Harassment
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29
May
2017
Dr Azra Naseem, Muzaffar ‘Muju’ Naeem, and Hani Amir
The Maldivian police issued summons to Dr Azra Naseem, Muzaffar ‘Muju’ Naeem, and Hani Amir posting separate statements on Twitter on May 29. The statement asked the bloggers to present themselves to speak in their defense against unspecified allegations. The police said they would ask the Prosecutor General’s office to press charges and try them in absentia if they refused.
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17
May
2017
Journalists
The government of Bangladesh instructed all its missions abroad to monitor activities of all traveling Bangladeshi journalists. On May 17, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry directed all its missions to monitor the activities of the Bangladeshi journalists traveling abroad and find out whether they are involved in any anti-state activities. The ministry instructed all its missions to take the matter seriously. The instruction reportedly came in the wake of visit of some Bangladeshi journalists’ to Pakistan on invitation of Pakistan government.
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14
Mar
2017
Sandhya Ravishankar
Sandhya Ravishankar was harassed online over her reporting of illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu, India. In January, the Chennai-based freelancer had written a four-part series in The Wire that implicates Tirunelveli-based mining baron S Vaikundarajan in illegal sand mining. It triggered a spate of abusive calls and threats of violence on Twitter and Facebook by his supporters. Ravishankar approached the city police commissioner on March 14 with a complaint about the harassment and threats and has since been provided police protection. Ravishankar has also filed a complaint with the Press Council of India in which she had stated that she had been harassed online with trolls on social media using foul language against me, calling me a ‘corrupt’ journalist, and a ‘fake’ journalist. Her mobile number was published on social media by anonymous trolls and she began receiving a flood of abusive and threatening calls from unknown people.