2008

  

Journalist’s murderer released on medical parole

UPDATE MARCH 5, 2008 Posted March 24, 2008 Original Case: February 10, 2004 Carlos José Guadamuz, Canal 23 KILLED William Hurtado García, who confessed to the 2004 murder of Canal 23 television host Guadamuz, was conditionally released from prison, the Nicaraguan press reported on March 5. Hurtado had been sentenced to a 21-year prison sentence…

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Lone foreign correspondent forced out of Chad

New York, March 21, 2008–The Chadian government effectively forced the country’s only permanent foreign correspondent to leave the country on Thursday after withdrawing her work permit without explanation, according to news reports. Sonia Rolley, a journalist reporting for several France-based media outlets, including Radio France Internationale (RFI), Agence France-Presse (AFP), French daily Libération and international…

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Shots fired at journalist’s home in western Mexico

MARCH 21, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Javier Montes Camarena, El Diario de Colima ATTACKED Unidentified individuals fired several shots at Montes’ home in Manzanillo, a city in the western Mexican state of Colima. The journalist told CPJ that he believes the attack was retaliation for his criticism of the local government in the daily…

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Cartoonist freed

MARCH 21, 2008 Posted March 24, 2008 Arifur Rahman, Prothom Alo RELEASED Arifur Rahman was freed from Dhaka Central Jail after the police officer who had filed a case against him failed to appear in court hearings because he was in East Timor, The Associated Press reported.

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Sri Lankan media faces increasing harassment

Dear President Rajapaksa, The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by ongoing intimidation of Sri Lanka’s media. Recent events in the state-run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation in Colombo and the treatment of Tamil journalists under investigation by the Terrorist Investigation Division both reveal how press workers face increasing threat of restriction under your government.

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Rwandan newspaper editor flees, publication suspended

New York, March 21, 2008—The founder and editor of the private bimonthly newspaper Umuco went into hiding Tuesday, a day before a police raid on his residence in Kigali. A police statement said Bonaventure Bizumuremyi faces prosecution on defamation charges for “insulting the president.” Police spokesman Willy Higiro made an announcement over Radio Rwanda on…

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Two television journalists covering the North Caucasus murdered

Two television journalists covering the North Caucasus murdered New York, March 21, 2008—Two journalists who covered the volatile North Caucasus have been murdered in Russia in the last 24 hours, the first such killings in nearly a year. While the motives are still unclear, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a vigorous and transparent…

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Saudi cleric issues fatwa against two journalists

“Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam,” Sheikh Barrak was quoted by Reuters as saying in his March 14 religious edict. “We are extremely worried about the safety of our colleagues…

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Foreign media clampdown spreads in China

New York, March 19, 2008—The Chinese government has expanded its obstruction of foreign media covering the violence in Tibet into the neighboring provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan, as well as the capital, Beijing, according to international news reports that quoted a foreign correspondents group. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) told reporters they…

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Iran cracks down on lifestyle magazines 

New York, March 19, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Iranian government’s ban on nine lifestyle and cinema magazines because of their content about foreign film stars and their promotion of “superstitions.” This latest wave of shuttering publications, spearheaded by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, occurred on Sunday. The Press Supervisory Board, part…

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