3 Feb 2012 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
BBC’s Persian TV service has faced further intimidation in Iran. It has been reported that relatives of BBC staff in London have been detained and threatened by Iranian intelligence agents; top presenters have been targeted by rumours; and one employee has subjected to an online interrogation in London after a family member in Iran was jailed.
Since its launch in 2009 channel has suffered jamming and deliberate attempts to interfere with its signal. Tensions between Britain and Iran have worsened in recent weeks, with British regulator Ofcom revoking Iranian state broadcaster Press TV’s UK licence last month for breaching the Communications Act.
1 Feb 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Several Tibetan-language blogs hosted in China are reported to have gone offline today, amid a period of severe unrest. AmdoTibet’s blog section has been temporarily shut down, a message on the site reads, “due to some of the blog users not publishing in accordance with the goal of this site.” Tense events of recent weeks have included a stream of self-immolations in Tibet protesting against Chinese rule, and more recently, deadly clashes between officials and demonstrators.
1 Feb 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
The offices of weekly opposition newspaper Vecherny Krasnokamsk were ravaged in an arson attack on 28 January in the south-west Russian Perm region. The paper’s editor Olga Kolokolova has linked the attack to a series of investigative reports recently published by the newspaper on corruption, which implicated the town’s mayor’s office.
31 Jan 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A Cuban journalist is facing more than ten years in prison for alleged corruption offences. José Antonio Torres, a correspondent for Granma, the party newspaper, in Santiago de Cuba, was detained on 11 March, 2011 after writing two articles criticising a major government infrastructure project. In the articles, Torres said experts undertaking the rebuilding of a key aqueduct intended to supply water to the city’s inhabitants, had claimed that “ineptitude” and “poor workmanship” had caused parts of the aqueduct wall’s veneer to fall off. The journalist also wrote that the project should have been “better planned.” Torres was initially charged with being an “agent of the CIA” and leaking confidential information abroad.
