Iran to only allow the media to report on political groups approved by the government

From AsiaNews.it see full article

Under new press rules, writing about any political parties or groups will require government approval.

Online press agencies and private websites will also fall under the power of government censorship. The Ahmadinejad administration is thus poised to turn the screw on the media and limit press freedom even more than it has so far.

Commander Alireza Afshar who serves as deputy interior minister for political affairs, said that publications and other media outlets are forbidden from writing about parties or political groups that have not obtained a license from the Commission 10 on Political Parties. For this purpose, a list of all parties and political groups that have obtained a license will be sent to the press.

Prior to Afshar’s announcement, a government spokesperson stated that the Ahmadinejad administration would amend the Press Law to expand its jurisdiction to include online news agencies and websites.

In reporting the matter Rooz, an opposition online publication, noted that the president is exceeding his authority since the Guardians Council had explicitly ruled that changing the law was unconstitutional and a violation of the Sharia as laid down in a letter by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the assault on Hassan Sharjil, the 14-year-old son of prominent journalist Shakil Ahmad Turabi, editor-in-chief of the South Asian News Agency.

Hassan was beaten by a man outside his school today in Islamabad as he was dropped off for classes at around 6:45 a.m. Another man remained at the wheel of a four-door white pickup truck parked nearby while the beating took place. Pakistani journalists say this is one of the types of vehicles frequently used by plainclothes government security forces.

Hassan’s father told CPJ that the man beating his son told him, We warned your father to stop writing lies, but he wouldn’t listen. This will teach him a lesson. Hassan has been moved from the hospital to his family’s home for safety. He was badly beaten on the head and his back was heavily bruised, his father said.

The journalist said he had filed a complaint with the police about today’s attack on his son, he expects the police will not take action or investigate.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Cairo court’s ruling today that sentences four independent editors to one-year jail terms for publishing “false information.”

The four editors had triggered the legal action by publishing articles that denounced Mubarak over verbal attacks against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, and criticized several high level officials and Mubrak’s son Gamal who, despite officials denials, is believed to be the 79 year-old president’s heir apparent,.

The court dropped the charge of defamation, but found the four editors guilty under Article 188 of the Penal Code and handed them the maximum sentence stipulated by this article, one year in prison, and also the maximum fine, 20,000 Egyptian pounds, nearly US$3,540.

From Global Voices see full article

Egyptian blogger and journalist Abdel Monem Mahmoud, who has been released in June 2007 after 46 days imprisonment, is facing detention threats [again]. Both as part of the State’s clensing of political activists from the Egyptian scene and also for reporting on torture.

Two weeks ago, on August 16, 2007, Monem has published a very choking video of Mohamed Mamdouh, a 12-year-old child who died as a result from being tortured at Al Mansoura’s Police Station where he was held for stealing two packets of tea from a local shop.

 
Man released on bail after 2 weeks in Thai prison

From The Nation see full article

A 37-year old man imprisoned for two weeks at Bangkok Remand Prison on charges under the new Computer Crime Act was released on bail yesterday, a source said.

The source confirmed that the man was the webmaster for www.propaganda.forumotion.com, which mainly discusses the monarchy. The webmaster, widely known in the cyber community as Phraya Phichai, was quietly arrested two weeks ago and public access to his website has been denied since then.

Phraya Phichai, a pseudonym, became the first victim of the new Computer Crime Act, which went into effect on July 18.

Though he was arrested on August 24 by Crime Suppression police, he was first seen by his family on September 5th. During his two weeks in custody, Phraya Phichai never consulted with a lawyer, the source said.

According to the source, Phraya Phichai was charged under Article 14 (1) and (2), which prescribes punishment of a maximum five years imprisonment or a Bt100,000 fine for posting false content on the Internet to hurt others and public security.

It was the first time that police exercised their power under the new law and the story was first reported by the Financial Times weekend edition. Quoting a senior Thai official, the London-based paper said authorities have used the law to arrest two Thais for what were deemed particularly offensive comments about the monarchy on Internet chatrooms.

