators, opposition senators, and free expression advocates are calling a directive by Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung - which media reports say threatens cable operators with imprisonment unless they pull...

Thailand's interior minister is under fire for moving to pulling a private television channel off cable networks nationwide. Cable operators, opposition senators, and free expression advocates are calling a directive by Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung—which media reports say threatens cable operators with imprisonment unless they pull the plug on cable channel ASTV—illegal and...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s cabinet Friday unanimously approved a bill that would restrict the use of phone taps to investigations of crimes carrying prison terms of at least 10 years and would impose heavy fines or jail terms on journalists and news media that publish transcripts of phone taps without a judge’s permission. “There would seem to be ulterior motives to this bill as it...

The Sri Lankan government pressured owners and editors of several independent dailies, including the Nation and the Daily Mirror, to dissuade them from publishing critical or embarrassing articles during a visit by a European Commission trade delegation from June 9-11. "The government is mistaken if it thinks it can improve relations with the EU by using threats to silence the independent press,"...

Prison authorities have seized the 300-page manuscript of a book Azadlig newspaper editor-in-chief Ganimat Zahid was trying to write while in Bayil prison #1, where he remains a prisoner, the Baku-based Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS) has reported. The public relations coordinator of the Justice Ministry's Penitentiary Service, Mehman Sadigov, claims the confiscation is legal. "I...