Bogotá, May 21, 2001 — Police bomb disposal experts defused a “cluster” bomb packed into a Chevrolet Luv pick-up truck outside the offices of the Communist Party newspaper Voz in downtown Bogotá today, a police spokesman said. The 550-pound bomb was placed directly outside the Voz offices in Bogotá’s central Teusaquillo district and concealed among…
New York, May 18, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed deep concern about the Algerian Parliament’s recent approval of new legislation that stiffens criminal penalties for defamation. On May 16, according to local news reports, the lower house of Parliament—the National People’s Assembly—approved new amendments to the Algerian Penal Code that prescribe…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by last week’s brutal attack against journalists in Kashmir by members of India’s Border Security Force (BSF). We are encouraged by the apparently swift and thorough BSF investigation, and hope that it will yield concrete results.
New York, May 16, 2001 — CPJ welcomes the release of two journalists held in an Addis Ababa prison since 1997 under local press and anti-terrorism laws. Ethiopia has been Africa’s foremost jailer of journalists in recent years, with seven journalists in prison at the end of 2000. Since January 2001, however, authorities have released…
New York, May 15, 2001 — A Spanish journalist was severely injured after opening a letter bomb sent to his home in Zarauz, a town in the Basque region of northern Spain, near San Sebastian. While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, most observers link it to the Basque separatist group ETA. Gorka…
New York, May 15, 2001 — Panamanian radio journalist, columnist, and university professor Miguel Antonio Bernal goes on trial tomorrow in a criminal defamation case filed in 1998 by then-National Police director José Luis Sosa. During a February 1998 broadcast of the news program “TVN-Noticias”, Bernal held the National Police responsible for the decapitation of…
New York, May 14, 2001 — Three Colombian journalists have been killed so far this year, according to CPJ research. At least one of the journalists, Flavio Bedoya, appears to have been targeted for his work. At around midday on April 27, four unidentified gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed Bedoya, 52, as he stepped…
Your Majesty: CPJ is deeply concerned about your June 22 decree expanding the Swazi government’s already sweeping power to ban local publications. The decree, a continuation of the King’s Proclamation of 1973, authorizes the “appropriate ministry” to ban any publication for any reason. “The minister concerned shall not furnish any reason or jurisdictional facts for such proscription,” reads the decree.
Your Highness: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely disturbed by the unwarranted suspensions of the weekly Guardian and the monthly Nation, two independent publications based in the Swazi capital, Mbabane. On May 2, police arrested the Guardian’s editor, Thulani Mthethwa, and drove him to police headquarters in Mbabane where he was interrogated at length over stories in his newspaper about activities in Your Highness’s palace. He was released after several hours.
New York, May 10, 2001 — Seventeen journalists were attacked today by Indian security forces as they attempted to cover a funeral procession in the troubled Kashmir region. The incident occurred in Magam, a town about 17 miles (28 kilometers) north of the state capital, Srinagar. Three of the journalists were hospitalized and thousands of…