Harassed

Yemeni authorities have pressed new charges against Muhammad al-Maqaleh, editor of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party's news website Aleshteraki, in connection with a 2005 article, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Saturday, the Press and Publications Court summoned al-Maqaleh to appear before it on April 18 on charges of “insulting the president,” according to local...

The Moscow police on Wednesday made an abortive attempt to search the premises of the Moscow-based independent weekly The New Times/ Novoye Vremya in execution of a court order that is the subject of an appeal by the weekly, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Moscow’s Tverskoi district court issued the search order on April 5 in response to a libel action by the elite Omon police and...

Sudanese authorities have pressed criminal charges against prominent journalist and opposition party member Al-Haj Ali Warrag, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The National Press Council's lead attorney charged Warrag on Sunday under the Sudanese Penal Code with “waging war against the state,” in connection with an article published on April 6 in the independent daily Ajras...

The Kiev police interrogated online journalist and blogger Olena Bilozerska and photographer Olexiy Furman of the Photolenta agency and searched their homes in the past few days in a bid to obtain information about participants in protests, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Bilozerska and Furman were summoned to a police station, respectively on March 30 and in early March. They were...

A Kuwait City court sentenced journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem on Thursday to six months in prison on charges of slandering Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The charges were based on remarks Al-Jassem gave at a February human rights conference in which he said the prime minister was unfit to rule the country and...

A number of Turkish journalists are facing sentences for doing their job. Since an amendment to the anti-terrorism law took effect in 2006, media personnel have been exposed to the possibility of long spells in jail just for covering ordinary news developments including judicial proceedings, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. One of the latest victims is photographer Nurettin Kurt of the...

The Belarusian Supreme Court has upheld a government order that will obstruct the work of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), the country’s most prominent press freedom and media support organisation, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The court backed a directive issued in January by the Ministry of Justice that orders the association, known as BAJ, to halt...

Sudan’s official press regulator, the National Press Council, is investigating two editors accused of insulting President Omar al-Bashir, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Yass Omar al-Imam, editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition daily Rai al-Shaab, and Fayez al-Silaik, acting editor-in-chief of the independent daily Ajras al-Hurriya, were questioned Monday by officials with...

The Minsk police on Tuesday raided the offices of the independent news website Charter 97, the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya, and the home office of freelance reporter Irina Khalip, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Masked officers with the Leninsky District Police Department in Minsk confiscated computers, equipment, and electronic documents at the three locations as...

Palestinian journalist Mustafa Sabri’s home in Qaliqilya, in the north of the West Bank, was raided by members of the security forces as he was about to give an interview on March 9, just hours after he was released from prison on payment of 5,000 Jordanian dinars (5,160 euros) in bail, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The newspaper Filastine’s former bureau chief, Sabri had been...