New York, December 30, 2002–Tigran Nagdalian, the 36-year-old head of the state-owned Armenian Public Television, was shot in the head as he was leaving his parents home in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, on Saturday, December 28. The journalist was rushed to a hospital, where he died during emergency surgery, according to press reports.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to strongly protest the ongoing detention of Ibrahim Hemaidi, the veteran Damascus bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat. According to media reports and sources at Al-Hayat, Syrian police detained Hemaidi on December 23 in connection with a December 20 article he wrote. The article discussed the Syrian government’s alleged preparations for a possible influx of Iraqi refugees in the event of a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The Syrian government has denied the allegation, and Al-Hayat published a statement from the Syrian government to this effect on December 24.
New York, December 27, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the Christmas day attack on the home of Michèle Montas, news director of Port-au-Prince-based Radio Haïti-Inter. A bodyguard was killed in the apparent assassination attempt. Montas is the widow of Jean Dominique, a renowned journalist and radio station owner, who was gunned…
New York, December 24, 2002—Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Russian military journalist Grigory Pasko’s four-year prison sentence. “The imprisonment of Grigory Pasko one year ago was a politicized effort by military and security officials to silence him for writing articles about environmental dangers that jeopardized the health of the Russian people,” said Ann Cooper,…
New York, December 23, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) mourns the death of French television reporter Patrick Bourrat, who was killed in an accident while covering U.S. military exercises in northern Kuwait. Bourrat, a veteran 50-year-old reporter with France’s TF1, died yesterday of injuries sustained on December 21, 2002 when he was struck by…
New York, December 2, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about growing threats against Haitian journalists in the wake of anti-government protests in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien that began on November 17 and continue to rattle the country. On November 21, seven journalists from four private media outlets—including the director and…
New York, December 18, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by a Chilean court’s decision to sentence television commentator Eduardo Yáñez to 18 months in prison. Earlier today, the Chilean Court of Appeals convicted Yáñez, a panelist on Chilevisión’s debate show “El Termómetro,” of “disrespect.” In addition to jail time, the court ordered…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the recent arrests of several Bangladeshi journalists who have worked with foreign news agencies. We are especially concerned that journalists Priscilla Raj and Saleem Samad, who were charged with sedition after working with a documentary crew from Britain’s Channel 4 “Unreported World” series, remain in detention and have allegedly been tortured in government custody.
New York, December 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes today’s release of journalists Bruno Sorrentino and Zaiba Malik, who were working on a documentary for Britain’s Channel 4 “Unreported World” series. However, CPJ demands the immediate release of Bangladeshi free-lance journalists Priscilla Raj and Saleem Samad, who were working for the documentary team…
New York, December 11, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes today’s decision by the United Nations war crimes tribunal on Yugoslavia to limit compelled testimony from war correspondents. The decision, announced this morning at the Appeals Chamber in the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY), came in response…