JULY 26, 2005 Posted: August 9, 2005 Iqbal Athas, The Sunday Times THREATENED Speaking to a closed meeting of 1,000 top military and police officials in Colombo, President Chandrika Kumaratunga accused Athas of publishing sensitive information harmful to Sri Lanka’s national security, sources told local news reporters.
AUGUST 8, 2005 Updated: October 17, 2005 Michaël Didama, Le Temps IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources.
AUGUST 8, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Lucas Garve, freelance HARASSED Garve, a freelance journalist, was harassed twice by government supporters outside his home in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla. Garve was sleeping around 10:30 p.m. when government supporters woke him up and warned him not to leave his apartment the next day, according to…
AUGUST 8, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 Ali Mashhadani, Reuters IMPRISONED Mashhadani, a freelance photographer and cameraman for Reuters news agency, was held incommunicado and without explanation by U.S. forces. Mashhadani was taken from his home in Ramadi during a general sweep of the neighborhood by U.S. Marines who became suspicious after seeing pictures on…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the charge of espionage leveled on Friday against Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has been detained since April without access to legal representation or his family. As an independent organization of journalists dedicated to defending our colleagues worldwide, we are gravely concerned that a pattern of using national security charges against journalists is seriously inhibiting the ability of the press to cover important events in China.
New York, August 8, 2005—A Polish photojournalist was expelled from Belarus on Saturday and banned from the country for five years. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today it is disturbed by the expulsion of Adam Tuchlinksi, 25, of the weekly news magazine Przekroj. Belarusian security agents detained Tuchlinksi as he was about to board…
New York, August 8, 2005—Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred today and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources. The charges stemmed from May articles in Le Temps, one…
New York, August 8, 2005—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has sentenced a newspaper editor to one month in jail on a contempt charge after the editor refused to identify an unnamed source who criticized an earlier court ruling. The editor of a second paper was fined in a related case. Tamrat Serbesa, editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language…
JULY 27, 2005 Posted: August 8, 2005 El Universal LEGAL ACTION The Attorney General’s Office opened a criminal investigation against the Caracas-based daily El Universal after it published an editorial that criticized the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary. The probe was launched under desacato (contempt) provisions, which criminalize expressions deemed offensive to public officials and…