Case
2017
Kenyan reporter detained for two days on bribery allegation
Police in Nairobi on June 18 arrested Sunday Nation journalist Walter Menya on charges of soliciting a bribe of 55,000 Kenyan shillings (U.S.$531) to “write a damaging story in The Nation newspaper,” according to a police statement. The amount he was alleged to have accepted was later changed to 50,000 Kenyan shillings (U.S.$482), according to…
Sudan confiscates copies of daily newspaper Akhir Lahza
On June 17, 2017, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services summoned Akhir Lahza’s editor-in-chief Saleh Abdelazim to its offices in Khartoum and told him that copies of the daily Arabic-language newspaper would be confiscated indefinitely, according to the newspaper’s managing editor Luay Abdelrahman and news reports.
Court begins hearing colonel’s defamation suit against TV journalists
Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) Col. Nizar Bou Nasreddine on July 9, 2016, filed a lawsuit against Youmna Fawaz, a journalist for the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Tahseen Khayat, Al-Jadeed’s owner, and Al-Jadeed editor Mariam Bassam over the station’s broadcast in June and July 2016 of a report alleging corruption in the Lebanese Internal Security Forces,…
Moroccan website director held in solitary confinement pending trial
Moroccan security forces on June 6, 2017, arrested Mohamed al-Asrihi, a video journalist and the director of the opposition news website Rif24, from the home of activist Mohsen Athari in the northern town of Trogout, where he was hiding, according to news reports and a statement from Rif24.
Saudi journalist imprisoned for ‘slandering ruler,’ communicating with TV stations
The Specialized Court of Appeals in Riyadh in April 2017 upheld a Riyadh criminal court’s conviction of Saudi journalist Nadhir al-Majid on charges of “slandering the ruler” and sending electronic messages to TV channels and human rights organizations, according to Agence France-Presse and the Gulf Center for Human Rights. Al-Majid was initially convicted on January…
Australian reporter hit by bullet in Philippine city siege
An Australian reporter was hit in the neck by a bullet on June 15, 2017, while covering fighting between Philippine security forces militants in the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao, according to news reports and the journalist’s posts to Twitter.
Egyptian human rights group reports 64 websites blocked
Egyptian authorities blocked access to at least 64 websites, including dozens of news websites, between May 24 and June 12, 2017, according to Egyptian human rights group the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and news reports. The number was substantially higher than the 21 websites security officials on May 24 told Egypt’s official…
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation raids broadcaster NDTV
Officers of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 5, 2017, searched the New Delhi home of Prannoy Roy, the co-founder and executive chair of NDTV New Delhi Television, one of India’s oldest private media companies, and three other premises in the cities of Mussoorie and Dehradun, CBI spokesman RK Gaur told CPJ, declining…
Court fines Benin media regulator for wrongfully closing broadcaster
A court in Benin on May 22, 2017, ordered the reopening of Sikka TV, which the High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC by its French acronym), the state’s broadcast regulator, had ordered closed in November 2016, according to media reports. The court also ordered HAAC to pay 50 million West African francs (U.S.$86,000) in…