In Bangladesh, a prominent journalist is taken in military raid
New York, May 11, 2007—Plainclothes officers raided the Dhaka home of prominent journalist and human rights advocate Tasneem Khalil early this morning in an action that the Committee to Protect Journalists called “an indication of the fragile state of press freedom in Bangladesh.” Four men identifying themselves as a “joint task force” came to Khalil’s…
CPJ calls for justice after attack kills three in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu
New York, May 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the deaths of three employees of the Tamil-language daily Dinakaran who were killed in an attack on the newspaper’s offices in the eastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. “We are horrified by the attack on Dinakaran newspaper and mourn these three deaths,” said…
Concern in Pakistan as Supreme Court threatens to stifle news coverage
New York, May 10, 2007—The Pakistani Supreme Court should immediately withdraw the alarming press directive issued on Wednesday that is designed to stifle coverage of a controversial issue involving the court, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The court warned print and electronic media to avoid “any interference” in the high-profile dispute over the…
TV journalist in Bangladesh claims threat from police commander
New York, May 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by a claim that a television journalist was threatened by an elite police force commander after reporting on a police raid on the home of a political activist. ` Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for CSB News, said he was threatened over the telephone…
Indonesia must cooperate with Australian coroner’s investigation
New York, May 4, 2007—The Indonesian government should do everything in its power to compel former military commander and minister of information Yunus Yosfiah to testify in an Australian inquest into the 1975 deaths of five Australian television journalists, The Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yosfiah, now retired, was an Indonesian army captain who…
Charge against a journalist dropped, but jail threat looms for another
New York, May 3, 2007—The Maldivian information minister announced today that a criminal charge of “disobedience of an order” against Minivan Daily Deputy Editor Nazim Sattar would be dropped and that charges against Editor Aminath Najeeb would be reduced, Sattar told CPJ. The two were facing criminal charges related to an August 2005 article quoting…
Photographer killed, three other journalists injured in Pakistan attack
New York, May 3, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of freelance photographer Mehboob Khan, who was killed in an April 28 suicide bomb attack aimed at Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. The minister escaped with minor injuries, but 28 people died in the attack at a political rally in the small town of…
In the Philippines, president’s husband withdraws 46 libel suits
New York, May 3, 2007—Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has withdrawn 46 criminal libel suits he had filed against 11 journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed today’s news but said the suits should never have been brought. Withdrawal of the cases—which came because Arroyo was “grateful for surviving a…
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…