12 Dec 2011 | Index Index, minipost
A Sudanese editor has received a death threat following the publication of an article critical of the country’s president, Salva Kiir.
Dengdit Ayok, vice-editor of the English-speaking newspaper The Destiny, was arrested and detained for two weeks for publishing a news story on the marriage of the president’s daughter to an Ethiopian. The article was deemed unethical by Sudanese authorities, who also said the newspaper continued publishing “isolated topics that should not be published for the public”.
12 Dec 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Funding has been pulled from a student newspaper in New York, following the publication of an article about pre-marital sex. The Student Council at Yeshiva University, the Orthodox Jewish college in Manhattan, opted to withdraw the $500 it takes to publish The Beacon after the anonymous article received more than 41,000 hits and sparked an argument about “the soul of the university.”
The decision sparked a campus-wide debate on censorship at the university, where the principles are based on the philosophy of Torah U’madda – the relationship between the secular world and Judaism.
12 Dec 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Censorship on many business and crime publications in Burma has been eased, but news titles are to be kept under strict regulations. Following changes introduced last week, 54 journals, magazines and books will no longer have to submit their content to censors prior to publication. News media will still be subject to the same pre-publication censorship, which is said to be the most restrictive in the world, although officials have advised this too will be eased in time. Images of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi are now permitted in the media.
8 Dec 2011 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
Staff from a Zimbabwean free expression organisation have been arrested and detained. Advocacy officers Molly Chimhanda and Fadzai December from Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), and an accompanying member of MMPZ, Gilbert Mabusa, were arrested on 5 December 2011 in the city of Gwanda.
The trio are being charged with “participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry,” following a meeting in November during which they distributed a DVD calling on the media to promote a peaceful electoral process.