Assuming that Phraya Phichai was one of the two victims cited in the report, a Net surfer has started a weblog called Free Phichai, criticising the arrest and demanding the release of the webmaster. A call echoed by Fah Diew Kan (Same Sky) Publishing house, the publisher of a radical political magazine under the same name.

The Computer Crime Act, proposed by the ICT Ministry, has been mired in controversy since it was drafted due to the excessive power of police, who are allowed to seize computers of people suspected of disseminating "insulting or pornographic" content.

The law raised concerns among both local and international human rights organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, which said it might result in an increasingly restrictive policy towards free expression online.

 
Woman still in Thai prison

From Prachatai see full article

The second person reported to have been arrested under the new Computer Crime Act has been found detained at Bangkok Remand Prison.

The unnamed woman was reportedly arrested on Aug 24 around noon. Officials possibly from the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and police raided her house by breaking the locks and seized a computer without producing a search warrant.

Prachatai was told her family is aware of the detention, and is struggling to post bail due to financial constraints. A civil rights organization has been in contact.

This case marks the second detention under the Computer Crime Act. A report in the Financial Times on Sept 1-2 on the arrest of two Thais had been dismissed by both the ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom and Commander of the Economic and Cyber Crime Division Pol Maj Gen Wisut Wanitchbutr.

Update: Urging a No Vote in the Referendum

14th September

From Thailand Crisis

According to a lawyer, the woman was charged under articles 14 (1) and (2) which prescribe punishment of a maximum of five years’ imprisonment or a Bt100,000 fine for posting false content on the Internet with the intent to harm others and public security.

The lawyer said the woman told him that she was charged because she posted messages urging people to vote no in the referendum on the draft constitution last month.

About 20 police officers raided her house in Pathum Thani on the morning of August 24 and seized her notebook computer without producing a search warrant, said the lawyer.

The woman has now been detained for 20 days and ha not yet achieved bail

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the Burmese government’s restriction of news coverage of recent nationwide protests over an August 15 government decision to end fuel price subsidies.

According to the Burma Media Association (BMA), plainclothes police and pro-government groups brandishing crude weapons have threatened, harassed, and physically assaulted a number of local journalists who have attempted to cover and photograph the protests and the government’s retaliatory crackdown. Police are believed to have arrested more than 150 protesters, including prominent members of the dissident 88 Student Generation group.

The military command meanwhile issued a ban against photographing the protests and security forces have been deployed to enforce it.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that several Burmese journalists have recently had their telephone services cut by government authorities.

According to the Burma Media Association and Burmese exile-run news sources, a number of reporters have recently experienced either permanent or recurring cuts of their cell phone services.

Censorship in Burma takes many forms, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. First, the authorities try to stop coverage of fuel protests by harassing and assaulting reporters, now they block their phones. Journalists have an absolute right to communicate. The government must restore full telephone services immediately.

Junta tries to shut down internet and phone links

From the Guardian see full article

The Burmese junta was last night desperately trying to shut down internet and telephone links to the outside world after a stream of blogs and mobile phone videos began capturing the dramatic events on the streets.

In the past 24 hours observers monitoring the flow of information have noticed a marked downturn, with the reported closure of cybercafes and the disconnection of mobile telephones.

I was getting emails three days ago but now I seem to have lost contact, said Vincent Brussels, head of the Asian section of Reporters Without Borders: Those who can still access the internet are finding it very slow and hard to send pictures.

Read full article

Update: Bloggers Defy Censors

28th September 2007

From the Times see full article

One of the most censorious regimes in the world has failed to prevent bloggers chronicling clashes between soldiers and protesters.

An account of how government soldiers ransacked a monastery was among a number of reports written about the events unfolding in Rangoon by bloggers.

Another blogger claimed that fire engines were being used to wash blood off the streets after soldiers "opened fire" into groups of people.

Ko Htike said that soldiers were paying citizens $7 each to dress up in yellow robes to look like monks and then set about attacking mosques in order to precipitate clashes between Buddhists and Muslims.

Junta silences internet and forces news journals to print propaganda

From DVB see full article

Many privately-owned weekly news journals in Burma have decided to stop publication in protest at official demands to publish pro-government propaganda.

