2010
In Norbert Zongo case, 12 years of impunity
For Geneviève Zongo, every December 13 revives excruciating memories of the loss of her husband Norbert Zongo, editor of the weekly L’Indépendant. He was assassinated in 1998 while investigating the murder of a driver working at Burkina Faso’s presidential palace. More painful still is that the killers who ambushed Zongo’s car, riddling it with bullets and…
CPJ mourns the passing of Richard Holbrooke
Richard C. Holbrooke, “one of the giants of American foreign policy” in President Barack Obama’s words, was also an ally of press freedom and a good friend to CPJ. In a statement marking Holbrooke’s death at age 69, Chairman Paul E. Steiger said: “CPJ mourns the passing of Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke. He was a…
In Lebanon, Gebran Tueni’s daughter seeks the truth
On a rainy Sunday in downtown Beirut, in St. George Cathedral at Place d’Etoile, the family of murdered Lebanese journalist Gebran Tueni gathered with the staff of his newspaper, Al-Nahar, to hold a memorial marking the fifth anniversary of Tueni’s assassination. The memorial was held in the same church where Tueni was married in 2001,…
Being a Cuban journalist: Harassed, repressed, and jailed
The president of the tribunal looked to his right and said, “The prosecutor has the floor.” With a serious voice he pronounced the sentence: “The prosecutor ratifies the request for perpetual imprisonment for the accused, Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, for acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the country.”
CPJ condemns closure of Al-Jazeera’s office in Kuwait
New York, December 13, 2010–The Kuwaiti Ministry of Information announced today it has shut down Al-Jazeera’s office in Kuwait, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported. The ministry also withdrew press accreditation from all of Al-Jazeera’s local staff. The suspension came after the Doha-based pan-Arab news satellite station aired live footage of Kuwaiti police cracking down on…
Mission Journal: Behind bars in Burundi
“They like me in here,” editor Jean-Claude Kavumbagu said of his fellow prisoners. But sub-Saharan Africa’s only jailed online journalist still pays protection money to stay safe in Bujumbura’s Mpimba Prison.The Net Press editor has been here since police arrested him on July 17. He was charged with treason over an article that questioned the competence of Burundi’s security…
Lebanon tries to modernize its chaotic media laws
Current Lebanese media laws exist in the perfect state of chaos. For example, a print journalist who is a member of the Journalists’ Syndicate, according to the Publication Law, is protected from administrative arrest for an opinion piece or an article he writes. However, if the same journalist broadcasts the very same opinion and some…
An empty chair in Oslo shows China is empty of media ideas
It was more than Liu Xiaobo’s chair that was empty at Thursday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. What was also on display to the world was China’s lack of a new approach to media that goes beyond its decades-old approach of controlling through denial and suppression.
Internet Blotter
Venezuela prepares law to regulate media, including the Internet. Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan briefly released from jail on $1.5 million bail… …but fellow Iranian-Canadian anti-censorship software designer Saeed Malekpour still faces death penalty. Syrian telecom minister says awareness of the dangers, not censorship of the Internet is the solution.
After running leaked cables, websites face harassment
New York, December 10, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns harassment of the Lebanese news website Al-Akhbar after it published U.S. diplomatic cables that were first disclosed by WikiLeaks. The website was hacked this week by unknown attackers, while the Tunisian government blocked domestic access to the site. Saudi officials blocked access to the independent…