2003

New York, September 19, 2003—Today, the Ministry of Communications lifted the ban against Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), which was ordered shut “for an indefinite period” on Tuesday, September 16. The order stemmed from an interview the station aired with Pasteur Habimana, a spokesman for the rebel National Liberation Forces, about the government’s closure of the…

Jean Léopold Dominique, Radio Haïti Inter KILLED April 3, 2000 Dominique, 69, the outspoken owner and director of the independent station Radio Haïti Inter, was shot dead by an unknown gunman who also killed the station’s security guard, Jean Claude Louissaint.

New York, September 18, 2003—Zimbabwe’s High Court ruled today to allow the Daily News, the country’s only independent daily, to resume publishing after being closed for seven days. A High Court judge also ordered authorities to immediately return computers and other equipment confiscated by the police during a Tuesday, September 16, raid on the newspaper’s…

New York, September 18, 2003—Lithuanian border guards detained and expelled a film crew from the independent, Moscow-based national television station NTV on Sunday, September 14, after they filmed a protest on a train near the Lithuanian-Russian border. According to Russian and Lithuanian press reports, NTV journalist Vadim Fefilov, cameraman Vladimir Chervyakov, and sound technician Aleksey…

New York, September 18, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today marked the second anniversary of the Eritrean government’s crackdown on the country’s political opposition and the private press by calling for the release of 17 jailed journalists.[See list of jailed journalists.] With the journalists in prison and no domestic independent media, Eritrea has earned…

New York, September 17, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the recent murder of Japanese freelance journalist Satoru Someya and is conducting an investigation to determine if he was killed for his work. On September 12, police found Someya’s body near a pier in Tokyo Bay. The exact time of his…

New York, July 14, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the arrest of Eritrean journalist Aklilu Solomon, Asmara-based stringer for the U.S. government­funded Voice of America (VOA) news service. Eritrean security officers arrested Solomon at his home on Tuesday, July 8, and took him to an undisclosed location. Ten days earlier, authorities had stripped…

New York, September 17, 2003—In a widening crackdown in Burundi, authorities yesterday closed Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) indefinitely, only days after closing another station, Radio Isanganiro. The shutdown of RPA came after the station broadcast an interview with a rebel spokesman. On September 13, Radio Isanganiro was ordered closed for one week for airing a…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is extremely concerned about the conviction, imprisonment, and torture of journalist and human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov. The Tashkent City Court is planning to hear an appeal in the case on September 23, and we call on you to see that he is released immediately.