Posts Tagged ‘media censorship’
April 9th, 2010
A draft decree by the Fiji’s military-backed regime calls for
tighter control of the media and increased press censorship. The proposals, announced on Wednesday, would require daily monitoring of all news stories, as well as new restrictions on cross-media ownership. This would directly affect Fiji Times, one of the nation’s oldest and largest newspapers which is owned by the Australian company News Limited. Breaches of content regulation could result in media organisations, publishers and journalists being fined and imprisoned for up to five years.
April 8th, 2010
Following Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s
declaration of a state of emergency yesterday the government has begun targeting news sources aimed at anti-government protesters, the so-called red shirts. The “red shirt” financed a television station,
PTV was closed down today. government has also begun blocking internet content, which according to RSF has amounted to the closure of
at least 36 websites and blogs to date. Chiranuch Premchaipoen, editor of the independent news website Prachatai.com, was
arrested on 31 March on lèse majesté charges.
March 23rd, 2010
EU foreign ministers have described
the current situation in Iran as “unacceptable”, in a joint statement they call for an end to the jamming of satellite broadcasts from international news networks. In the crackdown since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, dozens of journalists and campaigners have been arrested, including
Ali Kanturi, a young student activist who fled Iran and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in his absence, and
journalist Emadeddin Baghi who has been detailed by the Iranian authorities. See the
“Our Society Will Be a Free Society” campaign for more information.
March 23rd, 2010
Belarus’s Supreme Court has stripped the Belarusian Association of Journalist’s (BAJ)
ability to offer protection to journalists who are not officially authorised, such as opposition newspapers, websites and foreign news outlets.These journalists could now face 15 days in jail. BAJ president Zhanna Litvina said yesterday that this will discourage independent media coverage in the run-up to the elections. This comes a week after Charter97, an opposition website and are a nominee for this year’s
Index On Censorship Freedom of Expression awards had its
offices raided and its head of press beaten.
March 17th, 2010
A
media ban on a corruption trial involving several leading Jordanian figures and the former Minister of Finance has been issued by a military court in Amman. The case, involving the
Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company, first came to light after revelations in the media. Now only reports personally approved by Attorney General Yousef Faouri may be published, in order, court officers claimed, to allow the judicial authorities to work calmly on the case.
March 17th, 2010
Afghanistan has watered down plans to
ban the media from reporting on live attacks. Authorities had claimed such reports would embolden militants, but an outcry resulted in a new resolution being hammered over three days. The new resolution bars the press from showing the faces of security personal or broadcasting “disturbing” images, but allows media to report on live attacks. The law does not define “disturbing”. Afghan journalists’ groups said they remained suspicious of the motives behind the new guidelines, which they believed could be used to
cover up government failings.
March 15th, 2010
Baris Yarkadas, editor of online newspaper Gercek Gündem, faces five years in jail for failing to remove a comment posted on his website insulting President Gül. The comment, written by an anonymous reader, accused President Gül of allowing his Armenian counter-part to defy him, and of bringing shame upon Turkey. Yarkadas is also charged with insulting the head of the Turkey’s Institute for Forensic Medicine by reporting
allegations brought about by human rights NGOs.
March 8th, 2010
Vedat Kursun, former editor of Azadiya Welat, has been charged with 105 counts of “helping and abetting [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] by spreading propaganda” and “glorifying crimes and criminals”. His newspaper published numerous articles regarding statements and activities of the organisation, which his lawyer cites as published under the scope of freedom of expression and right to inform. His successor,
Ozan Kilinç, was convicted and sentenced to
21 years imprisonment on similar charges in February.
