2014

Aleksandr Alesin, journalist with the Minsk-based independent newspaper Belorusy i rynok (Belarusians and the Market), was released from prison on December 10, 2014, but banned from traveling outside Belarus pending investigation, local and international press reported.

On December 2, 2014, a special war crimes court convicted Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman of contempt in connection with his reporting, according to news reports. The court ruled that Bergman’s writing “portraying derogatory criticism” had “hurt the feelings of the nation,” and ordered him to pay a 5,000 taka (US$65) fine or serve seven…

Unknown gunmen shot the Mogadishu Bureau Chief for the independent, U.K.-based Somali Channel Television on October 12, 2014, outside his home in the Howlwadaag neighborhood in the capital, Mogadishu, according to local journalists and news reports.

Unidentified gunmen fired shots at Azizullah Hamdard, a reporter for the independent Kabul-based Pajhwok News agency on August 2, 2014, according to news reports. The attack took place near the journalist’s home in Kabul, the capital. The gunmen fled the scene immediately. Hamdard sought treatment at a local hospital for injuries to his left arm.

On August 26, 2014, a television news program that was critical of the local government in the Peruvian city of Ayacucho was canceled after threats were made against the company operating the TV station, according to news reports.

On August 30, 2014, the Lesotho military took control of police headquarters, jammed radio and television stations as well as telephone lines, and handed control of the tiny landlocked country to its deputy prime minister, according to news reports. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled to safety in South Africa for four days.

Police in the capital, Harare, on August 18, 2014, assaulted and detained a photojournalist from the private daily paper Zimbabwe Mail who was covering a demonstration calling on the government to provide jobs, according to news reports.

Liberian police on August 11, 2014, assaulted Henry Karmo, a journalist with the independent FrontPageAfrica newspaper, while he was photographing protesters in the capital, Monrovia, demonstrating against the imposition of a 90-day state of emergency by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, according to news reports. The directive was aimed at controlling the spread of the deadly…

A police officer on July 24, 2014, seized the camera of Hippolyte Sama, a photojournalist with the independent newsmagazine Fasozine, while he was photographing relatives of victims of an Air Algeria plane that crashed in northern Mali, according to news reports.