31 Aug 10 | Index Index, minipost
A criminal court judge in Togo has moved to ban the distribution of Tribune d’Afrique, a bimonthly Benin newspaper, that had raised questions about the alleged involvement of a half-brother of President Faure Gnassingbé in drug trafficking. The ban was placed because of an article titled “Drug trafficking at top of the state, Togo in the network, Mey Gnassingbe fingered.” Togo-based editor Aurel Kedoté, reporter Cudjoe Amekudzi and chief executive officer Marlène de la Bardonnie have been fined and a judge has ordered the newspaper to pay 60 million CFA francs.
On 25 August, President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé filed a separate defamation lawsuit against the Indépendant Express. The weekly newspaper published articles that the president has deemed insulting. President Gnassingbé demanded 100 million CFA (approx. US$200,000) in damages over the “enormous harm” to his reputation.
27 Aug 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Three newspapers have been closed and a jail sentence has been imposed on one journalist in the past few days. The Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance, the censorship arm of the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation, has suspended the business daily Asia and withdrawn the licences of the weeklies Sepidar and Parastoo. Asia was suspended for publishing sensitive images and critisising the government’s economic policies. Badrolsadat Mofidi, the secretary-general of the Association of Iranian Journalists from Tehran, has been sentenced to six years in prison was sentenced for “assembly and collusion to commit a crime” and “propagating against the regime.” She is banned from any press related activities for five years.
27 Aug 10 | Index Index, minipost
China’s Central Propaganda Department has placed a blanket ban on covering the explosion at Xinjiang, Western China, including the state-owned Xinhua News Agency who had allegedly already reported that the explosion was caused by a bomb. The explosion killed seven people in the Uighur Autonomous Region, on August 19. According to the International Journalists’ Federation, Chinese authorities are sensitive about reporting in this area as it was home to riots and ethnic tension in 2009.
23 Aug 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Defence secretary Liam Fox has called for shops to ban a computer game that allows players to act as the Taliban and kill Nato troops. Fox said he was “disgusted and angry” and called the game “un-British”. The updated version of Medal of Honour, due for release in October, gives players the choice of which side to represent in its multiplayer mode. A spokesperson for the game’s publishers Electronic Arts said the format “merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides”. The Department of Media, Culture and Sport has distanced itself from Fox’s “personal view“.
