Legal Action

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern over a decision of the High Court of Sindh to dismiss two petitions by the owners of GEO Television network challenging bans imposed on four of its news, sports and entertainment channels after emergency rule was decreed on November 3. After 19 days of hearings, the court agreed on December 4 with the government’s...

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the suspended sentence of two months in prison passed by Casablanca court yesterday on AIC Press agency director Mourad Bourja for “disrespect for agent of the state in the exercise of his duties.” “Judicial harassment of the Moroccan press since the start of the year has dispelled any illusions about the government’s talk of a political opening,”...

Egypt continues to imprison journalists and editors who publish stories critical of President Hosni Mubarak and other high officials. Activist advocating minority rights in the country are also detained and fined. Basic right of freedom of religion and fundamental right of free expression are being explicitly violated. Members and partners of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)

Singapore's control mechanism over foreign media has once again come to light wth the recent incident involving Financial Times. The newspaper had to pay damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father Lee Kuan Yewas for defamation, and was also compelled to apologise from the Lee family. According to the prosecution, the article seemed to suggest that Lee Jr might have got his job due to

A detailed indictment used to charge leading journalist Moussa Kaka with “complicity in a conspiracy against state authority” is being seen as “inconsistent and absurd.” The manager of privately-owned Radio Saraouniya and correspondent of Radio France Internationale and Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), Kaka was arrested on 20 September. “The details of the case against him are

Indonesia's supreme court has ordered Time Asia to pay former President Suharto 1 billion rupees (106 million dollars) in damages for a 1999 cover story accusing him of corruption. A spokesman for the court said it concluded that the story in Time’s Asia edition had damaged the former dictator’s "reputation and honour." Time Asia’s Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, Tuesday said he would try...

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday questioned the editor of a prominent independent newspaper about his paper's recent reports on the health of the country's 79-year-old leader, President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent daily Al-Dustour, was questioned for several hours by prosecutors Wednesday outside Cairo on accusations that he published reports “likely to disturb public...

The staff at a fledgling weekly newspaper in Yemen accused of damaging national security face death sentences if convicted. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Thursday warned that the recent charges brought against Al-Shar’a (The Street) and a raid on the newspaper’s office signalled a disturbing attack on independent media in the country. IFJ condemned the Yemeni government for...

The editor of the Arabic-language weekly Nichane and its sister French-language weekly TelQuel, has been charged with “disrespect for the king” under article 41 of the Moroccan press law. Ahmed Benchemsi received a summons from the Casablanca judicial police for the first time on August 4 after the latest issue of Nichane had been seized from news stands on the orders of Prime Minister Driss...

Authorities in Iran's northwestern Kurdistan Province have condemned two ethnic Kurdish journalists to death for acting against the country's national security, according to delayed reports. Journalists Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar were sentenced to death by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region, on July 16. Hassanpour worked for the magazine...