Defamation

Abuja, Nigeria, March 24, 2017–Nigerian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release blogger Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo and newspaper publisher Samuel Welson, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The two have been held in a maximum security prison for more than a week as they await trial on charges of defamation and publishing false news.

A city civil court in the southern Indian city of Bangalore on March 2, 2017, ordered the news website The Wire to take down two articles critical of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a member of India’s upper house of parliament, according to one of the website’s founding editor and news reports.

Bangkok, February 28, 2017–A court in Thailand has seized the passport of BBC reporter Jonathan Head in response to a criminal defamation suit filed by a Thai lawyer over a news report on alleged fraud committed on the tourist island of Phuket. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the restrictions on the reporter’s freedom of…

A court in Malta on February 8, 2017, ordered blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia’s bank accounts frozen after two government officials filed a libel case against her and demanded 47,000 euros in damages.

Roughly 10 police officers on January 10, 2017, raided the Athens headquarters of the Greek daily newspaper Parapolitika and arrested the newspaper’s director, Panagiotis Tzenos, Greek and regional media reported. The newspaper’s publisher, Yiannis Kourtakis, was taken into custody later that day, according to Greek media reports.

Lagos, Nigeria, January 19, 2017–Nigerian authorities should drop all charges against Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher of the news website Premium Times, and Evelyn Okakwu, who covers the judiciary for the website, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Plainclothes police officers raided the website’s office in the capital Abuja and arrested the two today, holding them…