FEBRUARY 5, 2008 Posted February 29, 2008 Ibrahim Souley, L’Enqueteur Soumana Idrissa Maiga, Director of L’Enqueteur LEGAL The editor and managing director of L’Enqueteur were each sentenced to one month in jail and a CFA 40,000 (US$90) fine by a Niamey court on February 5 for defamation charges made by the minister of finance and…
FEBRUARY 29, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 ABS-CBN Television CENSORED An ABS-CBN helicopter seeking aerial views of a rally against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was prevented from approaching the area by an Air Transportation Office (ATO) notice declaring the area a no-fly zone for the three-hour duration of the protest, according to a local press…
New York, February 29, 2008—CPJ condemns the arbitrary arrest of two popular online editors without charge. The two were detained and interrogated for 24 hours in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 18, in what observers of the case say was a politically motivated attempt to shutter the site. The two young editors, Maxence Mello…
New York, February 28, 2008—The Cuban government should release 22 imprisoned independent journalists in keeping with an international accord protecting free expression that was signed today by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Pérez Roque signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides “the right to freedom…
New York, February 28, 2008—Police in the capital, Yaoundé, today forced a popular radio station off the air and confiscated its equipment over commentary critical of the government during a call-in program, according to local journalists. Magic FM is the third broadcaster summarily closed by authorities within a week in response to critical coverage of…
New York, February 27, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the loss of Shihab al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, who died today from injuries he sustained from a targeted shooting in Baghdad on Saturday. Jabbar Tarrad al-Shimmari, deputy head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, told CPJ that al-Tamimi, 74, died from a stroke…
Washington, February 27, 2008—Conditions for domestic journalists remain poor in China despite the government’s promises to improve the press freedom environment before the Beijing Olympics, the Committee to Protect Journalists told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China today. Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator, told the commission in Washington that China is holding at least 25…
New York, February 27, 2008—Authorities at Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport denied re-entry today to Natalya Morar, an investigative reporter with the independent newsweekly The New Times, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Morar, speaking to CPJ by telephone from the airport, said guards stopped her at a passport checkpoint, confiscated her travel documents,…
Newspaper director imprisoned over critical editorials FEBRUARY 26, 2008 Posted March 14, 2008 Aboubacar Gourouza, L’Eveil Plus IMPRISONED, LEGAL Police in the capital, Niamey, arrested Aboubacar Gourouza, director of the bimonthly L’Eveil Plus, and took him into custody over two separate complaints triggered by critical editorials published on January 29, according to news reports…
New York, February 26, 2008—U.S. authorities should disclose evidence and specify charges against Afghan journalist Jawed Ahmad, who has been held by the military since late October, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In a February 22 letter to CPJ, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Ahmad had been designated an “unlawful enemy combatant” but…