Harassed

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following a new round of revelations about the spying on journalists and news media by the DAS, an intelligence agency that reports directly to the president’s office. The phone-tap scandal was first exposed by the weekly Semana in February. “Ever since...

The Zimbabwe police conducted a raid on the Harare headquarters of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper on May 9 and the arrests of its director, editor and news editor two days later, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The three journalists were freed on bail after being held for 24 hours. “Zimbabwean journalists continue to be the victims of police brutality and judicial...

Police in Zimbabwe should immediately release Alec Muchadehama, a prominent human rights lawyer targetted for his work on behalf of journalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere and others, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Two agents of the Zimbabwe police's Law and Order section arrested Alec Muchadehama at the Rotten Row Magistrates Courts in Harare Thursday morning, according to a...

Israeli newspaper reporter Amira Hass was arrested at the Erez border crossing Tuesay as she returned to Israel after spending four months in the Gaza Strip reporting for the Tel Aviv-based daily Haaretz in violation of a military ban on Israeli citizens visiting the Palestinian Territories, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Hass told RSF that the Israeli police arrested...

A foreign travel ban has been placed on William Tonet, the editor of the independent Luanda-based biweekly Folha 8 (F8), whose passport was seized when he tried to cross by land into Namibia on May 9, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Tonet has been harassed by the authorities ever since the newspaper’s creation in 1995. “The persecution of Tonet because of the stories he publishes is...

Tunisian government efforts to force out the president of a critical journalists union is part of a campaign to eliminate independent media in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. The campaign started on May 4 when a group of pro-government journalists and followers of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali prevented National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ)...

Yemeni authorities have launched a campaign to suppress independent journalism in the country, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Authorities have announced a special court to try media and publishing offences. One of the latest victims of the media crackdown launched nearly two weeks ago is Yahya Bamahfud, a blogger and former editor of the Hadhramaut news...

The Northern Ireland police are trying to obtain a court order in Belfast that would force Suzanne Breen, the Belfast editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune newspaper, to hand over all her source material about the Real IRA, an Irish Republican Army splinter group. “Journalists are neither police auxiliaries nor criminals,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “The confidentiality...

Amid an increasing crackdown on the media in Yemen, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for Yemeni authorities to disclose the whereabouts of a journalist who has been held incommunicado since May 4 after he was arrested in southern Yemen. CPJ also called on the authorities to drop a series of lawsuits against an independent critical newspaper. Security forces arrested Fuad...

Radio Mada sports reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina has been retained in detention and charged with “inciting revolt against the republic’s institutions,” defamation and disseminating false information, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He was arrested on May 5 and forced to reveal the location from which the radio was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order. “Even if...