27 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Police in California have been accused of breaking the state’s journalist shield law. On Sunday, officers seized computers belonging to Jason Chen, the editor of technology blog Gizmodo, which released details of Apple’s latest iPhone. State law prohibits the confiscation of journalists’ property in order to discover their sources. But prosecutors are considering charging Chen and the person who sold him the iPhone under a law that prohibits the sale of stolen goods and the use of stolen property. Chen paid a middleman $5000 for a prototype of the device, which was left in a California bar by an Apple employee.
27 Apr 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
A team of lawyers called for the ban of Arabic classic A Thousand and One Nights on 17 April. The lawyers, from the “Actio popularis” group, filed a complaint with the prosecutor general, demanding that the book be confiscated and its publishers face imprisonment. Following a series of so-called Hesba lawsuits that have targeted writers, poets and filmmakers, the lawyers invoked article 178 of the penal code, which states that publishing material considered to be “offensive to public decency” is punishable by up to two years in prison. On 7 April, the state-run magazine Ibdaa closed after a Hesba lawyer claimed it published a poem insulting God.
27 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Three journalists were killed in two separate incidents on Saturday. Nathan S Dabak and Sunday Gyang Bwede from the Light Bearer, owned by the Church of Christ in Nigeria, were stabbed to death by Muslim rioters in the town of Jos. The town has been the centre of inter-religious violence, which has killed an estimated 1,500 people this year. In a separate incident, Edo Ugbagwu, a court reporter for the Nation, was shot dead at his home in Laos by two gunmen. It is unclear whether his killing was related to his journalism.
27 Apr 2010 | Magazine, Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Writer and academic Fred Halliday died this week at the age of 64. Halliday, a keen analyst of Middle East and Iranian affairs, had been a contributor to Index on Censorship. In this article for Index from 2001, Halliday surveys the scene before Iran’s elections.
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