Dear President Nguyen, The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the November 17 arrest and continued imprisonment of Somsak Khunmi, a long-time news assistant with the Japan- and U.S.-based Chan Troi Moi (Radio New Horizon) radio program.
JANUARY 9, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Maurice Kayombo, Les Grands EnjeuxIMPRISONED Police in the capital Kinshasa picked up Kayombo, a reporter for the private monthly Les Grands Enjeux, after he went to the office of Mining Ministry Permanent Secretary Christophe Kaninio to seek comments about allegations of corruption for a story that had not…
Dear President Rajapaksa, As your government prepares to withdraw from its 2002 cease-fire agreement with Tamil separatists, the Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by reports that members of your government have tried to intimidate journalists in the Sri Lankan media in recent weeks. In at least two instances, an official used the word “traitor” against a journalist, which is decidedly inflammatory in a country that has seen civil war rage since 1983.
CPJ mourns the loss of Niger radio director New York, January 9, 2008—CPJ mourns the untimely death of the director of Niger’s first independent radio station, Radio R & M (Radio and Music), based in the capital, Niamey, after his car drove over a landmine yesterday on the city’s outskirts. Abdou Mahamane, commonly known as…
New York, January 8, 2008—Police in Dar-es-Salaam said Monday that they had two suspects in custody after armed men stormed the newsroom of a popular vernacular newspaper and seriously injured two top journalists, according to local reporters and news accounts. Managing Editor Saed Kubenea of the Kiswahili-language Mwana Halisi and veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage, a…
JANUARY 7, 2008 Posted February 7, 2007 William Chamagua, Radio Mi Gente THREATENED Chamagua, owner of the San Salvador-based Radio Mi Gente and host of political news show “Hablando Con Mi Gente” (Talking to my people), has received several death threats that extend to his family and employees. Chamgaua told CPJ that he believes…
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…
JANUARY 6, 2008 Posted January 14, 2008 Uthayan, Tamil-language daily THREATENED According to a letter to CPJ from Uthayan’s Managing Director E. Saravanapavan, the paper’s news desk received an anonymous phone call around 10:45 a.m. in which the caller told the paper to cease production or face unspecified consequences. Saravanapavan said the caller spoke in…
JANUARY 4, 2008 Posted January 25, 2008 Zhu Wenna, Faren Zazhi HARASSED/LEGAL ACTION Police and local officials from Xifeng in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning traveled nearly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) to Beijing with a warrant to arrest reporter Zhu Wenna in a defamation case on January 4, according to Reuters and The Washington…