New York, July 13, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the Pakistani province of Sindh to clarify immediately whether they are holding journalist Mehruddin Mari, who has been missing since July 2. CPJ has confirmed that Mari, a correspondent for the Sindhi-language newspaper The Daily Kawish, was taken by police, according to…
New York, July 11, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of blogger and documentary filmmaker Wu Hao, who was detained without charge for more than four months. Authorities had denied him access to a lawyer and withheld information on his whereabouts and the allegations against him. “We’re relieved that Wu Hao has been…
New York, July 7, 2006 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a bomb attack on the office of the Bangladeshi magazine Weekly Blitz whose editor is on trial for sedition after writing about radical Islam. Editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury told CPJ that two small devices exploded Wednesday outside the Weekly Blitz office in…
New York, July 7, 2006 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by a series of death threats made against You Saravuth, editor of the bi-weekly Khmer-language newspaper Sralanh Khmer . Saravuth has gone into hiding and could not be contacted by CPJ. “We call upon Prime Minister Hun Sen to quickly launch an…
JULY 6, 2006 Posted: July 10, 2006 Lee Kin Mun, Today HARRASSED The state-owned free tabloid Today cancelled the column of Lee Kin Mun, who writes under the name of Mr. Brown. Lee is also a well-known blogger in Singapore. Lee’s June 30 satirical newspaper column, “Singaporeans are fed up with progress,” criticized the government…
July 2, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 DWRC-FM radio station attacked Armed men set fire to the community radio station DWRC FM Radyo Cagayano, in Baggao town in Cagayan province, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Manila, according to local news reports and the Philippines Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The station…
UPDATE: July 5, 2006 Original Alert: April 4, 2006 Ko Thar Cho, freelance Ko Kyaw Thwin, Dhamah Yate LEGAL ACTION On June 21, a court in the central town of Yamaethin upheld the three-year prison sentences for journalists Ko Thar Cho and Ko Kyaw Thwin, who were first charged on March 27 for photographing and…
New York, July 5, 2006 — The body of freelance reporter Sampath Lakmal, a contributor to the Sinhala-language weekly Sathdina, was found in a southern suburb of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Sunday. He had been shot after leaving his house to meet a contact on Saturday night, according to local media reports and the…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you as chairman of the African Union to discuss with your fellow heads of state and government at your summit in the Gambian capital, Banjul, from July 1, the need to defend press freedom on the continent.