UNITED STATES: New York, June 18, 2008—The publisher and editor of an Urdu-language newspaper in Houston, Pakistan Times USA, has received telephone death threats, and thousands of copies of the free weekly were removed in bulk from dozens of locations in southeastern Texas. The threats and theft of the papers came after the Pakistan Times…
New York, June 17, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces repeated efforts by authorities in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia to shut down the regional news Web site Ingushetiya—one of the few remaining independent news outlets covering the volatile North Caucasus—for alleged extremism. On June 6, Kuntsevo district court in Moscow ordered the closure…
New York, June 17, 2008–Police in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek raided the newsroom of independent newspaper De-Facto on June 14, taking all its financial records, confiscating computers, and sealing the newsroom, the independent regional news Web site Ferghana reported. The paper was shut down after it published a letter to Kyrgyzstan’s president and other…
New York, June 17, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Mohieddin Abdul Hameed al-Naqib, a news presenter for the local affiliate of state-run television station Al-Iraqiya TV, who was gunned down by assailants in the Iraqi city of Mosul today. Al-Naqib, 49, was leaving his house outside Mosul on his way to…
AZERBAIJAN: New York, June 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the police beating of Emin Huseynov, head of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), in Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 14. Huseynov was covering an event for the 80th birthday of slain Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara. Policed raided the event and…
VENEZUELA: New York, June 16, 2008—Javier García, news anchor for the Caracas-based television station Radio Caracas Television Internacional (RCTV), was found dead in his Caracas apartment on Sunday. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on local authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into García’s death.
UPDATE JUNE 16, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 O Dia ATTACKED, THREATENED Odinei Fernando da Silva, a police officer believed to be the leader of a paramilitary group that kidnapped and tortured two journalists and a driver working undercover for the Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Dia, surrendered to police according to international news reports.…
June 15, 2008 Posted: July 14, 2008 Dam Sith, Moneakseka Khmer RELEASED Cambodian publisher and editor Dam Sith was released from Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison on June 15 after being detained for over a week on criminal defamation and disinformation charges for an article published in his daily Khmer-language newspaper Moneakseka Khmer, according to…
JUNE 14, 2008 Posted July 14, 2008 Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, El Diario del Noroeste THREATENED, HARASSEDGutiérrez, correspondent for the Ciudad Juárez-based daily El Diario del Noroeste in the city of Ascensión, left his home in the northern state of Chihuahua following harassment and alleged threats from members of the Mexican army.
New York, June 13, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the June 7 arrest of Salidzhon Abdurakhmanov, an independent Uzbek journalist for a number of international news outlets. Police arrested Abdurakhmanov in the city of Nukus for alleged drug possession, independent news Web site Uznews reported. If convicted, Abdurakhmanov faces up to five…