New York, May 22, 2003—Two Palestinian journalists were recently brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers after leaving a party in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 20, Shaaban Qandil, a cameraman with the Arabic News Network, and Joseph Handal, a cameraman with France 2, had just left Handal’s…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the recent jailing of Melese Shine, editor-in-chief of the Amharic-language weekly Ethiop. Another journalist, Tewodros Kassa, the former editor-in-chief of Ethiop, has been imprisoned since May 2002. Shine was charged with defamation under Ethiopia’s Press Proclamation No. 34/1992 after a letter to the…
New York, May 22, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned by the Tuesday, May 20, conviction of two journalists from the opposition weekly newspaper Mukhalifet on charges of criminally libeling the brother of President Heydar Aliyev. On May 20, the Yasamal District Court in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, found Mukhalifet editor-in-chief Rovshan Kabirli and…
New York, May 22, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the sentencing of South Korean free-lance photojournalist Jae Hyun Seok to two years in prison. Today, a court in Yantai, Shandong Province, sentenced Seok, who works regularly for The New York Times and South Korea’s Geo magazine, to a two-year prison term on charges…
New York, May 22, 2003—In a recent interview, Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki justified his government’s continuing crackdown on the independent media there by saying that the media were spreading disinformation. In September 2001, authorities closed all private media outlets in the country and arrested independent journalists and political reform activists. Eighteen independent journalists remain in…
New York, May 21, 2003—On May 17, free-lance journalist Jiang Qisheng was released from prison after completing his four-year prison term. Jiang was arrested on May 18, 1999, after writing a series of essays and petitions marking the 10th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, military crackdown on peaceful protesters in the capital, Beijing. On…
New York, May 21, 2003—Atahar Siddik Khasru, a reporter for the national Bengali-language daily Ittefaq who had been missing for three weeks, was found early this morning by a village roadside, his hands and feet bound by heavy chains secured with a padlock. A villager spotted Khasru’s body at around 5:30 a.m. and alerted local…
New York, May 20, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today sent a letter of inquiry to Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo requesting that authorities investigate the murder of radio announcer Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda and attacks on several other journalists. Pobeda was shot by unidentified assailants on Saturday, May 17 as he rode his motorcycle…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent murder of radio announcer Apolinario “Polly” Pobeda in Lucena City, Quezon Province. We call for a swift and thorough investigation into the killing and for those responsible to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.