Imprisoned

Veteran Zambian Editor Fred M’membe was sent to prison Friday following his sentencing for contempt of court sparked by an op-ed on the state’s prosecution of a journalist, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Having convicted M’membe earlier this week, Magistrate David Simusamba sentenced the the editor-in-chief of Zambia’s largest newspaper, The Post, to four months in prison...

The Press and Publication Court in Yemen handed down suspended jail sentences to an editor and four reporters on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The sentences come just a few days after local media reported that President Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned all journalists being tried or convicted of press offenses to mark the 20th anniversary of Yemen's unification. On...

Vedat Kursun, the former editor of Turkey’s only Kurdish-language daily, Azadiya Welat, was on Thursday given a sentence of 166 years and six months in prison by a court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Kursun was convicted under articles 314-3 and 220-6 of the criminal code and article 7-2 of the anti-terrorism law on charges of membership of...

On May 2, the Press and Publications Court in Sana’a found Hussein Muhammad al-Leswas, editor of the news website Sana Press, guilty of “undermining national foundations, the revolution, and the republic” and sentenced him to one year in prison, according to local press reports and freelance journalist Samia al-Aghraby. The court also instituted an open-ended reporting ban against al-Leswas...

A 13-year prison sentence was handed down to Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in absentia on Sunday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Newsweek correspondent Bahari, who was held in detention for four months on manufactured anti-state charges in 2009, was sentenced by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Sunday to 13 years in prison, in addition to 74 lashes. Bahari...

Vedat Kursun, the biggest shareholder in Turkey’s only Kurdish-language daily, Azadiya Welat (Free Country), was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on March 30 on a charge of propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. The newspaper’s managing editor until jailed last year, Kursun is the...

A court in the Kigali district of Nyarugenge Monday imposed jail sentences on Charles Kabonero, the publisher of the weekly Umuseso, Didas Gasana, its editor, and Richard Kayigamba, one of its reporters, after finding them guilty of invading privacy in one of their articles. Kabonero got 12 months, while the other two got six months. “We firmly condemn these sentences, which deprive the newspaper...

Palestinian journalist Tareq Abu Zayd, the correspondent of Hamas-run TV station Al-Aqsa, has been given an 18-month jail sentence by a court in the West Bank city of Nablus, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The sentence was imposed by a Palestinian Authority military court on February 16. Zayd has been held for more than three months in Nablus, 60 km north of Jerusalem. The supreme...

A court in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, has passed a 21-year jail sentence on Ozan Kilinç, the owner and editor of the country’s only Kurdish-language daily, Azadiya Welat, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. After finding Kilinç guilty of criminal propaganda in support of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the court sentenced him in...

A state security court prosecutor in Amman on Thursday ordered newspaper columnist Mwaffaq Mahadin and Sufian Tell, a specialist in environmental issues, held for 15 days for criticising the assistance which the Jordanian intelligence services provide the United States in its fight against Al-Qaeda, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Mahadin, who writes for the daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm...