New York, May 7, 2002—A judge today dismissed charges of “abusing journalistic privileges” and “publishing false information” against Collin Chiwanza, reporter for the independent Daily News, citing lack of evidence. Chiwanza appeared in court with fellow Daily News journalist Lloyd Mudiwa and Andrew Meldrum, a U.S. citizen who is the Zimbabwe correspondent for the London-based…
New York, May 7, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the Chilean government’s recent pledge to reform Chile’s onerous criminal defamation laws. On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, government spokesman Heraldo Muñoz announced that the government would present a proposal to the Chamber of Deputies to achieve “the decriminalization of crimes of opinion ……
New York, May 6, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by the recent passage of the National Media Commission Bill 2002, a pernicious piece of legislation that would give a state-dominated commission the right to license journalists and force reporters to reveal confidential sources. Over the past year, Gambian journalists have made successful…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the recent closure of The Analyst, an independent newspaper based in the capital, Monrovia. During the early morning hours of April 25, police shut down The Analyst and ransacked the publication’s offices. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Monrovia police chief Paul Mulbah said the ban was permanent and refused to give reasons for the closure. “The paper is closed and will not print again. This is a government order,” Mulbah told the AP.
New York, May 3, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the prison sentence imposed last week on Egyptian journalist Ahmed Haridy, editor of the online daily newspaper Al Methaq Al Araby. On April 28, Haridy was sentenced to six months in prison after the Boulak Abu al-Aila Misdemeanor Court in the capital, Cairo, found him…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the Israeli government’s continued detention of several journalists in the West Bank. As of today, at least three journalists are in Israeli custody after being arrested while carrying out their professional duties. The IDF has so far provided no explanation for their detentions.
Washington, D.C., May 2, 2002—In Senate testimony today, a CPJ representative argued that the U.S. government should never recruit journalists as spies, and that U.S. intelligence operatives should never pose as journalists. Appearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, CPJ Washington representative Frank Smyth underscored the need…
New York, May 2, 2002—CPJ is deeply concerned about the draft Supreme Radio and Television Board Bill currently being debated by the Turkish Parliament. The bill was passed last year but vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in June 2001. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit’s government recently resubmitted the bill to Parliament. Under the new law,…
Kojiri Tomohiro photo: courtesy of Asahi Shimbun New York, May 2, 2002—CPJ regrets that 15 years after the murder of Japanese journalist Tomohiro Kojiri, a reporter for the daily Asahi Shimbun, no one has been brought to justice for this crime. The statute of limitations on his case expired tonight at midnight, Tokyo time.
New York, May 2, 2002–CPJ condemns the recent sentencing of Iranian reformist journalist Ahmed Zaid-Abadi, a writer for the newspaper Hamshahri, to 23 months in prison. On April 29, The Associated Press quoted Zaid-Abadi’s wife as saying that he was originally charged in August 2000 with “insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and publishing lies…