13 Feb 2012 | Index Index, minipost
The offices of a Yemeni newspaper have been surrounded by armed men for over a week. On February 2, state-run daily Al-Thawra was surrounded by hundreds of men loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The attack followed the paper’s decision to print without Saleh’s picture on the front page for the first time in decades. The newspaper has not printed since Friday. In a similar attack, state-run daily Al-Gomhoriah was surrounded by Saleh supporters on Friday and Saturday. The group, who claimed the paper had become a mouthpiece for the opposition, prevented the paper from printing until Sunday. Four other journalists are under threat from a fatwa issued in early February that calls for their deaths and for the closure of the newspapers and websites that carried their articles.
13 Feb 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Brazilian political journalist Mário Randolfo Marques Lopes and his girlfriend were kidnapped and shot dead in the early hours of 9 February in Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro state. Known for being critical of local authorities on his website, Lopes had faced more than one attempt on his life. He was reportedly shot five times in the head when a gunman burst into the website’s newsroom around four months ago, and survived being shot three times at his home last July.
13 Feb 2012 | Index Index, minipost
Two Bangladeshi television journalists have been murdered in Dhaka. Sagar Sarwar, news editor for private TV station Maasranga, and his wife, Meherun Runi, from another private station ATN Bangla were stabbed to death in the early hours of Saturday morning. The well known couple were found by their five-year-old son, who called relatives living nearby. A senior detective told local newspapers that preliminary investigations suggested that the killings had been planned and that the couple had probably known their attackers.
13 Feb 2012 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Internet censorship has dramatically increased in Iran over the last week. On 7 February, internet users in Iran began reporting an increase in the blocking and filtering of certain kinds of internet traffic in the country. Many users complained of not being able to access HTTPS websites, the secure and encrypted version of HTTP protocol. Many banks, Google services, Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft Hotmail use HTTPS to protect private data. Though there have been no official announcements regarding the changes, it is widely believed to be the first step towards a Halal internet.
