2008
SOMALIA: Three journalists and driver kidnapped
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of three journalists and their driver who were abducted by an unknown armed group two days ago. Somali photojournalist Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi and two foreign freelance journalists, Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan, along with a driver identified only…
Three journalists detained by security forces across Somalia
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…
Sri Lankan journalist indicted on terrorist charges
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Colombo high court’s indictment of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam today on terrorism charges for articles he published in 2006. Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division arrested Tissainayagam, the editor of news Web site OutreachSL, and five of his colleagues within a few days in March 2008.…
Local journalists assaulted, censored in Kashmir
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns restrictions on the media by security forces trying to quell unrest in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Central Reserve Police Forces beat at least 10 journalists for reporting on Sunday during a strict curfew imposed indefinitely on major towns in the Kashmir…
Iraq: U.S. military releases APTN cameraman
New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed Saturday’s release of an Associated Press Television News cameraman who had been held by U.S. forces in Iraq for nearly three months without charge, but it expressed alarm over the U.S. military’s continuing practice of detaining journalists without charge in Iraq. Ahmed Nouri Raziak,…
Journalists wounded by security forces
August 25, 2008 Irshad Akhtar, Aaj TV and Asaap Aslam Jahangir, ARY TV and Nawa-e-Waqat Gulzar Baloch, Samaa TV and Bakhabar Saleem Buzdar, Geo TV ATTACKED The four journalists sustained minor injuries after Pakistani paramilitary forces fired on a rally they were covering in the town of Turbat, Baluchistan province.
Brutally attacked in Guatemala…again
Two days after being abducted and badly beaten in Guatemala, prominent journalist José Rubén Zamora was still in shock. “I can’t remember what happened, but I was drugged and left unconscious in a hospital in the outskirts of Guatemala City,” he told me on Saturday after he was released from the local hospital.His colleagues at…
Press freedom in the news 8/25/08
As the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing came to an official close yesterday, many news outlets are looking at back what the Games mean for human rights in China. The Canadian Press has a piece arguing that nothing has changed, despite the pleasant face China put on for its international visitors. The Ottawa Citizen is…
Olympics: Games over, censorship renewed
With the Games completed, it’s back to Internet censorship as usual. Remember the issue about Web sites being blocked inside the Main Press Center? The problem was only partially resolved. After complaints, more sites became available to reporters inside the MPC and around the country, though many remained blocked. Research by OpenNet Initiative said that…
Olympics: China banishes iTunes
The Apple iTunes store Web site and all 8 million or so of its songs, (“Imagine an entertainment superstore that’s open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” the site urges) are not available in China and haven’t been for more than a week. Not a great loss for iTunes in the very short…