Harassed

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the administration's increasing pressure on the Republic of Korea's media. The arrest on April 28 of four staff members with the country's second-largest broadcaster, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), is only the most recent step in what appears to be a broader effort to stifle independent reporting critical of government...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Syrian authorities to disclose the whereabouts of a journalist who has been held incommunicado since early April after he was ordered to visit the political security ‎‎office in Aleppo. Faruq Haji Mustafa, a Syrian Kurdish journalist and writer, was arrested on April 5 by political security ‎officers, according to the ‎‏Samir ‎Kassir...

Moldovan authorities have been arresting journalists and even using violence against them amid angry protests and rioting about the results of last weekend’s parliamentary elections, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Both Moldovan and Romanian journalists have been affected. “We appeal to the authorities to act with care and restraint,” RSF said. “They have a duty to ensure...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to the king of Bahrain to protest the recent deterioration of press freedom in the country and his government's ongoing campaign against critical or opposition websites and blogs. The crackdown against those sites has resulted in dozens of them being blocked inside the kingdom, according to local and international human rights and press...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Moldovan authorities to allow Romanian journalists to enter Moldova and report on anti-communist rallies that have swept Moldova's capital, Chisinau, since Monday. Approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest Sunday's parliamentary election, which was won by President Vladimir Voronin's Communist Party. Nineteen...

Police in the western city of Kaliningrad should drop trumped-up bribery charges against Arseny Makhlov, the founder of the independent weekly Dvornik, and allow him to work without fear of harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Makhlov was arrested and charged on Monday after Dvornik published articles on corruption in the building industry that implicated local...

Pierre Haski, the editor of the French news website Rue89, and one of his reporters, Augustin Scalbert, have been summoned for questioning by an anti-crime unit, the BRDP, in connection with a video of President Nicolas Sarkozy talking informally to TV studio staff before an interview without realising he was being recorded, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “We condemn this escalation...

Chun Keun Lee, a journalist employed by public TV station MBC, who was arrested March 24 evening in Seoul on the orders of the prosecutor’s office, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has reported. When a RSF representative met Lee on March 25, he said he knew he might be arrested in connection with a report about beef imports from the United States. After Lee’s arrest, the representative went to MBC...

The father of imprisoned journalist Roxana Saberi says he and his wife are making plans to go to Iran to see her in a couple of days. "I'm hoping if she sees us, it will lift her spirits," Reza Saberi said told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The AP report said: [ Link] The Iranian government has said Roxana Saberi was imprisoned for doing reporting work in the country after her press...

The junta in Mauritania must immediately halt its increasing persecution of critical journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. On March 15, police arrested Abbass Ould Braham, a journalist with the independent news Web site Taqadoumy, ‎in a Nouakchott cafe after he wrote an article critical of military rule, a local journalist told CPJ. Taqadoumy was blocked until March...