Israeli radio station targeted by fake free speech campaign
Activists have attacked the Army Radio with a bizarre phone message scam, reports Daniella Peled
Sudanese government halts the printing presses
Sudanese media faces heavy government intervention: this year has already seen the arrest of more than 30 journalists and a popular newspaper prevented from printing five times, reports Abdelgadir Mohamed Abdelgadir
China: Censors close whistle blowing site
A website allowing Chinese citizens to blow the whistle on official bribery, www.ibribery.com, has been shut down. Site creator Chen Hong copied the idea from Indian site ipaidabribe.com. Censors blocked access to Hong’s site after it received 200, 000 unique visitors in just two weeks. The 28 year old PR consultant then closed the site, fearing repercussions from the authorities. Several other bribery sites, which appeared soon after Hong’s, have also been shut down.
Swaziland: Journalist detained and accused of tainting country’s image
Swazi journalist Mancoba Nxumalo was held by police on Wednesday (22 June) and accused of “tarnishing” the Kingdom’s image, he has claimed. The journalist believes he was targeted for arranging interviews for South African broadcaster SABC with two Swazi activists jailed over pro-democracy protests in April. He said that police told him he had “conspired with the SABC to tarnish the county’s image”.