Index on Censorship » raid

Egypt: NGO offices raided by security forces

Sara Yasin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:05:22 +0000

Egyptian security forces reportedly raided the offices of at least seventeen local and international NGOs yesterday. Authorities confiscated files, computers and records from the human rights and pro-democracy organisations. The raided organisations all allegedly receive foreign funding, and are now under investigation for violating Egyptian law. Staff of the organisations were confined to their officers during the raid, and prevented from using their mobile phones or computers. US officials have condemned the attacks, and demanded that the Egyptian government “resolve this issue immediately and to end harassment of NGO staff as well as return all property”.

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Uganda: Newspaper offices raided, guard killed

Alice Purkiss — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:09:04 +0000

Unidentified assailants raided the offices of a Ugandan newspaper and killed a security guard in the early hours of Thursday morning. 80 computers, worth millions of Ugandan shillings were stolen from the Kyengera based offices of bi-weekly newspaper ”Eddoboozi” and security guard Fred Mabonga was killed by the intruders. The editor of the pro-Buganda paper, Eddie Mukwaba Katende, said he could not rule out the fact that the paper may have been targeted because of its reports on corruption, politics and human rights abuses. Police are investigating the incident, but no arrests have been made.

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Uganda: Police storm printing press

Intern — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:41:48 +0000

Police in Uganda raided the offices of Prime General Supply Limited, the publishers of a bi-weekly newspaper which is critical of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government. During the raid on 25 May two senior editors and two other members of staff at Ggwanga newspaper were arrested on allegations of criminal libel. A computer and several documents concerning the activities of “Activists for Change” were also removed. Three employees have been released on police bail awaiting further questioning.

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Turkish police raid journalists’ homes

Laura MacPhee — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:36:01 +0000

Turkish police have detained 10 people, many of them journalists, in the latest crackdown on an alleged secularist network, which is accused of conspiring to overthrow the government. This follows February’s high profile raid on the Oda TV news portal. On Monday blog publishing service blogspot.com was banned inside Turkey.

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Iraq: Media watchdog offices raided

Intern — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:25:55 +0000

The offices of Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media watchdog, were raided by around 30 armed men on Wednesday. The men took away computers, cameras, video cameras, bulletproof jackets and archives from the office. The director of JFO blamed the government for the attack: “The government is behind this attack. The JFO is fighting for media freedom to become a reality in Iraq and, as such, clearly poses a threat to the authorities”.

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Turkish foreign minister rejects US comments on press freedom record

Laura MacPhee — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:39:16 +0000

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu has dismissed remarks made by the US ambassador in Ankara. Diplomat Francis J Ricciardone expressed concerns about press freedom in the country. His comments came in response to the detention of four journalists following a raid on opposition news portal Oda TV. The foreign minister said that he did not think it was right for “ambassador to pass judgment on an ongoing criminal investigation”, and claimed press freedom was not the issue.

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Four detained in police raid at Turkish news portal

Intern — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:24:39 +0000

Istanbul police raided leading independent news portal odatv.com and searched the homes of its administrators. Those detained were the neonationalist site’s owner, Soner Yalçin and administrators Baris Terkoglu, Baris Pehlivan and Ayhan Bozcurt. The raids were ordered by Zekeriya Öz, a prosecutor in Ergenekon investigation, on the grounds that the site was holding confidential documents. The ongoing Ergenekon inquiry focuses on elements of the “deep state” working to subvert the government. Yalçin has published a book which denounces the prosecutors in the Ergenekon probe, critics of the case have alleged that the government is using the investigation to silence dissidents.

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Yemen: Media company raided for reporting police raid

Intern — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:05:02 +0000

The building of 14 October, a Yemeni national media company, was overrun by soldiers on 21 April in order to confiscate the latest issue of Al-Tariq, a daily newspaper it publishes. The reason for seizing the outlet was that the newspaper ran a story about a raid by soldiers on a police station, which took place the day before in the nearby town of Al-Tawahi. According to Al Tariq’s report, the raid was the result of a dispute between a police and a soldier during an operation to remove illegally-built homes outside Al-Tawahi.

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