Legal Action

The misdemeanors appeals court in Egypt fined Abdel Halim Kandil, former editor of the Sout elUmmah newspaper, EGP 10,000 (approx. US$1,700) and Ahmed Abulkheir, a journalist at the same paper, EGP 15,000 (approx. US$2,600). They were both convicted on December 25 of insult and libel in relation to their coverage of filmmaker Akram elSobky's wedding party, according to the Arabic Network for Human...

The Cambodian government's use of its new penal code against a man who shared web articles with his co-workers is a huge step backward for free expression in Cambodia, Human Rights Watch has said. The man was quickly convicted on incitement charges and sentenced to prison. Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to amend the penal code, which went into effect on December 10, to...

The Folha de S. Paulo newspaper has been an example of crusading journalism in Brazil for many decades. Its team of reporters and columnists are famous for the rambunctious and yet lucid way they challenge those in power. But that reputation has soured recently thanks to Folha’s heavy-handed response to two brothers who satirised the paper in a spoof web site, says a Financial Times report. The...

A judge in the southern Honduran town of Amapala has decided to try community radio reporters Elia Xiomara Hernández and Elba Yolibeth Rubio on charges of disobeying the authorities and “taking part in demonstrations that obstruct public services.” The trial is to take place on January 11, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Hernández and Rubio, who work...

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe, has brought about a libel suite against independent weekly The Standard for quoting a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks accusing her of involvement in diamond trafficking. She is demanding $15 million in damages, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The First Lady’s libel suit aims to undermine...

Berivan Eker, former editor-in-chief of the Renge Heviya Jine women's magazine, was arrested on December 5, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. Her predecessors, Gurbet Cakar, Sultan Sonsuz, Ruken Aktas and Sibel Esmer are all either convicted or facing prison terms. Renge Heviya Jine (The Colour of Women's Hope) is the only women's magazine in Turkey published in both Kurdish and...

A court in Jendouba is expected to rule Wednesday in a criminal case against Mouldi Zouabi, a senior reporter for the online Tunisian news outlet Kalima, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The journalist faces assault charges related to an April 1 episode. Zouabi told CPJ he was assaulted by Khalil Maaroufi, a ruling party member who called the...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the criminal proceedings launched against KK Shahina, a reporter with the weekly news magazine Tehelkaa, after a story of hers appeared to cast doubt on the prosecution of a prominent Islamic cleric and political figure on terrorism charges. Shahina's story appeared in an issue of Tehelka dated December 4, released a week prior to the...

A “repugnant” defamation conviction has been handed down by a Moscow court to the independent weekly The New Times for a report into police corruption and abuse, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The verdict, obtained through false testimony, nullified the newspaper’s solid, truthful investigation headlined “OMON slaves” – in reference to the OMON riot...

Abdou Latif Coulibaly, one of Senegal’s most prominent journalists and writers, and two of the journalists who work with him on his weekly newspaper, La Gazette, have been fined 20 million CFA francs (30,000 euros) and given one-month suspended jail sentences in a libel case about alleged kickbacks in the allocation of a mobile phone licence. The much-awaited sentence – issued on November 16, two...