2010
Video: Carlos Lauria and Jean Roland Chery on CUNY TV
CPJ Senior Program Coordinator for the Americas Carlos Lauria and Haitian journalist Jean Roland Chery appeared on the February 3 edition of CUNY’s “Independent Sources” to discuss the hurdles facing Haitian journalists as they try to rebuild the media in a devastated country. Please visit the show’s Web site to view the video.
Tajik judges seek millions from weeklies in civil libel case
New York, February 3, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on judges in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, to drop their defamation lawsuits against three popular independent weeklies for damage amounts that would bankrupt them.
Saudi operator Arabsat takes Iran’s Al-Alam network off air
New York, February 3, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called for Saudi-run satellite operator Arabsat to return to air the Iranian-owned Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Alam, which stopped broadcasting January 27 without prior notice, according to international news reports. In a statement published on its Web site, Al-Alam said that “Arabsat, in continuation of its censorship…
Museveni accuses two Ugandan journalists of libel
New York, February 3, 2010—An opinion column in Uganda’s leading independent newspaper suggesting parallels between President Yoweri Museveni and former Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos led to criminal libel charges against two journalists today, according to local media reports.
Radio Metropole: A station in Haiti running out of steam
Radio Metropole’s journalists, coping in a tent set up in the garden of the radio station’s office in Port-au-Prince, have not still resumed their normal pace of work because of the trauma caused by the January 12 earthquake. The station resumed its normal programming on February 1, after broadcasting news via the Internet for two…
With 47 journalists in jail, Iran sets notorious records
New York, February 3, 2010—Iranian authorities are now holding at least 47 journalists in prison, more than any single country has imprisoned since 1996, according to a new survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists. While many of the detainees were arrested in the aftermath of the disputed June presidential election, CPJ’s survey found that authorities…
Journalist Marcus Garcia pushes onward in Haiti’s chaos
Amid Haiti’s chaos, Marcus Garcia struggles every day to fulfill his duty as journalist. He said he routinely goes up and down the streets of Port-au-Prince in search of fuel for his car. When talking on the phone, the tone of his voice indicates the difficulties he encounters as a journalist willing to keep doing…
Karimov chastises Uzbekistan’s ‘toothless’ reporters
Addressing the joint session of Uzbekistan’s parliament on Wednesday, President Islam Karimov urged his lawmakers to be more active in their work, saying that laws should address public needs, and blaming the local press corps for being “toothless” in its reporting, regional news Web site Ferghana reported. In his speech, available on the parliament’s Web site, Karimov, at…
Videos show Haiti’s community radio stations in ruins
As CPJ’s Haiti consultant Jean Roland Chery wrote Wednesday on the CPJ Blog, “Community radio stations play a leading role in local news coverage in Haiti’s most remote communities, filling the void left by private radio stations in the capital.” Today we can show you two videos clearly depicting the devastation to the Haitian local radio community…
Jordan may extend repressive law to electronic media
Jordan’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial authority, issued an opinion last week stating that Web sites can be classified as “publications” and recommending that the Press and Publications Law be extended to online news sites and other electronic media. This decision, while not yet the law of the land, sets a legal precedent…