2006
Iranian journalist Ganji freed after six years in prison
New York, March 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison of prominent Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, freed on Friday after six years behind bars, but the organization calls on authorities to release all Iranian journalists jailed for their work. At least nine journalists are now jailed in Iran, CPJ research shows.
Periodistas bajo acoso en Colombia
Gerardo Reyes El Nuevo Herald March 19, 2006 Alos periodistas colombianos no les queda otra posibilidad que ejercer su oficio en puntillas. Están condenados a cubrir la historia de su país con la delicadeza del cazador de minas que trata de no pisar los intereses de quienes podrían ejercer el derecho artillado de la réplica.
Government intensifies press crackdown ahead of election
New York, March 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the ongoing government crackdown on independent media in Belarus ahead of a presidential election Sunday. Authorities barred two Polish journalists from entering the country to cover the poll, seized the print-run of an opposition newspaper, and pressured a cable TV operator to drop a Russian…
China: CPJ hails dropping of charges against NY Times researcher
New York, March 17, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes China’s decision today to drop charges of revealing state secrets against jailed New York Times researcher Zhao Yan. The decision by the prosecutor’s office was announced by Zhao’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, in Beijing. Zhao was detained in September 2004 after The New York Times…
Local journalists increasingly targeted, CPJ finds In Iraq, murder top cause of journalist deaths
New York, March 17, 2006—Murder has overtaken crossfire and other acts of war as the leading cause of work-related deaths among journalists and media support workers in Iraq, and local journalists are far and away the most vulnerable to attack, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. CPJ research, compiled for…
CPJ calls on Moroccan king to probe government-organized protests against magazine
Your Majesty: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by evidence that Moroccan authorities played a role in organizing demonstrations against the magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire for publishing a photograph of a French newspaper showing some of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. These state-orchestrated protests placed the lives of the entire staff of the Casablanca-based weekly at risk, yet the government has failed to launch a credible investigation or call those responsible to account.
Arrests, jailings mark pre-election press crackdown
New York, March 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the latest government crackdown against independent journalists in the days before Sunday’s presidential election. Police arrested at least four journalists this week, and local courts handed them sentences of five to 10 days in jail on charges of hooliganism. Andrei Pochobut, editor of the magazine…
Uzbekistan targets reporters for German broadcaster
New York, March 16, 2006—The Foreign Ministry has invoked restrictive new regulations to reprimand three correspondents working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, escalating pressure on the few remaining local journalists working for foreign media, according to international press reports. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry revoked the accreditation of Deutsche Welle correspondent Obid Shabanov…
CPJ concerned about health of two journalists on hunger strike
New York, March 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today about the health of two independent journalists on hunger strike in Cuba, one of them in prison. Guillermo Fariñas, director of the independent news agency Cubacán Press, has refused food for 45 days to protest government restrictions on journalists’ access to the Internet,…