Burmese authorities are ordering the publications to print articles written by state media and other stories blaming the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front and the National League for Democracy for the protests.

They are forcing us to publish their announcements and propaganda in our publications and we can’t let them do that to us, said a Rangoon journalist.

Kumudra, Seven Days, Pyi Myanmar and many other news journals have decided to stop or suspend publication, and have already informed the censor board of their decision. Rather than give the real reason for their decision, they blamed the ongoing instability which is preventing journalists from being able to go out and report.

Based on an article from the Guardian see full article

The Burmese government apparently cut internet access today in an attempt to staunch the flow of pictures and messages from protesters reaching the outside world.

An official unbelievably said that the internet is not working because the underwater cable is damaged.

From the Reuters see full article

Internet access was restored briefly in military-ruled Myanmar on Saturday a day after a Web blackout believed to have been imposed to stop reports and pictures of a major crackdown reaching the outside world.

Internet users inside the former Burma were able to see domestic Web pages as well as send e-mails outside the country for a couple of hours before connections failed again.

 
From Reuters see full article

Sudanese authorities confiscated 15,000 copies of an opposition newspaper with ties to Sudan's communist party, the weekly's editor said.

Tigani al-Tayib, editor of the al-Midan paper, said national security officials had confiscated all copies of the paper ahead of distribution on Tuesday morning and did not give a reason.

We still don't know why they took it. ... There was a headline `New arrests in Kajbar' but we don't know if that was the reason or if there was some other reason, he said.

Sudan has banned all reporting on Kajbar. In June police fired live rounds of tear gas on Sudanese protesting against plans to build a new dam in Kajbar in northern Sudan, killing four people and injuring others.

 
From Voice of America

Chinese authorities are tightening their control of the media and continuing to put those who resist censorship behind bars.

Most recently, Chen Shuqing, a Chinese rights activist, was reportedly sentenced to four years in jail after being charged with subversion for posting politically sensitive essays on the Internet.

His lawyer, Li Jianqiang, called the sentence "totally unreasonable," saying Mr. Chen "was only expressing his opinion and that is within his rights under the constitution."

Li himself has also come under fire by Chinese authorities for defending rights activists. He was notified in June that his license to practice law had been suspended for at least one year.

From the Guardian see full article

Saudi Arabia has banned the influential Arab newspaper Al Hayat from distribution in the kingdom, just days after it reported a Saudi man had served as a key figure for an al-Qaida front group in Iraq, journalists and diplomats said.

One of the country's most influential journalists said the ban was a sharp retreat from growing press freedoms in Saudi Arabia.

Al Hayat's Saudi edition did not appear on newsstands Monday and Tuesday, several Arab diplomats told The Associated Press.

But a Saudi journalist with knowledge of the situation said the Ministry of Information and Culture had imposed the ban after the paper published an article Monday about the Saudi man, Mohammad al-Thibaiti, thought to be a key figure in the Iraqi extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Update: Censorship Stinks of Dead Camels

30th August

Saudi Arabia banned the distribution of al-Hayat for a third consecutive day on Wednesday as the government attempted to pressure the paper into dropping a columnist who has criticised the administration, journalists said.

A source at al-Hayat’s office in Riyadh said the government had been upset by recent columns criticising the agriculture ministry’s handling of the mysterious death of some 2,000 camels – so far blamed on poisoning rather than an infectious disease – and articles critical of the health ministry following the death of a young girl after a medical operation.

From The Hankyoreh see full article

Journalists have increasingly raised concern about major curbs on press freedom as the South Korean government is taking steps to implement what it calls a plan for the modernization of media support.

Among other changes, the government’s plan is aimed at consolidating press rooms run by government ministries and banning journalists from meeting government officials in their work.

From CPJ see full article

The Bangladesh Press Information Department issued a notice directing print and electronic media personnel to obtain special curfew passes from the metropolitan police. Local journalists, however, told CPJ that there was an extreme shortage of passes available.

CPJ is also concerned about widespread self-censorship among local broadcast media following yesterday’s remarks by Mainul Hosein, adviser for law and information for the interim government, reminding journalists that emergency regulations were in force and urging the media to “play a responsible role.”

