Censored

Bangladesh's first and only 24-hour news channel has gone off air days after broadcasting last month’s student-led anti-government riots. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission told the CSB News station it would be permanently closed if it fails to satisfactorily explain its registration status in seven days, said Hummam Quader Chowdhury, director of Focus Mult, the company that...

As the Rugby World Cup is set to begin in France later this week, media restrictions imposed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) threaten full press coverage of the events. England's Mark Regan (left) tries to break a tackle from France's Jerome Thion (centre) and Raphael Ibanez during their Investec Challenge international friendly at Twickenham, August 2007. England's rugby World Cup squad...

The Burmese junta is resorting to all methods possible to prevent journalists, including those working for the foreign media, from covering a wave of unrest in response to an increase in the price of fuel. “The military’s response to the wave of protests against price increases since 19 August has again been heavy-handed repression, intimidation and censorship of Burmese journalists,” Reporters...

(BIANET/IFEX) - The judiciary in Turkey has again blocked access to a website because of the content of one item on the site. Following the blocking of the alternative dictionary website "Eksisözlük" (literally, "sour dictionary"; http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/Default.asp? ) and the website Antoloji.com ( http://www.antoloji.com/ ), access to the website WordPress.com ( http://wordpress.com/ ) has...

The Burmese military dictatorship may be tightening the already restricted telecommunication channels in the country to prevent information about the ongoing mass protests and arrests in Rangoon from leaking out. Members of the Burmese National League for Democracy shout slogans during a protest in front of the Burmese embassy in Seoul August 8, 2007. The protest was held in conjunction with the...

Local journalists are being assaulted, detained and harassed by security forces in Bangladesh attempting to enforce the indefinite curfew imposed Wednesday on capital Dhaka and five other cities in response to growing unrest across the country. On Wednesday, the military-backed interim government announced an indefinite curfew in six urban centres that had been the scene of violent clashes between...

The Manipur government has banned publication of any propaganda of unlawful organisations or terrorist groups. Newspapers, books or printed documents would be forfeited if they contain news items which were considered to be subversive and a threat to the integrity of the country, the government decreed in an official order issued by Principal Secretary (Home) PBO Warjri. The state home department...

Iran has closed down prominent pro-reform daily Shargh (East) three months after it was allowed to resume publicaiton following a ban, its director said on Monday. Shargh is the second publication critical of the government to be shut down since July. The closure of Shargh coincides with what rights groups and diplomats say is a broad crackdown on dissenting voices in the Islamic state, which is...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the government’s confiscation yesterday of the latest issues of the Arabic-language weekly Nichane and the French-language weekly TelQuel for “failing to respect” King Mohammed. “Press freedom violations are mounting dangerously in Morocco,” the organisation said. “The political and judicial authorities must abandon this archaic practice of systematically...

Burma’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Board has prohibited non government newspapers and magazines in the country from carrying advertisements in all foreign languages except English. The ban comes in the aftermath of English-language Myanmar Times carrying an advertisement by a Denmark-based satirical art group with a hidden message calling the country's top military ruler Gen Than Shwe a...