2001
CPJ testifies before U.S. Congress on press freedom conditions in Central Asia
New York, July 19, 2001–A CPJ representative testified before a joint congressional subcommittee yesterday about the terrible state of press freedom in Central Asia. [Read the transcript] “Repression and violence, or the threat thereof, are ever present for many reporters, encouraging self-censorship as a survival mechanism,” CPJ Washington representative Frank Smyth told the joint hearing…
Journalists released on bail
New York, July 18 — A judge in the northern city of Abbottabad today ordered the release on bail of four journalists from the Urdu-language daily Mohasib who had been imprisoned under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. The journalists, who had been jailed for about six weeks, were released after vigorous protests by local and international…
CPJ Welcomes Release of Burmese Journalist San San Nwe
New York, July 18, 2001–CPJ welcomes the release today of San San Nwe, a journalist, novelist, and political activist who was jailed by the Burmese military government in August 1994 on charges of spreading information damaging to the state. She was released along with 10 other members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD),…
Media executive assaulted
His attackers said, “We are sick of you!” Police are treating the assault as a robbery. New York, July 17, 2001–Oleh Velichko, the head of the Avers media corporation in western Ukraine, was brutally beaten by two unknown assailants outside his home in the late evening hours of Wednesday, July 11, according to CPJ sources…
CPJ concerned about recent decline in press freedom
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the latest deterioration in Angolan press freedom. While Angolan journalists have long faced official hostility and harassment, CPJ has documented a deplorable surge in government interference with the independent press in recent weeks.
CPJ Condemns New Jail Term for Iranian Journalist Ganji
New York, July 16–CPJ strongly condemns the six-year prison sentence issued to imprisoned Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji today and reiterates calls for the release of all jailed journalists in Iran. Ganji was a popular investigative journalist whose reporting on the murders of Iranian intellectuals and dissidents in 1998 implicated several top government officials. Today he…
CPJ delegation meets with ambassador
Washington, D.C., July 13, 2001 — A CPJ delegation met with Eritrean ambassador to the U.S. Gima Asmeron to express its deep concern about 15 journalists alleged to have been jailed or forcibly conscripted for military service. CPJ first raised the issue in a June 7 letter to Eritrean Justice Minister Foazia Hashim. In her…
Journalist and human-rights activist Rafael Marques detained
New York, July 13, 2001 — Authorities in Angola detained journalist and human-rights activist Rafael Marques this afternoon for approximately one hour, according to Angolan sources. Marques was covering the government’s forced relocation of residents from the Boavista district of Luanda to a camp in Viana (approximately 40 km outside Luanda). He, along with other…
Journalists harassed over Ben Barka coverage
New York, July 13, 2001 — CPJ is disturbed by the recent Moroccan government harassment of Alain Chabod, deputy chief editor of France 3 Public Television, and Ali Lmrabet, director of the Moroccan weekly Demain Magazine, as well as by the temporary freeze on the printing of Demain. Moroccan secret service (DST) agents began following…