Harassed

The Jornal Atual newspaper, based in the inland town of Itaguaí in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, has suffered a significant reduction in its distribution. According to the newspaper's owner, Marcelo Godinho, 15 street newsstand vendors have refused since November 6 to put the newspaper out for sale to their customers. All of the newsstands in question belong to the same owner, known as "Rodolfo"...

An appeal court in Saida (440 km southwest of Algiers) has imposed a two-month prison sentence on journalist Hassan Bourras in addition to the fine of 40,000 dinars (460 euros) to which he was originally sentenced, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The court on October 28 issued the additional sentence after upholding his conviction on charges of libel and “attacking state institutions...

Authorities in Zimbabwe should halt harassment of media and human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. Nkomo is awaiting word on whether he will face criminal charges after a client left Zimbabwe in the midst of a case, said Beatrice Mtetwa, co-founder of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. Nkomo was defending Phillip Taylor, a British national...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the arrests of Moussa Aksar, the editor-in-chief of the privately-owned weekly L'Evénement, and one of his journalists, Sani Aboubacar on a charge of libelling the head of the state power company. Their arrests on November 12 came a day after another newspaper editor got a three-month suspended sentence after 12 days in pre-trial custody. "What redress...

There has been a sharp rise in the number of media freedom violations in Zambia recorded during the just ended presidential by-election of October 30. During the pre and immediate post election period, between September and November 2008, there were 16 media freedom violations compared to six between January and August 2008, says the Zambia chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

Russian newspaper Arsenyevskiye Vesti has received an official warning from the prosecutor's office of the Vladivostok Frunzensky district, which accused it of disseminating materials containing elements of extremism. The warning was issued over an article titled 'One Nation - One Constitution' published in the 3-9 September 2008 edition of Arsenyevskiye Vesti. The article dealt with the killing...

A Somalian freelance journalist has been arrested for reportedly filming two bombings last month, the Mogadishu-based National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has reported. Hadis Mohammed Hadis was arrested on November 3 at Igal International Airport in Hargeisa city by officers from Somaliland's Criminal Investigations Department (CID). According to local journalists, the arrest came after...

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has denounced the prosecution of Nizar Al-Abadi, an Iraqi journalist who has been living in Yemen since 1991. ANHRI has also condemned the actions of the public prosecutor, the press and publishers who are acting on behalf of the state security forces against journalists working within the law and the regulations of their profession. Al-Abadi...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Zakari Alzouma, the editor the independent weekly Opinions, who has been detained since October 30 in Niamey as a result of a libel complaint by the interior minister and whose case will not be heard for another week. “Niger’s legislation on press offences comes in handy for a government that does not want to give up its bad habits,”...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Tuesday condemned Nigeria's arrest of online journalist Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, a US national, at the Muritala Muhammed international airport on his arrival from the United States on October 28 to visit his sick mother and attend to family matters. He is currently being held at the headquarters of the internal intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS)...