Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Reporters Without Borders condemns the quickly-imposed ban on media coverage of the courthouse drama in Çağlayan, Istanbul, on 31 March, when a prosecutor was taken hostage and murdered after eight hours of fruitless negotiations between the authorities and his two kidnappers, who were themselves killed in a shootout with police.

The introduction of this law only two months after the Charlie Hebdo tragedy is seen as an attempt to broaden surveillance powers under the guise of preventing terrorism.

Regarded as “pirates” by the authorities and telecommunication networks, community radio stations are very vulnerable and are permanently exposed to the possibility of closure or seizure of their equipment.

Washiqur Rahman, a 27-year-old blogger, was hacked to death with machetes today by three men in Tejgaon, an industrial district of Dhaka.

Reporters Without Borders hopes that, in a decision due shortly, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court will overturn journalist José Cristian Góes’ criminal defamation conviction over a fictional tale about political corruption that he posted on his blog in May 2012, for which he received an initial jail sentence.

Journalist Rafael Marques de Morais faces defamation charges over a book which describes how Angolan military officials and private security companies committed human rights abuses against Angolan villagers in the course of diamond mining operations.

Last week saw another attempt by the president’s office to intimidate the opposition media, exacerbating what has been a difficult climate for the Algerian press since President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s reelection in April 2014.

ARTICLE 19 and NGOs around the globe urge the Inter-Parliamentary Union to reject Jordan’s proposed resolution, which could potentially legitimise the use of blasphemy laws by governments everywhere.