World News Censorship

Overruling its own Press Council, parliamentarians in Burma have passed a restrictive new press law that will restrict freedom of the press. It keeps in place many of the most draconian elements of the existing legal framework.

The Printing and Publishing Enterprise Law renews the government's power to license newspapers, news websites and foreign news agencies and has strict rules on obscenity and the incitement of public disorder. While abolishing some of the prison sentences under the old Printing and Publishing Enterprise Law (1962), the law keeps criminal sanctions as well as excessively high fines for media organisations breaching the law.

The Ministry of Information's draft law has been viewed by members of Burma's fledgling press council as an attempt to undercut their attempts to formulate a new press law. Burma's Press Council was founded by the government in October 2012 with the intention that journalists, their trade unions, media owners and civil society stakeholders should develop a new press law. After a disappointing first attempt at reform , the Press Council is currently working on a second draft of its law.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Information drafted its own press law, aimed at undercutting the more open and inclusive process undertaken by the Press Council.

Burma's upper house will now consider whether to pass the Ministry of Information's restrictive law, or consider the Press Council's proposals when they are finalised.

The Blue Express Daily (Lan Se Kuai Bao) in Yantai city, Shandong province has been banned from publishing in the next three months because it was running supposedly vulgar content, according to its editors.

The daily, which started publishing on July 17 last year, employs more than 300 people and has a circulation of 60,000, said Editor-in-Chief Han Hao. Han said he would be negotiating with provincial publishing authorities to bring the paper back, but he believed officials would have final say on the fate of the publication.

Han told the South China Morning Post that he believed a local competitor had gone to authorities and attacked the paper for running inappropriate pictures of pretty women, which Han said were celebrity photos that appeared in the entertainment news.

The paper published a front page letter for its final issue. Although the letter doesn't explain why the paper is being shut down, Qu Quancheng, a deputy editor at the daily, cited vulgar content as a major reason that has lead to the censorship. Vulgar content , a made-up accusation, has taken down a newspaper, he wrote on Weibo. A new page in China's journalism and history has been turned.

Authorities in Egypt's new military-run government raided Al-Jazeera's Egyptian station, disrupting its service, and shut down at least three stations supportive of Mohamed Morsi in a series of moves that seemed designed to cut off coverage of pro-Morsi events, according to news accounts.

Al-Jazeera reported that security forces raided the Cairo offices of its Egyptian station, Al-Jazeera Mubashir, interrupting service, and detaining several people. The raid came during a live broadcast, the station said. Reuters also reported the raid, citing an account from a station journalist who said coverage of a pro-Morsi rally had also been obstructed.

Misr25, the Muslim Brotherhood's television station, went off the air minutes after Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian defense minister, announced Morsi's ouster, state media reported . A live feed from Misr25 that was being carried by Al-Jazeera English suddenly went black, as did the outlet's live YouTube feed. Misr25 had carried news and commentary that directly reflected the Muslim Brotherhood's political perspective.

The state-run Al-Ahram and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said two other pro-Morsi channels, the Salafi-affiliated Al-Hafiz and Al-Nas, also went off the air at that time. Al-Ahram said police entered the Media Production City offices of all three stations.

A seventeen-year-old student has been sentenced to one year in prison for allegedly insulting Bahrain's king on Twitter. Ali Faisal Alshofa was first arrested in March this year. The teenager has been accused of posting the tweet in question using the @alkawarahnews account, but he has denied any ties to the account.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has condemned the teenager's arrest, as well as the ongoing crackdown on online users, and use of the judicial system to limit their free speech.