Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to refrain from signing a bill before you that threatens freedom of the press and free expression by imposing harsh penalties for defamation. As you know, Prime Minister Mari bim Altakiri approved on December 6, 2005, a bill revising the penal code, which had been passed by the National Parliament. The penal code revisions now before you allow for up to three years imprisonment and unlimited fines for publishing statements deemed defamatory of public officials.
DECEMBER 15, 2005—JANUARY 5, 6, 2006 Yarl Thinakkurl Joy Jeyakumar, Veerakesari Namathu Eelanaadu HARASSED The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance said Tamil journalists were targeted several times for official harassment. The claims came at a time of rising tensions between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatist groups.
New York, January 10, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in India’s northeastern state of Assam to fully investigate the death of Prahlad Goala, who was apparently murdered on January 6. Goala had recently written a series of articles on corruption in the Assamese-language daily Asomiya Khabar that linked local forestry service officials…
New York, January 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Chinese authorities for censoring well-known blogger Zhao Jing, and is alarmed by Microsoft’s agreement to pull down his site. Zhao, whose online pen name is An Ti, lost his site on the U.S. company’s hosting service MSN Spaces on December 30 after he wrote…
New York, January 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by the failure of the Pakistani authorities to respond to inquiries about the fate of journalist Hayatullah Khan more than a month after he was seized by unidentified gunmen in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Family and colleagues have had no…
New York, January 5, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest on criminal defamation charges of Cambodian journalist and human rights activist Pa Guon Tieng. Border police arrested Pa and two of his associates on January 4 while they were reporting in northeastern Stung Treng province, the Cambodia Center for Human Rights…
New York, January 5, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continuing prosecution of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, whose case has been handed by investigators to state prosecutors. This increases the likelihood that Ching will be charged with spying for Taiwan, his wife Mary Lau told CPJ. The investigation period for his case ended…