Archive for June, 2011

Pakistan: Campaign against blasphemy abuse goes on

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011


As another person is sentenced to death for defiling Islam’s prophet, Khalid Khattak reports on the continuing debate on the much-abused blasphemy law

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Taiwanese food blogger faces prison for defamation

Monday, June 27th, 2011

A Taiwanese blogger, identified only as Liu, was sentenced to 30 days in detention and ordered to pay NT$200,000 (about £11,000) for allegedly writing a defamatory review about a local restaurant. She blogged that the dish she had ordered was too salty and that there were cockroaches on the restaurant premises. The restaurant refuted these claims, sued, and won their claim. In Taiwan, defamation is a criminal act.

India: Journalist beaten by police

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Shalabh Mani Tripathi, Bureau Chief of Hindi news channel IBN, has claimed that he was beaten by police for his reporting on a medical officer found dead in a jail hospital. Tripathi alleges that he was dragged into a car, interrogated about his “wrong and sensational” reports and beaten. Journalists in Lucknow protested outside the Chief Minister’s residence until it was announced  that the officers involved had been suspended pending further investigations.

France on its way to total Internet censorship?

Monday, June 27th, 2011


New laws could could give French authorities web-blocking powers unrivaled in the democratic world. Félix Tréguer reports
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Russia: Oleg Kashin defeats libel claim

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Russian journalist, Oleg Kashin, has won the right to speculate about the identity of two men who beat him with iron rods. Kashin spent five days in a coma after he was attacked outside his apartmenton 6 November last year. The Kremlin’s youth policy chief, Vasily Yakemanko, filed a libel suit against Kashin, liberal newspaper Novye Izvestia and political analyst, Alexander Morozov, for reporting speculation that he might be behind the incident. A Moscow court ruled in favour of Kashin after it was found that Yakemenko had failed to prove that the accusations were factual statements.  

Belarus: Protesters use social media to organise co-ordinate efforts

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Activists used popular Russian social network, Vkontakte, and Twitter hashtag, #2206v1900, to organise protest action in towns all over Belarus on 22 June. Over 1, 000 people gathered for a rally in Minsk despite warnings to would-be protesters from local police about “possible administrative charges for participating in unsanctioned protests”. Throughout the day Vkontakte group, “Movement of the Future”, with over 200, 000 members, tweeted regularly. A total of 450 protesters were arrested during the “silent” anti-government demonstrations, many remain in detention.

China: Imprisoned journalist faces another 8 years

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Just two weeks shy of his release, imprisoned journalist Qi Chonghuai, has now been sentenced to another eight years on charges of embezzlement, extortion, and blackmail after a 9 June retrial. He was first arrested in 2007 after writing a newstory criticising a local official for beating a woman who arrived late to work.

Somalia: Two radio stations silenced in twenty-four hours

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Members of the Sufi group, Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ), shut down Radio Dhusamareb of central Somalia on Wednesday evening. Seven masked intruders forced staff to evacuate the building and the station’s editor was arrested and taken into custody. He has now been released without charge. Less than 24 hours before the attack, Al Shabaab militants silenced the Voice of Hiran radio station in the town of Beletweyne.