New York, April 26, 2004—CPJ is deeply concerned about reports that two journalists have been detained in separate incidents in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, editor-in-chief of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper in Bossasso, Puntland, was arrested on April 21, because of an article…
New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice yesterday overturning a sweeping government ban on press accreditation for Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The court ruled on Sunday, April 25, that Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) could not impose a…
New York, April 26, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pleased by the Moldovan Parliament’s decision to remove Article 170 from the country’s Criminal Code. Article 170 called for up to five years imprisonment for defamation. Moldova’s authoritarian president, Vladimir Voronin, sponsored the initiative in March after European officials called on countries within the…
New York, April 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the one-month prison sentence handed down by a Sudanese criminal court on April 10 to Islam Salih, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Sudan. Salih’s lawyer, Abdel Salam Al-Gizouly, told CPJ that Salih was found guilty of several charges, including spreading false news and obstructing a…
New York, April 23, 2004—An unidentified gunman killed Alberto Rivera Fernández, a host of a radio show and a political activist, in Peru’s eastern Ucayali Department, on Wednesday, April 21. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to Rivera’s journalistic work. Rivera, 54, hosted the morning show “Transparencia” (Transparency),…
New York, April 22, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s decision to veto a controversial media bill passed by both chambers of Kazakhstan’s Parliament earlier this year. In a speech today at the Third Eurasian Media Forum—a three-day summit of about 400 journalists, analysts, politicians, researchers, and scientists from more than…
New York, April 22, 2004—A journalist was killed in a mine explosion in India-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, April 20. Asiya Jeelani died en route to the hospital after the van she was traveling in, which was being used by an elections monitoring team sent by a local umbrella organization, the Coalition of Civil Society, detonated…
New York, April 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about deteriorating press freedom conditions in Nepal. According to local and international press reports, security forces have harassed, physically attacked, and briefly detained hundreds of journalists since authorities banned protests in the capital, Kathmandu, and neighboring towns earlier this month. According to…
New York, April 21, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by the disappearance of French-Canadian freelance journalist Guy-André Kieffer, one of the few foreign investigative reporters still based in Ivory Coast. Kieffer had been receiving death threats in recent weeks, according to his family and friends, who fear that he has been…
New York, April 21, 2004—Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of operations for coalition forces in Iraq, confirmed yesterday that U.S. troops killed an Iraqi journalist and his driver near the Iraqi city of Samara, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, on Monday. Asaad Kadhim, a correspondent for the U.S.…