CPJ disappointed by dissolution of local press freedom group
New York, November 12, 2004—The noted Argentine press freedom organization PERIODISTAS dissolved yesterday amid internal differences. The group, which was established nine years ago to defend local journalists against press freedom abuses, said in a press release that, “after a long internal discussion about the association’s main goals, it was impossible to find a consensus…
Supreme Court upholds sentence against journalist
New York, November 11, 2004—Ecuador’s Supreme Court of Justice upheld the conviction of columnist Rodrigo Fierro Benítez on criminal defamation charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists has learned. The Supreme Court then suspended Fierro’s sentence. On October 29, a three-judge Supreme Court panel upheld the one-month prison sentence against Fierro, a columnist for the Quito-based…
Reporter killed outside electoral office
New York, November 10, 2004—Reporter María José Bravo, who was covering a dispute over recent elections, was killed yesterday, November 9, outside an electoral office in the city of Juigalpa, capital of central Chontales Department. The 26-year-old Bravo, a correspondent for the Managua daily La Prensa in Chontales, had just exited the Juigalpa vote-counting center…
Four journalists abducted by former paramilitaries
New York, October 27, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the recent abduction of four Guatemalan journalists. On Sunday, October 26, former paramilitary fighters kidnapped reporters Freddy López and Alberto Ramírez, and photographers Emerson Díaz and Mario Linares, all of the Guatemala Citybased daily Prensa Libre, in the town of La Libertad,…
JUDGE ORDERS SECOND JOURNALIST TO JAIL
Washington, October 13, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that a U.S. federal judge has ordered a second journalist to jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. Judge Thomas F. Hogan today ordered Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper to jail until he agrees to…
Judge holds Times reporter in contempt in CIA case
New York, October 7, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that a federal judge has held another reporter in contempt for not disclosing confidential sources to prosecutors investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. Judge Thomas F. Hogan today ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed until she agrees to testify…
Inter-American Court condemns criminal defamation conviction
New York, September 28, 2004–In a decision with broad implications for press freedom in Latin America, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that a criminal defamation conviction in Paraguay violated international law. The court, in a decision handed down this month, found that the criminal proceedings themselves violated the American Convention on Human…
Declaration on Criminal Defamation in the Americas
Journalists, freedom of expression, and press freedom advocates gathered in New York on September 10, 2004 welcome the decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, as well as the concurring opinion by President Judge García Ramírez. The decision and concurrence raise important questions about the compatibility of…