Harassed

Zimbabwean freelance photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi has decided to flee to South Africa with his family after being assaulted by the police and having his car confiscated, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Before leaving the country, Mukwazhi told MISA-Zimbabwe that the police accused him of possessing an "improperly registered vehicle" and of having used the...

The editor-in-chief of independent news website Ingushetiya has fled Russia and is seeking asylum in Europe, daily the Moscow Times reported Thursday. Ingushetiya's lawyer, Kaloy Akhilgov, told CPJ that Roza Malsagova left Russia two weeks ago after being harassed, threatened, and beaten by Ingush authorities. She also faces criminal prosecution. Earlier this year, regional prosecutors opened...

Reporters covering the aftermath of Monday's attack on a border police outpost in Kashgar have been detained, beaten, and harassed, according to international news reports. Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Wednesday that police in Kashgar dragged Masami Kawakita, a photographer from the Chunichi Shimbun newspaper's Tokyo headquarters, and Shinji Katsuta, a reporter for Nippon Television Network...

The police in the western Uzbek city of Nukus have brought another charge against an independent journalist to justify his arrest and detention, after initially bringing charges of drug use, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On August 2, investigators in Nukus acknowledged that Salidzhon Abdurakhmonov's blood test results revealed no sign of drug use but...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned recent attacks on Palestinian journalists by both governments of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority which are locked in a political power struggle. The recent reports of torturing journalists in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is the culmination of an intimidation campaign against journalists and media which started during the violent...

Ali Al-Mashhadani, an Iraqi cameraman employed by the Reuters news agency, was arrested on July 26 by US troops while he was visiting the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad's Green Zone. "Mashhadani has been held without charge by the US military since 26 July and must be freed at once," Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. "It is unacceptable that US troops arrest a journalist...

The Hamas-led government in Gaza should immediately halt a wave of censorship and harassment of Palestinian media outlets and journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. CPJ also called on the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to end its longstanding obstruction of certain media outlets in the West Bank On Tuesday, for the second consecutive day, Hamas banned distribution in...

Afghan television reporter Mohammad Nasir Fayyaz was detained one day after his television station aired a documentary that was critical of some cabinet members and their ministries, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The programme was cut short while being broadcast, apparently at the demand of the government, media reports said. Afghan and foreign media reports said Fayyaz...

During the weekend of July 26-27, unidentified individuals broke into the offices of CIMAC (Comunicación e Información de la Mujer), a Mexico City-based non-govermental organisation that reports on women's issues through the "Cimacnoticias" news agency. The assailants stole some of the organisation's equipment and destroyed a number of documents. CIMAC editor Carolina Velázquez explained in an...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressede concern over the July 26 arrest of a Palestinian cameraman in Gaza by Hamas security services. Hamas security agents arrested Sawah Abu Seif, a cameraman with German broadcaster ARD TV in his home in Tel al-Hawa in southwest Gaza following an explosion that Hamas blamed on Fatah, which killed six people in Gaza, according to local...