Harassed

An appeal court in Tajikistan has upheld an astronomical damages award against a news weekly and the announcement of new lawsuits against a total of four leading newspapers, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The damages award of 300,000 somoni (49,000 euros) against the weekly Paykon (“Arrowhead”) was confirmed on January 26 by a Dushanbe court. The newspaper had been ordered to pay...

Liquidators took control of Morocco's most critical publication this week after a Casablanca commercial appeals court declared on Monday that Le Journal Hebdomadaire’s former publishing group, Media Trust, and its current one, Trimedia, were bankrupt, lawyers told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Aboubakr Jamaï, co-founder and former managing director of Le Journal Hebdomadaire, told...

The latest series of bombings in Baghdad, Tuesday afternoon, were targeted at the city’s main hotels, which house many Iraqi and foreign news media. The offices of the Al-Hurra TV station were damaged and many journalists suffered minor injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF condemned this indiscriminate violence against Iraqi civilians but pointed out that the situation for...

US journalist Jared Malsin is still being held in a detention centre at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). He was arrested on arrival at the airport on January 12 and questioned for eight hours about his work as a journalist for Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news agency based in Bethlehem. He was due to be taken before a judge on Sunday...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called on Uzbek authorities to immediately cease their campaign of intimidation against the handful of independent journalists remaining in the Central Asian country. From January 7-9, at least six journalists were called in for “an informal talk” at the Tashkent prosecutor’s office, and at least four of them were interrogated about their work...

Press freedom groups have condemned the detention and imminent expulsion of US journalist Jared Malsin, who has worked for the past two years as an editor with Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news agency based in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Malsin, 26, was arrested and placed in a detention centre on arriving at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on the afternoon of January 12 on a flight from...

Three press freedom activists have been prosecuted for organising a “flash mob” in support of imprisoned journalists in Kazakhstan capital Almaty on January 6. The three activists were charged with holding an illegal demonstration when they appeared before an Almaty court on January 11, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The prosecution of Raushan Esergepova, Rozlana Taukina and...

For the third time in a row, one of jailed blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman's lawyers has been denied the right to visit him in Borg Al Arab prison although he had the required permits from the Alexandria attorney-general’s office, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He is better known by the pen-name of Kareem Amer. The lawyer, Ahmed Omar, one of the Arabic Network for Human Rights...

Syrian reporter Ali Taha and cameraman Ali Ahmed have been detained by the Department of Internal Security since January 2, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The authorities have not said why they were arrested or where they are being held. According to the information available, the security forces arrested Ahmed, who has worked for the TV station Rotana for the past 10 years, while...

Five journalists were summoned to the prosecutor’s office in Tashkent on Thursday for a grilling about their media activities and their sources of income. It has emerged that two other journalists received similar summonses Friday, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The five journalist who were “invited” to the office of assistant prosecutor Bakhrom Nurmatov were Marina Kozlova, Sid...