2008

VENEZUELA: New York, June 3, 2008—Unidentified gunmen killed Pierre Fould Gerges, vice president of the Caracas daily Reporte Diario de la Economía, on Monday following dozens of death threats against the paper’s senior administrative staff over the last year. The Committee to Protect Journalists said today that Venezuelan authorities must conduct a thorough investigation and…

New York, June 2, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is shocked by allegations that a paramilitary group with links to local police kidnapped and tortured two journalists and a driver working undercover in a Rio de Janeiro slum. CPJ called on Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation. “We are appalled by O Dia’s allegations…

New York, May 23, 2008—Chilean photographer Víctor Salas suffered a serious eye injury on Wednesday when he was struck by a police officer as he was covering a protest outside parliament in the southwestern city of Valparaíso. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the assault and called on Chilean authorities to hold the officer accountable.

New York, May 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists hails a new ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that urges Argentina to void a criminal defamation sentence against a local journalist and reform its defamations laws. The decision by the international court, based in San José, Costa Rica’s capital, was made public on…

New York, May 21, 2008—Two unidentified individuals fired on a marked car driven by a reporter for TV Diário de Mogi in São Paulo on Thursday. Edson Ferraz, who was not injured, told local reporters that he believes the attack was in retaliation for his recent reporting on police corruption. The Committee to Protect Journalists…

New York, May 12, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of Jorge Mérida Pérez, a correspondent in Quetzatenango province for the national Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre. Mérida was shot to death in his home on Saturday afternoon. CPJ calls on the Guatemalan authorities to begin an immediate, thorough investigation into this brutal killing.

APRIL 9, 2008Posted May 9, 2008 Eduardo García, Telecentro 13 María Teresa López, Prensa Libre and Emisoras Unidas ATTACKED, HARRASED Protesters shot at García, a cameraman for the national television station Telecentro 13, while he was covering a demonstration of local residents in San Juan Alotenango, a small city 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of…

New York, May 7, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by allegations that federal police agents assaulted three reporters working in Culiacán, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, three reporters working for the newspaper El Debate went to report on a roadside checkpoint being…

New York, May 1, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release today of an Al-Jazeera cameraman who was held for six years without charge or trial at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Al-Jazeera reported late this afternoon that Sami al-Haj had been freed and was on a plane that was expected…