JANUARY 15, 2006 Posted: March 8, 2006 Bonaventure Bizumuremyi, Umuco ATTACKED Four unidentified intruders carrying clubs and knives came to the Kigali home of Bizumuremyi, editor of one of Rwanda’s few independent newspapers, Umuco. CPJ sources said the intruders broke the door, awakening neighbors who intervened before the intruders could get inside. Bizumuremyi, who had…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the continued use of criminal statutes to jail Congolese journalists for reporting on allegations of corruption and other violations. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance, was arrested on Friday on charges of insulting a local government official and “inciting tribal hatred,” according to the local press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED). He has since been transferred to the central prison in the capital, Kinshasa, where he joins publishers Jean-Louis Ngalamulume, in jail since January 27, and Patrice Booto, behind bars since November 2, 2005.
New York, March 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is very troubled by the recent harassment of journalists at the independent radio station Choice FM in the town of Gulu, in Uganda’s war-scarred north. Police accused the station of being a security threat after a talk show last Wednesday featuring opposition and ruling party candidates…
New York, March 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Nepalese authorities’ detention of journalist Jay Gupta, editor and publisher of the Kathmandu-based Uptyaka Daily and the weekly Dishanirdesh. Police arrested Gupta on Friday after his publications reported that a bomb went off near a royal vacation retreat that King Gyanendra and his wife were…
New York, March 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Philippine authorities’ decision to file charges of inciting sedition against the publisher and two columnists of the Manila-based Daily Tribune newspaper. The government filed the charges against Publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares and columnists Ike Seneres and Herman Tiu-Laurel on Friday, just three hours after President Gloria…
New York, March 7, 2006–Three unidentified men abducted a reporter for the Azerbaijani opposition newspaper Azadlyg on Sunday night, beating him, breaking some of his fingers, and slashing him, according to local and international press reports. The attack on Fikret Huseynli (Huseinli) was likely related to his work, Azadlyg Editor-in-Chief Ganimat Zahidov told reporters at…
New York, March 7, 2006—Authorities in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia today charged three journalists with entering the self-declared republic illegally to shoot a documentary film, local and international media reported. Journalists Tea Sharia, Georgii Sokhadze and Teimuraza Eliava were arrested March 1 in Abkhazia, a region along the Black Sea in the northwest…
New York, March 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the arrest today on fraud charges of a Venezuelan journalist known for his criticism of state authorities. Gustavo Azócar Alcalá was arrested in the western state of Táchira minutes after finishing a daily show he hosts on the San Cristóbal-based TV station Televisora…
New York, March 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Philippine authorities today to work for the release of kidnapped radio commentator Joey Estriber. Four unidentified men seized Estriber on March 3 in Baler, the capital of Aurora province, 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Manila, local media reported. Estriber cried out for…