He reminded journalists that it was empowered to do so under the emergency provisions. In a pointed appeal to broadcasters, Hosein said, according to the BBC, We request channels to stop televising footage of violence until further notice because this might instigate further violence.

Private television channels in Bangladesh abruptly stopped carrying reports about the street demonstrations, suspending even the popular political discussion programs about the day’s news.

From the Jakarta Post

For the sake of democracy, the Press Council has asked the Indonesian government to cancel its plan to revise the law on the press because it could restore the government's control over the mass media.

It has been widely reported over the past two months the Information and Communication Ministry was planning to revise the Press Law.

The ministry was to insert articles which would allow the government to close down any mass media company that violated those articles.

In the new bill, paragraph 2 of article 4 stipulates the government has the right to shut down media companies that publish news or pictures which are unethical, threaten national security or disparage certain religions.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of opposition activist Larisa Arap, who was forcibly held in a Russian psychiatric hospital.

Arap’s detention on July 5 came soon after the publication of her interview on the treatment of patients at the Murmansk regional psychiatric hospital in northern city of Apatity—the same hospital that held her for 26 days of her 46-day “treatment.

Last week, CPJ sent an open letter to President Vladimir Putin asking for his personal intervention in the case after hospital authorities in Apatity refused to honor the results of an independent psychiatric evaluation of Arap that declared her hospitalization illegal.

 
BBC World Service banned from Moscow FM

Based on an article from The Telegraph see full article

The BBC World Service has been banned from broadcasting on Russian FM radio in what is seen as the latest diplomatic swipe at the UK.

The state licensing authorities ordered Bolshoye radio in Moscow to remove all BBC programming by 5pm tonight or face being taken off air.

The Foreign Office immediately called for the service to be re-instated while a defiant BBC said it would appeal the decision.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC Global News, said the Corporation was “extremely disappointed” that listeners would not be able to hear its impartial and independent news and information programming.

Sambrook said the BBC would appeal to Russia’s Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Culture Heritage.

Bolshoye Radio’s owners, financial group Finam, said the BBC’s output was “foreign propaganda”. Spokesman Igor Ermachenkov insisted management had taken the decision to remove BBC programming without outside interference: It’s no secret the BBC was established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda.

The BBC said 730,000 people listened to the Russian Service in Russia, with around 93,000 listening via FM. Approximately 20,000 of those were dedicated FM listeners. The Russian Service is still available on mediumwave frequencies, via satellite and online.

 
Chinese suppress news of bridge collapse

From Info Shop see full article

Chinese authorities have banned most state media from reporting on the deadly collapse of a bridge in southern China, with local officials punching and chasing reporters from the scene.

The harassment and the reporting ban, issued by the Central Propaganda Department, came Thursday while reporters swarmed the tourist town of Fenghuang to report on Monday's accident.

Unidentified locals roughed up a group of five newspaper and magazine reporters as they interviewed families of those killed, according to a photographer and a reporter whose colleague was among the journalists involved.

The collapse of the bridge, which was under construction, left at least 47 people dead, making it one of the worst building accidents in China in recent years.

The rough treatment given the media stands at odds with the responsible, concerned image China's Communist Party leadership has tried to convey publicly in the wake of the accident and the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The accident has raised troubling questions about shoddy building and possible corruption between the officials and contractors, and by trying to control reporting on the disaster, Beijing is fueling those suspicions.

Under the ban, state media were ordered not to send reporters to Fenghuang or independently gather the news but to rely solely on reports by the government's Xinhua News Agency.

From The Guardian see full article

China has ordered its media to report only positive news and has imprisoned a pro-democracy dissident amid a clampdown on dissent ahead of the most important meeting of the communist party in five years.

Media controls have been tightened, Aids activists detained and NGOs shut down as president Hu Jintao prepares for the 17th party congress, when the next generation of national leaders will be unveiled in a politburo reshuffle.

Chen Shuqing, who is a founder member of the banned China Democracy party, suffered the toughest punishment meted out so far when he was found guilty on Thursday of "inciting people to overthrow the government".

