Imprisoned

An appeal court in Gafsa (400 km south of Tunis) has confirmed the six-year prison sentence that was imposed on reporter Fahem Boukadous of the satellite TV station el Hiwar el Tounissi in connection with his coverage of last year’s demonstrations in the Gafsa mining region. Boukadous is still in hiding. His sentence was upheld as part of a ruling concerning all of the 38 people who were convicted...

Boussada Ben Ali, the managing editor of independent Nigerien weekly L’Action, was Friday sentenced to three months in prison and fined 50,000 CFA francs (about 76 euros) for “publishing false information”. The journalist immediately appealed against the sentence but will remain in custody at Niamey prison where he has been since January 26 while awaiting the outcome of the appeal, Reporters sans...

The Afghanistan prosecutor-general has decided to continue the detention of journalist Nazari Paryani, head of news pages on the daily Payman. He has been imprisoned at the remand jail in Kabul since January 13. “The newspaper mistakenly published an article containing ambiguous judgements about religions, but Nazari Paryani had no direct responsibility for this," Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

A three-year prison sentence has been handed down to Lewis Medjo, managing editor of Cameroonian weekly La Détente libre, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He has been in Douala central prison in the west of the country since September 22, 2008. Medjo was found guilty on January 7 of “spreading false news” and sentenced by the Douala court to three years in prison and a fine of two...

A court in Gafsa (350 km south of Tunis) has sentenced reporter Fahem Boukadous in absentia to six years in prison on a charge of “forming a criminal association liable to attack persons and their property” for covering demonstrations in the Gafsa mining region. Boukadous works for Al-Hiwar Attounsi, a privately-owned TV station based in Italy that broadcasts to Tunisia. “This harsh sentence is...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of Milton Chacaguasay Flores, owner and editor of the weekly La Verdad, based in Machala, south-western Ecuador. The journalist, who had been acquitted in a lower court, was sentenced on appeal on November 15 to 10 months in prison for “insulting” a judge and imprisoned two weeks later. This came one month after Freddy Aponte...

One of Haiti's best known journalists, Joseph Guyler C Delva, has been sentenced to a month in prison by a Port-au-Prince criminal court for defaming a senator, Rudolph Boulos, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Delva is still free pending the outcome of an appeal. The order was passed on December 10. Boulos sued Delva after he said Boulos had a US passport. This would preclude him from...

A former Voice of America (VOA) journalist and four soldiers have been convicted of state security crimes in Angola and sentenced to 12 years in prison in a trial that, Human Rights Watch (HRS) says, fell far short of internaitonal fair trial standards. On September 16, 2008, a military court in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda convicted former VOA journalist, Fernando Lelo, and four soldiers of...

Kinshasa's N'Djili court has handed down 10 and nine-month sentences, respectively, to Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of the Kinshasa-based, independent bi-weekly Interprète, and his assistant, Davin Tondo Nzovuanga, according to Kinshasa-based Journaliste en Danger (JED). The court's decision of November 27 was made public a week later. The two men were arrested by state security agents in March and...

A freelance journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in the Kurdish city of Erbil for writing an article about health and sex for independent weekly Hawlati. Adel Hussein, a doctor and a freelance journalist, was found guilty of violating "public custom" on November 24 by a court in Erbil for publishing an article in April 2007 in Hawlati about health and sex, Tariq Fatih, the weekly...