New York, May 23, 2000 — The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe dismissed charges against reporters Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto for publishing a report alleging a military coup plot against President Robert Mugabe, according to international reports and CPJ’s sources in Harare.
Read an account of the shelling incident in The Financial Times and in the BBC New York, May 23, 2000 — A Lebanese free-lance reporter was freed today after nine months in detention, as Israeli troops pushed ahead with their accelerated withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon, Lebanese sources told CPJ today.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is profoundly dismayed by your government’s use of censorship regulations to restrict coverage of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). We are particularly alarmed by the recent decision of the chief censor, Ariya Rubasinghe, to shut down the Tamil-language daily Uthayan and the English-language weekly The Sunday Leader.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the recent violent attack on Igor Domnikov, a reporter for the twice-weekly paper Novaya Gazeta in Moscow, and by your government’s recent announcement that it plans to interrogate reporters from both Novaya Gazeta and the Moscow daily Kommersant for publishing interviews with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the recent closure of the Baku-based magazine Monitor Weekly and by your continued refusal to review the legality of the Interior Ministry’s October 1999 takeover of the independent station Sara Radio/TV.
Dear Mr. González Rodas, The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned for the safety of journalists in Guatemala, based on information we have received from the Centro para la Defensa de la Libertad de Expresión (CEDEX), a Guatemalan press freedom organization. According to a CEDEX communiqué sent yesterday, May 18, at least four reporters for the Guatemala City daily elPeriódico were threatened or intimidated while the newspaper was preparing an investigative article about a secret intelligence operation.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by recent serious press freedom violations in Sierra Leone. We are particularly concerned about the continued illegal detention of Abdoul Kouyateh, acting editor of the private Freetown weekly Wisdom Newspaper.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about government restrictions on press freedom in Morocco this year. During the past four months, Moroccan authorities have taken several punitive measures against the press, including the censorship of newspapers and the criminal prosecution of journalists.
New York, May 16, 2000 — Journalist Candi Ratabane Ramainoane, manager of the Maseru-based independent radio station Moafrika FM, received a hand-delivered summons to appear at the Ministry of Communication with a copy of his broadcasting license, sources in Lesotho told CPJ. The summons was delivered to the station today. The station is accused of…
New York, May 16, 2000 —Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who went 43 days without food to protest government harassment, ended his hunger strike yesterday in Paris, where he has been staying since leaving Tunisia on May 4. Ben Brik had vowed to continue his strike until Tunisian authorities released his brother Jalal Zoughlami, who…