Harassed

Rwanda’s independent media is facing increasing intimidation in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year. On Friday, three editors of private Kinyarwanda-language newspapers were suddenly expelled from the afternoon session of a World Press Freedom Day event at the Serena Hotel in the capital, Kigali, despite attending the media stakeholders’ forum since the morning as...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for sedition charges to be dropped against Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who was jailed Tuesday. He is being held in connection with a story alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife were involved in the October 2006 murder of a Mongolian translator. Najib has denied the allegation. Raja Petra’s online article...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemns a decision by Chinese authorities to place a journalist known by the name of Naranbilig under house arrest for a year after holding him for 20 days in Inner Mongolia. It also condemned the May 3 arrest of writer Zhou Yuanzhi, who may now be charged with “inciting subversion of state authority” as many other Chinese intellectuals and dissidents have...

A renowned Chinese columnist has lost his job at a magazine over commentaries on unrest in Tibet which did not conform with the official line, a watchdog group and a source with knowledge of the dismissal said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Zhang Ping, who writes under the pen name Chang Ping, was sacked as deputy chief editor of the Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine, the Paris-based...

Police in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have detained a journalist and three support staffers of a private entertainment magazine since May 2. Local journalists say the detentions are related to a cover story about the high-profile trial of Ethiopia’s most popular pop singer, Tewodros Kassahun. Deputy Editor and owner Alemayehu Mahtemework and the three media workers from the monthly Enku...

Press freedom panel Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday condemned the weekend arrest of three Ugandan journalists for publishing inflammatory reports. Police on Saturday detained Andrew Mwenda, publisher of the bi-monthly magazine Independent, consulting editor Odobo Bichachi and journalist John Njoroge and accused them of "possessing seditious materials" and "publishing inflammatory...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern at the harassment in Chechnya of Jane Armstrong, Moscow correspondent for the Canadian national daily the Globe and Mail. Armstrong and her Russian photographer and interpreter Olga Kravets had travelled from Moscow to the Chechen capital of Grozny to report on social and cultural traditions in the southern republic last week, when...

A Somali radio journalist was detained for eight hours by police on Monday, amid the deadliest violence Mogadishu has experienced in months, the reporter told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "I got my freedom back," Abdi Mohamed Ismail, Shabelle Radio news editor, told AFP after his release. "They dealt with me fairly, but they didn't ask me anything during the whole time that I spent in custody...

Radio Netherlands Worldwide journalist Abir Sarras was arrested at Tel Aviv airport on Sunday night. She was told that she would not be permitted to enter Israel and that she would be put on a plane back to the Netherlands, the radio station reported. Palestinian-born Sarras, who holds a Dutch passport, had been planning to produce a series of reports about Israel's 60 year existence. Sarras used...

Police in Somalia raided and closed an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, arresting five journalists, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. "A dozen of policemen aboard minibus entered the building and they arrested five of my colleagues including the editor," said Omar Habeb, a producer at Radio Voice of Peace. Mohamed Ali Irole, the radio station's director, said...