China: Editor dismissed for online comments

The editor of a Chinese newspaper has been dismissed after posting comments online deemed critical of the government. Yu Chen, editor of the investigative news desk at Southern Metropolitan Newspaper, was initially suspended and later forced to resign after he accidentally used the newspapers Sina Weibo account to respond a question on whether China’s Ministry of National Defence should serve the Chinese Communist Party. Yu’s post was deleted immediately, along with the message he was responding to. Yu is the first journalist in China to be forced to resign from a newspaper as a result of online comments.

Kuwait: 10-year sentence for Twitter blasphemer

A Kuwaiti man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday after being convicted of endangering state security as a result of messages he sent on Twitter. The judge found Hamad al-Naqi guilty of insulting the prophet Muhammad and Islam, and insulting the rulers of neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Al-Naqi pleaded innocent at the start of the trial last month, saying his Twitter account had been hacked and he had not posted the messages.

Maldives: Journalist stabbed

A prominent journalist in the Maldives is in a critical condition in hospital after being stabbed in the neck. Ismail “Hilath” Rasheed had his throat slit by an attacker on Monday evening, with the knife missing a vital artery by millimetres. In November, the journalist’s blog was blocked by the communication authority in the Maldives, who claimed it contained “anti-Islamic” material. A hospital source gave the journalist and blogger a five percent chance of survival.

Azerbaijan: Outspoken blogger released

An Azerbaijani blogger who had spent 15 months in prison for criticising the government was granted an early release by the supreme court on Monday. Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was arrested in March 2011 after calling on social networks for an anti-government protest, but was convicted and sentenced on a charge of evading military service. He will not be able to travel abroad without special permission for another nine months, until the period of his two-year jail sentence is over.

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