Reporters Without Borders deplored the supreme court’s sentencing today of cyber dissidents Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, who are also lawyers, to four and three years imprisonment each for “anti-government propaganda” and to four and three years house-arrest respectively on their release. They had been given heavier sentences (five and four years) by a lower court.

It is disgraceful that a call for multi-party rule is considered anti-government propaganda. As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam must respect the international agreements it has signed.

The two dissidents were arrested at their homes on 6 March for writing and distributing texts critical of the government, especially texts posted online, for responding to questions from foreign news media and for using their position as lawyers to get their message out. The trial judge said they seriously violated Vietnam’s constitution and laws by denigrating the Communist Party’s role ... misrepresented the situation of democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

With eight cyber-dissidents in prison, Vietnam is on the Reporters Without Borders list of 13 Internet enemies.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned an arson attack on a publishing house in Sri Lanka today that destroyed the printing press of three newspapers critical of the government.

At least 12 unidentified masked men stripped publishing staff of their cell phones at gunpoint before starting the blaze and fleeing the scene in the early hours of the morning as one of the three papers went to press. The press was located in a high security zone tightly controlled by Sri Lankan government security forces.

The English-language Morning Leader and Sunday Leader, and the Sinhala-language weekly Irudina are known for their critical stances towards Sri Lankan authorities. Lasantha Wickrematunga, editor of the Sunday Leader, told journalists he believed the government was behind the attack, according to news reports.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered an inquiry into the attack, but results of similar inquiries launched in the past two years have yet to be made public.

The Committee to Protect Journalists honored five journalists with its 2007 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony Tuesday night that highlighted the fight for justice in journalist murders, and an increase in the targeting of journalists in reprisal for their work.

2007 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardees:

• Dmitry Muratov is editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, the only truly critical newspaper with national influence in Russia today. He founded the paper in 1993 and is still its driving force. Novaya Gazeta, with a staff of 60, is known for its in-depth investigations on sensitive issues such as high-level corruption, human rights violations, and abuse of power. It has paid a heavy price for this pioneering work; three of its reporters have been killed. The most recent casualty was investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who gained international recognition for her independent coverage of Chechnya and the North Caucasus.
   
• Mazhar Abbas is a well-known champion of press freedom in Pakistan who has worked as a journalist for 27 years and has endured repeated threats as a result of his work. He is deputy director of ARY One World Television, an Urdu and Hindi-language 24-hour news channel from Pakistan, and secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
  
  In May, he was one of three journalists who found bullets in white envelopes attached to their cars when they came out of a late-night meeting at the Karachi Press Club. He was on the hit list of the Mohajir Rabita Council, an ethnic political group in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, which is allied with President Pervez Musharraf. Abbas was also charged by police earlier this year after protesting the closure of three independent TV channels for reporting on anti-Musharraf demonstrations.
   
• Adela Navarro Bello, 39, is the general director of the weekly magazine Zeta in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico. Created in 1980, Zeta is one of the only publications to regularly run investigations on organized crime, drug trafficking, and corruption in Mexico’s northern states, where self-censorship is rampant. The cost of Zeta’s coverage of crime along the U.S.-Mexico border has been high: Héctor Félix Miranda, co-founder of the magazine, was killed in 1988, and co-editor Francisco Ortiz Franco was murdered in 2004.
   
• Gao Qinrong, who worked as a reporter for China’s official Xinhua News Agency in the northern province of Shanxi, was released last year after spending eight years in prison. In 1998, the investigative reporter exposed a scam irrigation project in his home province; Xinhua didn’t publish the report but it was circulated in the internal edition of People’s Daily, which is distributed to Communist Party leaders. When the story went on to attract national media attention from other news outlets, local officials blamed Gao. He was charged with a laundry list of crimes, including embezzlement, fraud, and even pimping, and sentenced to a 12-year jail term. After his early release for good behavior—he ran a prison newspaper—Gao gave lengthy interviews to Chinese and international news organizations. Before it was shut down domestically, coverage of his case drew new attention to the issue of press freedom in China. Gao is struggling to get the charges against him dropped so he can return to working as a reporter.
   
• Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award given for a lifetime of distinguished achievement in the cause of press freedom.

Independent journalists in Kazakhstan say authorities have signaled their desire to place domestic Internet content under stricter government regulation.

The journalists said that at recent meetings with Culture and Information Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbaev, the minister had recommended they not publish material based on audio recordings of top officials' conversations.

