Imprisoned

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed alarm at Iran's continued persecution of independent journalists. Reporters Shiva Nazar Ahari and Emadeddin Baghi have each been sentenced to six years in prison, while authorities are said to be considering the death penalty for blogger Hossein Derakhshan, according to news reports. On Saturday, Iranian authorities sentenced Nazar Ahari, a...

Human rights reporter Azimjon Askarov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Jalal-Abad region, southern Kyrgyzstan, on Wednesday, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Nurgazy Alimbayev pronounced Askarov guilty on a wide range of charges, including complicity to commit homicide and murder of a police officer (two separate counts...

A six-month jail sentence has been imposed by a Dakar court on Abdourahmane Diallo, the editor of the Express News daily, for defaming President Abdoulaye Wade's chief of staff, Pape Samba Mboup. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Diallo, who was tried in absentia, but he has not yet been detained. The Dakar criminal court that had tried Diallo in absentia finally issued its verdict on...

Two-year jail sentences have been imposed on Sonam Rinchen and Sonam Dhondup, two students who helped to edit the Tibetan student magazine Namchak. Two other editors of the magazine, who were arrested at the same time as them in March, are still awaiting trial, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Their conviction has coincided with other cases of...

The Bangladesh supreme court has imposed a six-month jail sentence on Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor of the opposition daily Amar Desh, and a one-month jail sentence on Oliullah Noman, one of his reporters, for contempt of court, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, the supreme court panel on Thursday found...

Iranian authorities have imposed a six-year prison sentence against journalist Badressadat Mofidi, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Mofidi was formerly the secretary-general of the Association of Iranian Journalists in Tehran, an organisation that was established by prominent journalists in 1997 and shut down by the authorities in 2009. On...

A one-year jail sentence and fine of 5 million CFA francs has been slapped by an Abidjan criminal court on Traoré Médandjé, a leading reporter for the daily L'Intelligent d'Abidjan, on charges of defaming and trying to blackmail a former health ministry official. The case was prompted by an article headlined “Vavoua's illegal boutique clinics,” published on September 4, 2009, in which Médjandé...

Three Uighur-language website managers were sentenced Friday to prison terms of three to 10 years after being found guilty under broad charges of “endangering state security.” The men had been jailed after ethnic rioting in July 2009 in Urumqi, capital of the far-western, predominantly Muslim, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Nijat Azat, who managed the website Shabnam, was sentenced to a 10...

Amer Abu Arfa, a correspondent for the Shihab news agency, has been convicted and imprisoned in connection with his news coverage. The agency, based in the Gaza Strip, is perceived by the Palestinian Authority as being pro-Hamas. Abu Arfa was arrested on May 11 by Palestinian security forces, according to his father, who told Shihab that his son was taken from their home by the Palestinian...

Iran has sentenced award-winning journalist Emadeddin Baghi to a year in prison and banned him from political activities for five years, an opposition website has reported. Baghi, who is also a well-known human rights activist, has been "sentenced to one year in prison and banned from political activities for five years after a two-year trial for forming a group defending the rights of prisoners,"...