On 7 May, police arrested activists at demonstrations marking the disappearance of government minister, Yury Zakharanka. Roman Kislyak and Andrey Sharenda were arrested as they distributed leaflets marking the 11th anniversary of Zakharanka, who...
Twitter bomb hoaxer found guilty
Paul Chambers, 26, the man at the centre of the Twitter bomb hoax at a Sheffield airport has been found guilty and fined £1,000. During January's snow storms Chambers sent a tweat to his followers saying: "Crap, Robin Hood Airport is closed....
Pakistan: Film-maker released by militants
Film-maker Asad Qureshi and his fixer Colonel Iman were released last Thursday after being held captive by the Pakistani Taliban for over a month. Khalid Khwaja, the other member of their party was found dead on 30 April in North Waziristan. The...
Azerbaijan: Journalists’ notes and footage confiscated
On 6 May, video footage was confiscated from Norwegian journalists in Azerbaijan. Television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl were investigating the case of editor Eynulla Fatullayev--- jailed in 2007 for an article deemed...
Ukraine: Journalists protest television censorship
Journalists of the TSN news programme have issued an open letter yesterday accusing the 1+1 TV station of censoring their bulletins. According to the 15 journalists who signed the letter, the “last straw” was the station’s decision to edit out...
Iraq: Kurdish journalist kidnapped and killed
Freelance journalist Sardasht Osman was found dead yesterday in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Osman, who was abducted on 5 May, had been tortured and shot twice. His family believe he was targeted because of a critical article...
Somali broadcaster shot dead
Veteran broadcast journalist Sheik Nur Mohamed Abkey was shot dead by Islamic insurgents on Tuesday. Abkey, in his early 60s, was returning from work at the state-run Radio Mogadishu when three gunmen abducted him. Al-Shabaab insurgents called...
Sri Lanka: Controversial media minister resigns after 13 days
Mervyn Silva has resigned as media minister just 13 days after he was appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has been replaced by former defence minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Reporters Sans Frontières claim like Silva, Rambukwella has...
Angola: Police threaten media over officer’s rape arrest
Police in Angola have threatened the local media after they reported about a senior police officer charged with rape. The 21-year-old woman's rape occurred on 19 April but the story was made public after Jose Tiaba da Costa, the sub-inspector of...
China to force web users to reveal real names
China may ban anonymous online comments. In a China Daily article yesterday, government spokesperson Wang Chen confirmed plans to implement a real-name registration system. Currently, people must register a username in order to post on all major...
Dutch prosecutor appeals Holocaust cartoon aquittal
The Dutch public prosecutor will challenge an April court ruling which acquitted a Muslim group of insulting Jews by publishing a cartoon denying the holocaust. The public prosecutor said yesterday the appeal was necessary to establish whether the...
China: Authorities issue new media guidelines
On 3 May the central propaganda department issued new media guidelines designed to downplay coverage of the Qinghai earthquake and recent school attacks in order to promote the Shanghai Expo. After four violent attacks on schoolchildren in a month,...