Harassed

A Cambodian man who shared web articles with two of his colleagues was convicted on incitement charges and sentenced to six months in jail under a new penal code, reports Human Rights Watch, which called the use of the law "a huge step backward for free expression in Cambodia." On December 17, Seng Kunnaka, a Cambodian employee with the United Nations World Food Programme in Phnom Penh, was...

An Ecuadoran provincial radio station known for its criticism of local authorities was denied its license renewal based on bogus administrative violations, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Ecuadoran regulators must allow the station to report the news freely, CPJ said. "The decision to shut down Voz de la Esmeralda Oriental Canela Radio is clearly arbitrary and...

The murder case of Bharatiya Janata Party BJP MLA Raj Kishore Kesri took a new turn on Thursday with the Bihar police arresting Navlesh Pathak, the editor of a local English weekly Quisling, who had for the first time reported the sexual harassment complaint of Rupam Pathak, according to the Indian Express. The police action came following an FIR filed in the K-Hat police station here against the...

The Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) has condemned the Asom Sahitya Sabha for serving "extortion notices" to a number of electronic media houses in Guwahati. A letter printed on the official ASS pad (vide no 2010-2011-2165-71) and signed by its general secretary Paramananda Rajbangshi has demanded Rs 3,50,000 from four news channels — NewsLive, DY365, NewsTime Assam and Prag News at the...

It is becoming increasingly a trend in India -- the act of rightwing Hindu ultranationalists targeting journalists who expose their misdeeds. The journalist who reported about a mass grave in Panderwada village in Panchmahal district of Gujarat is now being hounded by the state police. A six-member police team landed up in Bhopal on Wednesday to serve summons to Rahul Singh in connection with the...

Belarusian authorities continued their massive crackdown on critical news media on Tuesday as security agents raided offices shared by the independent weekly Nasha Niva and the Belarusian PEN Center, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). KGB agents confiscated a dozen computers and numerous digital storage devices after producing a search warrant...

Authorities should immediately release Congolese radio journalist Robert Shemahamba, who has been held in the eastern city of Uvira since Friday in connection with a political program critical of local officials, the New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Shemahamba, director of the community station Radio Télé Mitumba, was taken into custody by the...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Thai authorities to release Sun Shucai, an 87-year-old refugee activist and journalist who was arrested in Bangkok on December 8. He is now in a Bangkok immigration detention centre after a judge fined him 3,000 Baht (75 euros) on December 9 and ordered the authorities to examine the possibility of deporting him. “We are...

Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) voiced clear support for media freedom during his party’s congress on December 13 but in recent months more and more lawsuits have been brought against the Kurdish media, and not just the independent ones. Newspaper editors nowadays seem to be spending their time in the...

The Sunday Independent on Sunday said police have been harassing one of its journalists following an exposé on allegations of fraud, corruption and nepotism. Following the reports, the police were granted an interdict by the North Gauteng High Court to silence the paper, according to Eye Witness News. The paper said the journalist who wrote the article was being followed by the police and had her...