Pakistan’s blasphemy law is a tool for persecution and its tyranny reflects the grip of religious extremism on political culture, says Kamila Shamsie, in the upcoming issue of the Index on Censorship magazine
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.
The Slovak government has made alterations to a controversial media law which guaranteed politicians, readers and state institutions a right of reply. This was allowed even where allegations made about them were true, but Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, an opposition legislator, announced on Wednesday that politicians would lose this right.
Juan Pedro Mendene, a radio presenter for the Equatorial Guinean broadcaster RTVGE, has been suspended for mentioning the Libyan uprising on his radio show. His live show was halted on the orders of Federico Abaga Ondo, the Secretary of State for Information and Press. The government has imposed a total news blackout on the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.