A crack in China's firewall allowed dissident artist Ai Wei Wei to use a Twitter-like social media account for a short time on Sunday, before it shortly became inaccessible. The dissident artist was able to use micro-blogging platform Sina...
CATEGORY: minipost
Egypt: Oscar-winning Iranian film banned from screening at Cairo University
An Egyptian university banned the screening of an award winning Iranian film last week. The film A Separation"was due to be screened at Cairo University on 8 March, but objections from fundamentalist university groups led to the screening permit to...
Venezuela: Armed group accuses Globovisión of hiring paramilitaries to create mayhem
Venezuelan TV channel Globovisión have been accused of hiring paramilitary men to be involved in armed stand-offs on 10 March, resulting in two deaths. Members of armed group Colectivo La Piedrita went to the offices of Globovisión to accuse the...
Kazakhstan: Labour rights lawyer Natalia Sokolova released, but with restrictions
A union lawyer freed from prison by authorities in Kazakhstan on 7 March has been banned from resuming her activism. Natalia Sokolova was found guilty of “inciting social discord” and “actively participating in illegal gatherings” after speaking...
Burma: Ministry to sue journal over corruption claims
Burma's mining ministry have said they will file a lawsuit against a news journal following allegations of corruption. An article in weekly publication The Voice said that the Auditor-General's Office had discovered fraud in the mining,...
Belarus: Journalist stopped from leaving country
Andrej Dynko, managing editor of independent Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva and Index on Censorship contributor, was ordered to get off a train while travelling from Minsk to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Border guards did not give the...
PayPal backtracks on disputed ‘obscene’ e-book policy
Online payment service PayPal have backtracked on a policy against processing sales of e-books containing themes of rape, bestiality or incest. Protests from authors and anti-censorship activist groups, including Index on Censorship, led to a...
Syria: Foreign media threatened, journalists missing
Arab and foreign media who are in Syria "illegally" are being threatened by the information ministry. On 9 March, authorities threatened to take measures against Arab and foreign journalists who have entered the country “illegally” and against...
Honduras: 18th journalist killed since 2010
A radio broadcaster has been killed in Sabá, northern Honduras, making him the 18th journalist to be killed in the country since 2010. Fausto Elio Hernández, host of The Voice of the News programme broadcast on local station Radio Alegre, was...
Egypt: Court clears ‘virginity test’ doctor
A doctor accused of carrying out forced "virginity tests" on female Egyptian protesters has been acquitted by a military court. Ahmed Adel was cleared after the judge found contradictions in witness statements. The case was brought by Samira...