World News Censorship

From Global Voices see full article

Egyptian bloggers received the news of Monem’s release with apprehension reflecting the amount of distrust in the Egyptian security. Nora Younis said the release decision came as surprise like the detention order…I am still apprehensive. I won’t congratulate Monem before I see him with my eyes.

In an earlier blog post titled “Freedom for Internet”, Jar El Kamar suggests that the reason behind Monem’s detention is his blog posts on torture by state security to him, participation in conferences, and for being an active journalist defending human rights.

From the Observer see full article

There is a new law taking shape in Norway called the Rights and Duties of the Media Bill and is intended to 'ensure independence in media companies'. It has two eye-popping elements.

One: that within a company's objects, clauses and deeds of association, it is the responsibility of the editor to manage the editorial department and to have decision-making authority regarding all editorial questions.

Two: that neither the owner of the media company nor anyone managing the company on behalf of the owner may instruct or overrule the editor on editorial questions. Neither can they demand to be informed about the editorial content before it is published.

From Middle East Online see full article

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) says it is worried about censorship of news websites in the wake of clashes in the northern province of Sa'ada between government forces and Shia rebels.

The country’s Ministry of Telecommunications has blocked two news websites that it said failed to follow instructions, YJS Secretary-General Marwan Dammaj told IRIN. The Ministry of Information has issued instructions to journalists and editors not to cover the war in Sa'ada in a way that runs counter to the official media’s reporting, Dammaj said.

Aleshteraki.net of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) was blocked on 16 May, and al-shoura.net was blocked late February after a flare-up in the Sa’ada clashes.

From Reporters without Borders see full article

After blocking access to several blogs on 17 May, a spokesman for the army yesterday said it would no longer crack down on blogs critical of the army and members of the government.

Previously Reporters Without Borders condemned the decision of the military authorities, on 17 May 2007, to block access to blogs "critical of the army and members of the government" on the pretext that they pose a "threat to national security".

The worldwide press freedom organisation said it objected to the misuse of the "national security" argument to step up control of the Internet. This is an unprecedented step in Fiji. In a country where the press is regularly threatened by the authorities, the new policy of filtering the Net is very worrying, it said.

Several blogs were offline from 18 May, including resistfrankscoup and fijishamelist, but many of them changed their addresses to get round the censorship.

From Mizzima see full article

After being banned for nearly three months, the February issue of the Burmese language monthly Padauk Pwint Thit has been allowed to be distributed to readers.

The magazine issue featuring the late veteran Burmese litterateur Thakhin Ko Daw Hmine was barred by Burma's Censorship Board without any reason being cited.

The cover of the magazine will feature a picture of Thakhin Ko Daw Hmine, one of the greatest writers and a heroes of successive Burmese opposition groups.

From The Guardian see full article

A group of journalists at a state-controlled broadcast news agency in Russia have resigned en masse in one of the few open rebellions in recent years against censorship imposed by the Kremlin.

Eight reporters from the Russian News Service said they could not work under new rules that required them not to interview or mention opposition leaders such as Garry Kasparov and to ensure 50% coverage of "positive news".

Artyom Khan, one of the reporters who resigned, said restrictions were introduced when new management was imported last month from Channel One, the state television station that documents Mr Putin's every move.

From adnkronosinternational

An Egyptian prosecuting magistrate has called for the banning of 29 blogs, which he says tarnish the image of the country by offending the president (of Egypt Hosni Mubarak).

The magistrate is Abdel Fattah Mourad, who has brought charges against a well-known blogger Kareem Amer who has been sentenced to four years in prison for breaking Egypt's rigid censorship laws.

Among the 29 blogs that Mourad has identified for censure are one hosted by the activist group Egyptian Association for Combating Torture, the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the liberal opposition newspaper Al Ghad's on-line version.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that police in the southern Russian city of Samara have raided the local bureaus of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the independent news agency Regnum.

Three journalists with other news organizations were also detained and interrogated, according to news reports. The police actions come one week before a demonstration planned by political opponents in Samara.

