2007

  

CPJ urges Sri Lankan president to ensure columnist’s safety

Dear President Rajapaksa: The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by grave threats made against the veteran journalist Iqbal Athas. He has come under extraordinary pressure following his investigations into irregularities surrounding a 2006 deal to purchase MiG-27 fighter jets from Ukraine.

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SOMALIA:In Somaliland, TV journalist assaulted by mayor, held three days

JUNE 28, 2006 Posted August 10, 2007 Abdirahman Muse Omar, Somaliland Television IMPRISONED Omar, a news editor for private broadcaster Somaliland Television in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland, was assaulted on June 28 by Mayor Hussein Muhammud Jiir after seeking official comments about the police’s expulsion of a family and the destruction of their…

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Taliban harass reporter

AUGUST 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 Mohammad Zahir Bahand, Salam Watandar, Reporter DETAINED, INTERROGATED, THREATENED Bahand was kidnapped by Taliban in the vicinity of the Pulisurkh area in Sayedabad district of Wardak province and was released after a few hours of questioning, according to Kabul-based radio station Salam Watandar’s manager Sanjar Qiam. Bahand was…

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MEXICO: Bullets found outside home of journalist who criticized local government

August 28, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 Martín Serrano Herrera, Diario Tribuna THREATENED Serrano, editor of the Jalapa-based daily Diario Tribuna, found high-caliber bullets with red paint wrapped in newspaper just outside his home in the southeastern state of Veracruz. The journalist told CPJ he believed the threat was a warning against his critical reporting…

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Cameroonian publisher sentenced to jail in absentia

New York, August 28 2007— A court in Cameroon’s northwestern town of Kumbo sentenced in absentia, on August 13, the publisher of a small English-language newspaper to a year in prison, according to the national secretary of the Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union. The sentence was related to alleged press offenses by the newspaper, which published…

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In Russia, suspects arrested in Politkovskaya murder

New York, August 27, 2007—Ten suspects have been arrested in the October 2006 assassination in Moscow of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika told a news conference today. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the development but urged Russian authorities to publicly disclose details of the probe, including evidence of the suspects’…

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Yahoo, MSN affiliates agree to blogging controls in China

New York, August 27, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the decision of blog hosting services in China, including Yahoo China and MSN China, to sign a pledge that “encourages” real-name registration for bloggers and commits companies to deleting “illegal or inappropriate information.” “The Chinese government depends on the complicity of private…

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Yemeni editor abducted, severely beaten

New York, August 27, 2007­­­–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction and brutal beating of a Yemeni editor by gunmen in Sana’a today. The local journalists CPJ spoke with suspected the gunmen are part of the government’s security forces. A silver Toyota SUV carrying six gunmen wearing civilian clothing descended upon Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani,…

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Protesters detain cameraman

August 27, 2007 POSTED September 12, 2007 Edwin David Hernández, Star Chanel HARASSED Hernández, cameraman for the news program “Noti Star” on national cable channel Star Chanel, was held for more than three hours by protesters in the central Baja Verapaz province, he told CPJ.

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IVORY COAST: Students raid newspaper

AUGUST 27, 2007 Posted September 7, 2007 L’Intelligent HARASSED About 40 militants of pro-government student group FESCI invaded the offices of private daily L’Intelligent in the capital, Abdijan, sequestering journalists for two hours, seizing newsroom equipment and knocking down the door of editor Laurent Okoué, according to news reports and local journalists.

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