Censored

The Burmese junta has taken a series of measures in the past few days to control news and information coming out of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta According to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the Burma Media Association (BMA), an organisation of Burmese journalists in exile, the blogger and comedian known by the stage name of Zarganar was arrested without explanation on June 5...

The United Nations has apologised to an Iranian journalist who was barred from a food summit in Rome following opposition from the Islamic state whose president was among participants, agencies have reported. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday that it was sorry after the incident involving Ahmad Rafat, an Iranian who works for the Italian news agency ADN-Kronos, Agence...

The Belarusian foreign ministry’s has refused to issue accreditation to reporter Alyaksey Minchonak of Radio Racyja, a station based in the Polish city of Bialystok that broadcasts to Belarus. This latest obstacle for the station comes a month after the police raided its Minsk bureau and seized equipment, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The authorities are continuing to harass Radio...

Journalists and the news media have consistently been harassed in the past two months by the Moldovan authorities. The biweekly Moldavskie Vedomosti is threatened with closure by an investigation into alleged corruption while the body that allocates broadcast frequencies has been accused of favouring pro-government radio and TV stations. “With just one year to go to parliamentary elections, it is...

Eddy Abasiko Mango, a journalist with the Kisangani-based station of state-owned Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), was suspended on May 23 for three months by Bwande Bwanapuwa, the station's provincial manager, for hosting a programme where guests criticised the provincial governor, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. In his May 21 political programme called "Loba Toyoka" (Speak...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed concern over the decision ot Chinese authorities to suspend publication of a magazine and forced the dismissal of its editorial staff over coverage of last week's earthquake in Sichuan province. New Travel Weekly, published in Chongqing, was reportedly suspended from publishing on May 20 after failing to carry mourning messages in the...

Private weeklies in Burma have been ordered by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board not to run any story that depicts the destruction caused by the cyclone that pummelled the Rangoon and Irrawaddy deltas; rather, they have been told to cover only the reconstruction efforts by authorities, Mizzima News has reported quoting local journalists. Mizzima's sources spoke on condition of anonymity...

A newspaper in Cambodia has had to stop publishing a pullout on Burma after authorities confiscated that section for two consecutive days, warning that a suspension would soon follow. The English-Khmer Cambodia Daily started the pullout, called the "Burma Daily", on May 16, "to introduce to the Burmese people what a free and responsible newspaper looks like", its publisher Bernard Krisher was...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the actions of Burma’s military government in restricting press access to disaster areas and censoring local news coverage of the massive devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. According to CPJ sources, Prime Minister Thein Sein announced at a meeting with businessmen Tuesday that foreigners—including journalists—would not be allowed into the...

Hackers attacked the website of Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper and shut it down for three days, the newspaper said on Monday, according to a Reuters report. The Herald is widely seen as the official mouthpiece of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and has been critical of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which won the country's disputed March 29 elections...