Three journalists from TV station Canal 9 in Paraguay, and the ex-director of the National Television System, Ismael Hadid, are on trial for defamation and libel. Reporter Silvio Cuevas, host Yolanda Park, and the channel's press director, Andrés...
China: Online censors delete family’s plea for justice
Blog posts of family members asking for justice following their relative’s suspicious death in police custody have been deleted by Chinese censors, potentially to quell discourse over alleged police brutality. The official police record claims that...
Backstreet’s blocked alright
Of all the contentious cultural material China's censors could crack down on, an inoffensive 1990s boy band ballad seems like an odd option. China's Ministry of Culture this week issued a new blacklist of 100 songs including the innocuous I Want it...
Cambodia: Environmental activists detained
Police detained over 100 villagers in Phnom Penh last week for distributing environmental fliers used to raise awareness of deforestation and economic land concessions that have been granted inside the Prey Lang forest. Police and local officials...
Ecuador: Journalist facing jail presents video evidence against president
Columnist Emilio Palacio, who was last month sentenced to three years in prison and fined 40 million USD for calling Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa a "dictator," presented a video to the district attorney on 18 August that he will use to appeal...
Vietnam: Eight protesters still held after anti-China rally
Eight anti-China demonstrators in Hanoi who ignored government orders to end a series of protests remain in custody for investigation into causing public disorder. They were among the 47 detained at the rally on Sunday --- the tenth of its kind in...
Uzbekistan: Journalist detained at airport
Uzbek journalist Elena Bondar was detained at the arrivals area of Tashkent airport after attending a course on modern journalism tools organised by OSCE and Deutsche Welle in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. After a thorough examination of her documents and...
China: Online commerce site bans sale of web filtering software
A major Chinese online commerce site, Taobao.com, has banned sales of software used to bypass internet censorship. The site said it took the action on its own and received no official orders. A notice on the site said virtual private networks...
Yemen: Attacks on journalists continue
Suhail TV cameraman Ahmad Firas was arrested by soldiers from Daylami airbase in Yemen on the afternoon of 12 August as he was driving towards Sanaa with his wife and children, who were released a few hours later. The soldiers, who seized his...
Vietnam: Pro-democracy website hacked
Hackers launched a sustained attack against pro-democracy website Viet Tan on 13 August in a denial-of-service (DDoS) operation. Of the 77,000 IP addresses employed, 73 per cent originated from Vietnam. The Hanoi government's firewall on...
Venezuela: Newspaper reporter beaten by police
A journalist with newspaper El Mío, was beaten and then detained as he left the newspapers premises in Anzoátegui, northeastern Venezuela. Óscar Tarazona was getting into a car when he spotted the police officers, Tarazona claims he walked over,...
China: Magazine president removed from post
In addition to last week’s suspension of Zhao Lingmin, editor of Guangzhou-based news and current affairs magazine Window on the South, the magazine’s president, Chen Zhong, has been removed from his post, though not dismissed. The changes have...