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Belarus: Police arrest political activists

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...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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