Archive for June, 2009

Calls for Malaysia to release Burmese protesters

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Human Rights Watch has called for the district police in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia to free the 14 Burmese asylum seekers arrested on 19 June at a peaceful celebration of the 64th birthday of the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Read more here

Gambia Press Union members in hiding

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Gambia has closed down The Point newspaper and forced two journalists and an executive member of the Gambia Press Union into hiding. Read more here

Staff of Mousavi newspaper arrested

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Twenty-five members of the staff of Kalemeh Sabz, a newspaper owned by presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, have been arrested in Tehran. Read more here

Habitat uses Iran election tags to generate Twitter hits

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Furniture company Habitats Twitter account used hashtags such as #Iranelection and #Mousavi in order to ensure the company’s messages regarding their products would be seen by a mass audience. Twitter members use hashtags to help them narrow their searches and the use of Twitter has proved an invaluable way of getting information out of the heavily censored country. Read more here

Stars and Stripes accuses US military of censorship

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that receives U.S. military funding to help it cover and get distributed free to American forces in war zones, complained Tuesday of censorship by military authorities in Iraq. Read more here

Earl Spencer denied press ban on divorce hearing

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

A High Court judge has ruled the media should not be banned from reporting the proceedings of Earl Spencer’s divorce hearing. The Earl and his former wife Caroline wanted a blanket ban on publicity, but Mr Justice Munby would not agree. Read more here

China activist formally arrested

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

One of China’s most prominent political activists has been formally arrested for inciting subversion. Liu Xiaobo is accused of spreading rumours and defaming the government, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Mr Liu’s arrest comes six months after he was taken into custody. Read more here

Egyptian writer prevented from travelling

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Released political prisoner and writer Abd Al-Monem Monieb was detained in Cairo airport for 45 minutes by state security officers. Their actions prohibited him from travelling to Lebanon where he was due to publicise his book on Islam in Egypt. Read more here