2007
Ethiopia’s High Court convicts four editors, three publishers
New York, June 11, 2007— Ethiopia’s High Court today convicted four editors and three publishers of now-defunct weeklies of anti-state charges linked to their coverage of the government’s handling of disputed parliamentary elections in 2005, according to local journalists. Two of the editors were convicted of charges carrying life imprisonment or death. The journalists were…
Ailing Vietnamese journalist released from prison
New York, June 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes as “long overdue” the release of Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist imprisoned since 2002 for criticizing the government and freed less than two weeks before Vietnam’s president is due to meet with President Bush. “For nearly five years, Nguyen Vu Binh and family have suffered…
CPJ mission to Bolivia finds growing difficulties for media
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, June 8, 2007—Despite a relatively open press climate, President Evo Morales’s intolerance of media criticism is making working conditions for reporters increasingly difficult, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists found during a week-long visit to Bolivia. Morales, while pledging to respect press freedom, accused the media of…
ETHIOPIA: Police interrogate business weekly staffers for 11 hours
JUNE 7, 2007 Posted June 26, 2007 African Best Business Index Weekly HARASSED Police in the capital, Addis Ababa, summoned 17 staffers of the private English-Amharic African Best Business Index Weekly (ABBI), including Editor-in-Chief Yohannes Rufahel, for questioning about the paper’s license to publish, according to news reports and local journalists.
Iraqi journalist who endured abductions, threats is slain in Mosul
New York, June 7, 2007—An Iraqi journalist who had been abducted, shot and threatened with death was slain in Mosul today by unidentified gunmen who answered her cell phone after the killing and told the caller “she went to hell.” The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the murder of Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari, 44, a…
Somali government cracks down on media over security coverage
New York, June 7, 2007—Three private broadcasters covering a government security crackdown in the aftermath of Sunday’s deadly suicide bombing of the residence of the Somali prime minister in the capital, Mogadishu, were indefinitely shuttered on Wednesday after authorities accused the stations of fomenting unrest, according to news reports and local journalists. HornAfrik Radio, the…
CPJ urges Azerbaijan to end persecution of imprisoned editor
New York, June 7, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on Azerbaijani authorities to release an editor imprisoned on libel charges who says he has been denied food and water, and has received death threats. Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the weekly Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, told presiding…
Government probes Michael Moore’s work in Cuba
MAY 2, 2007 Michael Moore, Goldflat Productions LEGAL ACTION The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) opened a civil investigation of journalist and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore following his March 2007 trip to Cuba, according to a May 2 letter sent to Moore by Dale Thompson, chief of general investigations and field…