The meetings came after several opposition websites during the past month posted reports or audio recordings of purported phone conversations by current or former government officials that included discussions of illegal or unethical activities. The source of the recordings has not been established, although many believe they came from the Kazakh president's estranged former son-in-law and ex-national security deputy director, Rakhat Aliev.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly alarmed that news channels on the Pakistani networks GEO TV and ARY Digital were ordered by authorities to halt transmission from the United Arab Emirates after refusing to sign a Pakistani government-mandated “code of conduct.”

GEO TV was ordered by the UAE Information Ministry in Dubai to cease satellite and Internet broadcasts by midnight local time on Friday, according to Sami Abraham, senior correspondent and producer of GEO TV in New York. ARY Digital received a similar order with no reason given for the shut down, according to ARY news director Mohsin Raza.

We are surprised that the authorities in Dubai, which is developing as a regional free trade and communications hub, would prevent such satellite transmissions, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. We call on Pakistani and UAE authorities to reverse this order immediately and allow private TV networks to report on the important developments taking place in Pakistan without being subject to stifling official restrictions.

Reporters Without Borders today regretted that Iran continues to snub appeals from the international community on human rights, as one journalist was imprisoned and two publications suspended.

Yaghoub Salaki Nia was imprisoned at Evin jail in Tehran. His arrest brought to ten the number of journalists imprisoned in the country.

Intelligence ministry agents arrested freelance journalist, Yaghub Salaki Nia, a contributor to several banned media, including Shamesse Tabriz, Ahrar, Omid Zanjan, on 31 October. His house was searched and his work equipment and papers were seized. The journalist has also founded an organisation dedicated to the defence of political prisoners in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.

Elsewhere, the Authorisation and Surveillance Commission of the Press on 23 September suspended political monthly Dilmaj, founded in 2004, but no reason was given. The quarterly Madresseh was suspended on 5 November for “apostasy”. The philosophical review had published an interview in its latest edition with an intellectual cleric, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabesstary, who carries out research into the Koran. Iranian leaders took the view that his remarks were “insulting of sacred texts”.

The Georgian government should immediately allow two private television stations to resume broadcasting, and it must lift a ban on news-gathering imposed on all other private broadcasters, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today.

The government shut two popular Tbilisi-based television channels shortly before declaring a state of emergency Wednesday night. Imedi, considered the main Georgian opposition television and radio broadcaster, was raided by special forces and taken off the air at 9 p.m. Kavkaziya, a small independent channel, was also shut down.

Later Wednesday night, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli told a national television audience that a 15-day state of emergency had been imposed, during which no private broadcaster would be allowed to gather and disseminate news, according to CPJ sources and news reports. All news, he said, would be broadcast by state-funded Georgian Public Television

Iran's Supreme Court approved a death sentence for one Kurdish journalist on charges of espionage and revoked the same sentence against his other colleague.

'The supreme court approved the death sentence for Adnan Hassanpour,' his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht was quoted as saying by the agency, adding that 'the death sentence for Hiva Botimar was revoked and referred back to the revolutionary court for reinvestigation.'

The two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed (Hiva) Botimar, were sentenced to death in July by a revolutionary court in the western province of Kurdistan.

Judiciary spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi said the two, from the Kurdish city Sanadaj, were to be executed on charges of 'Moharebeh,' an Islamic term meaning 'enmity with God' and considered a capital crime.

The exact charges brought against the two were not clear, but they reportedly had contacts with foreign and Iranian opposition media.

The editor-in-chief of a pro-government daily paper in Azerbaijan has been sentenced to prison on criminal defamation and insult charges, making him the eighth journalist in the country currently serving jail time. This imprisonment propels Azerbaijan to the top of the list of countries jailing journalists in Europe and Central Asia.

Nazim Guliyev, head of Ideal, was given a sentence of two-and-a-half years in jail

Update: Released

3rd January 2008

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s pardon of five journalists imprisoned in Azerbaijan, but it calls on President Ilham Aliyev to free the three journalists who remain unjustly jailed.

On Wednesday, an appeals court in Baku ordered the release of Nazim Guliyev, editor of the pro-government daily Ideal. He had been jailed in November on defamation charges.

Pakistan's electronic media audience was in virtual darkness Sunday as private television channels broadcast through cable networks were suspended by President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of martial law.

