Afghanistan / Asia

We released this statement today after receiving confirmation from Yaqub Ibrahimi that his brother, Afghan journalism student Parwez Kambakhsh, who was convicted of blasphemy and originally sentenced to death, has been released from a 20-year prison sentence…

New York, August 24, 2009–Authorities in Pakistan’s northwest tribal regions must immediately investigate today’s murder of Afghan journalist Janullah Hashimzada, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

New York, August 20, 2009–Security forces obstructed, assaulted, and detained Afghan and foreign journalists in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan today, enforcing an official gag order on news of violent incidents during the presidential election. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai told the press that information about attacks would discourage voter turnout. 

CPJ spoke with three Kabul-based journalists to learn how they and their colleagues around the country responded to the government’s request to mute coverage of violence during polling hours today.

“When we were in that car and he was pointing that gun at us … I thought, ‘We’re done. We’re not getting out of here alive.'”

New York, August 19, 2009–The Afghan government should lift orders issued Tuesday for a media blackout on election-related violence during Thursday’s presidential polls, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, August 12, 2009–Tuesday’s roadside bomb attack that seriously wounded two Associated Press journalists highlights the dangers journalists face in covering the escalating conflict in Afghanistan. 

With elections due on August 20, pressure is mounting on Afghan journalists, and it’s coming from all sides. The International Federation of Journalists helped organize a meeting in Kabul last week to draw the fractious journalists’ community together; there are four or five competing organizations, all vying for recognition, dominance, and funding. In March, the…