Just two weeks shy of his release, imprisoned journalist Qi Chonghuai, has now been sentenced to another eight years on charges of embezzlement, extortion, and blackmail after a 9 June retrial. He was first arrested in 2007 after writing a newstory criticising a local official for beating a woman who arrived late to work.
Members of the Sufi group, Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ), shut down Radio Dhusamareb of central Somalia on Wednesday evening. Seven masked intruders forced staff to evacuate the building and the station’s editor was arrested and taken into custody. He has now been released without charge. Less than 24 hours before the attack, Al Shabaab militants silenced the Voice of Hiran radio station in the town of Beletweyne.
Journalist and political leader, Edinaldo Figueira, was shot to death on 15 June. He founded a Brazilian newspaper and was president of a branch of the Workers’ Party in Brazil’s northern state of Rio Grande do Norte. He also blogged regularly on local politics. It is rumoured Figueira’s killing is retribution for his recent blogpost critizing city officials.
Sudanese media faces heavy government intervention: this year has already seen the arrest of more than 30 journalists and a popular newspaper prevented from printing five times, reports Abdelgadir Mohamed Abdelgadir