Cuban journalist released, exiled; 16 now free
New York, September 27, 2010–Imprisoned Cuban journalist Miguel Galván Gutierrez was released from jail and flown to Madrid on Saturday as part of a July agreement between the Havana government and the Catholic Church. Sixteen journalists jailed in the 2003 Black Spring crackdown have now been freed and exiled as part of the agreement.
Mission Journal: Calderón sees a national threat
Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa had a message to deliver and it wasn’t about press freedom. After hearing the concerns presented by a joint delegation from CPJ and the Miami-based Inter American Press Association last week, the president wanted us to know something: He didn’t go looking for a fight against the drug cartels.
Doubt cast on confession in Rodríguez murder
The man who Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa said had confessed to taking part in the murder of reporter Armando Rodríguez Carreón was tortured, the newspaper El Diario in Ciudad Juárez reported today. On Wednesday, Calderón told a delegation from CPJ and the Inter American Press Association about the man’s alleged involvement in the killing.…
Jammeh ‘award’ coverage reflects chill in Gambian press
“President Jammeh bags 4 awards,” trumpeted a September 17 headline of the Daily Observer, a pro-government newspaper in the Gambia, a West African nation whose idyllic façade as “the smiling coast of Africa” is maintained in part by President Yahyah Jammeh’s brutal repression of the independent press.
As Zenawi speaks, editors are grilled in Ethiopia
On Wednesday, just a few hours before Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi delivered the keynote address at the World Leaders’ Forum at New York’s Columbia University, two journalists back in Addis Ababa endured nearly seven hours of police interrogation.
Calderón to support federalization of anti-press crimes
Mexico City, September 22, 2010–Calling the right to free expression a priority of his government, Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa pledged today to push for legislation that would make attacks on journalists a federal crime. In a lengthy meeting with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association, the…
Paper will curb coverage to protect reporters’ lives in Juárez
The major daily in the war-wracked Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, El Diario, surprised media around the globe on Saturday when it published an unusual editorial that openly compromises the paper’s coverage in order to preserve its journalists’ lives.Under the headline, “What do you want from us?,” the editorial pleads for the cartels to stop killing journalists, and asks…
Critical Honduran reporter survives shooting attack
New York, September 16, 2010–Honduran authorities must fully investigate an attempted shooting on Tuesday of journalist Luis Galdámez Álvarez, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unidentified gunmen in the capital, Tegucigalpa, shot at Galdámez outside his home, he told CPJ. Galdámez was uninjured.