Musharraf on Saturday afternoon partially suspended the country's constitution, curtailed civil rights and replaced top members of the judiciary that he saw as a threat to his rule.

Aaj TV's director of news and current affairs Talat Hussian said his channel had been singled out by Musharraf, who also alluded to Aaj TV in his overnight address.

In announcing his emergency decree, the president also declared a clampdown on the vibrant private media, which he said was promoting negativism and uncertainty.

The edict bars stations from explicitly covering militant and terrorist strikes, and telecasting content inciting violence or hatred or any action prejudicial to maintenance of law and order. It banned broadcasts that could be regarded as defaming the president, military personnel and other primary state organs.

As state-run Pakistan Television repeatedly aired Musharraf's address and other pro-government content, the private channels remained inaccessible to most of the population connected to the widespread cable network.

Though other channels can at least be viewed through satellite, Aaj TV has been blacked out by the authorities who hacked into the satellite uplink system, Hussain said.

State television showed a few public interviews in which people called the state of emergency necessary to help steer the country out of the crisis caused by Islamic militancy and troubled political affairs.

Government authorities on Saturday had also stopped the private media from using their mobile broadcast vans to prevent live coverage of the street scenes in which the police and paramilitary troops cordoned off important state buildings.

News-hungry Pakistanis relied on web services to keep themselves abreast of the fast-changing scenario, but later that too proved ineffective due to heavy Internet traffic.

Update: Dishing Out Censorship

14th November 2007

Satellite equipment has been banned from sale in 2 cities, Lahore & Peshawar. The authorities are trying to restrict people from receiving uncensored foreign news rather than the local propaganda.

The Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat said that the gazette to cancel a previous gazette notice imposing a press censorship on country’s civil war reporting has been issued.

The previous order banned the dissemination of information in newspapers and other publications on reports which pertains to any proposed operations or military activity by the security forces who are engaged in maintaining national security, territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Reporting the proposed acquisition of arms, ammunition or other equipment, including aircraft or naval vessels by the armed forces or the police was also banned.

Under the gazette revoked, any person who printed, published, distributed or transmitted any material in contravention of the provisions should on conviction after trial before the high court without a jury or a magistrate was liable to fines and rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than three months and not exceeding five years.

The criminal libel convictions and one-month jail terms handed down Saturday against journalists for an Egyptian opposition daily are part of a government-organized campaign to silence the press and should be overturned, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Al-Wafd Editor-in-Chief Anwar al-Hawari told CPJ that a criminal court in the southern city of Assiut convicted him—along with Mahmoud Abaza, the daily’s chairman of the board, and reporter Younes Darwish—in absentia on charges of libeling two lawyers in a March 21 news item. The brief covered a local council meeting that discussed the lawyers’ acquisition of a piece of land belonging to the Ministry of Religious Endowments in a private auction, he said. All three are free pending appeal.

Another harsh ruling against opposition voices has left Egypt’s press freedoms in tatters, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said: We’re very disturbed by this sustained pattern of indirectly targeting the press though criminal lawsuits—a pattern that underscores the Egyptian government’s oppressive stance toward the press.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed grave concern about the state of press freedom in China 10 months before the scheduled start of the Beijing Olympic Games.

In a resolution adopted Wednesday, the CPJ board said China had failed to live up to its commitment to allow journalists to work freely, a promise its leaders made in their bid to host the Games. In particular, the CPJ board called on Beijing to release the 29 journalists now in prison for their work.

The CPJ board also made the following recommendations:

• We call for an end to censorship and the dismantling of the elaborate system of media controls. We call for an end to the climate of impunity surrounding retribution meted out by local officials and others angered by critical media coverage.
• We call on the International Olympic Committee, having awarded the Games to China, to demand that the government fully meet its promises of press freedom for the 2008 Olympic Games.
• We call on sponsors of the Games to use their considerable influence to press the government to fully meet its promises of press freedom for the 2008 Olympic Games.
• Finally, we call on media organizations covering the Games to urge China to honor its media pledges to the IOC and ensure that their Chinese colleagues enjoy the same freedoms visiting journalists enjoy.

Hundreds of journalists marched through the streets of the Niger capital, Niamey to protest the arrests of two prominent journalists in connection with a government crackdown on media coverage of a rebellion of nomadic Tuaregs in northern Niger.

