Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

The authorities in several Central Asian states have warned news outlets to tone down their coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or ignore it entirely.

Fourteen journalists reporting on a prison riot in Hargeisa, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Somaliland, were arrested, and their cameras were confiscated.

Șercan’s harassment began in January after she revealed that Prime Minister Ciucă had plagiarised his doctoral dissertation. Since then, she has received threats and her private photographs have been stolen and published online.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has sent a letter to Richard Bennett, the UN’s new special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, about the deteriorating press freedom situation in the country and the need to stop the arbitrary arrests targeting journalists.

Vietnamese courts have convicted two state media journalists for exposing corruption, sentencing Nguyen Hoai Nam to a long jail term and Phan Bui Bao Thy to a year of “reeducation.”

Two presenters and a leading current affairs programme on Cameroon’s outspoken and popular Equinoxe TV channel have been taken off the air for a month.

“The State’s blatant attempts to suppress Rappler’s election-related fact-checking services is an unacceptable attempt to cheat the public of their right to accurate information, which is critical during elections,” said the Hold the Line Coalition Steering Committee.

“If the future government does not take concrete steps to dismantle this political system which has enabled the concentration of media ownership as well as the deliberate attacks on media independence, Hungary would risk becoming a black hole from which no reliable news and information emerges.”