2005
TV anchor taken off air for critical news reporting
New York, November 28, 2005—Moscow-based Ren-TV has taken news anchor Olga Romanova off the air after she criticized the privately owned station for censoring her news coverage. Romanova said three security guards prevented her from entering the TV station on November 24 to host her evening news program “24,” according to local and international news…
CPJ condemns raid on Radio Sagarmatha
New York, November 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a police raid on Radio Sagarmatha moments before the independent station was to relay a rare BBC interview with the head of Nepal’s Maoist rebels. Police stormed the community FM station in the capital Kathmandu on Sunday evening, shut it down, confiscated equipment, and…
Two more journalists detained as police raid newspapers and local journalists’ association
New York, November 28, 2005— Ethiopian authorities have arrested another two journalists bringing the number detained since political unrest erupted four weeks ago to at least 12. Sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Serkalem Fassil, publisher of the Amharic-language weeklies Menilik, Asqual and Satanaw, and her husband Iskinder Nega who is also a…
SOMALIA
NOVEMBER 28, 2005 Posted: December 8, 2005 Ahmed Mohammed Aden, Gedonet Online and Jubba FM Radio IMPRISONED Reporter Aden was jailed in the southern city of Kismayo following an online story claiming that the Jubba Valley Alliance faction had been importing arms in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, the National Union of Somali Journalists…
YEMEN
NOVEMBER 19, 2005 POSTED: December 2, 2005 Al-ThawryFikri Qassim, Al-Thawry Salahaddin al-Dakkak, Al-Thawry LEGAL ACTION A Sana’a court fined the opposition weekly Al-Thawry one million Yemeni riyals ($5,500) for defaming two government officials. The newspaper already faced 13 defamation charges for criticizing the authorities and risked being closed down if convicted on any one of…
Bush, Blair should set record straight on leaked Al-Jazeera threat
New York, November 23, 2005—U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair should clarify reports by a British newspaper that Bush had raised the idea of bombing the headquarters and other offices of the Qatar-based satellite television network Al-Jazeera during an April 2004 meeting with Blair in Washington. The London-based tabloid the Daily…
Trial of Klebnikov murder suspects to be held in secretCPJ urges open proceeding
New York, November 22, 2005—Two Chechen men charged in the July 2004 slaying of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov in Moscow will be tried in secret at the direction of the Russian prosecutor general, according to local and international press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists urged prosecutors to reconsider the decision and hold the…
Two Philippine journalists shot and killed in three days
New York, November 21, 2005—Unknown assailants shot and killed two journalists in separate incidents over a three-day period. Newspaper reporter Robert Ramos died Sunday night after being shot twice in the head outside a market in Cabuyao, Laguna province, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of the capital, Manila. Radio announcer Ricardo “Ding” Uy, known for…
Journalist jailed for defamation
New York, November 21, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that a journalist accused of defaming a government official has been placed in “preventive detention.” Salifou Soumaila Abdoulkarim, director of the private weekly Le Visionnaire, was arrested November 12 after State Treasurer Siddo Elhadj filed a defamation suit, local sources said. “It is outrageous…
Journalist freed without charge after four years in jail
New York, November 21, 2005— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac, who had been jailed without charge since a government crackdown closed the entire independent press in September 2001. Isaac has dual Eritrean and Swedish citizenship. Fourteen journalists remain in Eritrea’s secret jails or otherwise deprived of their…