The judge of the Alto Amazonas First Mixed Tribunal has initiated criminal proceedings against Acate Geovanni, director of Radio Oriente and Channel...
Peru: TV journalist charged with inciting violence
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CATEGORY: News and features
Bangladesh: Reporter tortured by elite police unit
F.M Masum, a journalist for the English-language daily The New Age, was arrested on 22 October and tortured in Dhaka. He was held by the Rapid...
Murder, He Said
US courts struggle to distinguish between incitement, threats and mere advocacy of of violence, says Wendy Kaminer, who is speaking at the Battle of Ideas in London on 31 October
Arrests in Tibet following online distribution of material
Reports have emerged about the arrest of three young Tibetans after they used instant messages to distribute recordings and photographs of the Dalai...
Ben Ali re-elected in atmosphere of media repression
Tunisian President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali has won a fifth term in office, receiving 86% of the vote. The election outcome was expected. Tunisia’s...
Guidelines for super injunctions to be introduced
Junior Justice Minister Bridget Prentice revealed on 21 October that Justice Secretary Jack Straw has called on senior judges and lawyers...
Ingushetia: Murder of opposition activist
Influential businessman and activist Maksharip Aushev was shot dead in Kabardino-Balkaria on 25 October. Aushev had become a vocal critic of the...
Tunisia: Elections herald media crackdown
To ensure another re-election for President Ben Ali, Tunisia’s government has stepped up its campaign of repression against the media, reports Rohan Jayasekera
Armenia: editor faces prison for organising mass protest
Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of prominent opposition newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak, faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years for “organising mass disorder”. Pashinyan was responsible for organising the March 2008 mass protests that followed the disputed presidential elections. Pashinyan went into hiding following the events, but gave himself in to police on 1 July. Pashinyan, however, argued that his actions in organising the protest were within the law. Moreover, his lawyer urged the court to change the judge hearing the case, as current judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan had been highly criticised for his handling of a similar case earlier in the year. The trial began on the 20 October. (IPI)
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Russia: last private TV channels to fall under state control
REN TV and St Petersburg’s Fifth Channel, the last semi-independent private TV stations, will come under state control next year. According Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, news bulletins on both channels’ news bulletins will be restructured next year. The state-owned, pro-Kremlin English language television station “Russia Today” will take over responsibility for their news broadcasts from 2010.
Campaigners accused the Kremlin of killing off the last vestiges of independent television in Russia.
“This means independent TV will be destroyed. It will disappear,” said Oleg Ptashkin, a former correspondent with Russia’s state-run Channel One TV who now runs an independent journalists’ union. (Guardian)
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