About 400 marchers carrying signs and chanting Free Moussa Kaka and Ibrahima Manzo! walked to the Place de la Concertation in front of Niger’s National Assembly. It was the most important march of journalists since 1990, when the country entered an era of political and media liberalization, according to Abdoulaye Massalatchi, president of one of a dozen local media groups participating in the march.

The government crackdown, including a ban on live debates discussing the conflict, a monthlong suspension of RFI and a three-month suspension of Aïr Info, has forced journalists to censor coverage, director Kader Idi of private Radio Anfani told CPJ.

The arrest of Moussa Kaka and Ibrahima Manzo Diallo are part of a disturbing pattern of censorship that threatens to undermine the democratic gains made by Niger, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. Journalists not only have a right but also a duty to cover the Tuareg rebellion and keep the public informed. We urge the authorities to release our colleagues immediately and lift the restrictions imposed on national and international broadcasters.

The Thai Election Commission (EC) has introduced tough regulations to control the presence of politicians in all kinds of media from today until the election date on Dec 23.

EC chairman Apichart Sukhakkhanont said the commission prohibited radio stations, television channels, community radio operators and cable television operators from inviting candidates, or party executives and leaders to appear in their programmes.

The media are also banned from organising any discussion or debate in which one representative of parties are invited to speak.

The EC will limit the presence of these politicians in such media to a 30-second spot per day and three 10-minute speeches by a party leader in the run-up to the Dec 23 election. The commission wants all parties to get equal exposure in the media.

Although the EC's announcements do not impose restrictions on printed media, Apichart said the owners of printed media were also prohibited from organising forums or inviting politicians to speak or debate.

He said the EC would set up forums which all parties could share. Any forums apart from the EC-sponsored forums are forbidden and the press are welcome to cover the stances of politicians at these official forums.

Meanwhile, politicians have the freedom to campaign through electronic media such as SNS and the internet but such SMS must not appear on TV. The EC also prohibits candidates who are stars, singers and commentators from using their careers to advance their political campaigns.

The publisher of a private newspaper in southern Nigeria, arrested by agents of the State Security Service, was charged with sedition over a story critical of a local state governor, according to news reports.

Jerome Imeime of southern Akwa Ibom state’s private weekly Events is the first Nigerian journalist since June 2006 to be charged with sedition in connection with coverage critical of political leadership. Nigeria’s sedition law was abrogated in 1983 but authorities have continued to invoke the charge to silence the press on sensitive subjects.

The journalist was taken to prison shortly after his arraignment on one count of sedition by a magistrate’s court in the state capital city of Uyo. The trial date was set for November 16.

The arrest was linked to a front-page story published last week alleging state treasury funds could be—hypothetically—used by Gov. Godswill Akpabio to pay off personal debt incurred during his electoral campaign. The story also alleged corruption in the awarding of contracts for road construction.

The Malaysian government has warned it could use tough anti-terrorism laws against bloggers who insult Islam or the country's king.

The move comes as one of Malaysia's leading online commentators has been questioned by police following a complaint by the main governing party.

The new rules would allow a suspect to be detained indefinitely, without being charged or put on trial.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told The Straits Times that the move was aimed at getting some moderation in postings on the internet, especially on sensitive issues: Some people feel that they have crossed the line, in making racist remarks.

But the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur says the government also appears increasingly concerned about the growing online criticism of its record.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, the editor of one of Malaysia's most popular political websites, Malaysia Today, turned himself in to police to answer allegations that he had mocked Islam and threatened racial harmony.

Raja Petra is known for his frequent criticism of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other government figures: I was alleged to have insulted the king, and also Islam and incite racial hatred, so I am going in there to reply to all these charges. I promise I'm going to give them a hell of a tough time.

He defended his website, saying: Many people, especially the non-Malays in this country, do not have a forum to air their views.We should not deny these people a chance to vent their feelings.

Malaysia Today is believed to attract around a quarter of a million visitors a day, giving it more readers than most Malaysian newspapers.

Eritrea has replaced North Korea in last place in an index measuring the level of press freedom in 169 countries throughout the world that is published today by Reporters Without Borders for the sixth year running.

Reporters Without Borders said. Eritrea deserves to be at the bottom. The privately-owned press has been banished by the authoritarian President Issaias Afeworki and the few journalists who dare to criticise the regime are thrown in prison. We know that four of them have died in detention and we have every reason to fear that others will suffer the same fate.

