New York, May 4, 2007—Veteran Guatemalan radio producer Mario Rolando López Sánchez was gunned down outside his home in Guatemala City yesterday. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether López’ murder is related to his professional work. López, producer of the political debate program “Cosas y Casos de la Vida Nacional” and various social…
New York, May 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by a claim that a television journalist was threatened by an elite police force commander after reporting on a police raid on the home of a political activist. ` Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for CSB News, said he was threatened over the telephone…
New York, May 4, 2007—The Indonesian government should do everything in its power to compel former military commander and minister of information Yunus Yosfiah to testify in an Australian inquest into the 1975 deaths of five Australian television journalists, The Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yosfiah, now retired, was an Indonesian army captain who…
New York, May 4, 2007—A court in Azerbaijan jailed two independent journalists today over an article that said Islam was hampering economic and political progress. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which this week named Azerbaijan as one of the top 10 countries where press freedom has deteriorated, condemned the conviction. Reporter Rafiq Tagi and editor…
Robert Mahoney The Guardian online May 3, 2007 http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_mahoney/2007/05/dying_to_tell.html The appalling reality of journalism today in many countries is that a notebook or a camera can be a death sentence. In the past 15 years more than 600 reporters, editors, columnists, photojournalists and media support staff have been killed for their work, according to research…
New York, May 3, 2007—Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has withdrawn 46 criminal libel suits he had filed against 11 journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed today’s news but said the suits should never have been brought. Withdrawal of the cases—which came because Arroyo was “grateful for surviving a…
New York, May 3, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of freelance photographer Mehboob Khan, who was killed in an April 28 suicide bomb attack aimed at Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. The minister escaped with minor injuries, but 28 people died in the attack at a political rally in the small town of…
New York, May 3, 2007—The Maldivian information minister announced today that a criminal charge of “disobedience of an order” against Minivan Daily Deputy Editor Nazim Sattar would be dropped and that charges against Editor Aminath Najeeb would be reduced, Sattar told CPJ. The two were facing criminal charges related to an August 2005 article quoting…
New York, May 3, 2007—Dozens of heavily armed gunmen stormed an independent radio station in Baghdad’s Al-Jamia district today, killing one employee, destroying equipment, and knocking the station off the air. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s assault on Radio Dijla. Around 2:30 p.m. local time, dozens of masked gunmen attacked Radio Dijla with…
New York, May 3, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists joined with colleagues at a rally at U.N. headquarters today to call for the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, abducted in Gaza more than seven weeks ago. Journalists in London, China, and Indonesia also rallied today, World Press Freedom Day, in support of Johnston’s release.…