2005
CPJ urges ‘vigorous’ investigation into Baghdad shooting
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the events of March 4 when a car carrying the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena came under fire from U.S. forces while en route to Baghdad International Airport. Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed and Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto, was wounded. Sgrena, who was held by kidnappers for a month, had just been released.
Nepalese editor Kanak Dixit released
New York, March 8, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release early this morning of prominent Nepalese editor Kanak Mani Dixit, who was detained and questioned for roughly five hours last night. At least four journalists jailed since the royal coup on February 1 remain imprisoned.
Editor remains jailed
New York, March 8, 2005—Lawyers representing an imprisoned journalist were beaten by security forces during a hearing last week to appeal the prison sentence of Yemeni editor Abdelkarim al-Khaiwani. Jamal al-Jaabi, one of al-Khaiwani’s lawyers, told CPJ that the day of the hearing, March 2, he and colleague Naji Mohamed Allaw were invasively searched before…
ZIMBABWE
MARCH 7, 2005 Posted: March 17, 2005 SW Radio Africa CENSORED The shortwave transmission of SW Radio Africa, a private broadcaster based in the United Kingdom and founded by exiled Zimbabwean journalists, was jammed in Zimbabwe during the run-up to March 31 parliamentary elections, the station and other news media reported. According to the South…
NEPAL
MARCH 7, 2005 Posted: March 9, 2005 Kanak Mani Dixit, Himal Khabarpatrika HARASSED Prominent Nepalese journalist and political analyst Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepalese-language Himal Khabarpatrika magazine, was detained and questioned. Dixit, who has criticized the king’s February 1 takeover of the government, was taken into custody shortly after returning from India, where…
CPJ condemns detention of prominent Nepalese editor
New York, March 7, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention today of prominent Nepalese journalist and political analyst Kanak Mani Dixit, editor and publisher of the Nepalese-language Himal Khabarpatrika magazine. Dixit, who has criticized the king’s February 1 takeover of the government, was taken into custody shortly after returning from India, where he…
LIBERIA
MARCH 4, 2005 Posted: March 28, 2005 Forum CENSORED A court in the capital, Monrovia, ordered the offices of the privately owned weekly Forum shuttered for “contempt of court” after the paper’s managing editor allegedly missed several earlier summonses in connection with an ongoing civil libel case. The court also issued an arrest warrant for…
BANGLADESH
MARCH 4, 2005 Posted: April 1, 2005 Andoloner BazarTHREATENED The entire 25-member staff of the Kushtia-based daily Andoloner Bazar filed a memorandum with the district deputy commissioner of police seeking protection on March 15. The editor, Manjur Ehsan Chowdhury, signed the memo in which the journalists claimed that they have been harassed and under constant…
CPJ seeks to halt intimidation in Chechnya
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned about an ongoing campaign by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and prosecutors to intimidate and obstruct the work of independent journalists reporting on the ongoing war in and around the southern republic of Chechnya.
Freed Italian journalist wounded by coalition fire
New York, March 4, 2005—Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release today and an Italian security agent was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad. Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who was held…