Reporters Without Borders welcomes the release of Abolfazl Abedini Nasr of the weekly Bahar Khozestan on 18 February and Said Matinpour, a contributor to the weekly Yarpagh, on 26 February, but condemns the prison sentences passed two days ago on…
Blogger begins second month of detention, Internet still closely monitored
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association today condemned increased government monitoring of the Internet and a deterioration in online connections, as well as the continuing detention of Nay Phone Latt, a blogger and owner of two Rangoon Internet…
Website editor arrested in crackdown on Internet two weeks before parliamentary elections
Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrest of Hassan Nobakhtian, the editor of the conservative website Nosazi, who was put in Evin prison on the orders of Tehran prosecutor-general Said Mortazavi yesterday, 11 days after Mortazavi banned his website.
Moroccan bloggers worried after „disproportionate“ three-year jail term for Internet user who created spoof Facebook profile
Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the three-year prison sentence which a Casablanca court imposed on 27-year-old Internet user Fouad Mourtada on 22 February for „usurping the identity“ of King Mohammed’s brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, by creating a „false…
Access to YouTube blocked until further notice because of „non-Islamic“ videos
Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday’s decision by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube . Claiming that the proportion of „non-Islamic objectionable video“ had increased on YouTube, the PTA, the official Internet regulatory body,…
Head of journalists union badly wounded in shooting attack
Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns a shooting attack in which Shahab Al-Tamimi, the head of the Iraqi journalists union, was serious wounded on 23 February in the north Baghdad district of Al-Waziria. Aged 75, Tamimi is now in a hospital…
ROG-Bilanz des Ausnahmezustandes im Tschad: Situation für unabhängige Medien katastrophal
Nach Ausrufung des Ausnahmezustandes im Tschad am 15.02.2008 zieht Reporter ohne Grenzen eine desaströse Bilanz. Das Land wurde durch die Regierungsmaßnahmen zu einem der wenigen afrikanischen Staaten ohne unabhängige Presse. Zahlreiche JournalistInnen mussten ins Ausland fliehen, um ihrer Verhaftung zu…
Communication minister suspends TV station
Reporters Without Borders calls on the government to explain yesterday’s closure of the Equinoxe TV, a privately-owned station based in the commercial capital of Douala. Communication minister Emmanuel Béyiyi Bi Essam said it was being shut down for failing pay…
Sad anniversary for Egyptian blogger who was sentenced one year ago
„Kareem Amer is a scapegoat. They wanted to make an example of him. Since then, several bloggers have been forced to close their blogs or remove entries. Rumours have even been spread about some of them, accusing them of being…
Journalists physically attacked during election campaign
Reporters Without Borders called today for the punishment of those responsible for attacking or obstructing three journalists as they were covering the presidential election campaign in Erevan on 19 February. „The authorities must take these incidents seriously,“ it said. „The journalists…
Community radio presenter raped and killed
Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked by the death of Rebecca Wilbrod Kasujja, the presenter of a morning show on community radio Buwama FM in the central district of Mpigi. The Uganda Journalists Union said she was raped and killed…
Dmitri Medvedev given four proposals for improving press freedom
Reporters Without Borders wrote today to First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev urging him „to take concrete steps to create the conditions for greater freedom in Russia.“ The United Russia party’s candidate in the 2 March presidential election, Medvedev is…
Moscow court asked to rule that Moldovan journalist’s deportation was illegal
A lawyer acting for Natalia Morar, a Moldovan journalist employed at the Moscow headquarters of The New Times weekly, has asked a Moscow court to rule that her deportation on 16 December at the behest of the FSB security service…
Concern about judge’s decision to close Wikileaks website
Reporters Without Borders is astonished by Californian judge Jeffrey White’s decision on 15 February to order the temporary closure of Wikileaks http:///wikileaks.be/wiki/Wikileaks), a US-based website that invites people to post leaked documents with the aim of discouraging unethical behaviour. The…
ROG besorgt über verhaftete Menschenrechtsaktivisten in Damaskus, der „Hauptstadt der Unterdrückung 2008″
Reporter ohne Grenzen und das französische Damaskus-Komittee haben heute bei einer Pressekonferenz in Paris ihre zunehmende Besorgnis über das Schicksal von Mitgliedern der pro-demokratischen Oppositionsbewegung in Syrien geäußert. Mitte Dezember 2007 waren in der syrischen Hauptstadt zwölf pro-demokratische Aktivisten verhaftet…
Journalist prosecuted under repressive law that government had pledged to amend
Reporters Without Borders deplores the transport and aviation minister’s use of a repressive law – which his government promised to amend – to prosecute Jonathan Leigh, the editor of the Freetown-based weekly The Independent Observer.
Slovenia, as EU president, asked to disown „outrageous“ comments by Slovenian sports minister
Reporters Without Borders is outraged by Slovenian sports minister Milan Zver’s recommendation yesterday, in an interview for the Associated Press, that Olympic athletes avoid talking about human rights while they are in Beijing. „This kind of statement by Slovenia, the…
CBS journalist and Iraqi interpreter kidnapped from Basra hotel
Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the disappearance yesterday of a western journalist working for the US television network CBS and his Iraqi interpreter in the city of Basra, 590 km south of the capital. According to the latest…
Reporter ohne Grenzen veröffentlicht Jahresbericht 2008
Reporter ohne Grenzen: Gewalt an Journalisten steigt weltweit Meinungsfreiheit sinkt dagegen stetig – auch Österreich ist betroffen Immer mehr Journalisten werden Opfer politisch motivierter Gewalt: Bespitzelungen, Drohungen, Verhaftungen und Mord an Journalisten stehen in vielen Ländern auf der Tagesordnung. Der…
Arab League adopts strict rules for satellite TV stations
Reporters Without Borders condemns an agreement imposing draconian regulations on satellite TV content that was adopted yesterday in Cairo by the information ministers of 21 of the Arab League’s 22 member states. It authorises governments to punish offenders.