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Burundi’s state-run media regulator, the National Communications Council, suspended a popular talk show on Monday (25 April) after a caller accused the President of wrongdoing. The show, Kabizi, was ordered off the air for an initial four-day period. The caller insinuated that the President had committed war crimes during Burundi’s civil war, the show’s host had immediately stopped the caller and asked him to refer his allegations to the Burundi Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
A columnist for the independent Al-Wasat newspaper was arrested on Monday (25 April) after 30 uniformed and plainclothes police officials raided his house. Local journalists have claimed that Haidar Mohammed al-Nuaimi was dragged out of his house and beaten before being transferred to an unknown location. Human rights organisations have called on the Bahraini authorities to disclose his whereabouts and release him immediately.
A Japanese journalist, who was detained while trying to slip across the Thai border, has been deported back to Thailand. Toru Yamaji, who works for the Tokyo-based AFP news agency, had been trying to cover the polling in the eastern border town Myawaddy, where deadly clashes between rebels and the army erupted the following day. The junta had banned international observers and foreign journalists from covering the 7 November election.
The mother of journalist Nazanin Khosravani, who was arrested last week, says her daughter is being held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Azam Afsharian told Radio Free Europe that in a short phone call Khosravani had said she was being kept in Ward 209, which is run by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Prior to the phone call, Evin officials had denied her daughter was even a prisoner there. Khosravani, who is currently unemployed but previously worked for reformist newspapers, was arrested on November 3.