Getting Away With Murder
CPJ’s 2010 Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free New York, April 20, 2010—Deadly, unpunished violence against the press has soared in the Philippines and Somalia, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail…
Dawit Isaac: Jailed 3,127 days in Eritrea without trial
Journalist Dawit Isaac has spent 3,127 days in government custody in his native Eritrea, according to the ticker on FreeDawit, a Web site based in Sweden, Isaac’s adopted country, where he is a citizen. He has never been publicly charged with a crime or been given a trial. A thorny issue between Sweden and the…
Rwanda shuts critical papers in run-up to presidential vote
New York, April 13, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s decision by Rwanda’s Media High Council to suspend two independent weeklies just months prior to presidential elections. At a press conference, attended only by state broadcasters and the pro-government radio station Contact FM, the Media High Council announced an immediate six month suspension of…
Special Report: A Somali Journalist in Exile
Radio journalist Ahmed Omar Hashi is a survivor, but he has paid dearly. He’s been threatened and targeted for death. He’s seen his colleagues and friends killed. Now, like other Somali journalists, Hashi struggles in exile and hopes one day he can resume his work. By Karen Phillips
Video Report: A Somali Journalist in Exile
In “A Somali Journalist in Exile,” CPJ talks with Ahmed Omar Hashi, a former editor for the independent Mogadishu station Radio Shabelle. After three attempts were made on Hashi’s life, CPJ and local partners helped him relocate to Uganda. Hashi talks about the many challenges in his new life in exile and his hopes to…
Truth about jailed journalists is locked away in Eritrea
In the reclusive Red Sea nation of Eritrea, the fate of 10 journalists who disappeared in secret prisons following a September 2001 government crackdown has been a virtual state secret—only occasionally pierced by shreds of often unverifiable, secondhand information smuggled out of the country by defectors or others fleeing into exile.
Exiled Somali journalists face new challenges in Nairobi
Somali journalists Hassan Ali Gesey and Abdihakim Jimale are roommates these days, living in a tiny, graffiti-ridden room in Nairobi, Kenya. Neither would have wanted to eke out an existence like this, but dire circumstances brought them together—starting with the night three years ago that Gesey saved Jimale’s life.
Somali insurgents ban BBC
New York, April 9, 2010—Al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia have banned all BBC broadcasts from the areas they control and confiscated the corporation’s FM transmitters and satellite dishes. Local journalists told CPJ that Al-Shabaab issued a statement today announcing the immediate ban, claiming the BBC carried the “agenda of the crusaders” and “opposed an Islamic administration.”
South Africa: BBC journalist expelled from press conference
New York, April 9, 2010–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the African National Congress (ANC) party’s condemnation of the expulsion of BBC journalist Jonah Fisher from a press conference on Thursday. ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema referred to Fisher as a “bastard” after the reporter interrupted him.
In eastern DRC, soldiers suspected in cameraman’s murder
New York, April 6, 2010—Following Monday’s murder of freelance cameraman Patient Chebeya in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for a renewed commitment from the government to solidly investigate and prosecute those who kill journalists.Armed men in military uniforms jumped Chebeya, at left, around 10 p.m. as his wife let…