New York, December 10, 2007—The Committee Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that the criminal hearing for an Associated Press photographer accused of collaborating with Iraqi insurgents is being held in secret. On Sunday, an Iraqi court convened the first hearing in the case of AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by the U.S.…
New York, December 10, 2007–Mexican reporter Gerardo Israel García Pimentel was assassinated on Saturday as he was entering the hotel where he lived in Uruapan, the second largest city in the central state of Michoacán. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating possible links between García’s death and his work as a journalist.
New York, December 7, 2007—Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, held by the U.S. military without charge for nearly 20 months, is scheduled to face unspecified charges in an Iraqi court on Sunday. Hussein is among a number of journalists who have been held by the U.S. military in Iraq for prolonged periods.
New York, December 6, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jailing today of yet another journalist in Azerbaijan, making him the tenth currently behind bars in the country. Ilgar Nasibov, correspondent for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the western exclave of Nakhchivan, was arrested; summarily tried without defense counsel; and sentenced…
DECEMBER 6, 2007 Posted December 28, 2007 Sarl George Baryamwisaki, The New Times ATTACKED Baryamwisaki, a photographer for the pro-government daily The New Times, was beaten up by a policeman and was later detained for two hours at the Remera police station along with his colleague, reporter Ignatius Ssuuna. The policeman handcuffed Baryamwisaki and…
New York, December 5, 2007–CPJ condemns the Somaliland authorities’ decision to expel 24 Somali journalists from Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway republic. The group had recently fled there to escape ongoing persecution in Mogadishu, Somalia. Yesterday, Somaliland Police Chief General Mohammed Saqadhi Dubad and the head of the Criminal Investigations Department, General Ahmed…
New York, December 5, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the one-year prison sentence handed down on Tuesday to a Tunisian freelance journalist known for his published criticism of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and members of the first family. A court in Sakiet Ezziet, in the suburbs of Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city…
New York, December 4, 2007—A Senegalese government official threatened a reporter with unspecified harm on Monday in response to a story implicating him in an alleged corruption scandal, according to news reports and local journalists. He was the third top official this year to threaten physical harm against journalists in response to critical coverage of…
TEMPLATE New York, December 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned at the jailing in Benin of two journalists convicted of criminal defamation. A court in the capital Cotonou sentenced editor Clément Adéchian and reporter Cécil Adjévi of the private daily L’Informateur to six months in prison on December 2. It also fined…
Dear Secretary Rice, In advance of your meeting with Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa, the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw your attention to our concerns regarding press freedom conditions there. You may know that 15 Ethiopian journalists were recently released from prison, but this development belies the country’s sustained record of contempt for independent media, which manifests itself in a variety of legal and administrative restraints. The 15 jailed journalists were sentenced on trumped-up charges such as genocide in connection with the media’s coverage of Ethopia’s 2005 post-election unrest.