2006
Bomb attack and threats against newspaper
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a bomb attack on a Venezuelan newspaper and a threat against its editor. Unidentified assailants threw three homemade explosives on Wednesday at the offices of the daily La Región in Los Teques, southwest of Caracas. No one was injured in the attack, which caused minor…
Egyptian court sentences journalist to a year in prison
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the one-year prison sentence handed down to Egyptian journalist Amira Malash for defamation. On Tuesday, a court in Giza near Cairo convicted Malash, a reporter for the independent weekly Al-Fagr, of defaming Judge Attia Mohammad Awad in an article she wrote in July…
Ethiopian editor sentenced to prison; another freed on bail
New York, March 10, 2006—An editor was sentenced on Wednesday to one year in prison on a charge of publishing “false news” in a 2002 report attributed to the BBC, which claimed that Ethiopia was training rebels in neighboring Eritrea. Abraham Gebrekidan, who edited the now-defunct Amharic-language weekly Politika, was immediately jailed, several local sources…
Pakistan: CPJ puts abducted journalist on its missing list
New York, March 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today officially placed Pakistani journalist Hayatullah Khan on its list of missing journalists after repeated calls to Pakistani authorities for information about the abducted reporter went unanswered. Khan was seized by unidentified gunmen in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan on December 5. Some…
Journalist abducted
New York, March 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction and attempted murder of a Dominican crime reporter early Wednesday morning. Unidentified assailants seized Roberto Sandoval outside his Santo Domingo home and threatened to kill him, according to news reports and a CPJ source. Sandoval escaped by jumping from a moving vehicle as…
TV presenter murdered, station attacked and threatened for its reporting
New York, March 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of presenter Munsuf Abdallah al-Khaldi of the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV which has been threatened and shelled by insurgents. Unidentified gunmen shot al-Khaldi, 35, as he was driving from Baghdad on Tuesday with three passengers to interview poets in the northern city…
Ethiopian prime minister pledges fair trials for jailed journalists
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 9, 2006—Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, facing international criticism for cracking down on the press, pledged today that his government would give journalists charged with treason and genocide “their day in court” and a fair and proper trial. In a two-hour meeting with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists,…
Canadian freelance journalist prevented from returning
New York, March 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the expulsion today of a Canadian freelance journalist who reported from Uganda for more than two years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the London-based magazine The Economist, and other outlets. Blake Lambert told CPJ that authorities at Kampala airport prevented him from re-entering Uganda and…
Filmmakers sentenced to prison for espionage
New York, March 9, 2006—A court in the breakaway region of Abkhazia has sentenced three Georgian filmmakers to three months in prison for espionage and illegally entering the self-declared republic in the northwest Caucasus, according to local and international press reports. The filmmakers were tried and convicted on Tuesday evening by the Sukhumi City Court…
Broadcaster loses contact with other reporters RFE/RL correspondents held in Turkmenistan
New York, March 9, 2006—Two correspondents for the Turkmen service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are being held incommunicado after being arrested on Tuesday, and the U.S. government-funded broadcaster said today it has lost contact with its entire network of correspondents in the country. The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by the developments…