New York, November 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the government closure of Azerbaijan’s oldest independent radio and television broadcaster, and the harassment of independent and opposition print media. Authorities sealed facilities and confiscated broadcast equipment on November 24 of the Azerbaijan News Service (ANS), local media reported. The closure of the Baku-based outlet…
November 27, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Kalum Express CENSORED Guinea’s National Communications Council (known by its French acronym CNC) suspended the private weekly, which is based in the capital Conakry, for two months over an editorial critical of the government, according to local journalists and the Media Foundation for West Africa.
November 27, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Radio France Internationale CENSORED Authorities stopped FM transmission of French broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI) after a French judge accused President Paul Kagame, the Tutsi former rebel leader, of involvement in the death of his predecessor in 1994, according to international media reports. Kagame denied any involvement, but…
UPDATED: November 27, 2006 Original Case: August 31, 2006 Ching Cheong, The Straits Times LEGAL ACTION The Beijing Higher People’s Court upheld Ching’s espionage conviction in a closed hearing on November 24. Ching, a Hong Kong reporter for The Straits Times, was sentenced to five years in prison in August.
November 27, 2006 Posted December 13, 2006 Bart Mos, De Telegraaf Joost de Haas, De Telegraaf IMPRISONED An investigating judge in The Hague ordered the detention of Mos and de Haas for not revealing the identity of sources for a story they wrote for the Amsterdam-based independent daily De Telegraaf. On January 21, Mos and…
New York, November 27, 2006—Niger’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Appeals in Niamey, today ordered the provisional release of two journalists serving prison sentences for an article criticizing the prime minister. Director Maman Abou and editor Oumarou Keita of the private weekly Le Républicain were freed pending the court’s decision on the merits of…
New York, November 27, 2006—Writer Pham Hong Son, who was freed from prison on August 30 in a presidential amnesty apparently intended to clear the way for Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization, says he continues to be harassed and kept under virtual house arrest in Hanoi. In an e-mail to Vietnamese dissident exile…
NOVEMBER 25, 2006 Posted December 19, 2006 Saúl Contreras, El Mundo de Córdoba Rafael Saavedra, El Mundo de Córdoba THREATENED Contreras, photographer for the local daily El Mundo de Córdoba, was threatened at gunpoint by unidentified individuals in Córdoba, a city in the southeastern Veracruz state. The following morning, Saavedra, a police reporter for the…
New York, November 22, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of an Iraqi journalist in the city of Baqubah near Baghdad, and the killing of two media support workers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Luma al-Karkhi, 25, a reporter for the Baghdad-based daily Al-Dustour, was gunned down in the Tahreer neighborhood…
New York, November 22, 2006—Roberto Marcos García, a reporter for the Veracruz-based publication Testimonio and local correspondent for the Mexico City weekly Alarma, was found murdered yesterday in southern Mexico. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating possible links between García’s murder and his journalism. García, who was traveling from Veracruz to the nearby city…