Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Journalist Soleil Balanga had broadcast a report referring to the appointment of a new doctor to replace the alleged assailant’s father. Crimes of violence against journalists are rarely the subject of proper investigations and judicial proceedings in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, created to investigate Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination in 2005, accuses Karma Khayat of endangering confidential witnesses by filming them for a report after learning of their identity from an anonymous leak.

Reuters Baghdad bureau chief Ned Parker had to flee the country because of threats by Shiite armed groups over his coverage of their behaviour in the newly liberated city of Tikrit.

In response to journalist Gao Yu’s seven-year jail sentence for “disclosing state secrets,” RWB is releasing internal Chinese Communist Party documents as a form of protest and to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the government’s attempts to control news and information.

Reporters Without Borders is worried about the lack of progress in investigations into violence against journalists and the climate of impunity resulting from the slowness of judicial and police procedures.

Iran continues to be one of the world’s five biggest prisons for news and information providers, with a total of 46 journalists and Internet activists currently detained.

The frequency with which bloggers and social network users are arrested and convicted in the Sultanate of Oman reflects the appalling state of online freedom of information and expression there.

RWB is alarmed by Hicham Mansouri’s conviction and imprisonment on an adultery charge, suspecting that the real target is the organisation he works for, the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism (AMJI).