New York, August 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a delay in the testimony of three international expert witnesses who were scheduled to appear in court in Bangkok this week in defense of media activist Supinya Klangnarong, who is on trial with the Thai-language daily Thai Post on criminal defamation charges. Shin…
New York, August 19, 2005—Independent radio station KFM was allowed back on the air Thursday after paying a fine of 4.95 million Ugandan shillings (US$2,700) for allegedly violating minimum broadcast standards, according to the station’s managing director. KFM had been closed for a week over on-air remarks by talk show host Andrew Mwenda, who blamed…
New York, August 18, 2005 The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the hand grenade attack on the offices of the Colombian daily El Informador. The newspaper said police believe a motorcycle passenger lobbed a fragmentation grenade which exploded outside the newsroom on Monday evening as three journalists and a designer were finishing Tuesday’s edition.…
JULY 22, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Radio Publique Africaine CENSORED RPA fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as a large group of police broke into the station compound, padlocked its studios, and cut off its transmitter, local sources said. The closure took place despite an earlier compromise deal between the authorities and RPA.
AUGUST 17, 2005 Posted: September 15, 2005 Guibaï Gatama, L’Oeil du Sahel LEGAL ACTION A court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s Far North Province, sentenced L’Oeil du Sahel publication director Guibaï Gatama in absentia to pay damages of 5 million CFA francs (U.S. $ 9,275) to the head of military security in the province…
AUGUST 17, 2005 Posted: September 2, 2005 Elyuddin Telaumbanua, Berita Sore MISSING Telaumbanua left his house in the northern Nias town of Gunungsitoli aboard a motorcycle, taking along a tape recorder and camera. He told his wife that he would return from a reporting assignment in a few days, according to Berita Sore, a Medan-based…
New York, August 17, 2005—A district court in Moscow upheld the conviction of editor and writer Pavel Lyuzakov on Tuesday, sentencing him to two years in a prison colony for illegal possession of a pistol. The journalist and colleagues say the charges against him were politically motivated and filed in retaliation for his criticism of…
JULY 22, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Radio Publique Africaine CENSORED RPA fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as a large group of police broke into the station compound, padlocked its studios, and cut off its transmitter, local sources said. The closure took place despite an earlier compromise deal between the authorities and RPA.
JULY 28, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, La Tolérance IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION The managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance was arrested by judicial police, who accused him of “discrediting” a state prosecutor in an article published in his newspaper. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette was jailed in a cell…
JULY 27, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) HARASSED, CENSORED A group of armed, uniformed soldiers stormed the Abidjan offices of state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) and instructed directors not to broadcast footage of opposition members, according to CPJ sources and local news reports. The soldiers identified themselves as members of…