From CPJ see full article

The Pakistani Supreme Court should immediately withdraw the alarming press directive issued that is designed to stifle coverage of a controversial issue involving the court, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The court warned print and electronic media to avoid “any interference” in the high-profile dispute over the ousting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Violations will be considered “contempt of court.

From Bernama see full article

The blogsite operator who reported that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi fainted at a function in Lumut, Perak, Sunday could face action including being charged under the Sedition Act if the article contained elements of slander.

Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said the ministry was studying the report before deciding on the type of action to be taken against the blogger.

Shaziman said his ministry would cooperate with the Internal Security Ministry in identifying the blogger. In addition, the blogger could also be charged under the Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998, and if found guilty could be fined RM50,000 or one years' jail or both.

From Freedom House see full article

Press freedom suffered continued global decline in 2006, with particularly troubling trends evident in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. A major study of the state of media freedom released today by Freedom House also warned of a growing effort to place restrictions on internet freedom by censoring, harassing, or shutting down sites that provide alternate sources of political commentary.

The study, Freedom of the Press 2007: A Global Survey of Media Independence, showed mixed trends in Africa, as well as a continuation of a longer-term pattern of decline in press freedom in Latin America and the former Soviet Union.

Among the most critical setbacks singled out by Freedom House this year were:

• Setbacks in Asia—notably Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Philippines and Fiji—stemming from coups, political upheaval, insurgency or states of emergency
• Setbacks in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries, in some cases due to state action, in others due to a deteriorating security environment
• Aggressive efforts by the Russian government to further marginalize independent media voices, punctuated by plans to regulate the internet
• Stagnation in the Middle East/North Africa region, bringing to a halt several years of modest progress.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the seizure of thousands of copies of a special edition of Obyedinyonny Grazhdansky Front, the weekly newspaper of the United Civic Front (OGF), a Russian opposition group headed by the Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov. Confiscated by police in St. Petersburg, the copies were to be transported to Moscow and its metropolitan region ahead of an opposition rally planned for May 1 in the Russian capital.

Officers from an organized crime unit of the St. Petersburg branch of the Interior Ministry confiscated 52,000 copies.

The special edition, titled Marsh Nesoglasnyh (March of the Dissenters), is devoted to the April 14-15 antigovernment rallies held in Moscow and St. Petersburg, at which special forces in full gear detained several hundred protesters and used physical force against dozens.

From CPJ see full article

Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found.

Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors, leads CPJ’s dishonor roll. The African nations of the Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo join Russia and Cuba among the world’s worst “backsliders” on press freedom.

In issuing its report to mark World Press Freedom Day, May 3, CPJ is calling attention this year to long-term erosion in press conditions. Rounding out CPJ’s “Top 10 Backsliders” are Pakistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Thailand.

The backsliders reflect a mixture of relatively open countries that have turned increasingly repressive and traditionally restrictive nations where press conditions, remarkably, have worsened. Nations such as Thailand and Morocco have been considered press freedom leaders in their regions but have charted sharp declines over the past five years. Other countries such as Cuba have long had poor records but have ratcheted up press restrictions through widespread imprisonments, expulsions, and harassment.

To determine trends in press conditions, CPJ analyzed case data worldwide for the years 2002 through 2007. Its staff judged conditions in seven categories: government censorship, judicial harassment, criminal libel prosecutions, journalist deaths, physical attacks on the press, journalist imprisonments, and threats against the press. CPJ staff excluded from consideration major conflict zones such as Iraq and Somalia, which lack conventional governance and newsgathering.

Here are CPJ’s “Top 10 Backsliders:

1. Ethiopia
2. Gambia
3. Russia
4. Democratic Republic Of Congo
5. Cuba
6. Pakistan
7. Egypt
8. Azerbaijan
9. Morocco
10. Thailand

From CPJ see full article

Pakistan TV regulators have ordered Royal TV off the air after its coverage of recent demonstrations concerning the dismissal of the chief judge of the country’s top court, the station said in a statement Wednesday. The largely Urdu-language station ordinarily broadcasts by satellite to the capital, Islamabad, and to nearby Rawalpindi, and it is distributed by cable in other Pakistani cities.

