Censored

Police in the Senegalese capital of Dakar assaulted a reporter who was covering a violent anti-government protest on Sunday. They later raided the reporter’s station and confiscated footage, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. Walf TV reporter Ousmane Mangane told New York-based CPJ that riot police used Tasers on him as he was...

Security police Thursday raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices and detained at least two reporters at their homes, Reuters has reported. The raids were launched two days after police broke up a rally by opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of activists were fined or handed short jail terms. Zhanna Litvina, head of Belarus's Journalists' Association, told Reuters that the KGB...

The Zimbabwe government has done what it was expected to do ahead of the March 29 general elections—it is clamping down on the media. To start with it has refused to allow several leading international news organisaitons to cover the elections although it has signed international conventions that require it to guarantee “total access to national and international media.” A jail sentence of up to...

The Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Board has suspended the 7 Days News journal for a week for reporting on a multiple-murder case in its March 13 issue, according to Mizzima News. The report quoted police and covered the funeral of a family of four and their domestic help who were shot dead in broad daylight near the home of imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon on March 3, said...

With international attention focused on the unfolding violence in Tibet, the Chinese media is confronting massive censorship, leaving the Chinese public largely in the dark. The Chinese government has barred or expelled virtually all international reporters from the region, and the state media presents the government’s perspective, which blames the Dalai Lama for the violence, the New York-based...

Yemen banned a new magazine Sunday for publishing a picture of the nation's president deemed "inappropriate" by authorities, the Associated Press (AP) has reported quoting the magazine's editor. Nabil al-Soufi, editor of Abwab, said the security authorities banned the first issue of the magazine because they believed the picture of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the cover made him look dour....

Iran has closed down nine film and lifestyle magazines for publishing pictures and stories about the life of "corrupt" foreign film stars and promoting "superstitions." The Press Supervisory Board, a body controlled by hardliners, also sent warning notes to 13 other publications and magazines on "observing the provisions of the press law," the Culture Ministry said on its website, acording to an...

Niger’s official media regulator summarily suspended Wednesday the FM broadcasts of France-based Radio France Internationale (RFI) for three months, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Authorities accused RFI of discrediting the government in connection with a day-long series of programmes on Monday about the detention of RFI correspondent Moussa Kaka. In a...

Gabon has banned a private newspaper for republishing a report on President Omar Bongo’s private wealth in France. The original story appeared in French daily Le Monde at the end of January. Gabon’s state-run National Communications Council accused Tendance Gabon, a private semimonthly, of spreading “a campaign of denigration” against Bongo after questioning Director Edwige Anyouzoa during a nine...

The editor of a women’s rights magazine in Afghanistan was arrested in Iran on March 4 and continues to be held without charge. The Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA) has reported that Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqoq-e-Zan (Women’s Rights) magazine, was reportedly detained by Iranian officials in Qumm, near the Iranian capital Tehran. Documents, phones and a computer...