March 12, 2003, New York—On the eve of a major leadership change in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on the Chinese government to release all journalists who have been jailed for their work. China currently holds 39 journalists in prison, making the country the world’s leading jailer of journalists for the fourth…
New York, March 11, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disappointed that today’s decision by Kazakhstan’s Almaty Regional Court in the city of Taldykorgan, north of Almaty, upheld the prison sentence of prominent independent journalist Sergei Duvanov. On January 28, Almaty’s Karasaisky District Court sentenced Duvanov to three-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly raping…
New York, March 11, 2003—Prominent Sierra Leonean journalist Paul Kamara, founding editor of the popular For Di People newspaper, was freed today after spending four months in prison on criminal libel charges. Kamara was released from Freetown’s Pa Demba Road Prison at around 10 a.m., according to sources there. Journalists, family members, and well-wishers greeted…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about threats made against Vukasin Obradovic, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Vranje-based weekly Novine Vranjske, and Goran Antic, a reporter with the publication, in retaliation for reporting allegations of sexual abuse made against Serbian Orthodox Bishop Pahomije. The bishop’s secular name is Tomislav Gacic.…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about increased restrictions on press freedom in Togo ahead of presidential elections, which are scheduled for June. We are particularly alarmed by last week’s closure of private radio station Tropik FM, based in the capital, Lomé. On Friday, February 28, the High Authority for…
New York, March 10, 2003—Two Uzbek journalists working for U.S. governmentfunded radio stations were attacked by a group of men on Friday, March 7, while trying to cover an anti-government protest in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent. According to local and international press reports, Khusnutddin Kutbiddinov, of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Yusuf Rasulov, with Voice…
Dear Mr. Martínez: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the detention of Mexican journalist Isabel Arvide, who was charged with criminal defamation on December 23, 2002, by Chihuahua State attorney general, Jesús Solís Silva. Arvide, a Mexico Citybased journalist and author who has written many exposés about drug traffickers, corruption, and violence, as…
New York, March 7, 2003—A Belarusian court ruled on Tuesday, March 4, that jailed journalist Mikola Markevich, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper Pahonya, could serve the remainder of his sentence in his hometown of Hrodna, in western Belarus. Markevich will be allowed to reside with his family, but he will now have to register…
New York, March 7, 2003—Burundian president Pierre Buyoya has ordered the country’s private radio stations not to broadcast interviews with or statements from two rebel groups who have continued to fight the government amid negotiations to end the country’s 9-year-old civil war. On March 4, Buyoya called the editors of Burundi’s leading radio stations—including the…
New York, March 7, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) yesterday received a response from the U.S. Defense Department to a letter sent on February 5, 2003, to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. CPJ had written to Rumsfeld expressing concern about 18 journalists in Eritrea who are currently being held incommunicado, as well as the…