2010
London neighborhoods increasingly ‘off-limits’ to journalists
Life can be bumpy on Britain’s campaign roads. On May 3, Jerome Taylor, a “home news” reporter with the London daily The Independent went into the Bow borough of East London in order to look into allegations of widespread postal voting fraud. His bloodied nose and face appeared in the next day’s Independent.
Video of abducted journalist in Pakistan seeks swap
New York, May 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by new demands made by a militant group calling itself the Asian Tigers, the captors of freelance journalist Asad Qureshi, left, who has been held in Pakistan since March 26. In a video sent to the Rome-based news agency Adnkronos International today, the kidnappers…
Iran sentences Bahari to 13 years in prison, 74 lashes
New York, May 10, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a 13-year prison sentence handed down to Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in absentia on Sunday.Newsweek correspondent Bahari, who was held in detention for four months on manufactured anti-state charges in 2009, was sentenced by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Sunday to 13 years in prison, in addition to 74 lashes.
Letter from CPJ, OPC to Iran
Your Excellency: The Overseas Press Club of America, an international association of journalists working in the United States and abroad, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, want to express our deep concerns about your government’s treatment of journalists and its unabated harassment of Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari.
Groups demand Iran end threats against journalists
New York, May 10, 2010—The Overseas Press Club of America and the Committee to Protect Journalists are calling on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to bring an end to a nearly year-long campaign of harassment and intimidation of critical Iranian journalists working domestically and abroad.
Azerbaijan confiscates Norwegian footage on Fatullayev
New York, May 7, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately investigate the illegal confiscation of footage and reporting from Norwegian television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl on Thursday.
Pentagon bars 4 reporters from Guantanamo hearings
New York, May 7, 2010—The U.S. military should allow four banned reporters from different Canadian and U.S.-based media outlets to cover military commission proceedings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The reporters were banned after each named a U.S. Army interrogator after being told to keep him and other participants in the proceedings anonymous. The proceedings were…
‘Crude’ filmmaker’s raw footage subject to subpoena
A filmmaker’s raw footage is much like a photographer’s unedited images or a reporter’s notebooks—a private record of their reporting that is rarely disclosed to others. On Thursday, a federal judge in New York ruled that a private firm could subpoena the unedited footage used to make a news documentary. The reason? To help the…
Free speech in India: Between the bullet, baton, and gavel
Freedom of speech and expression in India is balanced precariously between the ever-present threat of direct, physical attacks from both security forces and social vigilante groups on the one hand, and the reassurance of protection from higher judicial authorities on the other. But the scales seem tipped in favor of the former.