Your Excellency: As the start of your government’s “National Dialogue,” which opens today and runs through September 20 and is aimed at reconciling the Central African Republic after years of war, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) writes to respectfully remind you of the many challenges facing Central African media, in the hopes that they may be addressed at this forum. This is especially important in light of Your Excellency’s plans, according to local and international press, to have a new constitution drafted and approved by 2005.
New York, September 8, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent spate of attacks on journalists in the Philippines. CPJ is currently investigating the murders of three reporters killed during the last three weeks. In the most recent incident, journalist Juan “Jun” Pala was killed in the southern city of Davao on Saturday,…
New York, September 8, 2003—Gyanendra Khadka, a journalist with the government news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), was killed on Sunday, September 7, in Jyamire, in Nepal’s eastern Sindhupalchowk District. CPJ is investigating the incident. According to RSS, a group of suspected Maoist rebels took Khadka away from a school where he taught part-time and…
New York, September 5, 2003—Russia’s Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Russian journalist Grigory Pasko challenging his December 2001 criminal conviction for treason. Ivan Pavlov, Pasko’s attorney, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he received a letter on Thursday, September 4, from the Supreme Court’s deputy chairman, Anatoli Merkushov, informing…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns last month’s brutal assault and arrest of Hiramon Mondol, a local correspondent for the daily Dainik Prabarttan in the southwestern town of Khulna, and calls for his immediate release from jail. This case is emblematic of the risks that rural journalists face in Bangladesh, and those responsible must be brought to justice.
New York, September 4, 2003—Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, a journalist who was arrested on August 29, was released today from the Penitentiary and Reeducation Center in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kilembwe, editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri, told CPJ that his release was granted after he paid US$100 and promised to…
New York, September 3, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about disturbing new developments in Cuba’s ongoing incarceration of independent journalists. According to family members, two imprisoned journalists, Manuel Vázquez Portal and Normando Hernández González, joined other jailed dissidents at Boniato Prison in a hunger strike that began on Sunday, August…
New York, September 3, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by the continued detention of Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri based in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. National Police officers arrested Kilembwe on August 29. Local sources told CPJ that they believe Kilembwe was…
Nova York, 3 de setembro de 2003 O Comitê para a Proteção dos Jornalistas (CPJ) está muito preocupado com os últimos acontecimentos envolvendo a prisão de jornalistas independentes cubanos. Segundo familiares, dois jornalistas presos, Manuel Vázquez Portal e Normando Hernández González, se uniram a outros dissidentes presos na penitenciária de Boniato e se declararam…