Harassed

The Venezuelan government has withdrawn the licences of 34 radio and TV stations, 13 of which already stopped broadcasting earlier. When the authorities announced the withdrawal of 34 broadcast media licences on August 2, they warned that 200 other radio and TV stations could suffer the same fate. Diosdado Cabello, the minister who supervises the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel)...

Eight newspaper publishers were interrogated by the Niamey police on August 1 at the behest of the President’s son for publishing a document accusing him and another person of taking kickbacks, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After being questioned, two of the publishers were taken into custody in connection with another case and were due to appear before prosecutors on August 5....

Two Nigerien editors whose weekly newspapers reported on corruption charges involving the national human rights commission have been in police custody since Saturday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. Abdoulaye Tiémogo of the Le Canard Dechainé and Ali Soumana of Le Courrier were being held at the main police station in the capital...

The Palestinian military intelligence service arrested freelance journalist Mustafa Sabri from his home in Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank, on Wednesday morning, the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has reported. His wife said that military intelligence personnel arrived at their home at 1:00 a.m. (local time) and took her husband to an unknown location. Sabri had...

Three bloggers have been detained with charge in Egypt since last week, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Islamist blogger Abdel Rahman Ayyash, who writes for Al-Ghareeb (The Stranger), was arrested at the Cairo airport on Tuesday on his return from Turkey where he attended a youth conference, according to multiple news reports. Muslim Brotherhood member Magdi Saad, who used...

The government in the breakaway republic of Somaliland has launched a crackdown on the independent press as September presidential elections near. On July 13, Somaliland police arrested private Radio Horyaal Director Mohamed Osman and News Editor Ahmed Suleiman at the station, accusing them of inciting violence, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported. The two were remanded in custody...

Media representatives are frequently being prevented by Moldovan authorities from reporting freely, especially following parliamentary elections in April this year, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has said. According to SEEMO, on July 12 two journalists, Ivan Melnic and Vladimir Thorik from the Moldovan newspaper Moldavskie Vedomosti, were forcefully prevented from entering a...

Six bloggers based in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian were arrested at the end of last month on charges of defamation and high treason, according to delayed reports received by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Lawyers have told the Paris-based press freedom organisation they are being held for reporting that a young woman died after being gangraped in February 2008. “Reporting a woman...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed outrage at the arrest of two journalists and the closure of a TV station in the northwestern breakaway territory of Somaliland and the beatings which several journalists received from police in the northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland. “While the international community’s attention is focused on the abduction of two French government...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm by the harassment of international journalists covering last week's disputed presidential elections in Republic of Congo. On Wednesday, police smashed the camera of videographer Marlène Rabaud of France 24 while she was filming the dispersal of an opposition demonstration in the capital, Brazzaville, according to local journalists and...