Since October 2007, Sayed Parvez Kambaksh, a 23-year old Afghan journalist, has been in prison in Balkh province, Northern Afghanistan and sentenced to execution for blasphemy by a local Sharia court in Mazar-e-Sharif. His 'crime' was distributing...
Mansour Dieng, editor of Senegalese magazine Icone, was arrested yesterday, 4 February, after publishing photographs of an alleged gay marriage. Five other men who featured in the pictures were also detained. Homosexuality is illegal in Senegal.
On 31 January, Amjad Mahmood, 29, and Shella Roma, 27, of Greater Manchester, were charged under the Terrorism Act 2006 for distributing material encouraging acts of terrorism. Both have been released on bail and will appear at Westminster...
The German family ministry is pushing for the ban of children’s book How Do I get To God, Asked The Small Piglet. The ministry has written to the federal department responsible for reviewing children's literature, saying “the book ridicules three...
On 26 January, police arrested two journalists in Basel. Both reporters were detained for several hours. They had been covering a peaceful demonstration against the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. On 19 January, a journalist from the weekly...
Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post newspaper, has been placed under police protection after being told a contract has been put out for his murder. The editor of the Oakland Post, Chauncey Bailey, was assassinated in August of last year.
Iran’s Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance has suspended feminist monthly Zanan (Women) for “publishing information detrimental to society’s psychological tranquillity”. Hengameh Golestan reports Zanan has been published regularly...
A bill submitted to parliament by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in late 2007 is garnering criticism for curbing press freedom. Slovakia’s opposition parties have threatened to block ratification of the EU’s new Lisbon Treaty in resistance to...
The Afghan Senate has issued a statement supporting the death sentence imposed on a journalist. Pervez Kambaksh, 23, was convicted last week of downloading and distributing an article critical of Islam. His trial has been criticised by the UN and...
A court in Baku, Azerbijan, has sentenced two journalists to hard labour following their conviction for libel. The charges related to articles they published in 2007 regarding alleged corruption in government circles. Avaz Zeynalli, the editor of...