The intermediate people's court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, sentenced him to four years in prison. Chen was an outspoken critic of the Communist party, although because of the tightly controlled traditional media his campaigning in recent years was largely restricted to the internet.

With the congress nearing - the exact date is a secret, but it is expected in October - the domestic media have been banned from conducting independent investigations of food and product safety stories. In Beijing the municipal propaganda department has issued detailed instructions to editors on how they should cover the test of traffic-easing measures, which started today. During the four-day trial more than 1m cars have been ordered off the roads. Local newspapers and TV stations can only report on the improvements to the environment and transportation. Interviews with inconvenienced commuters or images of overcrowded buses are forbidden.

 
From CPJ see full article
See also Outlook India

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack today on the Mumbai office of the Indian weekly Outlook by a group of men who identified themselves as members of the Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party. The assailants were apparently angered by the political journal’s depiction of their founder, Bal Thackeray, as a “villain” in the current issue of the magazine dedicated to India’s 60th anniversary of independence, according to an account of the incident published on the magazine’s Web site.

Six men forcibly entered the magazine’s offices and demanded to see the editor. When told he was not available, they proceeded to ransack the premises, smashing windows, computer equipment, and office furniture. No one was injured in the attack.

CPJ urges the Mumbai police to provide the journalists at Outlook with protection, as they have requested, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. We also ask the Maharashtra state government to give this case the urgent attention that it deserves and ensure that those responsible for the attack are brought to justice.

 
From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a criminal investigation the German government has launched against 17 journalists. They are accused of publishing information from classified documents related to CIA rendition flights and suspected misconduct by the German secret services in Baghdad during the 2003 U.S. invasion. A German committee specifically set up to investigate the renditions and misconduct was trying to keep the documents classified.

We are deeply worried about the criminal proceedings launched against our German colleagues and call on state prosecutors to drop the probe immediately, CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon said: With respect to the sensitivity of the information published, whoever leaked the classified documents should be investigated, not the journalists. It is their duty to publish matters of public interest. They should not be criminally charged for doing their job.

Berlin prosecutors confirmed Friday that an investigation had been launched, said the German Ard Television Network, which broke the story. All the accused journalists work for leading national publications.

 
From Middle East Times see full article

The publisher of two Moroccan weeklies has been charged with showing disrespect for the monarchy and a trial was set for later this month, his lawyer said.

Ahmed Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies was brought before the magistrate in Casablanca, charged and then released pending his trial August 24, the lawyer Youssef Chehbi said.

Meanwhile, another prominent Moroccan journalist was being held over publication of the latest edition of his satirical weekly until authorities had cleared it, and slammed Morocco's return to rigid press censorship under the iron-fisted rule of former king Hassan II.

Copies of the latest editions of the two weeklies were confiscated for criticizing a recent speech by King Mohammed VI in which he spoke about legislative elections due in October. The government also charged that the papers printed articles that hurt the feelings of Muslims.

From New Kerala see full article

A popular radio station in Nepal, which had been able to survive the draconian censorship imposed on the media by King Gyanendra's regime, was forced to close down after Maoists muscled into its office in the capital late Tuesday and padlocked its units.

The Himalayan Broadcasting Corporation (HBC), a popular private radio station that had been on air since 1999, stopped broadcasting from 6 p.m. Tuesday after over five dozen Maoist cadres forced their way past the guards and disrupted its programmes.

The new attacks on the media are whipping up doubts whether the Nov 22 election - that will choose between monarchy and a republic - would be free and fair.

Though the Maoists have pledged to accept the poll verdict, the increasing lawless activities of their cadres cast a grave doubt on the promise.

From the Sign On San Diego see full article

Iran's leading reformist newspaper was shut down Monday for the second time in a year after publishing an interview with a poet who called for greater gender equality, authorities said.

The daily Shargh, or East, was founded in 2003 and first shut in September 2006 for publishing a cartoon deemed to have made fun of Iranian government hard-liners. It was allowed to reopen in June.

It published an interview Saturday with opposition poet Saghi Qahraman, who said that gender roles should be less restrictive and men should play a bigger role in household activities like taking care of children.

