12 Apr 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
The Comoros’ interior minister Ahamada Abdallah has withdrawn state daily Al Watan’s latest monthly supplement from distribution and issued a decree suspending its managing editor, Pétan Mouignihazi. The supplement had a special report on corruption and waste in the state sector. In a news conference this week, Abdallah said: “Any state media journalist who wants the freedom to write or speak has to conform to the government line, or have the intellectual honesty to go and work elsewhere, for a privately-owned news outlet. The government is not going to receive lessons from Al Watwan.”
12 Apr 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Google, Facebook, and other internet companies may be required cooperate with Vietnamese authorities in removing content from their sites, based on draft regulations that have been released by the Ministry of Information. Foreign businesses that provide online social networking platforms in Vietnam must “make pledges in writing” to follow local censorship laws and remove information, including that which is against the Vietnamese government, damages “social and national security” or promotes violence, newspaper Thanh Hien News said. The new rules will be considered for approval in June.
12 Apr 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Activists in Minsk have been arrested for laying flowers and detained by police at Kastrychnitskaya metro station during a ceremony to open a memorial sign “River of Memory” near the station entrance. They were then taken to the Leninski district police department. Viasna Human Rights Centre reported the names of two of the individuals as Anastasia Shuleika and Yury Khodus, while other reports say the activists were accused of swearing.
12 Apr 2012 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Mohammad Solimaninya, an Internet and social network expert who has been detained for the past three months, is reportedly being pressured to work with the Iranian government on the creation of a National Internet. Solimaninya ran u24, a popular social networking website for Iranian professionals, and created websites for many Iranian NGOs. He was arrested on 10 January after being summoned before a revolutionary tribunal in Karaj, a town 20 km north of Tehran. According to his family, is now on a second hunger strike in protest against his detention conditions. No charges have been brought against him.