From Monsters & Critics see full article

The Jordan Press Association criticised the government's halting of the publication of al-Majd weekly newspaper as 'illegal' under the recently enacted press and printing law.

According to al-Majd's editor-in-chief, Fahd Rimawi, the Jordanian security authorities on Monday intervened to prevent the printing of the weekly because the new edition included a report about a plan forwarded to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that strengthens his position versus the rival Hamas group.

From Gulf Times

One of Egypt’s most prominent political bloggers has decided to call it a day, citing harassment by security services as his main reason to quit.

The Egypt-based blogger, known only as ‘Sandmonkey’ - a derogatory term for people of Arab descent - posted his last entry on Saturday.

One of the chief reasons (for quitting) is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately, he said.

Sandmonkey - who describes himself as “extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian” - started posting two years ago and has since been one of the main animators of Egypt’s vibrant blogosphere.

The blog offered stinging commentary on the Islamisation of Egyptian society as well as virulent criticism of President Hosni Mubarak’s 26-year-old regime. Sandmonkey regularly reported on the arrests of political activists, police brutality and videos recently posted on the Internet of alleged vote-rigging in a referendum for constitutional amendments, which critics say curb civil liberties.

I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with state security agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me, since that day, he said, referring to anti-referendum protests last month in which he participated and several demonstrators were detained.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists journalist is gravely concerned about the recent arrest of Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, an award-winning journalist and writer.

Thuy was taken into custody Saturday at her residence, where she was already being held under house arrest, according to news reports. She was charged with violating Article 88 of Vietnam’s criminal code, which prohibits the dissemination of information that authorities deem harmful to the state.

Thuy had posted a number of Internet essays calling for greater democracy, according to people familiar with her writings. Authorities have not indicated which of her articles they perceived to be in violation of the criminal code. If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in jail.

From CPJ see full article

Barring a last-minute reversal—something RCTV is pursuing in court—the Venezuelan government says it will not renew the station's license to use the public airwaves when the term expires on May 27.

The license—or concession, as it is known in Venezuela—would be the first to be effectively pulled from a private broadcaster by the government of President Hugo Chávez Frías. As Chávez continues to move toward what he and his supporters call "socialism of the 21st century," his administration's decision could have broad implications for free expression in this South American nation of 26 million.

FFrom IFEX see full article

When a minister was forced to quit after a very public sex scandal, Liberian state security targeted the paper that printed the pornographic evidence. Rohan Jayasekera asks why information minister Laurence Bropleh is still castigating free speech groups for criticising him for it?

Liberian information minister Laurence Bropleh continues to make a stalwart but surprising defence of his government’s targeting of the Monrovia Independent newspaper for publishing an obscene photograph of another cabinet minister.

Disgraced Minister of Presidential Affairs Willis Knuckles tendered his resignation on February 25 after a picture of him in a sex act with two young girls surfaced on the internet. Accepting it, President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson said his behaviour “while not illegal, is improper and inappropriate for a public servant.”

But when The Independent newspaper in Monrovia reprinted a copy of the obscene picture in its coverage of Knuckles’ resignation two days later, the government snapped. It revoked the newspaper's license for a year, ordered its offices closed and sent officers of the country’s National Security Agency round to Monrovia’s print houses to warn them off printing the paper.

From Focus read full story

The U.S. State Department on Friday expressed disappointment with the Kyrgyzstan government's interference with the print run of several opposition newspapers and seizure of copies of newspapers already printed.

The action occurred during a period of rising political tensions in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Dozens of activists were arrested as part of a crackdown on an opposition movement demanding the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

From CPJ read full story

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the 30 month imprisonment in Baku of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gndalik Azarbaycan.

