Harassed

Vietnamese authorities have arrested blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra in the latest episode in a mounting crackdown on bloggers leading up to a crucial Communist Party congress scheduled for January 2011, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Tra, who writes under the penname Do Long Girl, was taken into custody at her Ho Chi Minh City home on October 23, according to...

Malaysian authorities have arrested cartoonist Zulkifli Awar Ulhaque, also known as Zunar, a contributor to the popular news site Malaysiakini and author of a new collection of political cartoons, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Police raided Zunar's Kuala Lumpur office and arrested him under the Sedition Act on Friday, just before the scheduled release of his...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced Algerian authorities' harassment of two Moroccan journalists who were effectively detained for four days in the town of Tindouf in southwestern Algeria. Lahcen Tigbadar and Mohamed Slimani, journalists with the Moroccan weekly Assahra Ousbouiya, returned home on Wednesday, according to news reports. Algerian police had prevented them from...

Thailand authorities have arrested Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the popular Thailand news website Prachatai, on charges of insulting the royal family, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Prachatai said police at Suvarnabhumi Airport detained Chiranuch at 2:30 p.m. as she arrived from Hungary, where she had attended an Internet freedom conference. Police...

NATO forces have freed one of three detained Afghan Al-Jazeera journalists, AP and other media outlets announced on Friday. The three had been detained on suspicion of spreading Taliban propaganda, by among other things filming insurgent attacks. Two still remain in custody. Al-Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Nadir was released early on Friday, AP reported. IPI and other press freedom organisations had...

The arbitrary detention of Yemeni journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was extended Wednesday by a special court responsible for trying cases of endangering state security, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. The court ordered he remain a further 30 days in custody officially in response to the requirements of the police investigation. The journalist was arrested at...

Two Afghan journalists were seized by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in early-morning raids at their homes this week, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Rahmatullah Nekzad, a freelancer who contributes to Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press,was arrested just after midnight Monday in Ghazni, according to local and international media reports...

Three Afghan journalists based in the provinces have been arrested in separate cases in the past four days because of their coverage of the parliamentary elections or for having contact with the Taliban, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Hojatullah Mujadadi, a radio station manager and head of a journalists’ association, was arrested by police in the...

Tension is brewing between Kurdistan’s ruling parties and security forces, on the one hand, and its journalists and news media, on the other. Magazine editor Hemn Karim’s detention for more than 24 hours during the weekend and a spate of libel actions are the latest examples of this fraught climate. A wave of defamation suits seems to be eroding press freedom, especially as they often are being...

Award-winning Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque has been refused entry to Britain. Duque was invited by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to give a speech about her work in upholding human rights. The UK government had previously praised her work exposing human rights abuses in Colombia. Both NUJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have condemned the decision. NUJ...