China (163rd) still the world’s biggest prison for bloggers and online journalists. With its position in the ranking unchanged since last year, China continues to pursue very repressive policies towards the Internet. Five major censorship bodies, including those operated directly by the government and the Communist Party’s publicity department (the former propaganda department), control the flow of news and information online. Fifty cyber-dissidents are currently detained in China because of their online activities. Reporters Without Borders said: With less than a year to go to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the reforms and the releases of imprisoned journalists so often promised by the authorities seem to be a vain hope.

Vietnam (162nd) continues to be one of the world’s must authoritarian and repressive countries as regards online freedom of expression and information. Six online activists were arrested in the space of a week in May. This is one if the reasons why Vietnam fell eight places in the ranking. The hopes raised by the release of most of the detained cyber-dissidents in November 2006 was just a smokescreen to ease Vietnam’s admission into the World Trade Organisation a month later. Eight cyber-dissidents are currently in Vietnamese prisons, serving sentences ranging three to 12 years for “hostile propaganda.”

Bloggers have to live with the same fears as traditional media journalists. Governments adopt measures to control the flow of news and information online and some asks bloggers to register with the information ministry. This is the case in Bahrain (118th), where 18 websites that defend human rights have been blocked for the past year. Malaysia (124th) often harasses bloggers and their families while Thailand (135th) adopted a computer crime law in July that requires ISPs to keep each person’s online usage records for 90 days and allows the authorities to examine them without any control by the courts.

A total of 26 bloggers and online journalists have been convicted and jailed since September 2006 for using their right to online free expression. Cases of Internet censorship are on the increase and more and more repressive governments are realising the threat that the Internet poses in the hands of pro-democracy activists. Bloggers are now being harassed as much as journalists working for the traditional media. Worldwide, 64 cyber-dissidents are currently in prison.

1 Iceland - Norway 3 Estonia - Slovakia 5 Belgium - Finland - Sweden 8 Denmark - Ireland - Portugal 11 Switzerland 12 Latvia - Netherlands 14 Czech Republic 15 New Zealand 16 Austria 17 Hungary 18 Canada 19 Trinidad and Tobago 20 Germany 21 Costa Rica - Slovenia 23 Lithuania 24 United Kingdom 25 Mauritius - Namibia 27 Jamaica 28 Australia 29 Ghana 30 Greece 31 France 32 Taiwan 33 Spain 34 Bosnia and Herzegovina 35 Italy 36 Macedonia 37 Japan - Uruguay 39 Chile - South Korea 41 Croatia 42 Romania

43 South Africa 44 Israel (Israeli territory) 45 Cape Verde - Cyprus 47 Nicaragua 48 United States of America 49 Togo 50 Mauritania 51 Bulgaria 52 Mali 53 Benin 54 Panama 55 Tanzania 56 Ecuador - Poland 58 Cyprus (North) - Montenegro 60 Kosovo 61 Hong-Kong - Madagascar 63 Kuwait 64 El Salvador 65 United Arab Emirates 66 Georgia 67 Serbia 68 Bolivia - Burkina Faso - Zambia 71 Central African Republic 72 Dominican Republic 73 Mozambique 74 Mongolia 75 Botswana - Haiti 77 Armenia 78 Kenya 79 Qatar 80 Congo 81 Moldova 82 Argentina 83 Senegal 84 Brazil

85 Cambodia - Liberia 87 Albania - Honduras - Niger 90 Paraguay 91 Angola 92 Malawi - Ukraine 94 Côte d’Ivoire - Timor-Leste 96 Comoros - Uganda 98 Lebanon 99 Lesotho 100 Indonesia 101 Turkey 102 Gabon 103 Israel (extra-territorial) 104 Guatemala - Seychelles 106 Morocco 107 Fiji - Guinea - Guinea-Bissau 110 Kyrgyzstan 111 Cameroon - USA (extra-territorial) 113 Chad 114 Venezuela 115 Tajikistan 116 Bhutan 117 Peru 118 Bahrein 119 Tonga 120 India 121 Sierra Leone 122 Jordan 123 Algeria 124 Malaysia 125 Kazakhstan 126 Colombia

127 Burundi 128 Philippines 129 Maldives 130 Gambia 131 Nigeria 132 Djibouti 133 Congo 134 Bangladesh 135 Thailand 136 Mexico 137 Nepal 138 Swaziland 139 Azerbaijan 140 Sudan 141 Singapore 142 Afghanistan 143 Yemen 144 Russia 145 Tunisia 146 Egypt 147 Rwanda 148 Saudi Arabia 149 Zimbabwe 150 Ethiopia 151 Belarus 152 Pakistan 153 Equatorial Guinea 154 Syria 155 Libya 156 Sri Lanka 157 Iraq 158 Palestinian Territories 159 Somalia 160 Uzbekistan 161 Laos 162 Vietnam 163 China 164 Burma 165 Cuba 166 Iran 167 Turkmenistan 168 North Korea 169 Eritrea

The son of murdered Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink has been found guilty of insulting "Turkishness", along with another newspaper editor.