The Yasamal District Court convicted Fatullayev on charges of libeling and insulting Azerbaijanis in an Internet posting that was attributed to the editor. But Fatullayev, who is known for his critical reporting on government affairs, said he never made the comment and that the case had been manufactured to silence him.

The jailing of Eynulla Fatullayev is part of a pattern of increasing repression of independent media in Azerbaijan, often through politically motivated defamation cases, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. It is outrageous that he should be imprisoned for a statement he says he never made. He should be freed immediately.

Update: In Azerbaijan, new charge filed against imprisoned editor

23rd May

From CPJ read full story

Azerbaijani authorities have filed a terrorism charge against Eynulla Fatullayev, the imprisoned editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gandalik Azarbaycan, in the latest government action against the journalist and his publications. Fatullayev, a persistent government critic, is already in prison on a specious defamation charge and has received multiple death threats. Over the weekend, government officials sealed his newspapers’ offices.

Update: CPJ urges Azerbaijan to end persecution of imprisoned editor

17th June 2007

From CPJ read full story

The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on Azerbaijani authorities to release an editor imprisoned on libel charges who says he has been denied food and water, and has received death threats.

Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the weekly Azeri-language daily Gandalik Azarbaycan, told presiding judge Hamid Hamidov that he has been kept in inhumane conditions since his transfer to the National Security Prison

Update: Supreme Court upholds Azerbaijani editor’s prison sentence

27th August 2007

From CPJ read full story

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan upheld Fatullayev’s 30-month prison sentence on charges of defaming Azerbaijanis in an article.

Fatullayev has been held in the Ministry of National Security isolation ward since his April 20 conviction by the Yasamal District Court in Baku. His family has been denied visitation rights

From Asia Media see full article

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday backed bloggers who criticise the government, saying their websites are gaining credibility among Malaysians.

The former premier said many people now turn to blogs for information suppressed by the mainstream media.

If you suppress news, alternate news will be given credence. Attempts to control bloggers are bound to fail, he told a forum on the media held at his Perdana Leadership Foundation.

He said he believed that bloggers have, by and large, been responsible, and urged them to stick to the truth without embellishment in order to stay credible.

Over the past few months, the government has been waging war on a group of vocal bloggers, including well-known former journalists and the former premier's eldest daughter, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir.

The blogs have been a thorn in the government's side, exposing all kinds of stories, including one on the purchase of a new VIP jet and the alleged misuse of development funds for political purposes.

From the Khaleej Times

Sri Lankan authorities have issued a death threat against a newspaper editor for reporting on military excesses and human rights abuses, journalists and a media rights group said.

The editor of Colombo’s Daily Mirror, Champika Liyanaarachchi, said defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, issued the threat in a telephone conversation.

Rights groups say that critics of government policy are treated as traitors and enemies of the state.

From CPJ read full story

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest in Cairo of a blogger who has exposed torture in Egyptian police stations and prisons. Authorities detained Abdel Moneim Mahmoud on Sunday on charges that he belongs to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and that he defamed the government with his reporting.

In his blog, Ana-Ikhwan, Mahmoud criticized the torture of civilians by Egyptian authorities and the country’s practice of trying civilians in military courts. In late March, Mahmoud testified at an international conference in Cairo, where he alleged that he was tortured himself during an incarceration in early 2003. Mahmoud was also detained for six months in 2006 and released last September.

From CPJ read full story

After the forced closure of the New Delhi-based Mizzima News, an exile-run Web site popular for hard-hitting reports on neighboring Burma’s military-run government, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Indian authorities to fully explain the move.

Approximately 20 Indian police and two municipal officials raided Mizzima’s offices on Monday and locked reporters out of the news agency’s facilities with sealed padlocks, according to a Mizzima editor who spoke with CPJ. During the raid, authorities claimed that Mizzima was illegally conducting commercial activities in a residential area, according to a Mizzima editor who was present during the raid. Mizzima denies that it was carrying out any commercial activities at the site, which is near other businesses and offices.