Kuwait’s prosecutor-general Tuesday ordered the police to continue holding journalist Mohammed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem at the headquarters of the criminal investigation department after he was take in for questioning the day before in connection with a libel suit by the prime minister and then refused to pay bail of 1,000 dinars (2,345 euros), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. As Kuwait...
Jean Bosco Gasasira, the editor of the fortnightly Umuvugizi, has been convicted on charges of defamation and invasion of privacy but has been acquitted on the more serious charge of insult and abuse, on which he had been facing a possible sentence of more than two years in prison. In its verdict and sentencing issued on November 13, the Kigali court also refrained from ordering Umuvugizi’s...
A Baghdad court has ruled that the London-based Guardian newspaper defamed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in an April 2009 article depicting increasing authoritarianism in his government. On Tuesday, the court fined the Guardian 100 million Iraqi dinars (US$86,000) in connection with the article, which quoted unnamed members of the intelligence service as saying that al-Maliki was...
Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) Tuesday voiced outrage at a prosecution call to permanently shut down the independent bi-monthly Umuvugizi and to sentence its editor, Jean Bosco Gasasira, to a 26-month jail sentence for libel. The Paris-based press freedom organisation urged the judge who is due to rule in the case on November 13 not to follow the recommendation made on October 26 by the judge...
Journalist AS Mani has been detained in Tamil Nadu on a criminal defamation charge. Mani, who edits the Tamil weekly Naveena Netrikkan, was arrested in Chennai without arrest warrant on October 25 as a result of libel suit by a local businessman. “Mani is the latest victim of Indian laws that criminalise defamation,†Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) reacted. “Misuse of the laws...
Russian freelance journalist Alexandr Podrabinek has gradually re-emerged in recent days after being forced into hiding by a hate campaign orchestrated by “patriotic” youth groups such as Nashi (Ours) but he is now the target of several lawsuits and Nashi is even suing foreign newspapers over their coverage of the case, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This affair has progressed from...
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern that the prosecution of Jean Bosco Gasasira, editor-in-chief of the Rwandan bimonthly Umuvugizi, on criminal defamation charges has been politicised and the outcome predetermined. The case stems from complaints filed by a government prosecutor and a physician who say they were defamed by coverage claiming they were involved in a...
Laxman Choudhury, a newspaper reporter based Gajapati (in the state of Orissa) who has written about alleged local police links with organised crime, has been detained for more than three weeks on a sedition charge in state capital Bhubaneswar on the grounds that he was sent Maoist leaflets in the mail. “Choudhury’s arbitrary and unjustifiable arrest by the Gajapati police violated the Indian...
Two libel suits have been brought in rapid succession against the Moscow-based independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta by Joseph Stalin’s grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Dzhugashvili is demanding 10 million roubles (229,000 euros) in damages from Novaya Gazeta and journalist Anatoly Yablokov for an article published on...
Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the acquittal of all the writers, bloggers and pro-democracy activists who are about to be tried in various courts after unexplained delays, with a danger of long jail sentences being imposed. Vu Hung’s trial in Hanoi Wednesday and Pham Van Troi’s trial the day after are expected to be held without guarantees for defence rights. Six other activists...