This interview with an anti-revolutionary figure, who is famous for promoting anti-morality materials, is the main reason behind the closure of the paper, said Ali Reza Malekian, a Culture Ministry official, according to the official IRNA news agency.

But the paper's editor, Ahmad Gholami, said the interview was a pretext for silencing one of the few remaining voices pushing for democratic reforms in Iran.

From Democratic Voice of Burma see full article

The publishers and editors of more than 10 weekly newspapers and Magazines in Rangoon were reportedly summoned to the press scrutiny office late last month and warned over violating censorship guidelines.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division under the Ministry of Information has also reportedly devised 28 more rules for publications.

The new rules dictate that only Burmese and English-language advertisements to be allowed, wedding announcements between Burmese nationals and foreigners will no longer be allowed and that images of women are to be banned from alcohol advertisements.

Many editors believe that the new crackdown on print content has resulted from the decision by Danish satirical art group Surrend to place a fake ad in the weekly Myanmar Times newspaper last month containing the word “Ewhsnahtrellik”, which was later revealed by the group to be ‘killer Than Shwe’ spelt backwards.

Editors and publishers have reportedly been told that if a similar incident were to happen again, the offending publication would have its publishing license revoked.

Oakland newspaper editor gunned down

From The Guardian see full article

Chauncey Bailey, one of the most respected black journalists in America was shot dead on the street by a man dressed in black and wearing a mask.

Bailey's murder has shocked the San Francisco Bay Area. It has also rippled out into the rest of America as the country comes to grips with the daylight murder of a senior newspaper editor.

The reason that Bailey was killed appears to lie with the secretive and shadowy black Muslim sect in Oakland that Bailey was investigating. A day after he died, a series of dramatic police raids unfolded across the city, aimed at a group of Islamists centred on a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery.

The bakery was the centrepiece of a business empire founded by Yusef Bey, a black Muslim leader in Oakland whose followers preached a strict message of Islam and black political power. Bey's followers have long been the subject of intense police and media scrutiny for their alleged use of strong-arm tactics in promoting their business interests and also shutting down stores that sold alcohol. Bey was also stridently anti-homosexual and awaited trial on 27 counts of sex crimes when he died of cancer in 2003.

Bailey had written articles about Your Muslim Black Bakery and was believed to be working on further investigations when he was killed. He had recently been making enquiries in the black business community about the bakery's finances. His colleagues also told police he had recently received death threats because of his journalistic work.

The raids ended with seven arrests and the discovery of a cache of weapons and ammunition. Police said initial findings had linked some of the weapons to Bailey's case.

Earlier deaths have been associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 1994, members of the group threatened to kill white police officers investigating an alleged beating meted out to an Oakland resident. When Bey died, his handpicked successor disappeared. His decomposed body was found six months later. One of Bey's sons was shot and killed last month.

Update: Confession

7th August

Devaughndre Broussard, a handyman and occasional cook at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, confessed to local authorities that he shot Bailey last Friday. According to the local press, Broussard said he killed the editor because he was angered by Bailey’s negative coverage of the bakery and its staff.

From the CBS News see full article

The Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalist from the country's Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death.

Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar have been sentenced to execution on the charge of Moharebeh, the agency quoted Ali Reza Jamshidi, spokesman of judiciary, as saying. Moharebeh, which literally means "fighting" in classical Arabic, is used in Iran's Sharia law to describe a major crime against the religion and the Islamic state.

The official news agency did not specify what crime the two Kurdish journalists were precisely accused of. There was no immediate comment on when or how the sentence could be executed.

The journalists were deemed activists in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, bordering Iraq. They were detained after Kurds protested in Sanandaj in 2005.

Update: EU Calls for Stay

The European Union has called on Iran to halt the executions of two Kurdish journalists sentenced to death on charges of being "enemies of God."

The EU's Portuguese presidency appealed to Iran to provide the journalists with a fair trial, in accordance with the Iranian constitution and international human rights law.

Update: Belgian Iranians

Iranian communities in Belgium and supporters of the Iranian Resistance and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) staged a demonstration in Schuman Square in Brussles across the European Union headquarters condemning the recent wave of executions in Iran.

