Lebanese minister prevents three journalists from attending news conference
Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Jamal al-Jarrah prevented Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) reporter Bassam Abou Zeid, LBCI cameraman Zaki Fagali, and Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Mohammad al-Samra from covering a June 22, 2017, news conference in Beirut, according to news reports and the Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom.
Journalist assaulted covering protest in Beirut
A security officer in civilian clothes and a uniformed soldier on June 16, 2017, struck French freelance journalist Philippine de Clermont Tonnere as she covered a protest in Beirut against a third extension of the Lebanese parliament’s term, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Gambia’s Daily Observer newspaper closed for two weeks
Police and officials from the Gambia Revenue Agency (GRA) on June 14, 2017, shut down the Daily Observer newspaper and forced all staff from the publication to leave the office, saying the publication owed 17 million dalasi (U.S.$371,415) in unpaid taxes, Daily Observer Managing Director Pa Modou Mbowe told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The…
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…