Grenade attack on newspaper that reports on drug trafficking
New York, August 24, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a grenade attack on the Mexican daily Por Esto!, the third attack since June on the Cancún-based newspaper that has investigated local drug trafficking and government corruption. Unidentified assailants driving an SUV with tinted windows lobbed two hand grenades shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday into…
Two photographers targeted by gunmen during shootout
AUGUST 22, 2006 Posted: August 25, 2006 Luis Alberto Cruz, Milenio Jorge Luis Plata, Reforma ATTACKED In the early morning, a group of heavily armed, unidentified individuals, traveling through the southeastern city of Oaxaca in a convoy of at least 30 cars shot at a group of antigovernment protesters and at Cruz and Plata, two…
Antigovernment protesters seize 12 private radio stations
New York, August 21, 2006—Protesters including striking school teachers in southern Mexico seized 12 private radio stations today after unidentified assailants shot up a government-owned station already under the demonstrators’ control. At least 50 protesters of the antigovernment group, Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), simultaneously took over each of the stations in…
Arrest of a suspected mastermind in Ortiz Franco murder
New York, August 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Mexican authorities to investigate the suspected involvement of Arturo Villarreal in the 2004 killing of a Tijuana newspaper editor. Villareal was picked up as part of a drug sweep by U.S. security services on August 14. A Mexican prosecutor last year identified Villarreal, who…
CPJ Update
CPJ Update Committee to Protect JournalistsAugust 16, 2006 CPJ Calls for Release of Kidnapped Fox News JournalistsAfter gunmen ambushed a Fox News Channel crew in the center of Gaza City on August 14, and abducted correspondent Steve Centanni, a U.S. citizen, and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand, CPJ called for their immediate and…
Abducted TV reporter released after station airs kidnappers’ tape
New York, August 14, 2006—A Brazilian television reporter abducted by a São Paulo criminal gang was released unharmed today after his station broadcast a message by the kidnappers denouncing prison conditions. Reporter Guilherme de Azevedo Portanova and technician Alexandre Coelho Calado of the São Paulo-based TV Globo network were seized on Saturday by members of…
In Colombia, a provincial radio journalist is murdered
New York, August 11, 2006—Colombian radio host Milton Fabián Sánchez was gunned down on Wednesday night outside his home in Yumbo, in the southwestern Valle del Cauca province. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether there is a connection between the murder and Sánchez’ work. A masked assailant shot Sánchez three times in the…
Editor of Mexican crime magazine is found murdered
New York, August 10, 2006—The body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla, a longtime police reporter who became editor of a crime magazine, was found on the outskirts of the northern city of Chihuahua on Wednesday afternoon. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether Perea’s murder is related to his work.
In Cuba, one reporter is freed and 24 others are still jailed
New York, August 9, 2006—Independent journalist Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández was released on Saturday after a year in prison on a spurious charge of “disrespecting” a local police chief. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Cuban authorities to free the other 24 journalists imprisoned throughout the island. Du Bouchet was released on…