February 23, 2003—Euskaldunon Egunkaria, a Basque daily based in the northern Spanish town of Andaoin, was closed by government authorities on Thursday, February 20, because of alleged links to the armed separatist group ETA. The paper reappeared on newsstands the next day under the new name Egunkaria. Hundreds of Civil Guard police officers raided the…
Memorandum on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill proposing legislation to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law Submitted to the Security Bureau by the Committee to Protect Journalists February 20, 2003 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issues this memorandum in response to the National Security (Legislative Provisions)…
February 20, 2003, New York—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today submitted a memorandum to the Hong Kong Security Bureau detailing serious concerns about the proposed National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill drafted by the government. In its current form, this bill poses a grave threat to freedom of expression in Hong Kong. “The Hong Kong…
New York, February 19, 2003—Vira Kytaihorodska, editor-in-chief of the twice-weekly newspaper Bukovynske Viche in the western city of Chernivtsi, said that a local government official has threatened to kill her for republishing an article on February 7 that accused Chernivtsi regional governor Teofil Bauer of corruption and violating customs regulations. The official, deputy head of…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by a recent attack against Radio Métropole political reporter Jean-Numa Goudou, the latest in a series of attacks against Haitian journalists that remain unpunished. On February 14, a group of people went to Goudou’s house in Carrefour, a southwestern suburb of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince,…
New York, February 18, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is encouraged that two journalists sentenced to prison yesterday by Jordan’s State Security Court were released this evening. However, CPJ is gravely concerned that a third journalist remains in jail. On February 17, Nasser Qamash, Roman Haddad, and Mohannad Mubaidin, editor-in-chief, managing editor, and writer,…
New York, February 18, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned both that the U.S. government expelled an Iraqi journalist, and that Iraqi authorities responded by ordering a U.S. television correspondent to leave the country. On February 13, New Yorkbased Iraqi News Agency correspondent Mohammed Alawi received a letter from the U.S. Mission to…
New York, February 14, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today sent a letter of inquiry to Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra urging his government to ensure a thorough investigation into the murder of reporter Surapong Ritthi, who was killed on February 11 in southern Phuket Province. Several of the journalist’s colleagues in Phuket believe…
New York, February 14, 2003—Cuban authorities detained Argentine journalism professor Fernando Ruiz Parra, who was researching a book about Cuba’s independent journalism movement, on February 11 and held him incommunicado. He was released on February 12 and was deported the following day. Ruiz Parra, who arrived in Cuba on February 3 on a tourist visa,…
New York, February 14, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the violent attacks against Bolivian journalists that occurred while they were covering two days of deadly street protests in the capital, La Paz. The violence erupted when a crowd of civilians, angry over an attempt by President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to introduce a…