New York, February 11, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of 11 journalists based in the northwestern city of Rajshahi who have received death threats from an underground communist group. On February 7, a letter from Janajuddha, (People’s War), a faction of the Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), arrived…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the plight of photojournalist Wallace Gichere, who is paralyzed from the waist down because of a 1991 incident in which Kenyan police officers threw him from a fourth floor residence. This crime was committed after Gichere wrote articles in the foreign press about abuses of civil and political rights in Kenya under former president Daniel arap Moi. In 2000, a government Standing Committee on Human Rights recommended that the State compensate Gichere for injuries and financial losses–a recommendation that was approved by government the same year. However, Gichere has still not received compensation.
Dear Mr. Millán: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New Yorkbased independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide, is deeply concerned about Mexican journalist Irene Medrano Villanueva, who has been threatened and harassed during the last two months in connection with her journalistic work.
New York, February 6, 2004—The Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, decided not to publish its Friday edition following a Thursday, February 5, Supreme Court ruling upholding legislation that criminalizes the publication of unlicensed newspapers. According to international news reports, the directors of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the company that owns the Daily…
New York, February 5, 2004—Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court today upheld legislation that allows the government to decide who can be a journalist and criminalizes the practice of the profession by those who are not approved by the government. “This is a heavy blow to press freedom in Zimbabwe and sends a chilling message to the country’s…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, is extremely concerned about deteriorating press freedom conditions in Russia. Recent steps taken by the Federal Security Service (FSB) to harass and intimidate independent journalists in retaliation for their work are particularly troubling. While FSB officials say they are safeguarding national security, journalists say they have become targets for reporting on government corruption and FSB abuses.
Bogotá, February 5, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating the murder of Oscar Alberto Polanco Herrera, a television journalist who was shot dead yesterday, February 4, in the town of Cartago, Valle del Cauca Department, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Bogotá. Authorities said that Polanco Herrera, director of the local…
New York, February 5, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores recent violent attacks on private Palestinian media outlets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by armed gunmen. At around 4:00 a.m. on Monday, February 2, three masked Palestinian men carrying automatic rifles stormed the offices of the Ramallah-based Al-Quds Educational Television, according to…
New York, February 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the recent violent attack against Colombian journalist and human rights activist Inés Peña, who was assaulted and tortured in the city of Barrancabermeja, Santander Department, last week. On January 28 at around 3 p.m., two armed men abducted the journalist while she was…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is troubled by the recent criminal charges brought against journalists working for the private weekly newspaper Telegraph. On January 16, Editor-in-Chief Philip Moore Jr., Managing Editor Adolphus Karnuah, and Subeditor Robert Kpadeh Jr. were arrested and brought to the Magistrate Court in the capital, Monrovia, where they were charged with “criminal malevolence.”