The protestors called on the Belgian Government to put pressure on the Iranian regime to respect human rights and stop stoning women in Iran.

From the Washington Post see full article

Hardline Uzbek authorities closed down a popular Islam-oriented weekly, its editor said Monday, amid an ongoing crackdown on independent media in the authoritarian ex-Soviet state.

The state media and communications agency shut down the independent Odam Orasida (Among the People) weekly, citing alleged breaches of the media law. But officials didn't explain the alleged breaches, the editor said.

The weekly that discussed issues like infant mortality, homosexuality and prostitution from the Muslim viewpoint was launched in February.

From OSCE see full report

State restrictions on use of the Internet have spread to more than 20 countries that use catch-all and contradictory rules to help keep people off line and stifle feared political opposition, a new report says.

In Governing the Internet, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presented case studies of Web censorship in Kazakhstan and Georgia and referred to similar findings in nations from China to Iran, Sudan and Belarus.

Recent moves against free speech on the Internet in a number of countries have provided a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes, democracies and dictatorships alike, seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear, Speaking out has never been easier than on the Web. Yet at the same time, we are witnessing the spread of Internet censorship, the report said.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison on Tuesday of a Tunisian human rights lawyer who had been jailed nearly 28 months because of online articles he wrote criticizing the Tunisian government.

Mohammed Abbou's main crime, according to CPJ research, was the submission of two opinion pieces to the Web site Tunisnews, which is blocked domestically, that criticized Ben Ali’s autocratic rule and compared torture in Tunisia’s prisons to conditions in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib under U.S. command.

From Media Helping Media see full article

The royal government of Bhutan has blocked the Bhutan Times, from being viewed from within the country because, officials say, the site has been covering ‘controversial issues’.

The Bhutan Times has been seen as a popular sites for forum discussions where people can register and express their opinion on important national issues.

The editorial policy of news organisation has been to offer balanced and in depth news, covering both sides of the story.

However, some forum discussions were seen to be critical of the minister Sangey Nidup, who is maternal uncle of the present Crown King.

Update: Block Lifted

19th August

The Bhutan Times is reporting that the government block on its service within the country has been lifted. According to sources at the Bhutan Times, the earlier action had been taken because officials claimed the site had been covering 'controversial issues'.

From IFEX see full article

A Malaysian blogger has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act for comments posted on his blog that pointed to a corrupt internal security system in Malaysia.

SEAPA protests the detention of the 26-year-old blogger, Nathaniel Tan, and shares the concerns of the Kuala Lumpur-based Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) that the arrest may be symptomatic of an emerging clampdown on online expression in Malaysia.

This year alone, two bloggers and one news site are being sued for defamation and a task force has been set up to look at how existing laws can be used to circumvent Malaysia's Bill of Guarantee against Internet censorship.

On 13 July 2007, Tan, who is also a webmaster of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat, was taken from his office in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, by three plainclothes policemen, according to Tan's colleagues. He was remanded for four days in connection with Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act on suspicion of possessing "official secrets". A link posted on his blog ( http://jelas.info ) connects to a website that accuses Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum of accepting bribes in exchange for the release of people detained under Malaysia's Emergency Ordinance that allows for detention without trial.

Interestingly, on the same day Tan was remanded, national news agency Bernama reported that Johari had tasked the police to track down writers who "spread lies through websites" - specifically those who direct criticisms against government leaders.

From The Nation see full article

Malaysia has warned web bloggers not to write on "sensitive issues" relating to religion or politics, threatening to arrest wrongdoers using a security law that allows detention without trial.

Minister in the Prime Minister's department, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, said the government would not hesitate to use the draconian Internal Security Act, as well as the Sedition Act, against irresponsible bloggers. Both laws allow for indefinite detention: I want to issue a warning that the time has come for us to take action against them (bloggers). We have the right and we will do it. We have been very patient.

Mohamad Nazri's comments, which came in parliament late Tuesday, were in response to several articles on a local blog which the government claims contained disparaging comments against the king as well as Islam, the country's official religion.

