Vladimir Yatsina, ITAR-TASS, February 20, 2000, Chechnya Yatsina, a photographer with the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, was killed in Chechnya by Chechen militants who had taken him hostage. Two former hostages, Alisher Orazaliyev from Kazakhstan, and Kirill Perchenko from Moscow, reported the killing in statements recorded by Amnesty International after their release at the end…
New York, September 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is saddened by the death of veteran Los Angeles Times correspondent Mark Fineman. According to The Los Angeles Times, Fineman died today of an apparent heart attack while on assignment in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. Fineman, 51, had been waiting for an interview in the office…
New York, September 23, 2003—Abdoulie Sey, editor-in-chief of the private, biweekly Independent, was released from detention yesterday evening in Gambia, said sources in the capital, Banjul. On September 19, three men in an unmarked car abducted Sey in front of the newspaper’s offices in Banjul. Sey was subsequently held incommunicado at the headquarters of the…
New York, September 23, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the decision of Iraq’s Governing Council to sanction Arabic satellite channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya. Today, Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council announced that it would bar the broadcasters’ reporters from covering official press conferences and from entering official buildings for two weeks, according…
New York, September 22, 2003—Four directors of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the company that owns Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, the Daily News, were arrested today and charged with violating the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), according to ANZ Chief Executive Sam Sipepa Nkomo. Earlier today, Nkomo and three…
New York, September 22, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed at the results of the U.S. military’s investigation into the August 17 killing of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, which concluded that U.S. soldiers acted within the rules of engagement when they shot Dana. “The U.S. military is acting as judge and jury in…
New York, September 22, 2003—Parmanand Goyal, a journalist with the daily Punjab Kesari, was shot and killed by three unidentified assailants at his home on September 18 in Kaithal, Haryana, north of the capital, Delhi, according to local press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating the motives behind his murder. According India’s…
New York, September 19, 2003—Yesterday evening, police again occupied the offices of the Daily News and prevented journalists from putting out a Friday edition of the paper. The move was in defiance of a High Court ruling that same day allowing the newspaper to reopen and directing police to return confiscated equipment. Journalists at the…
New York, September 19, 2003—Sitaram Baral, the assistant editor of the weekly Janaastha, was released from detention by Nepalese security forces on Wednesday, September 17, according to local journalists. Four days earlier, however, local sources told CPJ that security forces arrested another journalist, Premnath Joshi, editor of the monthly English-language magazine Shangrila Voice. Baral was…
New York, September 19, 2003—Indonesia’s Central Jakarta District Court is scheduled to deliver a verdict on Tuesday, September 23 in a case involving police negligence in a March disturbance that injured several journalists. The Jakarta chapter of the Alliance for Independent Journalists’ (AJI) filed the suit on behalf of Tempo magazine journalists. According to AJI’s…