Anna's story

The head of the jounalism union in Russia had described Anna Politkovskaya as the conscience of the country's journalism.

"Her polemical style earned her many critics in Russia but her stories stood out from much of the mainstream Russian media and she pursued them at great personal risk, whether reporting from the war zone or receiving death threats in Moscow".

She worked for a paper called Novaya Gazeta and she is renowned for exposing the human rights abuses committed by Russian troops in Chechnya. Obviously, she wasn't popular in some circles.

There has been many attempts to silence her - including attempts to end her life.

On 7 October 2006, while she was in a lift at her apartment, her was shot point blank 3 times.

The trial of those accused for her murder which was scheduled to start on 15 October 2008 was postponed as there was an attempt on the life of her lawyer who survived but was taken ill.

You can read Anna's orbituary here.

Source: BBC News Online here

Nguyen's story

Nguyen Viet Chien is a journalist in the Thanh Nien Newspaper in Vietnam. Both he and another journalist had been actively reporting on the corruption scandal in Vietnam's Ministry of Transport. Their efforts resulted in many big names being arrested.

However, authorities had accused their reports as inaccurate and harmful.

The two journalists were arrested in May 2008 for "abusing their professional power and position". In September 2008, the charge was changed to "abusing freedom and democratic rights".

Nguyen states that he "...never have any other purpose in mind when writing... [his] reports but exposing wrongdoing and fighting corruption".

However, the Hanoi People's Court found him guilty and sentenced him to 2 years imprisonment. Reporters without Borders has condemned the trial, calling it the Vietnamese government's "revenge" against "daring journalists who revealed embarrassing cases and brought greater freedom to the Vietnamese press".

Source: BBC News Online here

Nay Phone Latt's story

Nay Phone Latt is a blogger in Burma. In the September 2007 uprising, his blog provided valuable information about the things happening in Burma.

Recently he posted a cartoon of Military Leader Than Shwe and he was arrested among other things for that. His mother was not allowed to attend his trial and he was not allowed to be represented by the counsel of his choice (who was imprisoned for contempt of court).

Yesterday, the court sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment which includes 15 years for offences under the Electronics Act, two years for "creating public alarm" and three and a half years for offences under the Video Act.

Source: BBC News Online here.