New York, May 2, 2001 – The Liberian Government announced on April 27 that media reports on fighting in the north of the country and on other issues of national security should be cleared with the Ministry of Information before publication or broadcast. According to a report by Agence France-Presse, the statement issued by Information…
New York, April 27, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of two South African journalists who have been subpoenaed to testify against a murderous vigilante group that has threatened to kill them if they comply. In August 1996, journalist Kobus Louwrens and photographer Christo Lötter, both from…
New York, April 23, 2001 — CPJ is greatly concerned about the disappearance of Seifu Mekonnen, a reporter for Mebrek, an Amharic-language weekly based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Mekonnen was last seen on the afternoon of April 21 at a press conference of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, a local non-governmental organization, sources…
New York, April 19, 2001 — Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe’s beleaguered minister of state for information and publicity, has suffered a setback in his latest court battle with the country’s independent press. On April 17, a High Court judge ruled against Moyo’s attempt to restrain the Harare business weekly Zimbabwe Independent from reporting on embezzlement charges…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) remains deeply concerned that justice is not being served in the murder case of Norbert Zongo, late editor of the weekly L’Indépendant in the capital, Ouagadougou. Your government has declared tomorrow an official Day of Forgiveness for all citizens to reflect on Burkina Faso’s painful recent history. While this is a laudable undertaking, it will inevitably fail if suspected human rights abuses by your administration, such as the grisly murder of Zongo, are not fully investigated and their perpetrators brought to justice.
New York, March 20, 2001 — A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today met with Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States Simbi Mubako in Washington, D.C. to convey CPJ’s concern about serious threats to press freedom in Zimbabwe. During the two-hour discussion, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said press freedom conditions have…
EIGHTY-ONE JOURNALISTS WERE IN PRISON AROUND THE WORLD at the end of 2000, jailed for practicing their profession. The number is down slightly from the previous year, when 87 were in jail, and represents a significant decline from 1998, when 118 journalists were imprisoned. While jailing journalists can be an effective means of stifling bad…
By Peter ArnettSHE STOOD DEFIANTLY IN THE CRAMPED QUARTERS OF ISTANBUL’S BEYOGLU CRIMINAL COURT at high noon of a hot midsummer day. The slight, dark-haired Nadire Mater had a message for the court and for the two dozen Turkish reporters and photographers who had gathered to hear her. “The truth is plain to see. Banning…
By Ann CooperIN THE COMMUNITY OF JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE CHRONICLED the past decade’s worst wars, the news last May was devastating. Two of the world’s most dedicated war correspondents, Kurt Schork of Reuters and Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora of The Associated Press, were killed in a rebel ambush in Sierra Leone, a country where…