2011
Having captured killing on tape, cameraman fears for his life
Abdul Salam Somroo is in danger. He is the Awaz TV cameraman who took the June 9 video footage of the pointblank murder of a young man, Sarfaraz Shah, in southern Karachi. That’s the same part of the city where militants beheaded American Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Only when Somroo got…
Beyond the Amina hoax: Real cases in the Middle East
A Gay Girl in Damascus was a personal blog, said to be written by a young woman named Amina Arraf, that appeared to give an everyday record of being a lesbian in modern-day Syria. Following the events of the Arab Spring, as the political situation in Syria grew less stable, the blog attracted more readers…
In Iran, journalists remain in government’s crosshairs
New York, June 15, 2011–Iran’s ongoing assault against independent and opposition media has recently gained momentum, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In recent weeks, a journalist died in custody for what his family said was a lack of adequate medical care, the government sentenced another journalist to 20 years in prison, arrested one…
Sierra Leone journalist murdered; suspects in custody
New York, June 15, 2011–Police in Sierra Leone have arrested three suspects, including a police officer, for the killing of a reporter this Sunday during violent clashes over a land dispute on the outskirts of the capital, Freetown, according to local journalists. Ibrahim Foday, 38, a reporter at the private daily newspaper The Exclusive, was beaten and…
The war against journalists in the Middle East
On June 14, Foreign Policy ran a piece by CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. Taking a starting point in the case of missing freelance journalist Matthew VanDyke, Abdel Dayem analyzes the trends in press freedom violations in Libya and across the Middle East. Click here for the full story…
Somali journalists arrested for covering protests
New York, June 14, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a growing number of detentions by the Somali government’s security forces against journalists covering weeklong protests in the KM4 area of the capital, Mogadishu. On Monday morning, security agents arrested 20-year-old reporter Mohamed Amin, of the privately owned Radio Kulmiye. He had been covering ongoing…
UAE intent on punishing online dissent
New York, June 14, 2011– Today’s trial of prominent political blogger Ahmad Mansoor and four others for alleged insult of authorities, criticism and undermining of the government in relation to the their online writings and activism represents a further setback for press freedom in the United Arab Emirates, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Two sentenced in Nepal journalist’s murder
New York, June 14, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed today the conviction of two suspects in the 2009 murder of journalist Uma Singh, but called for a continued investigation into the remaining suspects in the attack. A court in Dhanusa district sentenced Lalita Singh and Nemlal Paswan to life imprisonment for their involvement in the…