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	Committee to Protect Journalists An independent, non-profit organization dedicated to protecting press freedom worldwide Contact: info@cpj.org Printer-friendly version

New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Sunday's release of Tunisian journalist Hamadi Jebali but calls again for Tunisian authorities to release writer and human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou, who has been jailed solely for expressing his views.

Jebali, the longest-serving imprisoned journalist in the Arab world, was among 1,600 of prisoners granted pardons by President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali on Saturday. Several dozen of those released belong to the banned Islamist party Al-Nahda.

CPJ Update Committee to Protect Journalists February 17, 2006

CPJ's Attacks on the Press released in four cities worldwide

CUBA

Cuba remained one of the world's leading jailers of journalists,
second only to China. Two journalists were imprisoned during the year, joining 22 others who have been jailed since a massive crackdown on the independent press in March 2003. On the second anniversary of that notorious sweep, more than 100 prominent Latin American writers—including Tomás Eloy Martínez, Sergio Ramírez, Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, Daniel Santoro, and Antonio Caballero—joined CPJ in signing a letter to President Fidel Castro Ruz calling for the immediate, unconditional release of the imprisoned journalists.

IRAN

Hard-liners in government and the judiciary continued a crackdown on the independent media in general and on Internet journalists in particular. In the course of the year, authorities jailed Web bloggers, banned four newspapers for publishing a letter by a reformist cleric, and closed the Tehran bureau of the Arabic-language satellite-TV channel Al-Jazeera.

Attacks and developments throughout the region

ETHIOPIA The government unleashed a sudden and far-reaching crackdown on the independent press in November following clashes between police and antigovernment protesters that left more than 40 people dead. Authorities detained more than a dozen journalists, issued a wanted list of editors and publishers, and threatened to charge journalists with treason, an offense punishable by death in Ethiopia. Dozens of journalists went into hiding during the crackdown, virtually silencing the local private press.

TOGO The death of President Gnassingbé Eyadema on February 5 gave local journalists hope that a new era of press freedom would follow years of repression. Instead, Eyadéma's Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT) held on to power, resorting to censorship, harassment, and intimidation of the media as the army suspended the constitution and named the president's son, Faure Gnassingbé, head of state.

CAMBODIA

The jailing of a prominent radio journalist in Phnom Penh and assaults
on journalists in remote, lawless regions raised concerns about Cambodia's commitment to press freedom guarantees enshrined in its 1993 Constitution and 1994 Press Law.

On October 11, police arrested Mam Sonando for an interview he conducted on Radio Sambok Khmum (Beehive Radio) FM 105 about territorial concessions that the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen planned to make to Vietnam to secure a border demarcation treaty. Journalists Sok Pov Khemara of Voice of America and Ath Bunny of Radio Free Asia fled to Thailand later in the month, fearing that they might be arrested for related reports that were rebroadcast over Beehive Radio. Both the European Union and the United Nations condemned Sonando's detention. Several trade union activists were also imprisoned for discussing the concessions.