Harassed

A constitutional court Tuesday approved a petition by Manana Aslamazian, the former director of Internews Russia, ruling that article 188.1 of the criminal code, limiting the amount of currency that can be brought into the country, is unconstitutional. Internews Russia was closed in April 2007 after Aslamazian was charged with contraband under the article. “We welcome the constitutional court’s...

The police in Esigodini in the province of Matabeleland in southern Zimbabwe have arrested three media workers reportedly employed by Sky News, a UK-based cable and satellite channel, which is among the foreign news organisations banned from reporting in Zimbabwe. The journalists were arrested on May 23. They were still in police custody five days later following an application on May 28 for...

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has expressed concern over the ongoing harassment and intimidation of journalists and media executives in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in north-eastern Somalia. On May 25, the governor of Eyn region in Puntland ordered the arrest of journalist Ali Osman of the Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in Buhodle District. The...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has voiced serious concern after it was confirmed that Jesús Lemus Barajas, editor of the daily El Tiempo, in La Piedad, Michoacán state in south-west Mexico, is being held in preventive custody in a drugs case. Paris-based RSF on Tuesday called on the federal authorities to produce clear and compelling reasons for his detention and expressed anxiety that he had...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over the detention of freelance journalist Al-Ghali Yahya Shegifat, who has been held incommunicado in an unknown location since May 14. Neither his family nor his lawyer has been able to contact him and the charges against him are unknown. "The way this journalist has been made to virtually disappear is illegal and outrageous," Paris-based RSF...

There has been a spate of arrests, detentions, and trials of journalists in Vietnam, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Somsak Khunmi, a long-time news assistant and contributor to Chan Troi Moi (Radio New Horizon) was sentenced today to nine months in prison and three years probation following a six-hour trial Tuesday last on terrorism charges at the People’s Court of Ho Chi...

Chinese authorities have freed a Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) reporter and a cameraman, the public broadcaster said Friday. The pair, together with a Chinese builder they were supposed to interview, the worker's brother-in-law and an interpreter, had been arrested Friday morning in Henan province. All five were subsequently released. YLE said Pirkko Pöntinen, the reporter, and Mika Mattila...

The State Security Specialized Court refused on Sunday a request to release journalist Mohammad al-Maqaleh who is charged of mocking a judge during a colleague's trial, according to the NewsYemen website. At hearing session, the court said al-Maqaleh was charged with committing criminal acts when he insulted judge in the court room on April 8 and ridiculed the court's procedures against journalist...

A Reuters photographer covering the aftermath of Zimbabwe's elections has been detained for three days for allegedly using a satellite phone to transmit pictures, the global news and information company said on Thursday. Reuters called for the immediate release of Howard Burditt, a Zimbabwean national, who has been held by police in Harare since Monday. He has not been charged. "As part of its pan...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at allegations that federal police agents assaulted three reporters working in Culiacán, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, three reporters working for the newspaper El Debate went to report on a roadside checkpoint being mounted by federal police agents about one block from...