Arat Dink and Serkis Seropyan were convicted after printing Dink's claims that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 was genocide.

The verdict came a day after a US congressional committee backed a bill labelling the killings as genocide. Turkish leaders reacted angrily, but the decision was welcomed by Armenians. The non-binding US vote, passed by 27 to 21 votes by members of the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives.

Arat Dink and Mr Seropyan, who both work as editors at Agos, a leading bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly newspaper, were given one-year suspended sentences for printing comments made by Hrant Dink during an interview.

Dink, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices. He was shot dead outside his Istanbul office in January 2007. At the time he was appealing against a prior conviction for the same offence - insulting the Turkish identity under Article 301 of the country's penal code.

Turkey faces ongoing international pressure to scrap the offence, under which dozens of writers who have been charged, often for articles dealing with killings of Kurds or Ottoman Armenians.

Ahmad Oweidi al-Abbadi, the 62-year-old former parliamentarian and leader of the Jordanian National Movement, was sentenced to two years in prison for “undermining state dignity”, “sending false news through emails” and “illegally distributing leaflets.”

He was arrested on May 3, 2007, for accusing the government of corruption in an open letter emailed to US senator Harry Reid.

The jailing of Ahmad Oweidi shows that Jordan’s government hasn’t shaken off its old habits of going after critics by putting them in prison, said Sarah Leahhing po Osama Ben Laden. Mohammed Al-Zohairi, who is being depicted as “Al Qaeda Poet” was arrested in August 9, 2007 and charged with offense against the royal dignity.

The Egyptian Press Syndicate Thursday criticised a fatwa by Mohamed Sayed Tantawi of Grand Azhar Imam - the highest authority in Egypt - stipulating that journalists convicted of publishing crimes should receive 80 lashes.

It was as if Sheikh Tantawi is part of a campaign against the press, journalists and people who have an opinion, the syndicate statement said.

Tantawi gave other opinions including the revocation of any convicted journalist's testimony in court, which alienates them from the society and sentences them to a civil execution.

Tantawi had earlier given his fatwa following a series of cases against journalists. His fatwa stirred outrage among many journalists and independent and opposition newspapers.

Senior writer Fahmy Howaidi criticised Tantawi in statements published in independent al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, saying he wore many hats and at the time he gave this fatwa, he put on that of the authorities.

Eleven journalists and editors-in-chief of opposition and independent newspapers have been sentenced to prison or fines over the last month on charges of publishing "fake news," "insulting icons of the ruling party" and "spreading rumours." Their appeals are under way.

Twenty-three Egyptian independent and opposition newspapers did not publish last Sunday, in protest at verdicts passed against journalists.

Tantawi argued for the lashings by quoting a verse from the Quran saying that those who accused women of adultery without necessary proof were to receive "80 floggings."

He said his example involved women but added that libel is also applicable to men ... this punishment is set by God to protect the honor of men and women from bad talk that hurts dignity and honor.

Thankfully however, lashings are not punishments used in Egypt.

In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to control the media, particularly online news and discussion forums.

In an unprecedented move, public security officers in various regions have ordered entire Internet Data Centers (IDCs) to close. IDCs physically house servers, often several at a time, which in turn host hundreds and sometimes thousands of Web sites each. According to widespread reports from the media and industry insiders, entire IDCs have been shut down if they host a single Web site that posts information that the government deems offensive.

Waigaoqiao, one of China’s largest IDCs based in Shanghai, was ordered to close on September 3, effectively shutting 30 servers at once, according to numerous reports from bloggers and industry insiders. Police turned off 1,000 computers housing servers run by Lanmang Internet Co, after they discovered blogs on the network that contained “illegal information.”

Authorities have carried out inspections and issued warnings to other IDCs throughout the country.