A bill has been passed in the Maldives parliament that abolishes five articles from the Penal Code that provided for criminal defamation. Read more here
Defamation decriminalised in the Maldives
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CATEGORY: Index Index
UN calls for release of Gambian journalist
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called on the Gambian government to release journalist Chief Ebrimah Manneh, citing his arrest and detention as being without legal justification and in breach of international law. Manneh was a young...
Egypt: graphic novel author and publisher fined
Author Magdi El Shafai and his publisher Mohamed El Sahrqawi were fined 5,000 Egyptian pounds for the publication of graphic novel Metro. The court ruling, on 21 November, deemed the two men guilty of “making and publishing something that was...
Singapore: magazine ordered to pay damages to prime minister
The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), which is due to close next month, was ordered to pay Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew a total of S$405,000 (US$290,000) in damages and costs for defamation. The journal’s...
Philippines: 21 killed in pre-election violence
Twenty-one politicians and journalists who were abducted in the southern Philippines have been found dead. A convoy of about 40 people was hijacked by 100 gunmen at a police checkpoint in Maguindanao province, on the island of Mindanao. The group...
Brazilian bloggers censored
Brazilian judge, Pedro Sakamoto has prohibited bloggers Enock Cavalcanti and Adriana Vandoni from reporting on injunctions issued against politician José Riva. Vandoni and Cavalcanti, both from the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, reported on an...
Turkey: restrictions on Kurdish broadcasting lifted
A government directive published on 13 November lifted all remaining restrictions on the media’s use of minority languages. The use of Kurdish had been allowed in public printed media and one public TV station, TRT6. However, privately-owned radio...
Cuban government denies journalists visas
On 12 November, Cuban authorities refused to issue visas for 15 international journalists hoping to report on the Global Forum for Health Research in Havana from 16-20 November. International journalism organisation Media 21, based in Switzerland,...
Obama’s “town hall” meeting blocked in China
On 16 November, US President Barack Obama’s first serious engagement with the Chinese people ran afoul of China’s restrictions on broadcasting. He addressed the youth of Shanghai in a so-called "town hall" meeting, but it was not shown on national...
Turkey: Journalist detained whilst reporting on dummy soldiers
Bariş Sözal, a journalist at Sabah newspaper, and his driver Ali Kocatepe were detained for 8 hours after taking photographs at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Sözal had been gathering information for a story which revealed that airport security...