The article on Malaysia Today, a popular and widely-read blog site dedicated to anti-government political articles, prompted the ruling United Malay's National Organisation party to lodge a police report against the writers.

Police have yet to comment on action to be taken against the blogger

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists expresses its grave concern about today’s police interrogation of popular Internet-based writer Raja Petra Kamarudin, founder of the Malaysia Today news Web site. 

According to Malaysia Today, Raja Petra was summoned to the Dang Wangi Stadium police station in Kuala Lumpur in response to a police complaint filed Monday by Malaysia’s ruling political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Raja Petra said in a Malaysia Today posting that he was released after eight hours in custody. 

UMNO information secretary Nasiruddin Jantan told reporters that the Web site had published articles that the government perceived as an insult to Islam and as an attempt to stir racial tensions. Malaysia Today said that it had learned of a second complaint related to a column by Raja Petra that referred to the Prophet Muhammad and hell in the same headline.

After his release, Raja Petra said police questioned him not about the articles he had written but about reader comments posted on his Web site. The bottom line is, what you post in the comments section may get me sent to jail under the Sedition Act, the journalist wrote tonight.

Update: ...BUT...Government...WILL... restrict freedom

August 5th

Bloggers should exercise self-censorship over sensitive issues and not sensationalise issues just for the sake of gaining readers, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said.

He said bloggers should be careful not to cause offence to any particular group or cause disharmony.

He said the Government did not wish to restrict freedom on the Internet: ...But... this does not mean that there is no limit. Bloggers who are irresponsible will have to face the consequences.

From Phayul see full article

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has published its 2007 annual report on the state of its freedom of speech.

The report stated that although Hong Kong still enjoys basic freedom of speech, the scope of this freedom has apparently narrowed in the last ten years since Hong Kong was handed over to China; this was most apparent when reporting issues sensitive to the Chinese Communist regime. The report stressed that this has become a serious issue in the Hong Kong media only after the transfer of its sovereignty to mainland China.

From CPJ see full article

The upper house of the Russian parliament today approved a package of amendments that would expand the definition of extremism to include public discussion of such activity, and give law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that do not comply with the new restrictions. The package, proposed by deputies from the ruling United Russia party, now goes to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law. The lower house, the state Duma, approved the measure on Friday.

Ostensibly designed to fight extremism—including the growing nationalist and neo-Nazi movements—the new measures would have the effect of muzzling critical voices, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Today, CPJ expressed grave concern that the amendments will be used to silence government critics, and it called on the Russian president to veto the legislation.

“The vague language of these amendments makes them ambiguous and all-encompassing,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “They provide Russian authorities with yet another set of tools to silence critics and chill independent news coverage in the countdown to Russia’s parliamentary and presidential votes. We call on President Putin to exercise his responsibility as a democratic leader and veto these draconian measures.”

 
From Ya Libnan see full article

Syria has stepped up its widespread censorship of the Internet, blocking access to a string of websites critical of the regime, including some run by leading dailies, a human rights group said.

Today, the Syrian government relies on a host of repressive laws and extralegal measures to suppress Syrians’ right to access and disseminate information freely online. It censors the Internet—as it does all media—with a free hand. It monitors and censors written and electronic correspondence. The government has detained people for expressing their opinions or reporting information online, and even for forwarding political jokes by email. Syrian bloggers and human rights activists told Human Rights Watch that plainclothes security officers maintain a close watch over Internet cafés.

 
From CPJ see full article

Moroccan authorities have come to rely on a stealthy system of judicial and financial controls to keep enterprising journalists in check.

In a series of politicized court cases over the last two years, at least five Moroccan journalists have been hit with disproportionate financial penalties, five have been handed suspended jail terms, and one was banned from practicing journalism.

 
From World Press read full story

In 2004, prominent Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani wrote from jail, I believe in democracy, freedom, equality and rights and am willing to suffer for their sake simply because I do not wish my children to suffer dictatorship and I will strive to provide them a better future.

Al-Khaiwani was released after seven months in jail. He continued to write about topics important to Yemen including corruption, nepotism and civil rights. He faced down a series of governmental harassments, censorship,