Archive for April, 2011
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
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Saudi Arabian writer and teacher has become the most prominent figure to be arrested in the country since protests started in February. Nadhir al-Majid was
detained on April 17 in the Persian Gulf city of al-Khobar. Rights groups have urged Interior Minister Prince Nayef al-Saud to release him immediately. Over
160 dissidents have been arrested in the last two months.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Iranian journalist Nazanin Khosravani was sentenced to six years in jail on 19 April after being
convicted of impinging on national security and conducting propaganda against the regime. She was arrested in November 2009 and had her computer and personal belongings confiscated. She was later released on a $600,000 bail last March.
Activists argue that her sentence is part of a general crackdown against journalists who were highly critical of the government in the 2009 presidential elections.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
A journalist received a written warning over an article in which he
questioned the Belarussian authorities’ claims to have arrested those responsible for April’s Minsk metro bombing. A prosecutor in Belarus’s eastern district issued a letter which also warns Nyarouny not to publish similar articles in the future.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
ASwiss television channel claimed on 18 April that two of its reporters were detained without charge in
Qatar for 13 days. The RTS network alleges that the pair were in the country
to shoot a documentary about Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022. The two, a journalist and a cameraman, were
allowed to return to Switzerland on Friday (15 April) after paying a court ordered fine.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Six men raided the office of a news website, Al-Muharrir, in Amman on 19 April. Unidentified men
broke into the personal office of editor-in-chief Jihad Abu Baidar and threatened to kill him if he did not withdraw a report criticising the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission. Baidar subsequently filed a police complaint. A number of journalists staged a sit-in at the
Jordan Press Association premises to
protest the incident.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
The editor of the Kyiv Post, Brian Bonner, was
reinstated to his post on 19 April after journalists for
Ukraine’s leading English newspaper went on strike protesting his dismissal. Bonner was
sacked on 15 April after publishing an interview with the Agricultural Minister which touched on the sensitive topic of grain export quotas. The newspaper’s British owner, Mohammad Zahoor, had
pressured him to discard the interview.
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Peter Bradwell: the fight for online rights in the UK is far from over
(more…)
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Vietnamese authorities have dropped charges against a female blogger who was detained for :infringing on the interests of the state”. She was arrested for
defamation after describing a senior official’s son as a womanizer. Le Nguyen Huong Tra, who blogged under the pseudonym Co Gai Do Long
, was arrested last October and released on bail this January. Authorities have
declared her actions to be “less serious” than first thought.
