As election approaches, press attacks draw concern
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about threats and attacks against journalists in the run-up to general elections scheduled for January 23, 2007. We urge you to do everything in your power as leader of the interim government to ensure that assaults on the press are adequately investigated and punished, and that journalists are free to report on the election campaign without fear of retribution.
China: CPJ Welcomes Release of Investigative Journalist Jailed Since 1998
New York, December 12, 2006–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the early release of investigative reporter Gao Qinrong, who served eight years of a 12-year prison sentence for his reporting on a corrupt irrigation scheme in northern China’s Shanxi Province. “The long imprisonment of Gao Qinrong is a horrible reminder that even those journalists who…
Philippines:Radio broadcaster and former newspaper columnist shot dead
New York, December 8, 2006—Two unidentified gunmen killed Ponciano Grande, 53, a former newspaper columnist and occasional co-host of a radio variety show, at his farm on Thursday in Cabantuan City, in Central Luzon. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating to determine whether the killing was related to Grande’s work as a journalist. Two…
Fiji: Media refuse to bow to military censorship
New York, December 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today congratulated the media in Fiji for successfully resisting censorship attempts by the leaders of Tuesday’s military coup. Executives from the daily Fiji Times newspaper, Fiji TV and two radio stations, Radio Fiji and FM 96, refused to comply with orders to stop critical reporting on…
Internet fuels rise in number of jailed journalists
New York, December 7, 2006–The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work increased for the second consecutive year, and one in three is now an Internet blogger, online editor, or Web-based reporter, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Philippines: Broadcaster critically wounded in shooting
New York, December 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists said today it was investigating whether the shooting of journalist Arnie Pullan on the central Philippine island of Iloilo was related to his work as a radio host. An unidentified gunman shot and seriously wounded Pullan on December 1 as he left the station of MBC-Radio…
U.S. reporters detained while interviewing source
DECEMBER 2, 2006 Posted: December 20, 2006 Joseph Kahn, The New York Times Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune HARASSED Agents from the local police, Foreign Ministry office and Customs Department detained Kahn, The New York Times Beijing bureau chief, and International Herald Tribune reporter Roger Cohen while they were interviewing a businessman in Zigui, near…
China: Court upholds conviction of New York Times researcher
New York, December 1, 2006—The High Court of Beijing on Friday upheld a fraud conviction in August against Zhao Yan, the Chinese researcher for The New York Times who has been jailed since September 2004. Zhao was tried on the fraud charge and leaking state secrets in June, in closed proceedings at which he was…