New York, March 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Philippine authorities’ decision to file charges of inciting sedition against the publisher and two columnists of the Manila-based Daily Tribune newspaper. The government filed the charges against Publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares and columnists Ike Seneres and Herman Tiu-Laurel on Friday, just three hours after President Gloria…
New York, March 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Philippine authorities today to work for the release of kidnapped radio commentator Joey Estriber. Four unidentified men seized Estriber on March 3 in Baler, the capital of Aurora province, 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Manila, local media reported. Estriber cried out for…
New York, March 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by sedition charges pending against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the tabloid weekly Blitz. Choudhury, who spent 17 months in jail before his release on bail in May 2005, is due to be tried in a Dhaka court next week. Choudhury told…
New York, March 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Vietnamese authorities’ recent harassment of two well-known Internet writers, Nguyen Khac Toan and Do Nam Hai. Plainclothes officers on Wednesday detained the two writers at a public Internet café and took pictures of the sites they were viewing, which included the banned Web site…
New York, February 28, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns harassment and death threats by Burmese security officials against Maung Maung Kyaw Win, a senior reporter and editor at the Burmese-language Myanmar Dana economics magazine. The threats have prompted the journalist to flee the country, and he is now seeking political asylum. Maung Maung Kyaw…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists views with alarm the threat to press freedom in the Philippines during the state of emergency you declared on February 24. Your administration’s tactics–raiding a newspaper, stationing troops in front of television and radio stations, and threatening to issue government editorial guidelines–jeopardize the democratic advances of the last 20 years.
New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on China today to release Li Yuanlong, a reporter with the daily Bijie Ribao, who was charged with “inciting subversion of state authority” for articles he posted online. Li was charged on February 9 but news of the indictment has only recently emerged. “Chinese authorities…
New York, February 23, 2006—Controversy over the publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammed continued to grow as an international press freedom crisis on Thursday as Indian authorities imprisoned a magazine editor and Belarusian prosecutors opened a criminal probe into a weekly newspaper. In each case, the publications said they printed one or more cartoons…
New York, February 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by attacks and threats against ethnic Chinese journalists based in or near the U.S. cities of Atlanta, San Francisco, and New York. Journalists for the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper and Web site Epoch Times told CPJ that they believe they have been targeted in retaliation…
Gentlemen: As you resume negotiations in Geneva today to establish a just and lasting peace in Sri Lanka, we call your attention to the urgent issue of journalist security. The free flow of information, a vital ingredient in establishing the peace, is jeopardized by ongoing violence against the press.