2006

  

Seven journalists held

February 28, 2006 Original Alert: February 16, 2006 Elham Afroutan and six other journalists, Tammadon-e Hormozgan IMPRISONED Elham Afroutan, one of seven journalists jailed after publishing a satirical article that criticized the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has been transferred from prison in Bandar Abbas to Tehran’s Evin Prison after she attempted suicide in custody, according to…

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Four Miami reporters harassed

FEBRUARY 7, 2006 Mario Vallejo, Univisión Channel 23 ATTACKED, HARASSED Osvaldo Duarte, Univisión Channel Alberto Tavares, Telemundo Channel 51 Lázaro Abreu, Telemundo Channel 51 HARASSED A guard at an immigration jail in Nassau attacked Vallejo, and police detained Abreu, Duarte, and Tavares as the four Miami-based journalists were covering the story of seven Cubans rescued…

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‘Secret’ presidential meeting lands Kenyan journalists in custody

New York, February 28, 2006—Police detained three journalists with the independent East African Standard for questioning today in connection with a story of political intrigue that ran in Saturday’s edition, the paper’s chief executive officer, Tom Mshindi, told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The weekend edition’s managing director, Chaacha Mwita, sub-editor Dennis Onyango, and reporter…

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Burma: Government agents threaten journalist

New York, February 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns harassment and death threats by Burmese security officials against Maung Maung Kyaw Win, a senior reporter and editor at the Burmese-language Myanmar Dana economics magazine. The threats have prompted the journalist to flee the country, and he is now seeking political asylum. Maung Maung Kyaw…

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Computer, phone taken, bloody print left in Moscow slaying

New York, February 28, 2006—A laptop computer and cell phone were stolen from the Moscow apartment of slain NTV correspondent Ilya Zimin, and a bloody fingerprint belonging to someone other than the victim was found on a light switch, local news outlets reported today. Authorities continued to say that the weekend killing was probably not…

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Uzbek reporter freed after serving term for ‘insulting’ officer

New York, February 28, 2006—Nosir Zokirov, a correspondent for the Uzbek service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was released from prison on Sunday after serving a six-month sentence for insulting a security officer, the broadcaster reported. Zokirov, 55, a veteran RFE/RL correspondent in the eastern city of Namangan, was detained, tried…

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Attacks leave border journalists self-censored by ‘culture of fear’

James Pinkerton Houston Chronicle Feb. 27, 2006 HARLINGEN – Three weeks after gunmen shot him five times, Jaime Orozco tells friends he’s itching to get out of his hospital bed and back to his true passion – newspapers.

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Emergency actions cause alarm

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists views with alarm the threat to press freedom in the Philippines during the state of emergency you declared on February 24. Your administration’s tactics–raiding a newspaper, stationing troops in front of television and radio stations, and threatening to issue government editorial guidelines–jeopardize the democratic advances of the last 20 years.

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Tunisian journalist freed after 15 years; another still held

New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Sunday’s release of Tunisian journalist Hamadi Jebali but calls again for Tunisian authorities to release writer and human rights lawyer Mohamed Abbou, who has been jailed solely for expressing his views. Jebali, the longest-serving imprisoned journalist in the Arab world, was among 1,600 of prisoners…

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Newspaper suspended, journalists barred from working

New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the National Communications Council’s decision last Wednesday to suspend the private bimonthly Les Echos for two months and ban two of the newspaper’s journalists from working during that time. The decision by the government-controlled council cited “the publication of false news and an…

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