Afghanistan / Asia

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the safety of Abdul Saboor Salehzai, a translator for the BBC in Kabul who has been detained incommunicado since December 16.

The UN and the Indonesian government both think they know who killed two journalists in East Timor last year. So why aren’t the suspects on trial?

By Claudia McElroyAll over Africa, conflict continued to be the single biggest threat to journalists and to press freedom itself. Both civil and cross-border wars were effectively used as an excuse by governments (and rebel forces) to harass, intimidate, and censor the press–often in the name of “national security”–and in some cases to kill journalists…

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia continues to maintain a hostile attitude toward journalists and journalism. There are no independent local media, because of the Taliban’s famous intolerance and because resources are scarce in this war-ravaged country. Although several news agencies–including the BBC, The Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse–maintain bureaus in Kabul, visas to foreign correspondents are…

A Special Report

The Taliban are hardly press freedom champions. Even so, Afghan journalism is showing signs of life.

Washington, D.C., March 25 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported today in its annual worldwide study of press freedom that at least 118 journalists were in prison in 25 countries at the end of 1998, and 24 journalists in 17 countries were murdered during the year in reprisal for their reporting.