Overviewby Abi Wright Threats to press freedom spiked throughout Asia in 2004, even as the news media claimed significant accomplishments. Across the region, 2004 was an election year, with citizens casting ballots in nations such as Afghanistan, whose landmark vote was peaceful and orderly, and India, where more than 370 million went to the polls.…
AfghanistanThe world witnessed a series of democratic milestones in postwar Afghanistan in 2004, from a newly ratified constitution in January to the first direct presidential election in October. Conditions for the blossoming Afghan press improved in many areas, with a significant expansion of news media outlets and fortified constitutional protections for freedom of expression and…
JULY 1 and 2, 2005 Posted: July 7, 2005 Rohullah Anwari, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Shershah Hamdard, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty IMPRISONED The two RFE/RL reporters were arrested in Asa’ad Abad, the capital of Konar Province in eastern Afghanistan and taken to the capital, Kabul, according to Radio Free Afghanistan’s chief editor, Sharifa Sharif. The…
Remarks by Ann Cooper, Executive Director of CPJ At this event we celebrate the courage of individual journalists and we demonstrate our collective determination to thwart forces that would silence the press. Those collective efforts over the past 12 months have helped win the early release of journalists imprisoned for their work in Tunisia, in…
New York, July 1, 2004—Australian journalist Carmela Baranowska, who was reported missing yesterday in southern Afghanistan, made contact with her employer, SBS Television, by satellite telephone today, according to international news reports. Following the call, SBS issued a statement saying “we are reassured as to her well-being and to the fact that she is not…
New York, June 30, 2004—Carmela Baranowska, a journalist and documentary filmmaker working for the Australian broadcast network SBS, was reported missing today in southern Afghanistan, along with her Afghan assistant and their driver, according to international news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating the circumstances behind their disappearance. Baranowska, 35, has not…