Dawit Kebede IPFA 2010 Video
Dawit Kebede is managing editor of the Awramba Times in Ethiopia. After the government’s crackdown on the press in 2005, he survived a 19-month prison term to restart the only remaining independent media outlet in Ethiopia. Kebede is a 2010 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee. Read about other awardees here.
CPJ Press Freedom Awardee: ‘I always wanted answers’
The last few weeks have been extremely busy for everyone at CPJ as we’ve been preparing for the 2010 International Press Freedom Awards. Today’s press conference in Washington will be followed by a series of events culminating in our awards ceremony Tuesday in New York. As always, the awardees make it special.
Zimbabwe detains reporter on criminal defamation charges
New York, November, 18, 2010–Reporter Nqobani Ndlovu remained in police custody today despite expectations that he would appear in court on criminal defamation charges, local journalists told CPJ. Police in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, arrested Ndlovu, a reporter for the private weekly Standard, on Wednesday and charged him with criminal defamation in relation to an…
In exile in the U.S., Ethiopian journalist struggles forward
After almost a year in exile in America, an icy ocean away from his home in Ethiopia, journalist Samson Mekonnen, left, only recently received his work permit in Washington. In the interim, like most journalists undergoing the emotionally and financially grueling resettlement process, he has relied on friends, family, and international organizations like CPJ to…
That Nobel invite? Mr. Malware sent it
This weekend, staff at CPJ received a personal invitation to attend the Oslo awards ceremony for Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. The invite, curiously, was in the form of an Adobe PDF document. We didn’t accept. We didn’t even open the e-mail. We did, however, begin analyzing the document to see was really inside…
Help journalists in need: An appeal
Mikhail Beketov is lucky to be alive, although I’m sure there are days when he doesn’t think so. On November 13, 2008, the environmental reporter who campaigned against a highway that would have destroyed a forest in Khimki, a town outside Moscow, was beaten nearly to death by men with metal bars. The attackers made…
CPJ welcomes release of Puntland journalist
New York, November 8, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the presidential pardon and release today of radio journalist Abdifatah Jama, who was imprisoned in August for airing an interview with an Islamist rebel leader in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. CPJ had repeatedly called for his release.Jama, deputy director of Horseed Media, had begun serving a six-year prison sentence after being…
Uganda lifts ban on CBS, staff celebrates with caution
Full, normal broadcasting of the Ugandan Central Broadcasting Service (CBS)–owned by Uganda’s powerful traditional Buganda kingdom–resumed Monday after nearly 14 months of silence. While CBS staff welcomed their return to work, many recounted a tough year and questioned the nature of the station’s re-opening.
Malawi government bans weekly tabloid
New York, November 1, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a government ban on the publication of Malawian weekly tabloid The Weekend Times today. In a letter dated October 28, the National Archives of Malawi issued an immediate suspension of The Weekend Times on charges of failing to register the paper, according to news reports.