2006
India: Veteran journalist escapes assassination attempt
New York, June 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the attempted murder of senior Indian journalist Shujaat Bukhari, a correspondent in Kashmir for The Hindu newspaper. Bukhari told CPJ his life was spared because his attacker’s gun jammed. Bukhari was forced at gunpoint by two men into a motor rickshaw on the…
Independent reporter released on bail
New York, June 12, 2006—A court in the Gambia freed a reporter on bail today, more than two months after he was detained by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), local sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Lamin Fatty of the Banjul-based The Independent will go on trial June 22 on charges of publishing “false…
Journalist given three months’ jail for defamation
New York, June 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a three-month prison sentence given to a radio journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo for defaming a local police chief. Pierre-Sosthène Kambidi, of private radio station Concorde FM in the central town of Tshikapa, was sentenced on June 10, his lawyer said. Kambidi was…
Pressures build on Saudi media
Sebastian Usher BBC News June 9, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/5057106.stm The media in Saudi Arabia has begun to broach topics such as religious extremism, women’s rights and unemployment that were once strictly off limits. The changes have provided new insight into what has long been one of the most closed and conservative societies in the world.
Journalist arrested after criticizing the police
New York, June 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the arrest of a radio journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo who criticized the police on air. Pierre-Sosthène Kambidi, who works for the local private radio station Concorde FM, and the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED), was arrested…
Journalist acquitted but media prosecutions continue
New York, June 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the acquittal of a Turkish newspaper columnist by an Istanbul court on Thursday, but remains deeply concerned by the ongoing criminal prosecution of journalists in Turkey. Murat Belge of the daily Radikal was acquitted on charges of attempting to influence the outcome of judicial proceedings…
CPJ urges president to reform archaic press laws
Your Excellency: We are writing to ask you to use the authority of your office to reform Costa Rica’s archaic defamation laws, which are incompatible with international standards of freedom of expression and rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Newspaper office ransacked, journalist stabbed
JUNE 8, 2006 Posted: June 22, 2006 Muhammad Bader al-Deen al-Bideiri, Al-Masar ATTACKED Around 9 p.m., a group of armed men ransacked the offices of a leading daily in Mosul, Al-Masar, and repeatedly stabbed the deputy editor Muhammad Bader al-Deen al-Bideiri.
Authorities harass journalists interviewing al-Zarqawi relatives
JUNE 8, 2006 Posted: June 12, 2006 Al-Jazeera crew, CBS crew HARRASSED Jordanian security services abruptly halted a live Al-Jazeera interview with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s brother-in-law, and briefly detained the satellite channel’s interviewer Yasser Abu Hilala, and his crew in al-Zarqa, north of Amman.
Tamil journalists in London threatened
JUNE 8, 2006 Posted: June 30, 2006 TBC Radio Station ATTACKED, THREATENED Journalists at the London-based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) received death threats from members of the Sri Lankan separatist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A group of five men attempted to break into the studio while it aired a political discussion program,…